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1. Here we see IC in action against the pass, recognizing the WR screen, closing in quickly and wrapping up Marvin Jones before he can get free and grab yardage inside the red zone.
2. What I love about this play is NOT the whiff by Gipson, rather the chase down of speedy Bengals RB Giovanni Bernard all the way from the other side of the field. Campbell doesn't over-pursue here, he steps up into the alley to force Bernard back outside, but can recover to the outside to make the play using his speed.
3. Here you can see IC step up and slide outside enough to hold the edge of the running lane, then shed the block from Larry Fitzgerald, re-set his feet and explode to finish the tackle on Chris Johnson.
4. Again, Campbell making a play from across the field, this time in the open field against Larry Fitzgerald. What I love about this is that IC doesn't bite on the fake from Fitz, he holds his edge on the inside contain, and when Fitz steps inside, he picks him up and pile drives him to the turf.
5. Don't bother shopping in the B gap, because that's IC territory. A great example of Campbell diagnosing the run, taking an outside-in angle, essentially forcing the running inside, and stepping up to deliver a sure, big hit on Chris Johnson.
6. This play is very similar to play 5, however now the Cardinals are nearly in the red zone. Campbell once again quickly diagnoses the run here while simultaneously stepping up and taking an outside-in angle to plug the lane and finish the tackle with great technique and power.
7. At this point in preseason Jeremy Langford wasn't on anybody's fantasy roster or really on most of our radars as a legit NFL RB, but that would quickly change as Chicago gave him the reins as the season progressed. My point is that he's talented and fast, and here you can see Campbell doing a good job to chase him down in the open field and make the stop along the side lines while attempting to strip the ball. Most rookies might just try to push him out of bounds or make the big hit, but IC has the IQ to go for the ball. While this trait is taught, it doesn't always translate.
8. Here's a different look from Campbell, this time in coverage in the red zone vs. Washington in the preseason. The Browns try to rush 5 maybe 6 guys (but they run into eachother) but get very little pressure on Cousins who delivers the ball across the middle to a wide open WR. Campbell sees the play, is in position over the middle, steps up, sets his feet and delivers a wrap-up hit that drives the receiver back and allows LB help to arrive, thus stopping a TD.
9. Watch how quickly IC diagnoses this play. It's fun to watch as he steps up and finishes this goal line tackle vs. Buffalo.
10. Here we see IC vs. Jeremy Hill in the open field on a screen pass. Campbell shows great hips here, opening up smoothly and quickly going lateral to cover his responsibility in the flat. If you stop around 27 seconds, you'll notice IC is aligned on the outside shoulder of Hill, so even if he was already facing upfield, Campbell would be forcing him back inside towards help. But help isn't needed as IC wraps up the big RB and drives him back for a minimal gain.
11. Here we see Campbell doing a great job of not biting on the inside fake. If you stop this at 19 seconds, you'll notice his feet are set, he's not leaning or cheating, he's holding his responsibility and and is once again forcing the play back towards help. He then helps finish the tackle in the open field. At the end of the play you'll also notice Danny Shelton's patented: JOP move or "Jump On Pile"
12. Another example of IC diagnosing the play quickly, taking the outside-in angle, stepping up and delivering a sure / powerful tackle in the red zone. I'm a fan.
Summary
Campbell is a powerful and smooth athlete with great recognition, good closing speed and a high football IQ. He pops of the screen in run support and on a few occasions when asked to drop back in zone coverage or cover man to man on in flat against a RB, you see flashes of his ability to support against the pass. He's an aggressive finisher in the red zone who takes smart angles and stays true to his responsibilities. From the film examples above I believe you can clearly see starting SS traits on display and it should be fun seeing exactly how Horton wants to utilize him. With his rookie season behind him and extended offseason reps / coaching on the horizon, I think we're beginning to see a young, confident and talented player come into his own.Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer speaks to journalists about the health-care bill on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 22. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
I must confess I no longer understand what GOP lawmakers are intending to accomplish in their “vote-o-rama.” Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute argues:
Conservatives, who value personal responsibility, should be the first to argue that individuals should be covered by health insurance. And in a nation as wealthy as ours, a medical emergency should not leave anyone broke. We should have a safety net so that no one falls too far. Universal coverage advances both personal responsibility and social assistance for those who need it. Conservatism is consonant with this objective.
Wow! This sounds like someone who cares about expanding health-care coverage, a view shared by an overwhelming percentage of Americans. None of the current ideas advanced in the GOP Senate moves us further to that goal. “A straight repeal of the ACA — or repeal-and-delay — would be terrible, leaving millions more without coverage,” he explains. “An effective plan will need subsidies generous enough for low-income Americans to purchase insurance, market discipline to control the cost of health care and to encourage innovation and productivity, expanded choice for consumers, and strong incentives for young, healthy individuals to purchase insurance coverage.”
Strain suggests a number of ideas, some of which will find resonance with Democrats and some of which won’t:
Taxing employer-provided health insurance would (among other good things) reduce healthcare costs and create a pool of money to fund subsidies, in the form of refundable tax credits, available to low-income Americans for the purchase of health insurance. Deregulating the individual market for health insurance — allowing insurance companies to offer plans that cover only catastrophic medical events, not routine medical care — would make insurance more affordable and expand consumer choice. Funding high-risk pools would provide access to medical care for people with pre-existing medical conditions who might otherwise struggle to get insured in a deregulated market. Under this framework, there would be a strong incentive to purchase health insurance even without the ACA’s individual mandate: Catastrophic coverage would be less expensive, both to the government and to the consumer, than comprehensive coverage. A sufficiently generous tax credit would provide added motivation, as only those who actually purchased insurance would be able to claim it.
Nowhere in there is a plan to slash Medicaid or return big tax cuts to the rich. Nowhere is there a plan to further destabilize the exchanges. Strain denounces measures that passively or actively destroy the individual market. (“That would be wildly irresponsible — and politically infeasible.”)
This is the debate we should be having — whether Strain’s ideas or others (e.g. tightening the individual mandate) would work better. Can we maintain affordable coverage by expanding the kinds of plans available, or does that create a race to the bottom (plans that offer very little to those who need ample coverage)? Can we agree upon a federal guarantee for high-risk polls to make certain those with preexisting conditions keep coverage?
We are not having this reasoned debate because a segment of elected Republicans still do not want the federal government to be a backstop for coverage. I suppose they don’t believe what polls or voters are telling them, but they remain in a fantasy world in which they remain indifferent to the number of people covered. They want tax cuts for the rich, Medicaid cuts and no responsibility for the human toll that results. This is not rational or responsible governance.
Maybe it is time for responsible Republicans to call a halt to the nonsensical vote-o-rama and offer to sit down with Democrats with a single ground rule: The goal has to be affordable, universal coverage; the means to that end are up for discussion. You say there aren’t enough responsible Republicans? Perhaps more will come to their senses after this ludicrous process comes to a halt.A College Park, Maryland, school bus driver was hailed for her heroic actions after the bus she was driving caught fire Monday.
The fire was reported at about 4:45 p.m Monday along the 9600 block of 51st Avenue in College Park, according to Mark Brady, the public information officer for Prince George’s County, MD Fire and EMS Department.
Twenty children from Glenarden Woods Elementary School were on the bus when the blaze started, apparently originating near one of the rear wheels, he said.
The driver, identified by a parent as Reneita Smith, safely got each and every student off and away from danger, KTLA sister station WTVR reported.
She “was able to remain calm throughout the ordeal” as the vehicle was evacuated, according to Brady.
“A big THANK YOU to our school bus driver Reneita Smith who just saved 20 elementary school kids from a bus fire that completely destroyed the bus,” Fazlul Kabir posted on Facebook. “Reneita [not only] took each one of the 20 kids from the bus one by one, but also went into the empty bus again to check if everyone was out, while it was still burning.”
“I am a mom of two kids,” Kabir recalled Smith saying as the bus burned. “It’s my job to save them.”
No one on the bus was injured. Most of the kids were picked up from the scene by their parents, according to Brady.
Video captured by a Branchville Volunteer Fire Company firefighter’s dashboard camera showed smoke and flames coming from the empty school bus.
The fire was reported at about 4:45 p.m Monday along the 9600 block of 51st Avenue in College Park. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.Each Monday, Rob Zacny picks through the detritus of early access to separate the games might one day be assembled into something worthwhile from those which should remain on the scrapheap.
Capital ship warfare is my favorite kind of pornography. I’ve watched Master and Commander a dozen times or so, but sometimes I put the disc in the drive just to watch the part where Aubrey gives the order to run out the guns and let fly on the French raider. I’ve watched the episode where Battlestar Galactica assaults New Caprica more often than I’ve watched any other part of the third season. When The Expanse came out this year, I wasn’t sold on the show until the episode where a Martian flagship perished in a pitched naval battle.
Fractured Space [official site] and developer Edge Case Games get where I’m coming from.
From the moment you log in, you’re greeted with an alluring menu of starships and manufacturers, each with their own art style and role in battle. Some of the ships are pure 1970s, Apollo-influenced astro-battleships. Others are more Battlestar Galactica, all slabs of armor and heavy weapons. Once you’ve made your choice, you take to space from a third-person perspective on your spaceship, as part of a five-player team, and are greeted with all the sights and sounds of sci-fi space battles. At once.
It’s like one of those breathtaking fanfictions where someone tried to use science to explain exactly what would happen if Star Wars, Star Trek, and Babylon 5 militaries all encountered each other at once.
While most of the Fractured Space looks and plays like a finished game, the areas that are still works in progress are extremely rough and extremely jarring. For one thing, it’s a complete roll of the dice whether I will get a decent server from match to match. Ironically, Fractured Space performed best when I was accidentally set to search for matches in the UK by default, rather than my home region of the eastern US. While performance on the London servers was never stellar, it was steady and playable.
The moment I started taking matches from the US servers, however, I started encountering games where lag rendered it almost unplayable. Give an order to jump to a new sector and, fifteen seconds later when I was just about to force-close the game, my ship would suddenly start the jump animation. There are also some placeholder menus for crucial things, like changing your ship selection before a match begins, which obscure some pretty important choices and information when you need them the most.
Fractured Space manages the unusual trick of borrowing a lot of MOBA elements without seeming much like a MOBA. There are lanes that you and your team of capital ship captains can push in order to open up the enemy base to attack, but there are no little nuisance creeps on the map to make your powerful starship feel like its job is pest control. The fact that each part of the map is physically separated from the others makes matches feel like they are unfolding in a series of massive battles over different objectives.
Yet the dynamics are fundamentally the same. Lane-swapping, death-balling, trying to teleport home or warp to the location of beleaguered allies…it’s all right there in Fractured Space, but shot through the lens of starship combat. Where a lot of MOBAs can feel like a game of Simon Says, where everybody has to know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing at every moment of a match, Fractured Space’s warships seem to give players a little more freedom to do things their own way, while rewarding them with a lot force multipliers when they cooperate.
However, Fractured Space is also fairly cryptic. Every warship has its own special abilities and powers, but it’s not always clear exactly how they work, what they’re supposed to do, or who they are affecting. When my combat ship activates an area-of-effect healing ability, I can’t always tell which of my allies were close enough to be helped by it. When a teammate drops a “propulsion buoy”, its purpose is as much a mystery as dark matter. It’s sitting there in the middle of a combat zone next to a cruiser, so presumably it’s important, but… what’s it actually for? Nothing in the game really tells you, even when you’re the one who deployed it.
One reason for the mystery is that Fractured Space sometimes prioritizes spectacle over clarity. I’m not sure this is a bad choice, since one of the reasons I enjoy playing is the sheer “attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion” of it all. Battleships sit at the center of a cloud of golden flak bursts, laser beams slash across armor plates, point-defense cannons cause incoming missiles to explode like firecrackers in the sky above your ship. It may be a slow-paced MOBA-shooter, but Fractured Space still tries to look realistic at all times. The problem is that all that realism makes for a visual cacophony that can obscure the feedback you need to understand what’s happening.
I’m also not sure that the central objective works as well as it could. One of the things I love about good MOBAs is the way those objectives are both hugely valuable and hugely risky. A lot of the tension in a close game of League of Legends is about when or even if your team should go for Baron. By contrast, the “gas” objective in Fractured Space is so easy to get that both teams have no choice but to rush immediately to the central sector of the map or they will concede the buff to the enemy.
What you don’t have is that tense cat-and-mouse around the objective, or option to ignore the objective in order to accomplish a valuable trade elsewhere. While Fractured Space’s departures from MOBA convention are largely laudable, this is one area where the game just doesn’t generate the interesting tactical situations that make MOBAs so exciting. This is especially worrying because, in the year since I last checked-in on Fractured Space, the game hasn’t really evolved in this aspect.
Perhaps it doesn’t need to. World of Warships is never really much more than a fanciful 1940s naval deathmatch, but I spent months playing it a few times a day, and I would argue its ship classes have far less variety than what’s available in Fractured Space. I might wish there were more in the way of team tactics and strategic choice on offer in Fractured Space, but it always gives me the thing I want the most: broadside-for-broadside space combat.
At this point in its life, I’d be more than happy to buy the game for its listed price, and am eager to see how it will grow and improve in the coming months. Right now it’s a fun shooter that delivers on my most Adama-esque fantasies. But if the game becomes a little clearer, and does a better job showing the effects and interactions between ships’ abilities, it could stand as a decent naval wargame as well.
Fractured Space is available on Steam and for a perfectly reasonable £3.49 / $4.99 (thanks to the Steam Sale), considering how well it already works and what a visual treat it already is. My impressions are based on build 953074 on 8 February 2016.The election of Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm to the senate and the appointment of the Institute of Public Affairs' Tim Wilson to the human rights commission has placed libertarianism in the spotlight in Australia. Emphasising small government, individual liberties and the benefits of markets, libertarianism stakes a bold claim to be the true emancipating force at work in a world compromised by oppressive state power.
However, libertarianism, as both a politics and a "movement", is often criticised for de-prioritising racial and gender diversity. Leyonhjelm's first tweet, earlier this week, described the "gay lifestyle" as "reckless promiscuity" – eliciting disapproval from many LGBT Australians.
Is libertarianism a force for entrenching oppression of LGBT people, or is it the best friend of queer communities? We invited the IPA's Julie Novak and Comment is Free contributor Simon Copland to discuss the issue.
Julie Novak: Libertarianism is the LGBT community's best friend
'Oppression of LGBT people is treatment is clearly incompatible with the principles of classical liberalism.' Masked supporters of Kenya's LGBT community protest in Nairobi. Photograph: EPA
The coercive state, often in concert with religious orders, has brutalised, ostracised and persecuted certain minorities over many centuries.
People physically attracted to those of the same sex and those who flouted conventional stereotypes surrounding gender identity have long been a ready target for ill‑treatment, with the worst cases including executions, imprisonment, or enforced medical treatments to override such allegedly deviant behaviours.
Such treatment is clearly incompatible with the principles of classical liberalism, often referred to today as libertarianism, with its emphasis on freedom of individual conduct, and the widespread toleration of such conduct so that freedom can be realised, insofar as it does not harm others.
This is not a widely held view. There are schools of thought, often associated with socialist and progressive movements, that libertarianism is incompatible with the attainment of greater freedoms and rights for LGBT people.
This suggestion seems patently absurd, and indeed, in contrast, one could reasonably claim that every major advance in LGBT rights has been fostered by – or is at least consistent with – libertarian ideals.
The decriminalisation of sodomy, first in South Australia in 1975 and, belatedly, in Tasmania in 1997, was an important step in a libertarian direction, since consenting adults performing certain sexual acts, in the privacy of their own homes, were not threatened by the police‑power when doing so.
The recent high court decision to allow Sydney activist Norrie to be legally classified as neither male or female is clearly another libertarian step in the right direction. The state was forced to relent imposing its gender identity preferences in favour of (in this case) an individual with non‑gendered preferences.
There is certainly still a fair way to go before the homophobic and transphobic state gets out of individual decision‑making on the basis of their sexual preferences and gender identities, or at least enshrine a basic equality of treatment under the law.
Therefore, matters such as adoption, equal age of consent (in Queensland), fertility access, and marriage equality still remain on the agenda for liberalising reform.
An aspect of libertarianism that has gone underappreciated is the profoundly beneficial impact of economic freedom for LGBT people, and for others. In economically freer countries LGBT individuals are more readily able to attain healthy incomes, helping them assert their self‑identities.
Less hampered markets also allow suppliers to creatively provide specialist goods and services for LGBT people, like safe meeting places, bars, cafes and nightclubs.
The promotion of civil, economic and personal liberties are at the forefront of libertarian philosophy, and this is why I subscribe to the view that, in the end, libertarianism is the best friend of people in queer communities.
Simon Copland: LGBT oppression is structural, not just personal
While libertarians may argue against the coercive state, in reality it exists to prop up the other major coercive apparatus of our society – the "free" market. Photograph: Corbis
With its focus on individual liberty, it is true that on the surface, libertarianism is wholly consistent with the agenda of LGBT activists. Julie is correct to point out that many of the recent wins for LGBT are in line with libertarian ideals.
Yet these wins only scratch the surface of LGBT oppression. The structural issues that lead to queer oppression still need to be challenged and libertarians are not the people to do that.
Much of this structural oppression is imposed by the state; marriage being a perfect example. Marriage, as an institution, has not only been oppressive for women, but through social pressure promoted by a religious and state apparatus it also subtly reinforces a particular set of sexual and relationship rules.
This sort of oppression is common – from marriage and the military, to regulations about sex work and how we define our gender. It is for this reason that it is ironic that many libertarians focus their energies on marriage equality, instead of the abolition of marriage itself.
While libertarians may argue against the coercive state, in reality it exists to prop up the other major coercive apparatus of our society – the "free" market. Their advocacy for markets means libertarians are hardly the best friends of LGBT folk.
No matter how deregulated it becomes, the free market is in fact only so free. Like all other devices and structures it has rules that people must follow, in particular around the ownership and transferal of private property.
Importantly, for these rules to survive, the market requires full participation – something which impacts queer people in particular. In particular, it needs a society of couples in co-dependent monogamous relationships. It is only through these relationship structures that the transfer of property between generations can be ensured, protecting fundamental basis of our system.
It is potentially for this reason that libertarian politicians such as David Leyonhjelm find the "reckless promiscuity" of the "gay lifestyle" so offensive. Leyonhjelm knows that the "gay lifestyle" as he sees it won't allow for the free market to operate as he would like. It is also for this reason that marriage equality is a focus for many libertarians. It brings people within the market system that is essential to their ideology.
All systems have rules that underpin them but for LGBT people it is the rules of the free market that are the most oppressive. It forces people into particular economic and social relationships that are diametrically opposed to the freedom of relationship structures and gender and sexual identity that LGBT advocates have been fighting over for decades.
Julie Novak: Economic freedom makes it expensive to discriminate
I agree with Simon’s characterisation of the structural oppression faced by LGBT people, and share his concerns about gender and sexual conformity exerted religiously, and politically, on behalf of moral, and voting, majorities, respectively.
It remains my firm view, though, that markets help economically emancipate LGBT people, and could even play a part in eliminating anti‑queer prejudice. Greater economic freedom makes it even more costly to discriminate.
But libertarians also appreciate that markets are one aspect of all non‑state interactions that individuals can voluntarily arrive at within our society.
If LGBT people feel a particularly strong aversion against profit‑making in product supply, they can "break the mould", so to speak – for example by establishing not‑for‑profit cooperatives and building their local communities in that fashion.
It is unusual that Simon should depict the libertarian stance on marriage reform as being focussed upon "marriage equality instead of the abolition of marriage itself".
It was almost a month ago I wrote an impassioned plea to my fellow lesbian women, and gay men, to consider a break to the state‑marriage nexus as a viable alternative to political pleading for our historical adversary – the government – to recognise our relationships.
Finally, I do not regard Leyonhjelm’s recent comments as representative of the libertarian position on LGBT people and their struggles, and hope his parliamentary record will demonstrate a genuine commitment to LGBT rights.
Simon Copland: It's not enough to ask LGBT people to "break the mould"
I cannot agree that markets can play a part in eliminating anti-queer prejudice.
Recent evidence suggests that modern sexual and gender relationships are a direct consequence of the development of capitalism, seemingly confirming Friedrich Engels' view that "The first class antagonism which appears in history coincides with the development of the antagonism between man and woman in monogamian marriage, and the first class oppression with that of the female sex by the male".
That’s not to say there was no sexism or queerphobia before the arrival of capitalism, but the growth of the modern nuclear family - the modern "mould" which Julie would see LGBT people break – was formed under capitalism, and is certainly queerphobic. It demands gender, sexual and relationship structures that work in particular ways and then punishes those who break away from them.
In my view therefore we need a different mould, one that doesn’t require queer people to "break away", but rather isn’t queerphobic in the first place.
I recognise both Julie’s work on marriage and her belief that Leyonhjelm’s statements don’t reflect mainstream libertarian ideal. But it’s hard for me to ignore this cultural conservative trend in libertarian circles, a trend that goes well beyond Leyonhjelm's stray tweet.
It’s possible this represents some "delinquents" within libertarianism. More likely, it represents an inherent conservatism that is required for the survival of the ideology. So despite the work of people like Julie, I find it difficult to see how libertarianism can ever be a true friend of queer people.It’s the early 2000s, and I’m working at a bar across the street from the convention center where Comic-Con is held. At the time, Comic-Con was big, but the locals hadn’t embraced it and its multitude of people who can recite every episode title of The X-Files in sequential order, the way they have now. The locals tried to keep San Diego “bro.”
If you haven’t spent a lot of time in San Diego (I’m from there), it’s basically Boston if the weather was great and 40 percent of the Massholes swam in the ocean a few times a week. If the city had a mascot, it’d be a 5-foot-7-inch shirtless dude calling someone a homo as he’s being held back by a girl in 6-inch platform sandals. The town is also heavily military, and that was most of the clientele of the bar where I worked.
So one night during the convention, it’s busy as hell, and all of a sudden I hear some angry shouting out on the patio. I go out there (to watch, not to try and break up any potential fight, because fuck that: I made $6.25 an hour, and I look like Jason Biggs with Stage 4 Hodgkin’s), and I see a a military-looking dude with a cocktail napkin in his hand, screaming at a pretty stereotypical-looking Comic-Con attendee.
The usual homophobic slurs are being tossed by the military guy, interspersed with an “I will fuck you up bro” every 10 or so seconds. The bouncer walks over and gets in the middle and asks what’s going on. The military dude goes, “I’m gonna fuck this nerd up. That’s what’s going on.” The bouncer chooses not to accept that as an answer and asks a few more times, and finally the military guy goes, “This fuckin’ nerd got mad that we took his table and he fuckin’ drew a picture of me sucking Spider-Man’s fucking dick, bro!”
He hands the cocktail napkin with the picture on it to the bouncer. And it’s quiet for a moment as the bouncer looks at the picture, and then all of a sudden the Comic-Con attendee, who hasn’t said anything the whole time, goes, “It’s Daredevil. Not Spider-Man.”
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And the military dude leaped over a goddamned table and tackled him to the ground, and all hell broke loose. And that is my favorite Comic-Con memory.
Justin Halpern is an author and a San Diego native.
Photo by Getty.Get the biggest Newcastle United FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Alan Shearer has revealed his concerns about Newcastle United’s summer transfer budget.
The Toon legend feels that Rafa Benitez requires at least £150million to spend this summer as the Magpies prepare for next season’s Premier League campaign.
Benitez is yet to open talks with Ashley, and will do so after the final game of the season with Barnsley.
Speaking in his column in the Sun, Shearer commented: “ Newcastle are at a crossroads and I’m not convinced Mike Ashley will take the right turn.
“What evidence is there that he is going to change now? He clearly acceded to some of Rafa Benitez’s demands last summer, which is why he stayed on to get Newcastle back up…but it is a different ball game now.
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“As soon as promotion was confirmed and Rafa refused to commit his future to Tyneside, I had to worry.
“Quite simply, he needs about eight new players just to turn Newcastle into a mid-table Premier League team.
“Benitez won’t want to go into next season knowing he has a squad only good enough for a relegation scrap. He won’t have it.
“There is a huge opportunity here for Newcastle to establish themselves again as a top-flight force. But he now needs, at the minimum, a £150million investment in new players.
“And I am not convinced that will happen.”Balloon Land supposedly takes place in a world populated by living balloons, and judging by the above image, they're of the penis-wrapping kind. The story begins with the balloon people squeezing rubber out of a living tree and placing that rubber on a machine that shapes it into a little balloon boy and a little balloon girl.
These balloon kids haven't been alive for five seconds when a man warns them, through a song, that if they go into the forest, they'll run into a creature that will "rip your skin." The children, being children (and idiots), decide to do exactly that anyway, and that's when they run across the Pincushion Man, who looks like... wait, what... what's he doing now?
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Oh sweet Jesus. Apparently the Pincushion Man was supposed to look like a giant safety pin (or at least that's what Mr. Iwerks told the police), but the animators didn't quite know what to do with the huge metal rod protruding from his hip, and so they decided it would be appropriate if he yanked it in front of little children.
"Don't worry, there's no way anyone will ever take this out of context."
Besides being a pervert, the Pincushion Man is also a certified psychopath who goes around Balloon Land murdering people by poking them with his big sharp stick -- like this completely innocent racial stereotype, whose only crime was letting the children hide in his house:
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Pincushion Man goes on a murderous rampage all over the city -- the citizens send an entire Balloon Men Army to stop him, but they turn out to be exactly as useful as their name implies. Eventually, the citizens figure out that they can harm the Pincushion Man by hauling raw rubber at him, pushing him out of Balloon Land until he literally plummets to his death.In his first season as Bulls head coach, Fred Hoiberg struggled mightily in managing rotations and lineups. He was unable to stagger Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler’s minutes, which inevitably led to the infamous “Hoibergo” all-bench lineups. As a result, the Bulls struggled with continuity throughout games, the offense stalling and the defense sputtering.
This season, Fred has clearly improved in that regard. He’s done a remarkable job of staggering the minutes of Rajon Rondo, Jimmy Butler, and Dwyane Wade, making sure at least one of the three is on the floor at all times. Rarely if ever, have we seen an all bench unit for long periods of time.
However, there’s still room to develop with managing lineups as a whole. Where last year he had the dreaded Hoibergo lineup, this year he has a lineup that may top (or bottom) that. Over the past week of games, Hoiberg has trotted out a lineup consisting of Wade, Isaiah Canaan, Doug McDermott, Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis.
On the surface you could see a hint of why Fred would throw a lineup out like this, with the shooting of Canaan, McDermott and Niko surrounding Wade and providing him space. But when you observe this lineup on the floor and then dive into the numbers, it’s one that should never be together. It’s one that provides absolutely zero resistance on the defense end, one of, if not the weakest you could put together.
This lineup (we still need a name for) has appeared in five games, 16 minutes total and is the fifth most used lineup by Fred. Their offensive and defensive rating during that span is 84.2, and a 145.4 to give them a paltry, an absurd, unthinkable net rating of -61.2.
Yes, you read those numbers correct.
The biggest issue with this lineup is in the frontcourt with Niko and Portis. For whatever reason, probably more political than anything, Hoiberg decided to take Cristiano Felicio out of the rotation for Portis.
We wanted to see Portis make a big stride in his second year. Become serviceable on the defensive end, be able to stretch the floor on offense. But it’s still very clear that he is not ready yet for the minutes he’s receiving.
Hoiberg is giving him every chance to prove himself and become a fixture in the rotation moving forward, but he’s failed to do so. And that is a subject of Portis still adjusting to the NBA, but also Hoiberg not putting him in a situation to where he can succeed.
Portis is power forward, that’s how he’s built. Right now, Fred is playing him as the backup center, which against smaller lineups could work, but it’s not his natural position and puts him at a disadvantage on both ends. More specifically on defense.
Niko is an average defender on his best day, while Portis is the worst defender amongst post players, who is slow on his rotations from help, can’t defend the pick-and-roll, and provides zero rim protection. When you pair him with Niko at backup center, your success rate has dramatically decreased as we’ve seen.
If Fred is intent on playing Portis then it needs to be at power forward, and he needs to be paired with either Taj Gibson or Robin Lopez. Doing so allows one of the latter to clean up his mistakes on the back end, and protect the rim. Offensively, it allows Portis to play in more of that stretch four role.
Although here’s the thing; Portis is playing behind Gibson and Niko at power forward, so there’s limited time for him there. As a result, Fred is trying to find minutes for him by playing him at center at the expense of Felicio.
When Felicio is/was featured in the backup center role with same four players, that lineup posted much better numbers in six more minutes and in one fewer games. It’s actually the third most used lineup still, posting a net rating of 5.6.
By all accounts Felicio is the better player right now, and deserves to be in the rotation. He can play adequate pick-and-roll defense, protect the rim to an extent, and is an extremely effective roll man on offense. Felicio being squeezed out of the rotation so Hoiberg can to try to fit in a player who isn’t ready yet, isn’t the right move especially if his goal is to win.
Hoiberg can’t afford to keep moving forward using this awkward lineup. Everyone sees that, and the advanced stats back it up.CLEVELAND — Donald Trump on Thursday formally accepted the Republican Party’s nomination of president, repeatedly promising to lead a “country of law and order” where “safety will be restored.”
“I am your voice,” Trump declared in his Republican National Convention speech at the Quicken Loans arena.
The New York businessman spoke of terrorism, illegal immigration and the recent shootings of police officers. He said the first task of the Trump-Pence administration would be to “liberate” the country from “crime and terrorism and lawlessness.”
“Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation,” Trump said. “The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.”
Added Trump: “I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon — and I mean very soon — will come to an end. Beginning on January 20th of 2017, safety will be restored.”
Trump was introduced to the crowd by his daughter, Ivanka Trump. He appeared on stage to the theme song from the movie “Air Force One.”
At the beginning of his speech, Trump said: “I will present the facts plainly and honestly. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.”
He argued, “decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed” by the Obama administration’s “rollback of criminal enforcement.”
“Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in America’s fifty largest
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will vote on whether to stay within the European Union (EU).
The proposed space base is one of many current proposals from international space agencies involving the Moon, signalling a'return' to a place that once occupied the centre stage in humanity's space explorations. NASA, the ESA, and Russia all have their own plans to send humans to the Moon – or establish lunar colonies on the surface – within the next decade or shortly after.
It's an exciting time to be watching this all unfold!Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
July 2, 2015, 7:59 AM GMT / Updated July 3, 2015, 2:16 PM GMT By Shamar Walters, Christopher Nelson and Alastair Jamieson
More than 5,000 residents were evacuated after a freight train carrying a "highly flammable and toxic gas" partly derailed and caught fire overnight just outside Knoxville, Tennessee, officials said.
Ten officers were hospitalized after breathing in fumes, Blount County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Marian O’Briant told NBC News.
One car of the train derailed and was on fire, railroad officials said.
An evacuation zone is in place over a two-mile radius from the derailment, near Maryville, and could be in place for up to 48 hours, the fire department said.
Two shelters were being opened for residents including one at a local high school, according to David Kitchen, senior disaster program Manager for the Tennessee Volunteer Region of the Red Cross.
The train was carrying acrylonitrile — which authorities described as a "highly flammable and toxic gas."
The EPA says the substance is used in the manufacture of acrylic fibers and if inhaled in high levels can cause membrane irritation, headaches, nausea and kidney irritation.
It was not immediately clear if the fire was under control.
The CSX train was traveling from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Waycross, Georgia, and consisted of two locomotives, 45 loaded rail cars carrying mixed freight and 12 empty rail cars, company spokeswoman Kristin Seay told NBC News.
"Cars of acrylonitrile are located on either side of the burning rail car," she said, adding that acrylonitrile was "flammable and presents an inhalation risk."
"CSX personnel are on hand at an outreach center that has been established. Displaced residents are being offered assistance, including lodging," she said.Police in the Canadian city of Ottawa said they arrested a 16-year-old male charged with carrying out so-called "swatting" attacks that targeted 30 North American targets.
One of the targets included KrebsOnSecurity reporter Brian Krebs, who was previously on the receiving end of a vicious swatting attack that resulted in a team of police pointing guns at him as he opened the front door of his Virginia home. Krebs said the recent attacks were preceded by taunts from someone controlling the Twitter handle @ProbablyOnion. The last tweet made from that account, made on Thursday, stated: "Still awaiting for the horsies to bash down my door." The individual didn't have long to wait. That same day, the 16-year-old was arrested, according to press releases here and here issued by the Ottawa Police Service and the FBI, respectively.
Swatting refers to the act of knowingly giving authorities false information about bomb threats, the taking of hostages, or similar threats in progress with the goal of tricking heavily armed police to raid the location of an innocent person or group. According to authorities, the unnamed 16-year-old allegedly carried out swatting attacks on 30 targets, including schools in North America that responded with lockdowns or evacuations. The minor was charged with 60 criminal offenses, including public mischief, mischief to property, uttering death threats, and conveying false info with intent to alarm.
According to Krebs, @ProbablyOnion openly advertised swatting services and later claimed responsibility for carrying them out."Obsidian are still working on projects, it's not like they are going away. I have a lot of love for those guys. If [Wasteland 2] works, it will give me a platform for doing things again."
"If this continues to work, and certainly we're off to a great start -- this game has got to be great -- if I deliver that, I think there would be a chance to build [Black Isle] up again. Nothing would make me happier."
You know that classic PC RPG that defined your taste in games, changed your life, and came to your piano recital when your parents were "too busy" traipsing around the Bahamas? Well, odds are, Black Isle Studios had a hand in it. Fallout? Yep. Baldur's Gate? Published it. Planescape: TormentIcewind Dale? Check and check. Sadly, the golden god of role-playing's golden age closed its doors in 2003 after prolonged internal drama. Wasteland 2 mastermind Brian Fargo, however, doesn't think a reunion tour's outside the realm of possibility.He explained his diabolical master plan in an interview with Ripten Obsidian, of course, is made up of many Black Isle castaways, so it's easily the biggest missing piece of the puzzle. And then Obsidian co-founder Chris Avellone said this thing: "Brian gave me my first job in the industry, I loved being at Interplay while he was there, and I love Wasteland. If there was a way to work both with Obsidian and work with Brian and InXile, I would do it."Hmmmm. Granted, this is such a long shot that it'd probably require a catapult that fires a giant slingshot that fires a cannon that fires a smaller catapult that launches a series of those tiny Russian stacking dolls, but fingers crossed. Fingers crossed until theyI promised a lot of people that I was going to visit Germany again at Christmastime. Back before I met Thu, it seemed like a good point to ask myself if I wanted to return home or not. It could have gone either way back then. But with Thu in my life, the thought of leaving Sabier City without her at all killed me.
However, I must have told Thu something else. Her Christmas gift to me was a round-trip ticket to and from Berlin, plus money for transport up north to Windenburg. I could ask for her to wire me more money at any point. It was extravagant, but for Thu, not much of a sacrifice.
In spite of my misgivings, I went and bought lots of chocolate for everyone, among other things. Thu didn’t need to try out Mẹ’s new FitBit, but she liked chocolate a lot more than jogging. So I bought an extra box for us to share before I left.
“Alright, what are those top ones?” she asked.
“Your top?” She nodded. “Earl grey truffles. They sounded strange enough to try.”
“Okay…do you mind?” Thu’s fingers were hovering inches away from one.
“It’s why I bought an extra box!”
“Oh wow these are amazing,” she mumbled, with a mouth full of soft ganache and bergamot. “Can I have another?”
“Of course.”
“You’re spoiling your family like this,” said Thu. “Not that I think it’s a bad thing.”
“Well…they’d make me feel damn guilty if I didn’t!” I said. I was thinking about our tense relationships more and more. “I’ve talked about how much you pay me…too much.”
“I hope you have a lot of great stories to tell them,” she said. Good thing I could go on for ages about Thu’s beauty, if they questioned it. She was downright stunning that afternoon. Her hair was tied up into a big, thick bun, and she wore a form-fitting knitted dress. The shape of her body would haunt my dreams yet again.
“So…you want some earl grey tea to wash that down with?” I asked her.
“You know I can’t say no to that.”
The apartment reeked of bergamot, which was one of the best things to reek of. Thu waited patiently for her tea, as the water grew darker and more flavorful. I had come to appreciate her machine. It withdrew the leaves at a set time, lest you over-extract and produce unnecessary tannins. And it kept a quart of tea warm for hours.
“I’m excited for you,” said Thu. “So who are you seeing this Christmas?”
“I can’t say it’s something I want to think about,” I said.
“Why not?”
I turned away, for once totally ashamed of what happened.
“We’ve had a fallout, okay? My parents and my aunt and my cousins and me.”
“…and I don’t want to see them for Christmas. I have other things to see in Germany, but I want to spend this holiday with you.”
“I appreciate that…but this isn’t the first Christmas I’ll spend alone,” she said. “I hated the last two, but I survived. And this is your family. I don’t have–” She choked up on that last sentence, and started to walk away.
Thu went to the bookshelf in the movie nook, to grab something. Hopefully not a book. I wasn’t in the mood to read.
It was a book. But she opened it up to the middle and grabbed some loose cards and photos, and brought only those over to the table.
“I have a lot of Christmas photos,” she said. “I…I guess I want you to understand something. From my perspective.”
“Of course.” I sighed.
Merry Christmas! Thu is well.
It was funny and heartbreaking to see Vietnamese characters rejected by their choice of font. In my experience too, there’s sometimes no avoiding that. No other language that I knew of used those diacritics for anything.
It was a picture of Thu in the hospital, as a sweet child of about seven years old. She sat upright and looked bright and alert, smirking at the camera. Her father, I assumed, stood close by and leaned on a cane.
“I had to have heart surgery, and they couldn’t schedule it for any time other than Christmas,” she said. “The nurses felt bad for me, so I got some gifts from them.”
“What about your parents?” I asked her.
Thu gave me a stern look. “That one surgery put them forty-thousand in debt. And they were already deep in that hole…they wouldn’t let me in under Cha’s Medicaid plan.”
It was unpleasant to think about American healthcare, even if their hospitals were great.
“He looks friendly,” I said.
“He was,” said Thu. “He was a great dad.”
We say…Merry Christmas!
“And I’m assuming that’s your grandfather?” I asked. He was a lanky old man who stood tall above little Thu, with her same soft nose and curious smile. Ngoc as Thu’s mother surprised me, because of how harsh she looked. But the Duong men had gentle jaws and friendly grins.
Meanwhile, her father sat in a wheelchair. It was some of the best furniture in that dingy apartment. Though the photo had degraded somewhat over twenty years, I noticed the hearing aid in his left ear.
“Yes. Bao Duong…he was the pianist for Sabier Philharmonic. Taught me everything I know,” said Thu. “And he had to retire in such a terrible flat…I can handle him being gone. He was in his 80’s, and I expected it. I just didn’t want it. And everyone in this picture is gone.”
“There’s still you,” I said.
“As if.” She looked down. “That was my last Christmas with Ông. It felt smaller and more miserable without him…and then without dad. My mother wasn’t Catholic, so the whole holiday fell out of style, and…”
She flipped to the next photo.
“Andrea made Christmas a lot better again.”
It was far less romantic than I was expecting. And a selfie. Andrea looked like he did in every picture: old, hairy arms, unable to stay away from Thu for a second. She looked younger, though. Much skinnier and child-shaped, if that was even possible, and no makeup. They stood close together, and a pile of presents was in the background. I assumed they all went to Thu.
“That’s cute,” I said. I still almost hated his guts.
“We weren’t exactly together…but we might as well have been. It was perfect. I had never had someone pay so much attention to me before, at any time. It was just the two of us before Christmas. We laughed and cuddled…and had a good cry about everything.” It looked like she was about to have another one right now. At least I’d cry with her.
“Oh, this one’s my favorite,” Thu said.
“It was our first Christmas as husband and wife. It was at Gian’s but Andrea spoiled me that year.” They sat on the ground and shared an intimate kiss, surrounded by a fortress of wrapped presents and a gorgeous tree. Andrea’s tongue gently brushed against her lips. I don’t know who would have taken that picture. Thu was elegant in her short red dress. I wanted to reach up it.
But Andrea beat me to that.
All she needed was him. She looked so happy in the next card. Thu looked healthier and glowing, satiated on all of Andrea’s untouchable cooking. And Andrea couldn’t keep his hand away from her arse, reaching down to pet it on a Christmas card. Something they intended to send out to family and friends.
It did show how little they cared about opinions. I wish she could still do the same. And it would be great if I could too.
“I love seeing you happy,” I said, smiling. It was a real smile. I could get one of those when putting myself in Andrea’s place. I wanted to grope and fondle a well-fed Thu and make sure everyone saw proof of it. I then wanted to fuck her under the mistletoe, which I was sure Andrea did too.
“I wish I was still like that…all the time,” she said. “That was truly the last good Christmas. We had so much to look forward to, and not as many feuds, and no grandchildren for Andrea to worry about…it was nice.” She shed a tear. “I hate looking at the last one. But I hope it tells you something.”
It wasn’t Andrea lying there sick and pained that hurt me. Thu’s desperate stare into the camera, pleading for any relief, made me want to be there. Her shoulder to cry on was asleep and troubled after chemo.
“That round of treatment took so much out of him,” she said. “And it wasn’t even the last one. I had to dread seeing him die more and more, and he…slept through his last Christmas! He slept through it and pretended that nothing was wrong and that I–”
“…you’re saying I need to appreciate having family now, aren’t you?” I asked her.
“You get it…I don’t have that anymore. Not in the way I want.”
She gave me the same pleading look she did in that last pathetic card. “See your family, Axel.”
“Even if it’s hard?”
“If it is, then I’ll still be here when you come back. And then we can spend next Christmas together,” said Thu. “I…you know I have a lot of family I don’t like. I gave them chances. Some people aren’t worth them, but you don’t know until you try.”
“Alright, I’ll always listen to your advice,” I said. “Thanks Thu.”
“Thanks for…everything. I have something to look forward to.”
“Chocolate?”
“Well, if I don’t polish it all off tonight…it’s happened.”
We both laughed.
—
Thu was the only person I would, without question, answer to. So I listened to her advice: give the family another chance, in case I end up like her. I packed my bags with enough clothes to last me into the new year, and hoped for her well-being.
We kept those snow globes from our afternoon out. Thu’s didn’t snow, but light, glittery balls like meteors rained down on the desert and that dinosaur figurine inside. It was funny, actually. She thought so too.
Like every night, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. But most mornings, I would wake up and find my amazing Thu, silently begging me for tea and breakfast. A whole ten days without her approached, though. I wanted to scream.
I had no idea what I was going to be like without her again.New data published by the Canadian broadband management company Sandvine reveals that on the average day Netflix and BitTorrent are responsible for 40 percent of all Internet traffic in North America. During peak hours Netflix accounts for a third of all download traffic, while BitTorrent is credited for nearly half of all upload traffic during the busiest time of the day.
Over the years, many Internet traffic reports have been published. Back in 2004, long before the BitTorrent boom had started, studies already indicated that BitTorrent was responsible for an impressive 35% of all Internet traffic.
In the years that followed the Internet traffic distribution underwent a metamorphosis, as video streaming took off with the launch of YouTube and later Netflix. However, all this time BitTorrent remained a significant player and new data confirms that this is still the case.
Sandvine, the company that’s best known for manufacturing the hardware that slowed down BitTorrent users on Comcast, has released their latest Internet traffic report. The report highlights several emerging trends in Internet traffic consumption in North America.
Netflix is by far the most bandwidth-consuming source of traffic. On an average day, 23.3% of all North American traffic comes from or goes to Netflix. BitTorrent is a good second with 16.5% of the traffic pie, meaning that Netflix and BitTorrent together account for almost 40% of all traffic.
The main difference between BitTorrent and Netflix traffic is that the former is more spread out over the day, as BitTorrent users continue downloading overnight.
The graph below shows the usage of various types of traffic during peak hours, where BitTorrent takes up nearly half of all upstream bandwidth. Netflix is the absolute king in terms of downstream traffic here, accounting for nearly one third of all traffic during peak hours.
Peak hour traffic in North America (source Sandvine)
The data further shows that BitTorrent is the last major P2P network standing. After LimeWire was shut down exactly one year ago, major traffic to and from the Gnutella network vanished completely. Last year it was responsible for 11% of upstream traffic and 2% of downstream traffic during peak hours. In October 2011 it is no longer present among the top 10 traffic sources.
Interestingly enough, none of the popular file-hosting services generates enough traffic to make it into the top 10 in North America. However, the report shows that this is quite the opposite in Brazil, where a massive 9.45% of all traffic during peak hours goes through Megaupload, and another 1.97% through its sister site Megavideo.
Both Megavideo and Megaupload are also listed in the top 10 in Africa with 2.33% and 3.11% respectively. Other regional differences that stand out include Google Video being twice as popular than YouTube in Eastern Europe. In Brazil on the other hand, YouTube is generating nearly a quarter of all Internet traffic during peak hours.
Aggregate peak hour traffic (source Sandvine)
While keeping in mind that Sandvine might benefit from overestimating the percentage of P2P traffic because they sell traffic shaping applications, the above shows that BitTorrent is still a major player on the internet in terms of the traffic it generates. But the question is for how long.
The rise of Netflix in North America – despite negative results earlier this week – shows that there is plenty of interest in paid entertainment. Combined with the traffic stats above it is fair to assume that many more people pay for movies than those who download. For Hollywood this leads to the disappointing conclusion that even if all movie pirating BitTorrent users got a Netflix account, the effect on the movie industry’s revenues would only be ‘marginal’.Warrant: Connecticut state police dispatcher enticed teen via Facebook to engage in sex
Jeffrey Paul Norton Jeffrey Paul Norton Photo: Courtesy Middletown Police Photo: Courtesy Middletown Police Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Warrant: Connecticut state police dispatcher enticed teen via Facebook to engage in sex 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
MIDDLETOWN >> The arrest warrant for a state police dispatcher who allegedly usedaccused of using a computer to encourage a teen to engage in sexual activity details a series of graphic social media messages they allegedly exchanged over the course of six months.
Jeffrey Paul Norton, 48, of Bishop Street, Waterbury, was charged Wednesday with two felonies after police say he and the victim messaged each other for six months through Facebook. The warrant says Norton tried to coerce the teen’s initiation into sexual activity.
On Jan. 16, Middletown special investigations detectives met with the parents of a 15-year-old, who showed evidence the teen had chatted on Facebook with Norton, a dispatcher for state police Troop I in Bethany, according to the warrant.
The parents, who have their children’s social media logins and passwords, did a routine check of the boy’s account and found the victim had engaged in a series of explicitly sexual messages with the accused, police said.
Authorities reviewed more than 350 screenshots of the conversations, which took place from July 2015 through January 2016, during which Norton offered to hire a prostitute for the boy, according to the warrant.
Details of the affidavit allege Norton, who has worked for state police since 2004, suggested the teen “sneak away” from the home to arrange for the encounter, and discussed “sexual topics with the victim that are inappropriate given the victim’s age.”
Authorities say Norton sent the teen two explicit videos as a way to persuade the youth to engage in sexual activity with the prostitute and explained what the teen should do in detail.
On Jan. 27, police interviewed Norton, who said he was Facebook friends with the victim and that the teen had asked him for “relationship and sexual advice,” authorities say.
Norton allegedly turned over a printed screenshot showing he had blocked the victim’s Facebook page after police had contacted him, adding he had made a mistake.
Norton, who is on administrative leave, according to state police, was charged with risk of injury to a minor and enticing a minor. He was released on a $1,500 non-surety bond and given a March 16 court date.Several studies have maintained that chocolates are beneficial for health, now a new research reveals that your favorite sweet stuff can also help in forming long-term memories, at least as observed in snails.
Dark chocolates are known to have some health benefits like lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol and also helps in proper working of the heart and cardiovascular system. Most of these benefits are from flavonoids, a key component found in chocolates which act as antioxidants.
They are a large family of compounds found in various food products like vegetables, nuts, fruits, green tea and berries. In order to find out the effect of flavonoids on the memory power, researchers from the University of Calgary, Canada, tested a particular flavonoid known as epicatechin (EPI) on pond snails (Lymnaea stagnalis).
For their study, researchers Lee Fruson and Ken Lukowiak used pond snails to learn the effect of EPI on snails' behavior like their movements, their respiratory system, formation of long-term memory (LTM) and extinction of the LTM. Pond snails normally breathe through their skin, but when the oxygen levels are depleted, they use their breathing tube which they extend it to the surface to get oxygen. These snails can be trained to close their breathing tubes when they are in deoxygenated water by just tapping on the tube, according to a report in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
When the researchers exposed the snails to an EPI concentration (15 mg l-1) in water, they found that there was no effect of the EPI on the snails. However, when they trained the pond snails for half-hour to close their breathing tubes they found that the snails formed long-term memories that extended for a day unlike their typical memory which does not last for more than three hours.
With two more training sessions, the snails were able to remember the task of shutting the breathing tube for about three days. Experts also revealed that the exposure to EPI significantly showed an increase in the resistance to extinction of memory. They trained the snails again, but this time they taught the snails to open the breathing tubes. Surprisingly, they noticed that the snails didn't remember the new task, but shut the breathing tube which they learned when they were trained while exposed to EPI concentration.
The test showed evidence that EPI compound helps in forming longer and stronger memory by causing an impact on the neurons. The neurons store the memory.
The findings of the study, "A flavonol present in cocoa[(-)epicatechin] enhances snail memory", published in the Journal of Experimental Biology concluded that diet sources of EPI can improve the cognitive abilities and make one smarter.Last week Invisible Children, a non-profit organization founded and head by film maker Jason Russell, released a 30 minute documentary video called “Kony 2012”. The documentary details a Ugandan warlord/rebel named Joseph Kony and the crimes he has committed against civilians and children. The documentary video went viral in a few days with over 37 million views. But how does the documentary do on getting it’s facts straight about him?
Last week Invisible Children, a non-profit organization founded and head by film maker Jason Russell, released a 30 minute documentary video called “Kony 2012“. The documentary details a Ugandan warlord/rebel named Joseph Kony and the crimes he has committed against civilians and children. The documentary video went viral in a few days with over 37 million views.
Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) a militant group that is an offshoot of an armed resistance in Northern Uganda called the Holy Spirit Movement. The Holy Spirit Movement was formed by Alice Auma in 1987 as a resistance army protected by the holy spirit.
The Holy Spirit Movement fought as a regular army – taking and controlling territory, as well as holding pitched battles with NRA forces – but had a number of practices that outsiders found bizarre. Spiritual “controllers” were integrated into each unit. Along with duties such as tending to Alice Auma while she was possessed, they smeared blessed oil on combatants that was supposed to stop bullets if the combatant’s soul was pure. [via Wikipedia]
Kony splintered the LRA off from the Holy Spirit Movement when they differed on a few small differences. Alice did not want to kill prisoners of war, kill civilians or kidnap children. The LRA is accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children and forcing children to participate in hostilities. There have also been reports of cannibalism. So it goes without saying that Kony is a pretty nasty character, right up to calling himself the spokesperson of god. But how does the documentary do on getting it’s facts straight about him?
First off, Kony is NOT in Uganda. He has not been in Uganda since 2005. The documentary does state this at around 15 minutes into the video but it is easy to miss.
As the LRA began to move into other countries, Jacob [one of the children filmed in Northern Uganda in 2003] and other Ugandans came to the US to speak on behalf of all people suffering because of Kony. Even though Uganda was relatively safe they felt compelled to tell the world that Kony was still out there and had to be stopped.
They also alludes that he is “branching out” to other countries in the region. That is not fact. Kony and the LRA fled Uganda due the withering assault from the NRA (Ugandan Army). The video also alluded to the LRA having an army consisting of 30,000 brainwashed children. While it is true that he has abducted drugged and brainwashed children into fighting in his army, the numbers cited in the video are way off. Accurate numbers cannot be produced but the U.N. has estimated that 30,000 children have been adbucted since the 80’s. There is no huge army of brainwash children hiding and waiting to strike. In fact, according to Ugandan journalist Angelo Izama, the 30,000 number is a vast over-estimation;
To call the campaign a misrepresentation is an understatement. While it draws attention to the fact that Kony, indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in 2005, is still on the loose, it’s portrayal of his alleged crimes in Northern Uganda are from a bygone era. At the height of the war between especially 1999 and 2004, large hordes of children took refuge on the streets of Gulu town to escape the horrors of abduction and brutal conscription to the ranks of the LRA. Today most of these children are semi-adults. Many are still on the streets unemployed. Gulu has the highest numbers of child prostitutes in Uganda. It also has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis.
It was not even accurate enough to report that Kony has at most two or three hundred troops hidden deep in the Congo jungles. Invisible Children, Kony 2012’s creators are not without some criticism as well. The Guardian broke down their 2011 expenses:
Invisible Children’s accounts show it is a cash rich operation, which more than tripled its income to $9m (£5.68m) in 2011, mainly from personal donations. Of this, nearly 25% was spent on travel and film-making. Most of the money raised has been spent in the US. The accounts show $1.7m went on US employee salaries, $850,000 in film production costs, $244,000 in “professional services” – thought to be Washington lobbyists – and $1.07m in travel expenses. Nearly $400,000 was spent on offices in San Diego.
So where does the money raised from selling the Kony 2012 Action Kit, (only $30, complete with t-shirt, bumper sticker and bracelet)? Jason Russell Announced Friday on the Today Show that they have sold over 500,000 Action Kits and signed up to be “Advocates of Awesome”. At $30 a piece, they made $15 Million alone in sales last week, which is pretty impressive. In one week they have almost doubled their operating budget from last year. So what are they going to give to Africa? According to Invisible Children’s Director of Ideology, Jedidiah Jenkins, they are not an aid organization. Only 37% of the budget goes to African Related Programs. The majority of the budget equally to film making and salaries.
[T]he truth about Invisible Children is that we are not an aid organization, and we don’t intend to be. I think people think we’re over there delivering shoes or food. But we are an advocacy and awareness organization.
Even more criticism has been leveled at Invisible Children’s operations. Many groups have accused them of secretly having an evangelical agenda. Several extremist, Right-Wing Christian organizations list Invisible Children in their IRS 990 forms including Caster Family Foundation, The Call, National Christian Foundation, ProVision Foundation, Christian Community Foundation, Inc. (also known as “Waterstone”), Philip Anschutz, and the Malachi 3 Foundation. On November 11, 2011 Russell spoke at Liberty University‘s Convocation about evengelical outreach through Invisible Children.
So does this mean that Invisible Children is in fact an evangelical organization disguised as a secular political organization? Not really. Jason Russell is an evangelical Christian, but that does not mean he is using his organization to for Christian outreach. They are funded by many Right Wing Christian organizations but that does not mean that they are pushing an evangelical agenda on Uganda. Invisible Children’s main goal is admittedly, movie making. So it remains unclear what their actual outreach programs in Uganda are doing. While they are funding schools, we do not more than that. We can only guess if there any motives beyond what they state in their mission statement, and that is not good Skepticism. Though who funds them give me great pause and would probably now give them money for that reason, I do have to worry about that because I have another reason to give to them.
I think the main goal you should be focusing on when you decide whether or not to give money to an organization such as Invisible Children is to determine what your money will actually be used for.Will buying a “Kony 2012” Action Kit and becoming an “Advocate of Awesome” help Africa? The “Kony 2012” video is an awareness campaign. Bringing awareness to Kony’s atrocities in Uganda. Wearing a bracelet or a t-shirt will not stop the LRA. It points more towards slacktivism than activism and more arrogant than worldly. You are better off saving your $30 dollars and phoning your Senator. Whether or not they are evangelical or whether or not they support the Ugandan Anti-Gay bill currently in their Parliament. The simple answer is that, I will not give money to Invisible Children because I do not want my money to go to movie making. There are many relief efforts out there. If you truly want to help Uganda, The American Institute of Philanthropy has a list of relief organizations along with their rating on them.
Sources
The Best Way To Assist In Providing Emergency Relief In Uganda
KONY 2012: Is the Viral Campaign a Scam?
On Kony 2012
Invisible Children “Kony 2012” Leader Suggests It’s About Jesus and Evangelizing
Guest post: Joseph Kony is not in Uganda (and other complicated things)
Why Can’t Anyone Stop the LRA?
Uganda: Child soldiers at centre of mounting humanitarian crisis
Acholi Street. Stop #Kony2012. Invisible Children’s campaign of infamy
Invisible Children Funded By Antigay, Creationist Christian Right
‘There’s a Rabid Hunger to Criticize’: A ‘Kony 2012’ Creator Defends the Film
Child abductee featured in Kony 2012 defends film’s maker against criticism
Social Media, Slacktivism, And Kony 2012
My thoughts on KONY 2012 (and a defense of Invisible Children?)
Visible Children: KONY 2012, viewed critically
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PocketNormally, a giant printout of upcoming third-party game-console accessories isn't news. But when the system in question is the Nintendo Switch, which still hasn't received a full reveal, the newsworthiness of things like screen protectors and AC adapters increases.
On Tuesday, a French Twitter user posted over a dozen pages of an internal document from the game-peripheral company Hori, and it contained detailed "working concepts" for products relating to the upcoming Nintendo Switch console. (While the leaker said he was unsure about the documents' accuracy, at least one editor, from Let's Play Videogames, has vouched for the leak's accuracy.) Many of the details line up with what Nintendo already revealed in October, including a "March 2017" release window. Some of the tidbits tease launch possibilities.
Diehard Nintendo fans will be excited by Hori's accessories for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, especially those with a "March 2017" release date. While you may have little interest in decorating your Nintendo Switch with Zelda logos, such a release suggests that Breath of the Wild will launch on the same day as the hardware. (Releasing those decorations without a game to match would be a wicked thing for Hori to do.) Nintendo has yet to confirm a release date for Breath of the Wild, though recent reports from Eurogamer suggest that it will launch alongside the Switch, at least in the United States and Japan.
The documents also see Hori preparing a fighting-stick controller for the Switch. Again, a "March 2017" date is attached to one of the pamphlet's pages (specifically, a Zelda-themed one), which implies that all of the accessories might be slated to launch that day. Meanwhile, Let's Play Videogames' Laura Kate Dale tells Ars that she "100 percent expect[s] a fighting stick to hit at launch." (Dale has a good track record about Nintendo Switch rumors.)
If that's true, then a fighting game would make sense for launch. But no fighting-game leaks have emerged surrounding the Nintendo Switch, other than guesses that a Smash Bros. Wii U port may eventually land on the newer system. (My wild guess: Namco could have something in the works, considering its long friendship with Nintendo. The forthcoming Tekken 7? Another Pokken Tournament? Heck, maybe an out-of-nowhere update to the Soul Calibur franchise?)
Nintendo's sole sizzle-reel for the Nintendo Switch didn't show off the system's cartridges, which means the document from the French Twitter user may very well contain the world's first look at them. The Hori documents show a few unlabeled cartridges, which look very similar to 3DS carts, tucked into a 24-game carrying case. One other cart is tucked into a combination cartridge-controller carrying case, and this image does a better job offering scale for the sake of measuring a Switch cartridge's size.
The last kinda-new detail on display, from a different, color-image leak posted to the NeoGAF forums, is a cleaner look at the system's possible "share" button. This appears to be a square button with an indented circle. The design resembles the "record" button you might find on a VCR remote control, but the leaked documents and images do not confirm the button's name just yet.
I admit, digging into a peripheral-preview document is a bit desperate, but anticipation continues to mount for the console as its major reveal looms. Nintendo will host a major event this Thursday evening in Tokyo, scheduled for 11 pm Eastern time. Expect announcements about the system's price, release date, and launch games lineup. That reveal will be followed by hands-on press events in both London and New York the following day, and Ars' Mark Walton and Kyle Orland (respectively) will be in attendance. Keep your eyes here at Ars for details from every event.
Listing image by DroidXAceBy Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Wei Kuo-yen (魏國彥) yesterday said that the agency is mulling banning vehicles and reducing electricity generation when air pollution spikes to combat heightened levels of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter under 25 micrometers in diameter.
In a question-and
|
?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“WiDoW junkies. They make SLAM-heads look like saints. Rather than kill you, I’ll just sell you to them. Make a little profit, and when they accidentally kill you in their special pain orgies, your little beacon, if it’s real, will bring the UEE down on their maggot-infested heads. But that won’t matter to me because I’ll be long gone.”
Much to my shame, my legs weakened and I collapsed against the door, halfway holding myself up against the airlock. My weakness was mostly hunger — I hadn’t eaten in days now — but this new vision of what was to become of me made me even dizzier with worry.
Burnett’s lips stretched back revealing his teeth. “Sure you don’t want to go out the airlock now?”
to be continued …I want to tell you about a dirty little secret of the eCommerce world. It’s called Influencer or Affiliate Marketing. K, fine, it’s neither dirty nor a secret, but we’re in storytelling mode here…
Companies are raking it in using marketplaces like GrowSumo. The marketplace and software is setup to connect businesses with influencers to help promote their products. It’s actually insanely easy in principle…
You have products / software / services that a specific group of people should be interested (yo, if you don’t have a target market setup, we need to talk). Maybe it’s a woman’s shoe store. Maybe it’s a new online software tool perfect for Social Media Marketers. Whatever it is, it is very likely that there are folks in the world right now that have either direct or indirect influence over your target market.
What affiliate marketing let’s you do is to incentivize these influencers to promote your products / software / services with cold hard cash. For instance, let’s go back to the Woman’s Shoe eCommerce business… How many fashion bloggers, instagramers, pinterest boards can you name that own a small-medium sized audience? Let me tell you – there are thousands and thousands!
What if you could easily set up a program that would pay these influencers to promote your products? Think about it this way – what if for every 1000 followers this influencer had, you could get one sale? How valuable would a group of maybe 200-300 influencers be if they were producing these kinds of results??
Quick math >> 200 Influencers >> One Post / Month >> Average Following of 12,000.
That would be 2400 sales / month, strictly from Influencer Marketing. Obviously these are made up variables, and it’s not like you can snap your fingers and produce a network of 200 influencers overnight. But when you consider that each sale should produce an email address, and some percent of repeat business, the power of this exercise should be reasonable huge. In fact, entire businesses are predicated on Affiliate Marketing alone.
Alright, I hope you get how important this truly is. I wanted to dive into some tactics, so we went out and spoke with one of the Founders of GrowSumo about how to respectfully get the attention of influencers…
Quickly. Before we dive into that conversation. On GrowSumo. This is my favorite new affiliate marketing network. Other networks, like Share-A-Sale or Commissions Junction, are super difficult to get into. They require massive integrations within your store, and big upfront retainers so they can pay their affiliates. With GrowSumo, the ecommerce integration was super easy (took me less than a day, with their generous support on a few finer technical details) and they just bill you monthly for all of the affiliate commissions they need to pay out. It’s only $300 / month. It pays itself if you work for it…Barry Goldwater: Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice.
Not long ago, another magazine asked me to recommend six books that explain something important about American politics. I chose six of my favorites that help elucidate the most important development of the last half-century in American politics: the Republican Party’s embrace of movement conservative ideology. No other major party in the advanced world rejects on principle any proposed tax-revenue increase, or denies the legitimacy of climate science, or opposes universal health care.
For reasons I’ll explain below, the magazine turned down this list after I submitted it. But first, here is what I sent them:
To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party, by Heather Cox Richardson.
To trace the story of how the Republican Party began as a progressive and even radical force for social and economic egalitarianism, and evolved into a reactionary faction advocating ideas it once loathed, start at the beginning, like Richardson does here. She tells the story from Lincoln to the party’s rightward turn, its halting moves back to the center under such figures as Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, and then its final reactionary lurch in the present era.
Social Darwinism in American Thought, by Richard Hofstadter.
Still the most astute critic of modern conservatism, Hofstadter’s 1944 classic identifies and scathingly dispatches a powerful right-wing idea that was destined to endure: the notion that the free market is a perfectly just mechanism for rewarding value and punishing failure.
Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade Against the New Deal, by Kimberly Phillips-Fein.
The major accounts of the New Deal describe the winners, but Phillips-Fein tells the story of the opposition, because its ideas would live on, too. How the Social Darwinists fought back against Franklin Roosevelt would set the stage for the right’s comeback decades later.
Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism — From Goldwater to the Tea Party, by E.J. Dionne.
The conservative movement, which rejected the New Deal and its seemingly permanent role in American life, set in motion ideological and political changes that led to the party as it exists today.
Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party, by Geoffrey Kabaservice.
A moderate Republican, unlike the other (more liberal) authors listed here, Kabaservice tells the same story as Dionne, from the opposite end: focusing on the long, tragic decline of the GOP’s once-powerful moderate tradition.
Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in an Age of Diminished Expectations, by Paul Krugman.
This book, intended as a kind of explainer, wound up producing a powerful critique of supply-side economics, the dominant theory of the GOP, which Krugman aptly dispatches as simply crankery lacking any grounding in serious economic theory.
I was told my list could not be published because it was too partisan — to be suitable for publication, I would have to swap out some of the books I chose, and substitute some that made the case that the Democratic Party had also gone off the rails, for the sake of balance. I replied that I could not make this change because I don’t believe that the Democratic Party, in its current historical period, has gone off the rails. That doesn’t mean I consider the Democrats flawless, just that they are a normal party with normal problems. It contains a broad range of interest groups and politicians. Sometimes one interest group or another gains too much influence over a particular policy, and sometimes its leading politicians get greedy or make bad political decisions.
The GOP right now is an abnormal party. It does not resemble the major right-of-center parties found in other industrialized democracies. The most glaring manifestation of this is Donald Trump, the flamboyantly ignorant, authoritarian Republican president-elect. But for all his gross unsuitability for public office, Trump also grows out of longstanding trends within his party, which has previously elevated such anti-intellectual figures as George W. Bush and Sarah Palin as plausible leaders of the free world not despite but because of their disdain for empiricism. And it had grown increasingly suspicious of democracy even before a reality television star with a longstanding admiration for strongmen from Russia to Tiananmen Square came upon the scene — which is why the “mainstream” Paul Ryan wing has so willingly suborned Trump’s ongoing violations of governing norms.
It is still fashionable to regard the two parties today as broadly symmetrical to each other — as, indeed, they once were for many decades. But that quaint notion has blinded many of us to the radical turn the Republican Party has taken, and which has brought the American political system to a dangerous point.CLOSE After months of testing, many of the nation's big-city police forces are planning to expand their use of body cameras by the summer. Wochit
Jordan Norris (Photo: Submitted photo)
Three Cheatham County Sheriff's deputies have been placed on administrative leave after a Pegram teen filed suit in federal court accusing them of using excessive force while he was being held at Cheatham County Jail.
Jordan Elias Norris, 19, has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court accusing Mark Bryant, Josh Marriott and Jeff Key of deprivation of civil rights, citing the use of excessive force and failure to protect after he was repeatedly stunned with Tasers in the jail in November 2016. He suffered more than 40 pairs of Taser burns, many of which are unaccounted for by authorities, the lawsuit states.
Norris was arrested Nov. 3, 2016 and charged with felony manufacturing/possession of marijuana for resale, possession of drug paraphernalia, theft under $500 and five counts of possession of a prohibited weapon.
He was later charged with felony vandalism of over $1,000 and simple assault Nov. 7 while still incarcerated.
Norris was originally suspected of stealing a semi-automatic rifle, and Sheriff's deputies received information he was going to use the weapon on any law enforcement who tried to arrest him, according to Cheatham County Sheriff Mike Breedlove.
Norris was kept in the booking cell for several days for behavioral issues, explained Breedlove.
During Norris’ time in the jail, he was stunned several times, including while restrained, according to the lawsuit. Many of the incidents were captured on video, including by cameras on the Tasers themselves.
CLOSE Cheatham Sheriff's deputies restrain and use a taser on a suspect
Breedlove released a statement Friday morning saying that he was not presented with all of the video footage at the initial briefing on the situation.
After seeing media reports and videos not previously viewed, Breedlove said he immediately directed supervisors to examine the Sheriff's Office's current Use of Force policy. He also contacted District Attorney General Ray Crouch Jr. to request an independent investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
"As Sheriff, I want our citizens to know that any inappropriate behavior that may have violated an individual's rights will not be tolerated. I have placed the employees involved on administrative leave while the investigation is conducted," he said in the statement. "We will work closely and cooperatively with the TBI and District Attorney's Office to ensure all facts are provided and all angles of this incident are thoroughly investigated."
The taser shocks by deputies were recorded by an overhead surveillance video camera and by a camera on the taser itself. (Photo: Surveillance footage photo)
Lawsuit details incidents
According to Use of Force Reports filed by correction deputies, while in booking at 6:55 p.m. Nov. 5, Norris was stunned after officers believed he was going to have a physical altercation with another inmate in a cell. Deputies say Norris resisted efforts to cuff him, which caused him to be stunned and taken to a restraint chair.
Authorities say the deputies stunned Norris again for resisting them as they attempted to place him in the restraint chair,
During a nearly three-hour stint in the restraint chair, authorities reported Norris as being "very combative" and "combative," yelling things about wanting to kill himself and asking to be shot, according to the restraint chair log from the Sheriff's Office.
At 10:20 p.m., deputies tried to move Norris from the booking restraint chair to the jail transport vehicle so that he could be taken to the hospital. Authorities say they had to stun Norris multiple times in a bid to gain compliance, according to a second Use of Force Report.
This photo, included in the lawsuit against three Cheatham County Sheriff's deputies, depicts some of the taser burn marks on Jordan Norris. (Photo: Submitted photo)
In a third Use of Force Report from that evening, Norris was stunned again in another attempt to move him from the restraint chair to the transport vehicle at 10:35 p.m. Authorities say Norris was drive-stunned for "approximately one second on the calf" to get him into the car so that he could be transported to Centennial Medical Center in Ashland City.
Drive-stunning involves holding the Taser against the target without firing the projectiles, so as to cause pain without being incapacitating.
The federal lawsuit is focused on the stuns that were given during the period when Norris was restrained.
The lawsuit claims that Bryant repeated and prolonged use of the Taser against Norris while he "was restrained and suffering a mental health episode was objectively unreasonable, unnecessary, excessive, and without a legitimate law enforcement purpose."
It further states that while Norris was restrained, Bryant "shocked Plaintiff Norris with a Taser device four times totaling approximately fifty seconds on his stomach and legs."
The suit goes on to claim that while stunning Norris, Bryant stated, "I'll keep on doing that until I run out of batteries."
The lawsuit accuses Bryant of acting in a "sadistic and malicious nature in repeatedly tasing Plaintiff Norris, such that the force was unreasonable."
According to the lawsuit, Bryant told Norris to "stop resisting," despite the fact that he was still stunning Norris, who was restrained in the chair.
The suit claims that the other two deputies were observing this and did nothing to stop it.
When Norris bonded out of jail on Nov. 16, he had approximately 40 pairs of taser burns throughout his body, according to the suit.
“Most of the taser burns sustained by Plaintiff Norris are not accounted for by the Use of Force Reports and video clips received from the Cheatham County Sheriff’s Office, raising further questions and creating a reasonable belief that Plaintiff Norris was also repeatedly tased on other occasions without proper justification," said the suit.
Read or Share this story: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/cheatham/2017/07/28/three-deputies-placed-administrative-leave-after-lawsuit-claims-excessive-force-used-inmate/517969001/Excerpted with permission from the publisher, Wiley, from What’s the Matter with White People: Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was by Joan Walsh. Copyright © 2012
Empathy for one party is always prejudice against another.
—Senator Jeff Sessions, July 2009
I am repeatedly struck by the extent to which conservatives have given up on the America we all grew up with: apparently it costs too much and we can’t afford it, and besides, we can’t all get along, so we can’t enjoy it.
In 2011 New York Times columnist Ross Douthat warned Americans that we can no longer provide a strong social welfare state—the kind of society that supports people the way we did from the mid-1930s until the end of the 1970s—because we’re too diverse for it. As Douthat argued:
Historically, the most successful welfare states (think Scandinavia) have depended on ethnic solidarity to sustain their tax-and-transfer programs. But the working age America of the future will be far more diverse than the retired cohort it’s laboring to support. Asking a population that’s increasingly brown and beige to accept punishing tax rates while white seniors receive roughly $3 in Medicare benefits for every dollar they paid in (the projected ratio in the 2030s) promises to polarize the country along racial as well as generational lines.
Douthat seemed to fear that the “brown and beige” kids who’ll be paying into Social Security and Medicare for the next generation might not look kindly on supporting a population that’s disproportionately white. So we may as well unravel our social insurance programs before those tawny kids pull the plug on Grandma? How cynical, how sad.
It’s brazen of anyone on the right to warn us that government programs might polarize the country along racial lines, as though we are not already polarized, at least partly because of GOP divide-and-conquer politics. Yet the relationship between American diversity and trust in government is actually an old controversy, with Douthat adding a twenty-first-century right-wing spin. Scholars have long debated whether Americans have a weaker public sector because of our heterogeneity. Some argue that we have less social support and more harried lives than people in comparable nations, at least partly because we don’t want to take the chance that increased social spending and a broader safety net will help “other people,” those slackers and moochers we’ve always feared.
In fact, the United States lags behind all industrialized nations when it comes to direct government funding of health care, family leave, child care, and unemployment benefits. In an influential 2004 book, Fighting Poverty in the U.S. and Europe: A World of Difference, Harvard economists Alberto Alesina and Edward Glaeser attributed most of the gap in social spending between western Europe and the United States to our unrivaled mix of racial and ethnic groups and the distrust that engendered.
Now, when you add in American social spending on public education, which used to be the highest in the world, as well as employer-provided social supports subsidized by government with tax breaks—health insurance and 401(k)s, to name two big examples—the U.S. welfare state isn’t necessarily smaller than that of a lot of industrialized nations. But it’s a heavily privatized welfare state, and that strange hybrid has a lot to do with our racially and ethnically polarized political history. Yet even that hybrid is now being threatened as employers insist they can’t afford to keep the promises made in an earlier generation. As businesses shed the benefits that used to help keep American workers in the middle class, they imply that those workers are greedy to expect them. They’re slackers. Moochers. Privatized-welfare queens.
There is also a fascinating correlation relationship between societies that provide universal government programs—such as Social Security and Medicare, as opposed to food stamps and Medicaid and cash grants only for the “poor”—and societies with high levels of social trust. Which comes first, the trust to provide universal government programs, or government programs that foster a sense of unity and trust? As the right loses faith in the America we grew up with, it gives the rest of us an opportunity and a clear responsibility. Douthat seems to be saying we can’t have a real social compact in a multiracial society; it works only in monochromatic societies. I think it would be the ultimate example of American exceptionalism to prove him (as well as Pat Buchanan and Charles Murray) wrong. We have to be the ones who develop a version of the American Dream that works for everyone.
And yes, that includes the white working class.
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499Fabled 42nd Street has long epitomized New York’s bright lights, glamour, and energy.
But not the 42nd Street at the turn of the last century, as this circa-1900 photo, from New York Then and Now, demonstrates.
That year, the midtown block of 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues was a still-residential stretch of muddy Belgian blocks, a single gas lamp, and horse-pulled streetcars.
“The horsecars were run by the 42nd Street, Manhattanville and St. Nicholas Avenue Railway as a crosstown line between the Weehawken ferries at the west terminal and the Hunters Point Ferry to Long Island City at the east end,” the caption tells us.
The church on the right is the West Presbyterian Church, and the el tracks on the left won’t be torn down until the 1930s.
By 1974, almost nothing remains, and West 42nd Street looks much more familiar to contemporary eyes.
“The building with the curved front is the Grace Building, built 1970-1972 on the site of Stern Brothers Department Store, which stood here from 1913 to 1969, having previously operated on West 34th Street for 36 years,” reads the caption.
Today, 42nd Street looking toward Sixth Avenue reveals more glass office buildings, a replica of an old street lamp, plus many of the same buildings from 1974—such as the Grace Building and the Gothic-like entrance to 11 West 42nd Street.
It’s not in the photo, but I imagine Bryant Park, which would be on the left, looks very different—this park had a bad reputation until the 1980s.
No one was taking there lunch break or watching movies on the lawn then!
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Tags: 42nd Street then and now, Bryant Park old photos, Grace Building NYC, horsecars in New York City, midtown New York in 1900, New York in 1900, New York street, old 42nd Street, Sixth Avenue El station, Stern Brothers department store NYCQuote:
Originally Posted by
/* Info */
There's a known issue on Android 5.0 Lollipop.
The bootanimation binary(/system/bin/bootanimation - Responsible for initial boot animations during bootup) causes a serious memory leak, too exhaustive that core system services or other processes can be killed during boot,
or on the worst case, endless boot loop due to core system services unable to initialize.
/* Why? */
My theory is, the current bootanimation implementation does not releases the resources held to play previous frames.
Testing this on a Galaxy S4 with a 1080p bootanimation.zip file resulted in 200MB of RAM usage in 3 seconds, and the kernel starts to kill processes in 10 seconds.
With a Nexus 7, luckily, it did pass on the bootanimation and showed up the lock-screen. However, some services got killed during boot and resulted in an overall unstable system.
I've been able to reproduce this bug on majority of devices including Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S4, Nexus 7, Nexus 5, Nexus 4 and much more with CyanogenMod 12, Google's pure/stock AOSP and LG's Lollipop firmware.
I'm almost certain that other Android 5.0 Lollipop ROMs may have the same problem(except for Samsung's Touchwiz - Touchwiz uses qmg format and I was unable to reproduce this bug on Touchwiz).
You maybe asking yourself -
"But CM12 has this issue solved?"
Short answer is no, they've just put a band-aid on it - reducing framerate and clearing up caches more aggressively to "workaround", and this is not a permanent solution.
"What about other manufacturer's ROM?"
On my test, Samsung's Touchwiz was the only ROM that has this issue solved(probably thanks to the their proprietary qmg format). Other manufacturers - LG, hTC and more - may also suffer from the same bug.
"Can I expect this fix to be integrated with CyanogenMod 12 nightlies?"
Maybe. I've sent this fix to CyanogenMod Gerrit code review. If they approve it, it'll be integrated into future nightly builds.
/* Solution? */
Before I could have come up with a permanent solution, I suggested users to remove /system/bin/bootanimation from their devices for now, as this is a very serious issue.
Now, I've got a working, permanent fix.
The attached "bootanimation.zip" contains 3 binaries.
cm12/bootanimation is for CyanogenMod 12(or its fork) users
aosp/<CPU architecture>/bootanimation is for pure/stock AOSP(or its fork) users & manufacturer's ROM users & Nexus users with stock ROM installed.
<You must install the right bootanimation binary for your device's CPU architecture; users will most likely install 32bit unless they use Nexus 9 or LG G flex 2>
Download the "bootanimation.zip", extract the right "bootanimation" binary and put it under /system/bin - replacing the old one.
The correct owner is root:root,
the correct permission is 755(rwxr-xr-x).
If those binaries do not work for you, I'm afraid your ROM developer/builder have to integrate the fix into the source code, or not use the bootanimation at all
/* Some more technical information */
If you're a ROM developer, who wants to integrate this fix, please read below and cherry-pick the correct fix.
Android Issue tracker - https://code.google.com/p/android/is...tail?id=140061
CyanogenMod Gerrit code review - http://review.cyanogenmod.org/88918
CyanogenMod Gerrit GitHub - https://github.com/CyanogenMod/andro...653e4c0cd7d3a4
Android Gerrit code review - https://android-review.googlesource.com/132562A species of onion native to southwestern parts of the Chinese province of Shanxi
Allium tuberosum Flowering garlic chives Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Clade: Angiosperms Clade: Monocots Order: Asparagales Family: Amaryllidaceae Subfamily: Allioideae Genus: Allium Species: A. tuberosum Binomial name Allium tuberosum
Rottler ex Spreng. 1825 not Roxb. 1832 Synonyms Synonymy Allium angulosum Lour. 1790, illegitimate homonym not L. 1753
Allium argyi H.Lév.
Allium chinense Maxim 1859, illegitimate homonym not G.Don 1827
Allium clarkei Hook.f.
Allium roxburghii Kunth
Allium sulvia Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don
Allium tricoccum auct. non Blanco
Allium tuberosum Roxb. 1832, illegitimate homonym not Rottler ex Spreng. 1825
Allium tuberosum f. yezoense (Nakai) M.Hiroe
f. Allium uliginosum G.Don
Allium yesoense Nakai
Allium yezoense Nakai
Nothoscordum sulvia (Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) Kunth
Allium tuberosum (garlic chives, Oriental garlic, Asian chives, Chinese chives, Chinese leek) is a species of onion native to southwestern parts of the Chinese province of Shanxi, and cultivated and naturalized elsewhere in Asia and around the world.[4][5]
Description [ edit ]
Allium tuberosum is a rhizomatous, clump-forming perennial plant growing from a small, elongated bulb (about 10 mm, 13⁄ 32 inch, across) that is tough and fibrous. Unlike either onion or garlic, it has strap-shaped leaves with triangular bases, about 1.5 to 8 mm (1⁄ 16 to 5⁄ 16 in) wide. It produces many white flowers in a round cluster (umbel) on stalks 25 to 60 cm (10 to 24 in) tall.[4] It grows in slowly expanding perennial clumps, but also readily sprouts from seed. In warmer areas (USDA zone 8 and warmer), garlic chives may remain green all year round. In cold areas (USDA zones 7 to 4b), leaves and stalks completely die back to the ground, and resprout from roots or rhizomes in the spring.[10]
The flavor is more like garlic than chives.
Taxonomy [ edit ]
Originally described by Johan Peter Rottler, the species name was validly published by Curt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel in 1825. A. tuberosum is classified within Allium in subgenus Butomissa (Salisb.) N. Friesen, section Butomissa (Salisb.) Kamelin, a group consisting of only A. tuberosum and A. ramosum L., which have been variously regarded as either one or two genetic entities.
Distribution and habitat [ edit ]
A. tuberosum originated in the Siberian–Mongolian–North Chinese steppes, but is widely cultivated and naturalised, 'It has been reported as growing wild in scattered locations in the United States (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska, Alabama, Iowa, Arkansas, and Wisconsin).[16] However, it is believed to be more widespread in North America because of the availability of seeds and seedlings of this species as an exotic herb and because of its high aggressiveness. This species is also widespread across much of mainland Europe and invasive in other areas of the world.
Ecology [ edit ]
A late summer- to autumn-blooming plant, A. tuberosum is one of several Allium species known as wild onion and/or wild garlic that, in various parts of the world, such as Australia, are listed as noxious weeds or as invasive "serious high impact environmental and/or agricultural weeds that spread rapidly and often create monocultures".
Cultivation [ edit ]
Often grown as an ornamental plant in gardens, several cultivars are available. A. tuberosum is distinctive by blooming later than most native or naturalised species of Allium. It is cold-hardy to USDA zones 4–10 (−30 to +35 °F, −34 to 2 °C). Garlic chives are regarded as easy to grow in many conditions and may spread readily by seeds or can be intentionally propagated by dividing their clumps.[19]
A number of varieties have been developed for either improved leaf (e.g. 'Shiva') or flower stem (e.g. 'Nien Hua') production. While the emphasis in Asia has been primarily culinary, in North America, the interest has been more as an ornamental. 'Monstrosum' is a giant ornamental cultivar.
Uses [ edit ]
Uses have included as ornamental plants, including cut and dried flowers, culinary herbs, and traditional medicine.[citation needed] Garlic chives have been widely cultivated for centuries in East Asia for their culinary value. The flat leaves, the stalks, and immature, unopened flower buds are used as flavouring. Another form is "blanched" by regrowing after cutting under cover to produce white-yellow leaves and a subtler flavor.
China [ edit ]
Pronunciation of the Chinese names for A. tuberosum, 韭菜, vary between Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese, as well as other dialects. For instance, the green leaves are jiu cai, the flower stem jiu cai hua, and blanched leaves jiu huang in Mandarin, but gau tsoi (kow choi), gau tsoi fa, and gau wong in Cantonese, respectively. Other renderings include cuchay, kucai, kuchay, or kutsay. The leaves are used as a flavoring in a similar way to chives, scallions, or garlic, and are included as a stir fry ingredient. In China, they are often used to make dumplings with a combination of egg, shrimp, and pork. They are a common ingredient in Chinese jiǎozi dumplings and the Japanese and Korean equivalents. A Chinese flatbread similar to the scallion pancake may be made with garlic chives instead of scallions; such a pancake is called a jiucai bing (韭菜饼) or jiucai you bing (韭菜油饼). Garlic chives are also one of the main ingredients used with yi mein (E-Fu) dishes.
India [ edit ]
In Manipur and other northeastern states of India, it is grown and used as a substitute for garlic and onion in cooking and is known as maroi nakuppi in Manipuri.
Japan [ edit ]
In Japan, where the plant is known as nira (韮), it is used for both garlic and sweet flavours, in soups and salads, and Japanese Chinese dishes such as gyōza dumplings.
Korea [ edit ]
Known as buchu (부추), garlic chives are widely used in Korean cuisine. They can be eaten fresh as namul, pickled as kimchi and jangajji, and pan-fried in buchimgae (pancake). they are also one of the most common herbs served with gukbap (soup with rice), as well as a common ingredient in mandu (dumplings).
Nepal [ edit ]
In Nepal, cooks fry a curried vegetable dish of potatoes and A. tuberosum known as dunduko sag.
Thailand [ edit ]
In Thailand, they are known as gui chai.
Vietnam [ edit ]
In Vietnam, the leaves of garlic chives, known as hẹ, are cut up into short pieces and used as the only vegetable in a broth with sliced pork kidneys.
Kazakhstan [ edit ]
In Kazakhstan, where the plant has been introduced through cultivation by Dungan farmers and ties with neighboring China, garlic chives are known by a transliteration of their Mandarin Chinese name, djutsey (джуцей). Used in cooking, it is sometimes added as a filling to manty, samsa, yuta, and other typical dishes.
Gallery [ edit ]
Growing as garden herb
Prepared for cooking
Inflorescence
Individual flower
Seeds of garlic chives
Fruit and seeds
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]Morning Joe's interview "exclusive, first-ever joint interview" with industrialists Charles and David Koch was full of softball questions and worshipful praise. They also gave the Koch brothers a pass for claiming they oversee one of "the safest and environmentally protective" companies. The fawning interview follows months of pro-Koch coverage by the MSNBC hosts.
Morning Joe's Pro-Koch Coverage Paid Off With "Exclusive, First-Ever Joint Interview"
Morning Joe On Koch Brothers Before Interview: "Awesome," "Godsend," People Should "Thank" Them And Stop "Pick[ing]" On Them. Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's tireless efforts to defend industrialists Charles and David Koch paid off when the Koch brothers granted them "an exclusive, first-ever joint interview" on MSNBC. The Morning Joe crew had called David Koch "a godsend," portrayed the billionaires as similar to "most Americans" in their political views, and dismissed attacks over their dark money spending as "stupid" and "embarrassing." [Media Matters, 10/30/15]
International Business Times: Scarborough And Brzezinski Are "Are Self-Professed And Unabashed Koch Fans." Reporter Brendan James wrote that the Morning Joe hosts "in charge of the interview are self-professed and unabashed Koch fans" and noted that "both Brzezinski and Scarborough earlier this year attended a weekend in Palm Springs, California, for the American Recovery Policy Forum, put on by the Kochs' organization, the tax-exempt Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce... Neither MSNBC nor the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce would answer questions about whether the Koch organization paid the travel or other expenses for the MSNBC hosts." [International Business Times, 11/2/15]
Morning Joe's Interview Featured Softball Questions
Scarborough And Brzezinski Give Charles Koch A Pass On Claiming Koch Industries Is Among The "Safest" And Most "Environmentally Protective" Companies. The Morning Joe co-hosts did not challenge Charles Koch when he claimed that the Koch brothers' business has been "contributing to society" and been "among the safest and environmentally protective producer."
BRZEZINSKI: Let's talk about the book and start with the title. How do you define Good Profit? KOCH: Well, Good Profit, I define just that way, is profit -- a good profit is profit that becomes [sic] from contributing to society, from helping other people improve their lives. And for a business, this means producing products and services that your customers value more than the alternatives while more efficiently using resources and being among the safest and environmentally protective producer. And so when you do those, you create good profit. And so this was my philosophy I developed early on.
In reality, as Media Matters has documented, the Kochs have a terrible environmental track record. Koch Industries paid "the largest civil fine ever imposed" for environmental violations after the company caused hundreds of oil spills, and a government agency determined that Koch Industries failures were likely responsible for the deaths of two teenagers. Koch Industries is also among the companies most responsible for both air and water pollution in the U.S. Finally, neither Scarborough nor Brzezinski challenged Koch on his professed devotion to the "scientific method," even though Koch has personally denied the firmly-established scientific consensus that human activities cause global warming. [Media Matters, 11/3/15; Media Matters, 8/27/14]
Scarborough To Charles Koch: "How Surprised" Are You About "The Level Of Vitriol Leveled Against You?"
SCARBOROUGH: I want to ask you something personally. Because Mika and I talked about this when we had spent a little time with Liz and you before, about how surprised you seemed a few years back at the level of vitriol leveled against you and your family, even Harry Reid calling you un-American. Something that we talked about on our show time and time again... What kind of personal impact did that have on you and your family, and were you shocked by the level of vitriol?
Koch responded in part by comparing himself to church reformer Martin Luther, who was put on trial for his religious beliefs and work. [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
Scarborough To Charles Koch: "How Did You Feel" When "You Guys Won?"
SCARBOROUGH: How did you feel the night all the election results came in after Harry Reid and the Democrats had run against you and your brother all year and it ended up that you guys won most of the races that you got involved in? [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
Scarborough To Charles Koch: How Did You Become "One Of The Most Influential People In The World?"
SCARBOROUGH: How did you go from being that guy, to being one of the most influential people in the world? What happened? What was the -- when did the, sort of the light come on for you? [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
Brzezinski To The Kochs: "Which One Was The Good Brother" Growing Up?
BRZEZINSKI: Sitting here in your childhood home we have the Koch brothers. Which one was the good brother? [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
Brzezinski To Charles Koch: "You Were The Big Brother?" Scarborough further inquired if Charles Koch bossed David Koch around:
BRZEZINSKI: You were the big brother? CHARLES KOCH: Yeah, four and a half years older. I was
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REF) with unconstrained emissions, similar to the Representative Concentration Pathway RCP8.5 [Van Vuuren et al., 2011] and two GHGs mitigation scenarios: POL4.5, a moderate mitigation scenario reaching 4.5 W m−2 by 2100, similar to RCP4.5; and POL3.7, a more stringent mitigation scenario reaching 3.7 W m−2, corresponding to an intermediate stabilization scenario between RCP4.5 and RCP2.6. More details on the emissions scenarios and their economic implications are given in Paltsev et al. [2015]. For each emission scenario, the IGSM‐CAM is run with three different values of climate sensitivity (CS = 2.0, 3.0 and 4.5°C), which are obtained by changing the strength of the cloud feedback in the climate model using a radiative cloud adjustment method (see Sokolov and Monier [2012]. For each set of emissions scenarios and climate sensitivity, a five‐member ensemble is created with a different representation of natural variability through initial condition perturbation. More details on the design of the climate ensemble and the analysis of the projections of temperature and precipitation changes over the U.S. can be found in Monier et al. [2015]. Contrary to Elliott et al. [2014], this ensemble is derived using a single climate model. However, Monier et al. [2016] shows that the range of agro‐climate projections from the IGSM‐CAM ensemble is similar to that of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) multimodel ensemble. That is because the IGSM‐CAM ensemble samples key sources of uncertainty, namely emissions levels, the global climate response (using different values of climate sensitivity) and the natural variability. In this study, we mainly focus on simulations with a climate sensitivity of 3.0°C (CS3.0) to identify the benefits of GHG mitigation. We present results from the five‐member ensemble mean to filter out noise associated with natural variability and thus extract the anthropogenic signal. While five initial conditions might not be enough to fully filter out natural variability, it is an improvement over current modeling studies and practices, which generally do not run with multiple initial conditions and thus do not filter out the role of natural variability. We further identify the range of projections associated with the uncertainty in natural variability to determine its contribution in our analysis. We also provide a brief analysis of the impact of the uncertainty in climate sensitivity for the unconstrained emissions scenario.
4 Discussion In this study, we project that by 2050, under a wide range of emissions scenarios and climate change projections, a number of U.S. basins will start experiencing water shortages while several basins will see their existing shortages severely accentuated. As a result, irrigated yields in these basins will be reduced, in extreme cases to levels that are only 10% of optimal irrigated yields. Our findings thus suggest that crop modeling studies that do not account for changes in the availability of irrigation water under varying socioeconomic drivers and climate change, in essence assuming optimal irrigated crop yields, can be misleading. However, the basins affected by water shortages generally do not contain most of the irrigated cropland areas. Therefore, while our analysis suggests that cropland expansion and land‐use change decisions can be constrained by water availability for irrigation, it also indicates a large potential for relocation of irrigated agriculture from water‐stressed regions to regions where irrigated agriculture is more sustainable. Taken together, these results demonstrate the importance of considering the integrated effect of climate change and socioeconomic stressors on water resources and crop yields at a detailed river basin level: water stress is highly localized and disaggregation at the 99 river basin level is necessary to estimate the impact of water shortage on irrigation water availability and resulting crop yields. At the U.S.‐wide level, our results show that under a no‐policy scenario, future irrigated yields factors, for all crops except forage and cotton, are projected to be higher than in the present. This increase in irrigated crop yield factors is driven by increased water availability in important growing basins but also by a reduction in irrigation demand thanks, in part, to increased crop water use efficiency caused by higher CO 2 concentrations. When considering GHG mitigation policies, results show that, in the absence of adaptation, mitigation policies enhance future yield factors for all crops, and even offset the projected decrease in irrigated cotton yield factor. In particular, we show that reductions in water stress associated with GHG mitigation under both policies far offsets the negative impact from reduced CO 2 concentrations compared to the reference scenario. Furthermore, the most ambitious GHG mitigation policy has the potential to reduce the number of basins affected by water stress, a finding that resonates with Strzepek et al. [2015] and Waldhoff et al. [2015]. Our analysis provides a unique and comprehensive effort to quantify the impact of water stress on irrigation while accounting for changes in water resources and competing uses from all sectors. This emphasizes the need to rely on integrated modeling frameworks that are capable of establishing better linkages between agriculture and water resources management in the face of climate change and socioeconomic stressors. It should be noted that this study only considers a single‐integrated assessment model and thus does not explore the structural uncertainty associated with different economic, climate, and water resources models. Existing studies of the effect of climate policies on water stress generally place little emphasis on uncertainty—for example, Hejazi et al. [2015] only consider two climate simulations from a single climate model. However, we know that the choice of pattern of precipitation change (associated with the climate model employed in this analysis) can greatly influences the outcome of the water model, with larger water stresses projected under a dry climate pattern than under a wet pattern [Blanc et al., 2014; Strzepek, et al., 2015]. In this study, we attempt to investigate the overall uncertainty in our results by considering multiple socioeconomic and GHG mitigation scenarios, different representations of natural variability, as well as different global climate system responses (via different climate sensitivities). Our results show a large range of impacts on irrigated crop yields when considering such a large ensemble of integrated economic and climate scenarios, and highlight the considerable uncertainty associated with natural variability in particular. Our modeling framework does not track feedbacks from sectoral water stress to economic activity. There is also no measure of adaptation taken to prevent water stress and no land‐use change from areas where water is scarce to locations with greater water availability. International trade is also not taken into account as a response to water‐stressed activities in the United States. These aspects are intentionally not considered in order to estimate the effect of climate change on irrigated cropping under actual conditions and therefore identify the areas the most vulnerable to irrigation shortages in the future. Also, our analysis focuses on crop yield factor relative to a potential fully irrigated crop. However, we do not simulate change in irrigated yield caused by changes in temperature. As shown in Sue Wing et al. [2015] using the same integrated economic and climate scenarios, climate change and the associated increase in CO 2 concentrations lead to heterogeneous changes to crop yields in the United States, which can be either negative and positive depending on the region.
5 Conclusion This study describes the application of the IGSM‐WRS‐US, a model of U.S. water resource systems, to estimate the effect of climate change and socioeconomic drivers on water stress and the resulting impact on crop productivity. To this end, a yield reduction module was integrated into the modeling framework. It is unique in its consistent treatment of the complex interactions between the climatic, biological, physical, and economic elements of the system. It identifies areas of potential stress in the absence of specific adaptive responses at the 99 river basin level for the continental United States through 2050 under a large ensemble of integrated economic and climate scenarios, including different GHG mitigation policies for the most commonly irrigated crops in the United States. On average, we find that irrigation in the Western part of the country will be affected by an increase in water shortages, with particular basins seeing severe increases in water stress. As a result we identify various basins where current irrigation is not sustainable. At the national level, however, climate and socioeconomic changes will entail an overall reduction in water stress and its effect on irrigated yields for all crops, except for forage and cotton. GHG mitigation policies are effective at limiting the detrimental effect of climate change on irrigated cotton and forage yields, but results show that a stringent policy (CS3.0 POL3.7) is necessary to considerably reduce the number of strongly affected basins. Overall, our study shows potential for adaptation strategies, such as improvements in irrigation efficiency to reduce irrigation demand, but also relocation of irrigated cropland to regions less prone to water stress, to further develop irrigated agriculture in the coming decades. At the same time, these adaptation measures will be costly, as they will require relocation of agricultural production and transport capacity. Additionally, regions which are projected to be irrigation‐constrained will lose irrigation's implicit value as an insurance mechanism against droughts and other adverse effects of climate change. Our study points to the areas and crops which will bear the burden of these costs.
Acknowledgments This work was partially funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Change Division, under Cooperative Agreement No. XA‐83600001 and by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, under grant DE‐FG02‐94ER61937. The Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change is funded by a number of federal agencies and a consortium of 40 industrial and foundation sponsors. (For the complete list see http://globalchange.mit.edu/sponsors/current.html). The data used are listed in the references.
Supporting Information Filename Description eft2229-sup-0001-2016EF000473-SI.docxWord 2007 document, 11.8 MB Supporting Information S1 Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.-Read the community rules first. (They can be found here. - do not make inquiries for anything illegal. that includes drugs (prescription or otherwise).- google is your friend. use it.- keep your posts on-topic (read: specific to vancouver)- spamming this community will get you banned immediately- check through past posts and tagged entries to see if your question has already been answered.- title your posts appropriately and descriptively.- use a cut if your post contains: excessively long text, nsfw material, and/or images larger than 500x500 pixels. if you are requested to cut your post and fail to do so within a reasonable amount of time, it will be deleted.- posts with the sole intent of snarking/ridiculing belong in: for all your rental property and tenancy issues- if you have a problem with the mod, take it up via. Do not make a whiny post here.enter the following as a google search:[...] site:community.livejournal.com/vancouverwith your search words (eg "moving companies") replacing [...]. adding the name of the lj user who made the post (or one who commented in it) to your search words will narrow down the results.No surprise here: Shortly after the Wizards won Game 1 of their Eastern Conference playoff series against Toronto, former Wizards’ No. 0-turned-No. 1 fan Gilbert Arenas gloated about it on Instagram.
Arenas, who has been posting about the series all week, called the win an “old fashion spanking” in the caption beneath a video of him wearing a John Wall jersey and, uh, dancing in the back of a Ford Raptor off-road pickup truck. Clever.
(The lyrics to the song bumping in the background as Arenas spanks the Raptor insignia include some mild profanity.)
http://instagram.com/p/1oPgBrvP2u/?taken-by=theagentzeroshow
The caption: O CANADA that is called a old fashion spanking…all those Canadian watching outside on the big screen like it was a #torontomapleleafs championship game..now take yall silly asses home..#Thetruth just set you free #PaulPbaby.#WiznationGAME1
Greivis Vasquez might be jealous of those moves.As a lifelong horror fan, I first learned of director Brad Anderson from his excellent, underrated, disturbing, and creepy as hell film Session 9. As its still one of my all time favorite horror films, I didn't think he could top it. He did. This has to be one of my all time favorite movies. Of ANY genre. So disturbing some call it a horror film, also could be called a mystery, but for me I'd say if it had to be classified as one thing: dark psychological thriller. Very dark. About how guilt can cripple your body and mind to the point of self destruction. I think we've all done things we'd like to "turn back time" and un-do, all haunted by regrets (and if you disagree, I don't believe you), some more than others, but this film takes that to the absolute extreme.
The dedication Christian Bale put into this part was phenomenal. I've never had a problem with insomnia (one of the issues tackled by the movie), but as someone who's unfortunately dealt with starvation recently myself, I can still say I don't envy him at all for putting his body through what he did. And it would all be for naught if this was a sub-par movie. Its not. Believe me, its not. This movie is the reason I'd still give a chance to anything Brad Anderson releases from here on out. Made me want to check out all his other films as well, even the early romantic comedies (and some were surprisingly good). Anyway, if you agree with my review at all, you can mostly find me these days at twitter dot com/ShyLivesMatter Peace :)'State of Syn': 'Firefly' alum stars in new Hulu series
Jewel Staite stars in 'State of Syn.' (Photo11: Hulu)
When it comes to original series, Hulu likes to take some chances. And while the site has debuted original animated and sci-fi shows before, it has never tried to blend them into something we'd never see on TV.
State of Syn, which debuts tomorrow, is essentially a futuristic motion comic. (Hulu bills it as a "3-D-enabled sci-fi motion novel.") The 10-episode series takes place in 2043 and stars Jewel Staite (Firefly) as a woman who begins investigating a tech monolith after her father dies mysteriously.
As we see in the trailer, State of Syn's plot hinges on a futuristic drug called "Vibe," which simulates synesthesia. Yes, I can see the potential in an opiate that enables users to "feel numbers and taste music"...
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I've seen the first couple episodes of State of Syn, and it takes some getting used to. Viewers wanting live action might be disappointed by the comic book-style layout. Comics fans and those open to more unconventional storytelling might dig it, though — and that's also the audience Hulu is hoping to attract with its upcoming State of Syn Google Glass app.
State of Syn premieres tomorrow (yep, Saturday) on Hulu.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1jaYAhfby
Lisa Sullivan was worried: her neighbor was “up and waiting in line since 2 am, searching, unsuccessfully, to buy food for her large family.” The U. S. native living in Venezuela for decades is concerned too about Venezuela’s worsening economic and political crisis.
Most Venezuelans have experienced major social gains courtesy of the Bolivarian Revolution, which according to its leader Hugo Chávez, president from 1999 until 2013, was a socialist revolution. Oil exports fueled these gains and currently low oil prices are shaking the foundations of Venezuela’s social democracy.
Now as before U. S. intervention is on full display. The U. S. Senate in April passed a bill renewing economic sanctions against Venezuelan leaders originally imposed in 2014. The House of Representatives followed suit on July 6. President Obama will be signing the bill. In an executive order he declared Venezuela to be a threat to U. S. national security.
The State Department on July 7 alerted U.S. travelers to “violent crime” in Venezuela and warned that “political rallies and demonstrations can occur with little notice.” Venezuela’s government denounced the “illegitimate sanctions” as “imperial pretensions.”
The U.S. government backed an unsuccessful coup against the Chávez government in 2002 and since has distributed tens of millions of dollars to opposition groups. After three years, it still withholds recognition of Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela’s president. These actions speak of a U. S. goal of regime change.
A document attributed to Admiral Kurt Tidd of the U.S. Southern Command and circulated in early 2016 testifies to a military component of U. S. plans. Citing the “the defeat in the [parliamentary] elections and internal decomposition of the populist regime,” the text refers to “the successful impact of our policies [against Venezuela] launched under phase one of this operation.”
A divided rightwing opposition did score a decisive electoral victory in December 2015 as it gained a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. Maduro’s election by a narrow margin in 2013 advertised his vulnerability. He will likely be facing a recall vote in the coming months.
Solidly opposed to the Bolivarian government, Venezuela’s business class holds court over the economy, which has been devastated through inflation that mounted over three years and is now at astronomical levels. Shortages of essential items are causing major distress.
Businesses and merchants depend on imported goods and materials. After 15 years of the Bolivarian revolution, Venezuela still has to import 70 percent of its food. The government facilitates imports by selling dollars to importers at low exchange rates. Many of them profit by selling imported products at inflated prices through the black-market.
Meanwhile goods people need for survival don’t arrive at stores serving poor people, especially markets selling government – subsidized food and household supplies. Importers and wholesalers are accused of hoarding for the sake of profitable sales later on.
Nevertheless, the “majority of Venezuelans” support neither the opposition nor the Maduro government, according to Lisa Sullivan. But, she says, “This doesn’t mean that [they] are not fans of chavismo.” She has seen “a whole generation of my neighbors and friends gain access to dignified housing, free education, stable jobs with honorable wages, and free health care.”
Analysts attribute the government’s defeat in the 2015 parliamentary elections to Bolivarian voters withholding their votes, not to their having backed the opposition. They objected to governmental corruption, divisions within Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela, and disregard by officials of problems at the grassroots.
Journalist Tamara Pearson suggests that despite “food shortages, inflation, and queues … millions of people” have “defied right-wing and general expectations, and even perhaps the expectations of the Maduro government, and have become stronger and better organized.”
Whether or not Venezuela’s military remains loyal to the socialist government will help determine its fate. President Chávez, a former army officer, counted on allegiance from the military. As reported by analyst Milton D’León, Chávez instituted “a dizzying increase in arms spending, the creation of military schools and universities, greater presence in political decisions, higher salaries for officials, and privileges of all kinds.”
Maduro’s 30-member cabinet includes 10 active or retired military leaders. His government has created a “socialist military economic zone” that hosts businesses whose activities contribute to the military’s economic development. D’León warns of danger for “working people [from] the growing role of the military … whether it is supporting Maduro, or spilling over to support a ‘transition’ by striking a deal with the right-wing [and] imperialism.”
Marxist analyst Edgar Meléndez sees a constricted future for the Bolivarian government mainly because its socialist project stagnated. He points out that the socialist state accounts for 96.6 U.S. dollars out of every $100 gained through exports. Yet these resources eventually “drain” to the private sector. Thus “private accumulation is prioritized over resources the state produces. This is opposite to the interests of working people.”
He condemns “mono-production of petroleum accounting for 94 percent of Venezuela’s 2014 exports.” That and “a parasitic bourgeoisie” are “two of the most noxious characteristics of the Venezuelan economic model … This situation, within the framework of capitalism itself, is a brake on the development of productive forces in our country.”
Lisa Sullivan is a witness to one striking failure of Venezuela’s version of socialism. Her neighbors are now growing food, she reports. That would be in response to the nation’s over-reliance on imported foods, never remedied by Bolivarian leaders. In terms of socialist development, food sovereignty typifies wealth produced for all through work. The government apparently lacked the vision or capacity to move beyond the short-term, capitalist way of doing things. It remains stuck in generating wealth almost exclusively through the extraction of oil.panned interactive romantic comedy video game
Plumbers Don't Wear Ties is an adult-oriented "romantic comedy" graphic adventure game/dating sim developed and published by Kirin Entertainment for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. Although the game did have a PC version, it had very limited distribution and was published by United Pixtures itself. The game stars Edward J. Foster and Jeanne Basone as John and Jane, two people who are being pressured by their respective parents to go out and find a spouse. The player's task is to get John and Jane together.
Plumbers Don't Wear Ties received negative attention for its lacklustre production value, nonsensical storyline, poor acting and humor, and for primarily being presented as a slideshow despite being advertised as a full motion video game. As a result, it is considered one of the worst games of all time.
Gameplay [ edit ]
In each part of the game, the player can choose how the story will progress.
The only interaction is where the player gets to choose the storyline (two to three choices at a time) in a DVD menu-style manner, although there are only one to two right choices. The player will use the D-pad (or mouse in the PC version) to make a choice and then will press the A button to see what will happen for choosing that option. At certain points in the game, the player has the opportunity to choose what actions John or Jane will do; making the right choices will bring the characters together while making the wrong choices will result in commentary from the game's two narrators, who sometimes fight with each other. If enough bad choices are made, the player is given the choice to restart the game or try to make the right choice.
Plot [ edit ]
A full motion video clip features the character Jane introducing the player to the main objective and basic rules of the game. From that point onwards the entire format is that of still photographs with actors reading the dialogue. The narrator also changes once during the game, before being changed back to the original a few scenes later.
In the early 1990s, Los Angeles locals John (Edward J. Foster) and Jane (Jeanne Basone), are both being pressured by their respective parents to find a suitable spouse. John, a plumber, is told by his mother (Violetta Gevorkian, voiced by Samantha Eggersoll) to go to her house with John's current girlfriend, Amy, for dinner at 6:00 pm. College student Jane, meanwhile, who is considered a "daddy's girl", is going to a job interview, having disliked her coworkers at her previous job.
John and Jane both meet in a parking lot by 8:00 AM and John instantly falls in love with Jane, calling her "perfect". John decides not to go to work and stays in the parking lot to wait for Jane to leave from her job interview so he can meet Jane again, thinking it is more important than his job, possibly due to the fact of his mother's wanting of a spouse for him. Around this time, it is revealed that the game is being narrated by Harry Armis (who also played Jane's father).
When Jane is at the interview, her prospective boss, Paul Mark Thresher (Paul Bokor), tells her that, despite her outstanding qualifications and recommendations, her position was canceled an hour before. When Jane gets very upset about this, Thresher says that "something can be worked out, after all," and asks her to take her clothes off, which appears to be an attempt to lead Jane to have sex with him to get a job. However, when Jane refuses, Thresher attempts to rape her and eventually Jane runs away from him. When John finds her being chased by Thresher, he comes in and saves her, and Thresher, Jane, and John end up in the middle of an abandoned house. Around this time, Harry Armis is replaced by a female narrator named Wilma (Thyra Metz). Later, she is shot multiple times by Armis, who then returns as narrator.
After the chase, Thresher tries to pay Jane $5 million for sex. If Jane accepts this offer, it also would force John to have to marry Amy and have 3 kids to please his mother, and Jane to be turned into a prostitute. Jane refuses after John tells him that Jane loves him and that she wants to marry him for a lifetime. John and Jane both walk out of the house with Thresher who is going to get arrested after calling the police, and John and Jane return to the parking lot where they first met.
Several possible endings exist in the game. If John doesn't fight with Thresher in the parking lot, Thresher will seduce John, and they two will suddenly become a couple before the game tells the player that they cannot be gay and should try again.
If John decides to fight Thresher in the parking lot, to help protect Jane, a few different alternative endings become possible.
If the "Hollywood Ending" is chosen, John defeats Thresher and refuses to become a pimp.
As a reward for being honorable, Jane decides to treat John to dinner and they travel to her place on John's bike. While he attempts to tell her that his profession is that of a plumber, Jane believes he is joking, then replies, "Plumbers don't wear ties."
If the "Gimme Something Completely Different" is selected instead, Jane confesses to John that she is still a virgin and plans to become a nun, much to John's surprise. After failing to talk her out of it, John is forced to return home to have dinner with his mother who arranges a shotgun wedding between him and Amy.
Development [ edit ]
Plumbers Don't Wear Ties was developed by Fremont, California-based game company[1] Kirin Entertainment, a subsidiary of Digital Stuff Inc.[2] It was developed and produced by Michael Anderson.[3] The musical score was provided by Martin Golnick[4] and the Audio Micro music production library.
The PC version was actually developed before the 3DO version, but due to a limited number of copies being made it faded into obscurity; however, it was uploaded to archive.org and can be found on the Internet Archive. It features higher-quality audio than the 3DO version and uncensored cutscenes.
Cast [ edit ]
Source:[5]
Edward J. Foster as John
Jeanne Basone as Jane
Paul Bokor as Thresher
Harry Armis as the Male Narrator and Jane's father
Thyra Metz as Wilma, the Female Narrator
Violetta Gevorkian as John's mother with Samantha Eggersoll providing her voice
Danny Beyda
Giovanni Cuarez
Grant Swanson
Daniel Taylor
Soumaya Young
Reception [ edit ]
One of the game's major criticisms was for being a slide show and not full-motion video
Reception Review score Publication Score AllGame [6]
Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties is now widely considered to be one of the worst games of all time. Plumbers Don't Wear Ties received negative attention mainly due to much of the game being presented as a slideshow despite being advertised as a full motion video game (only its introduction was FMV) where it uses mostly still images instead of full motion graphics as well as random, out-of-place color filters. Other criticisms focused on its "surreal" storyline[7] and poor voice acting. It has been also cited as one of the primary reasons for the commercial failure of the 3DO game system.[8]
Critical response to the game was overwhelmingly negative. Criticisms focused on the game's voice acting, controls for making a choice, and for using still frame footage instead of full motion video.[9] In giving the game a meager 15% rating, Diego Antico wrote: "It's hard to determine where Plumbers Don't Wear Ties is at its most horrendous. Is it in the pathetic music department? The graphics (or its lack thereof)? The awful gameplay?"[10] Allgame gave the game one star. The site made note of how despite it being advertised as full motion video, the game was simply a slideshow.[6] In episode 74 of James Rolfe's Angry Video Game Nerd web series, he likened the unnecessary use of cosmetic filters to "some kind of experimental art project", and stated that Plumbers Don't Wear Ties should not be considered a game because of its gameplay, stating that he instead considers it "a slideshow that verges on being softcore porn" and still considers that description being a stretch.[11] Video Games & Computer Entertainment magazine criticized the game for being all just "still pictures of the director's friends acting like goofballs and delivering bad voiceovers", also stating: "Not even the promise of some naked pictures could save this disc from becoming a joke around here. Avoid this one at all costs, it looks like a bad Public Access show and that's the pits."[12] PC Gamer, giving the game a 3%, said that the game was funny for only 30 seconds, calling the game an "irksome and yobbishly executed pseudo-pornographic photo story with the wit and charm of an elephant's arse".[13] PC Format rated the game a 4%, the lowest rating the magazine had ever given to a video game.[14]
PC Gamer dubbed Plumbers Don't Wear Ties a "shallow, hateful waste of a game, [that] may very well be responsible for having killed the 3DO, interactive fiction, and the whale", naming it #1 on its "Must NOT Buy" list in May 2007.[15] It was #27 in UGO Network's 102 "Worst Video Games of All Time", concluding "If you have the patience, check out a video walkthrough online of either the worst storyline in gaming history, or a post-modern masterpiece",[16] and #4 in Screen Play's, calling the game a "hilariously dodgy FMV adventure with actors who make Home and Away look like Shakespeare."[17] The game was also put in 411mania.com's 2008 "Hall of Shame", with writer Vincent Chiucchi stating "By Jove, this could very well be the worst game ever!"[18] It was included among the worst games of all time by GamesRadar in 2014.[19]
The game's cover art was one of 1UP.com's "Worst Videogame Box Covers", criticizing its use of clip art and fonts.[20] IGN has cited Plumbers Don't Wear Ties as "a symbol for everything that was wrong with giving a license to anyone that wanted one"; referring to the fact that 3DO publishers only needed to pay a $3 royalty per disc and did not have to join a stringent licensing program like other game consoles, which led to many low-quality adult-oriented video games being released for the system.[8]Wilson Sporting Goods is moving its corporate headquarters to Prudential Plaza in Chicago's Loop neighborhood.
The 102-year-old company is moving the entire workforce of about 400 people at its current corporate headquarters on the Far Northwest Side, including employees working for the Louisville Slugger and DeMarini brands and Finnish parent Amer Sports, said Wilson President Mike Dowse.
"There's such good energy here," Dowse said. "Our lease was coming due, and it was an opportunity to decide where we want to be for the future. Chicago is such a cool city, and we hadn't been able to take part in that as much as we want."
Even though their current headquarters are in Chicago, the new site at the iconic Prudential building will be a much more visible Chicago address. Wilson signed a 12-year lease on the fifth and sixth floors of the 41-story building, built in 1955, and plans to move in December 2017, Dowse said.
Wilson will be allowed to display its logo — the red Wilson name in the usual script — on the outside of the building, but below the fourth floor, said Matt Pistorio of Telos Group, which represented 601W Cos., Prudential Plaza's New York-based owner.
The downtown location will also give Wilson easier access to other companies it works with, Dowse said. The Prudential building, across the street from Millennium Park, was especially appealing as nearby sports fields will allow for easy product testing and be a perk for an unusually athletic employee population, he said.
Wilson is just the latest Chicago-area company planning a move closer to the heart of the city. In June, McDonald's announced it would leave Oak Brook for the former site of Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios in the West Loop area in a push to attract talent, following companies like Motorola Solutions, Kraft Heinz, Gogo, Hillshire Brands, Beam Suntory and ConAgra.
A separate Wilson facility with about 40 employees, where the company tests and develops new products, will remain in Schiller Park. The company has a longer lease there and some features, such as the tennis court equipped with a radar device that can assess a ball's spin, would be difficult to move, Dowse said.
Pistorio said the older of the two Prudential buildings was 80 percent vacant about three years ago when anchor tenants Peoples Gas and Baker & McKenzie left and McGraw-Hill downsized.
Pistorio said 601W put about $40 million into renovation, and with Wilson, the building is about 85 percent occupied.
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June 1, 2015, 2:41 PM GMT / Updated June 1, 2015, 4:12 PM GMT By Andrew Rafferty
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham officially added his name to the growing list of Republicans seeking the White House in 2016 on Monday, focusing his message on the hawkish foreign policy positions that have made him a leading voice among the Senate GOP.
“I’ve got one simple message: I have more experience with our national security than any other candidate in this race. That includes you, Hillary,” Graham said in Central, South Carolina, his childhood home.
The three-term senator is expected to focus his candidacy on combating Islamic militants in the Middle East, stabilizing Iraq and preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He has been highly critical of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who has said U.S. intervention abroad led to the rise of ISIS.
“Those who believe we can disengage from the world at large and be safe by leading from behind, vote for someone else. I am not your man,” Graham said.
The Palmetto State lawmaker is the the ninth Republican to officially enter the race and is polling near the bottom of the pack. A Quinnipiac poll released last week found Graham with just one percent support among Republicans.
But polls also show that Graham’s focus on national security will likely resonate with GOP voters. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released last month found that Republican voters think national security should be the number one priority of the federal government.
“I want to be president to defeat the enemies that are trying to kill us, not just penalize them or criticize them or contain them, but defeat them,” Graham said.
GOP rivals like Paul and Democrats have sought to tie Graham's views with those of former President George W. Bush.
“Unfortunately for the Republican Party, Graham’s policies are most reminiscent of another GOP leader, George W. Bush. Graham has long been a champion of Bush’s failed economic policies, his disastrous foreign policy and his divisive social agenda. As president, he would embrace them again," the Democratic National Committee said in a statement after Graham's announcement.
Graham also has the benefit of representing a state that holds an early presidential primary, though many Republicans in South Carolina have so far been hesitant to back him.Tremors struck North Korea on Sunday, prompting fears that Pyongyang may have conducted its sixth nuclear test.
The Japanese government said it has confirmed that the earthquakes detected were a nuclear explosion and has registered a protest with the North Korean embassy in Beijing, according to Foreign Minister Taro Kono.
North Korea did not comment immediately but Pyongyang state television said it would carry an important announcement at 06:30 GMT.
The website of the US Geological Survey said a first tremor of 6.3 magnitude had a depth of 23 kilometres, an alert that came after Pyongyang said it has developed a more advanced nuclear weapon - a hydrogen bomb that could be loaded into the country's new intercontinental ballistic missiles, that has "great destructive power".
"Possible explosion, located near the site where North Korea has detonated nuclear explosions in the past," said the USGS. "If this event was an explosion, the USGS National Earthquake Information Center cannot determine its type, whether nuclear or any other possible type."
China said it had also detected a second quake in North Korea of magnitude 4.6.
A statement on the China's Earthquake Administration said the second tremor, which it termed a "collapse", came eight minutes after the first quake. The coordinates of the two quakes were almost identical, according to figures provided by the administration.
Previous recent tremors in North Korea have been caused by nuclear tests.
Of the first shake, the South Korean military confirmed that an artificial quake took place near North Korea's nuclear test site and said it has put its nuclear crisis response team into operation, according to the Yonhap news agency.
South Korean experts reportedly said Sunday's apparent test was more powerful than the 10-kiloton test carried out a year ago.
Richard Broinowski, former Australian ambassador to Seoul, told Al Jazeera that North Korea was sending a stern message to the United States that it has a deterrent and Washington should be careful about making threats.
"There has been a lot of exaggerating recently about the capabilities of the missiles the North possesses
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I wrote home, asking for help. First, I wrote my dad, who sent me a book that addressed difficult questions about church history. Next, I wrote my favorite high school teacher, a mentor of mine who happened to be a non-Mormon. She told me that because I had committed to serve a mission, I should finish and worry about my troubling questions when I returned.
These answers were enough to quiet my concerns for the remainder of my time in California.
It’s strange, but when I returned home from my mission and started school at Brigham Young University, my worries about Mormonism faded. I focused on school, work, and dating. I shelved my religious questions and stopped talking about church history altogether. I was satisfied with simply being Mormon. I started grad school and got married, and everything seemed fine.
Then my youngest sister left the church.
My parents were heartbroken. My extended family was heartbroken. My sister’s primary teachers, young women’s leaders, old bishops — they, too were heartbroken.
Not long after, my best friend from high school also left the church. The same cycle of heartbreak followed.
I’d had friends leave the church before, several when I was in high school. Many of them left partly out of rebellion, a natural teenage response to an orthodox and rule-bound religion.
But my sister and my best friend weren’t like that. In both cases, they weren’t leaving because they rejected the commandments of Mormonism, but because, after careful research, they rejected its truth claims.
To understand their concerns, I dove back into church history in earnest, reading books like Rough Stone Rolling, Mormonism and the Magical Worldview, David O. McKay and The Rise of Modern Mormonism, and so on. I also read about uncomfortable Mormon topics across the Internet, including official essays on LDS.org that revealed more facts about the origins of the church that were (once again) new to me.
All this studying brought back old anxieties. These weren’t simple taunts or red herrings posed by bitter nonbelievers. These were verifiable facts, many of them supported by official church documents. How could I reconcile these facts with my desire to stay united with my friends and family? Was there a way to be authentic and still be close to those I loved?
An ancient framework
My questions led me to search the past for a way to move forward. College taught me to love the ancients, and I scoured texts from classical philosophers, looking for the root of a quality life—something that could serve as common ground for believers and nonbelievers.
What I discovered has been around for a long time.
It surfaced with philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Plotinus. Then, like a message in a bottle, it was carried through the ages, finally uncorked and named in the 15th century by a gay Catholic priest named Marsilio Ficino.
W.E.B. Du Bois believed that the primary aim of school and work should be to seek truth, beauty, and goodness—not materialistic gain.
Since that time, the idea has bubbled up in various places. The philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote three foundational treatises in the 18th century that each covered one aspect of the idea, and other writers such as W.E.B. Du Bois and C.S. Lewis wrote about it as well.
The idea is this: To live a quality life, we must actively pursue the proper balance of truth, beauty, and goodness.
But truth, beauty, and goodness can be hard to pin down. What do they mean in practice? One contemporary description that resonates with me is from Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In it, he outlines the importance of intellectual, spiritual, and social exercise, and he gives examples of what each one looks like in practice:
Intellectual Exercise → “Learning, reading, writing, and teaching”
Spiritual Exercise → “Spending time in nature, expanding spiritual self through meditation, music, art, prayer, or service”
Social Exercise → “Making social and meaningful connections with others”
In other words:
Intellectual exercise leads us closer to truth.
Spiritual exercise leads us closer to beauty.
Social exercise leads us closer to goodness.
Of course, listing these ideals is easy work. Truth, beauty and goodness are vague enough to sound promising without ruffling any feathers, and at first blush the advice might seem like breezy, self-help material. “Just follow these three easy steps to a quality life!”
In reality, the key to a quality life — regardless of belief — is to properly balance these three ideals.
And there’s nothing easy about that.
Balancing truth, beauty, and goodness
“Nothing in excess.” - inscription on the temple of Apollo at Delphi
The contentions between believers and nonbelievers arise when we fall out of balance in our pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness.
Let’s look at how this happens, starting with truth:
Truth
Truth without beauty is cynical. Consider the example of a woman who discovers uncomfortable facts about her religion and leaves as a result. She used to say prayers of gratitude, sing hymns, and ponder devotional texts. Now her encounters with spirituality consist of rehashing cold facts, waxing cynical, and getting angrier and angrier about the system that wronged her.
Is this a quality life? True, she’s better educated (read: armed with more truth), but she lacks the inner peace that she once had. She would benefit from stepping away from activities that fill her with cynicism and instead deliberately express gratitude, spend time in nature, meditate, and read texts that speak to her heart.
A tragic mistake: Stephen Dedalus learns more than his mom about religion, and then he uses that knowledge to treat her cruelly.
Truth without goodness is lonely. This is the story of Stephen Dedalus, the main character in James Joyce’s masterpiece Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. As he reaches maturity, Stephen becomes convinced that Catholicism, especially as it’s practiced in Ireland, is deeply flawed. He decides to leave his community and disassociate himself from his friends, family, and religion. He even refuses to pray out loud for his mother on her deathbed.
However, Stephen is soon racked with guilt for what he did to his mother. He grows increasingly lonely and despondent, and his choice to reject his community haunts him. He begins to realize that communities, friendships, and family require compromise.
Beauty
Beauty without truth is gullible. This happens when people interpret all peaceful feelings as evidence of the truth. Such people are prone to deception—believing in myths simply because the myths seem beautiful. However, as Flannery O’Connor once said, “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” Sometimes the truth hurts.
Beauty without goodness is selfish. It’s the pursuit of spirituality without the willingness to roll up our sleeves and help the truly needy.
Goodness
Goodness without beauty is routine and bland. It consists of visiting the lonely and the sick while inwardly resenting the experience. It’s robotic and perfunctory, born out of duty rather than desire.
Goodness without truth is harmful. For example, Mormons once mistakenly believed that God changed people’s skin color based on their worthiness. These Mormons wanted to be good by having faith in their religious authorities, but they were ignorant of the science of skin color. And this ignorance — as is the case with all ignorance — was harmful. Ignorance is only bliss for the ignorant. It hurts everyone else.
The quality life sits in the center
As we can see from the examples above, it’s only by embracing all three ideals that any one of them has a hope of being realized.
The quality life sits in the center of a balanced pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness.
We might say that the quality life sits in the center of a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles — one for truth, one for beauty, and one for goodness. Pursuing only one of these ideals pushes us away from the center, while pursuing all the three pushes us toward it, toward a life well lived. As the semi-Mormon scholar Wayne Booth said, these three ideals “rival one another at the fringe, but in the center they join.”
Sometimes I meet Mormons who believe that a quality life is defined exclusively by Mormon milestones. “My kids all went on missions, married in the temple, and produced lots of grandchildren,” they might say. But those characteristics don’t necessarily indicate a quality life. Going on a mission, marrying in the temple, and having kids—all these milestones have the veneer of success but not necessarily the substance.
A better measure of a quality life is whether we’re pursuing a balanced approach to truth, beauty, and goodness. That measure works inside or outside of any belief system.
Ultimately, whether your loved ones are believers or nonbelievers, chances are that you still share far more similarities than differences when it comes to truth, beauty, and goodness. Once you look for those similarities and add a dose of compromise, you will find ways to develop intellectual, spiritual, and social health together. Daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, parents, and grandparents. Perhaps you will talk all night about your favorite books, go on long walks in nature, serve in a local homeless shelter — anything but focus on your differences.
Will this new definition of success completely erase the divide between believers and nonbelievers?
Perhaps not.
But it can help us close the gap.What does a football club mean to you? Are you only concerned about what happens on a Saturday afternoon/midweek evening and nothing else? Or does a football club play a more important role than that?
Take, for example, the story of Josie Ogle.
Desperate to find something that would give her terminally ill husband John some enjoyment in his last days, the pensioner spotted an advert in her local newspaper for a weekly social event at Watford Football Club.
"Had it been in a church hall, he would not have been interested but because it was at the football club he was happy to go," Josie told me.
They went along and discovered a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, with a range of activities from board games to Tai Chi and indoor bowls.
Specifically targeting the over-60s, the Extra Time club runs from 1000 until 1200 on Thursdays. For Ogle and her husband, it soon became a regular date in their diary.
"He was motivated every Thursday even if he did not feel well," said Josie. "As we made friendships, I think he saw that there would be something for me after he died."
Tai Chi is one of the exercises at the Extra Time club at Watford. Photo credit: Watford football club
Josie's husband died early last year. Since then, the Extra Time club has played a crucial role in Josie's life.
"It has been really great for me. The support I have received since I have been widowed has been wonderful," she added.
The Extra Time club is funded by Watford and partners in the private sector. It is one of 10,000 projects run by the 72 clubs in the Football League, projects that enage more than 1.4m people, with more than 30% of them female.
Many of the activities, schemes and programmes have nothing to do with football.
"It goes right across the board," said Watford community director Rob Smith. "Take the area of health - clubs often deal with issues such as childhood obesity and a lot of them run mental health programmes."
Many clubs use football-related activities to help engage people, including the Street Life Soccer initiative in Norwich that helped Michael Douglas rebuild his life.
After moving to Norwich from Cumbria in 2002, Michael suffered a series of devastating personal tragedies, including a failed relationship that resulted in a period of heavy drinking and depression. He ended up rudderless, living in temporary accommodation.
A hostel worker at the YMCA pointed him towards Street Life Soccer. Apprehensive and unsure, he nevertheless went along, encouraged by the fact that the session was being run by coaches from Norwich City. It was the start of the process that has helped him get back on his feet.
"The sessions took away the negative thoughts," Michael told me. "I found myself being a key character and sometimes the leader in the groups."
Today, Michael has his own flat, a part-time job at the YMCA and has passed his Football Association Level 2 coaching certificate. He also works as coach for the Street Life Soccer project.
When I started to look into scale of the community work that clubs do, the sheer size of it took me by surprise.
At Watford, there are 22 full-time employees, more than 60 part-time workers and numerous people who help on a casual basis. The Charlton Athletic Community Trust has 42 full-time employees and a further 139 on a part-time basis, while League Two club Barnet had one member of staff a few years ago but now has nine.
Numerous projects illustrate the breadth of the schemes being offered.
There is the Winning Mentality project at Derby County that uses football coaching to help adult males in Derbyshire with mental health issues; the Changing Goals programme at Northampton Townthat uses football as a vehicle to engage young people and adults with a history of drug and alcohol problems; the Stand up for Autism campaign at Notts County; and the work done by QPR and the Down's Syndrome Organisation.
The list goes on and on.
Overseeing all this community work is the Football League Trust, which was formed in 2007. Dave Edmundson, the Trust's passionate and enthusiastic general manager, is a big fan of the projects and schemes that clubs run.
"We try to put on projects that can help anyone," said Edmundson, an ex-chief executive of Burnley. "The Premier League has a global brand that operates on a different stage but we work on the streets of England and Wales. The Football League club defines the DNA of the town that it serves and has the power to overcome natural suspicion.
"We have a 72-strong band of brothers and sisters marching together, grasping what can be achieved and the underlying overall purpose: to use football to make a difference."
To a greater or lesser extent, every club is involved in a permanent struggle to secure enough funding to maintain and develop their projects. The Professional Footballers' Association contributes but the payments from the Premier League have been restructured as part of the new solidarity deal and it is now up to each club to decide whether the money previously ring-fenced for the community programme is spent in that area. Each Football League club currently receives £25,000 from the Trust.
"I think it is important that we raise profile and awareness so that we can not only maintain support from football authorities but also external funding from public and private sectors as well as individual donors," added Smith. "We do get funding off the council but that is becoming increasingly difficult in modern times."
Edmundson is keen to spread the word about the community work at clubs. Photo: Football League
Smith is keen to develop Watford's presence in the local community by establishing a series of permanent hubs, branded in the club's colours and able to engage day in, day out with all parts of the community. Enticingly, the local council is in the process of letting out some of its community centres but finance could be a problem for the Hornets.
"We are looking to put a tender bid in for one of the centres, brand it up, hire it out and get funding for astro-turf," said Smith. "Everybody would win but the problem is that, because don't have support financially, it would be high risk if something went wrong."
I recently attended a Football League Trust function at which Edmundson and Football League honorary life president Lord Brian Mawhinney, among others, described the community work that clubs do as the organisation's best kept secret. They don't want it this way. They want their community work to receive a much wider audience.
To achieve that goal, Edmundson is keen to persuade key government decision-makers that his organisation can help them fulfil their aims for society. The Football League Trust has been chosen to pilot the National Citizen Service scheme, which is aimed at developing the skills of school leavers. Eight clubs will trial it in the summer, each one working with 100 people during a two-month period. Several clubs are also involved in the Future Jobs Fund scheme.
At the Extra Time club in Watford, regular attendees have started contributing a small weekly fee to help cover the costs. Josie told me that she has her fingers crossed that the club will continue to secure funding.
"Without it," she told me, "I do not know what I would have done after my husband died."
You can follow me throughout the season at twitter.com/Paul__FletcherAmerican metalcore band
The Dillinger Escape Plan was an American mathcore band formed in Morris Plains, New Jersey, in 1997. Developed from an earlier, defunct project called Arcane, the band originally consisted of bassist Adam Doll, lead singer Dimitri Minakakis, drummer Chris Pennie and guitarist Ben Weinman. During the course of their existence, they underwent various line-up changes. The bands final lineup consisted of Weinman, bassist Liam Wilson, vocalist Greg Puciato, drummer Billy Rymer, and rhythm guitarist Kevin Antreassian.
The band achieved critical success, releasing six studio albums during its existence. Their debut album Calculating Infinity (1999) has been noted by critics as a landmark release in hardcore punk and heavy metal music. They continued to have success with subsequent albums, each of which appeared on various album charts around the world. In 2017, the band won an AIM Award for "Outstanding Contribution to Music".
The Dillinger Escape Plan disbanded at the end of 2017. They played a series of final shows that took place at Terminal 5 in New York City December 27–29, 2017. During these final performances, the band was joined by past members; Doll, Minakakis, Brian Benoit and guest vocalist Mike Patton.
History [ edit ]
Early years and Calculating Infinity (1997–1999) [ edit ]
The Dillinger Escape Plan evolved from the hardcore punk band Arcane. Arcane was an aggressive, political-oriented act formed in 1996 by vocalists Dimitri Minakakis and Brad McMann, guitarist Ben Weinman, bassist Bruce Fulton and drummer Chris Pennie.[1] Arcane played for a few months but eventually disbanded because they "were kinda sick of trying to become part of a clique and to write music that would fit into a theme", according to Weinman.[2] Encouraged by him, they turned around their sound and aesthetic, with bassist Adam Doll, a Pennie's bandmate in the bands Samsara and Malfactor, becoming interested in their new direction and hence joining the band.[2] Guitarist Derek Brantley also joined the band following the departure of McMann and Fulton.[1] Their first live performance, which they also considered the last of Arcane, was as a support act for Overcast and organized by long time friend Matt Backerman.[3] Backerman had just decided to form Now or Never records and asked the band to record what would be their self titled six-track EP.[4] Their second show was supporting Earth Crisis in Moosic, Pennsylvania.[3] They were nameless for many months until, without much thought, friend Matt Makowski suggested the name “The Dillinger Escape Plan” while watching a documentary on John Dillinger, a 1930s bank robber notorious for his multiple escapes from jail.[3] Weinman telephoned Steve Evetts to produce their album because he was a big fan of his work on the Deadguy records. After their first two shows, Brantley lost contact with the band and did not show up when they were recording the six song self-titled effort, causing them to record as a quartet.[4]
The six-track EP was released in April 1997, and set them off on a small club tour around northeast America. Shortly before their first tour as The Dillinger Escape Plan, the group was joined by guitarist John Fulton, who previously played in the bands Samsara and Malfactor with Pennie and Doll.[2][3] In 1998 the band wrote and recorded their second EP titled Under the Running Board. During this time period, The Dillinger Escape Plan gained notoriety in the hardcore punk scene for the intensity of their performances which were increasingly wild, and often violent. These features, as well as the creative, technical approach of their music led a record executive of Relapse Records to offer the band a multi-record contract.[3] Shortly before signing, the Under the Running Board demo was shown to some friends, one of whom was Jesuit bassist Nate Newton who was impressed with their musical proficiency and invited The Dillinger Escape Plan to an American and Canadian tour with them and Botch.[6]
Shortly after their second EP, John Fulton left the band to focus on his computer programming studies. Before the recording of Calculating Infinity, bassist Adam Doll was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down.[8] The accident was a minor fender bender, but because Doll had leaned over to pick up a CD beneath the stereo, the accident caused a small fracture in his spine, inducing paralysis. Guitarist Weinman played both guitar and bass on the album, though liner notes credited Doll as providing a great deal of help. Calculating Infinity was released on September 28, 1999, through Relapse and was met with critical acclaim.[10][11] Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton, one of the first people to hear the album, asked the Dillinger Escape Plan to tour for two months with his band Mr. Bungle. Shortly before touring began for the new album, former Jesuit guitarist Brian Benoit auditioned for the band, taking the place of the departed Fulton in November 1998 and Jeff Wood, former M.O.D. bassist and a childhood friend of Weinman, took the place of the injured bassist Doll.[8]
Search for a new vocalist and Irony Is a Dead Scene (2000–2002) [ edit ]
After several months of touring, including appearances on the Warped Tour and March Metal Meltdown, the band and Wood parted ways, with Wood moving on to his own project, Shat, and Liam Wilson took his place. Later that same year, the band parted ways with Minakakis. Minakakis credited his departure from the band to the rigorous touring schedule. The band remains in contact with him.[14][unreliable source?] Without a vocalist, The Dillinger Escape Plan began a nationwide search for a replacement via their website, releasing an instrumental version of "43 % Burnt" from Calculating Infinity and inviting prospective vocalists to record and send their own vocal tracks. They received many submissions, including one with rapping and one with death growls. While the search was underway, the band had already composed some songs and decided to record an instrumental EP, therefore asking Mike Patton to release it on Ipecac Records. The singer offered to help them and they asked him to sing on it.[16] In the meantime, they played some shows as an instrumental act and invited Sean Ingram of Coalesce to join them at the Krazyfest in July 2001.[17][18][unreliable source?]
In late 2001, Dillinger Escape Plan met Greg Puciato, one of the people who submitted a recording to the band. Puciato included two versions of "43 % Burnt", one in the style of Calculating Infinity and one with his own personal spin. The band offered him the job after two practice sessions.[19] He accepted, first appearing at the CMJ Music Festival in New York City in October.[1] Soon after, Puciato and the band covered "Damaged I" and "Damaged II" by Black Flag for the tribute compilation Black on Black.[19] The plan to record with Patton was in place before a replacement vocalist had been found, but by the time Patton had recorded vocals and the EP was released, the band had been touring with Puciato for nearly a year. Epitaph Records offered to release the album and, although the band was doubtful at first, they finally accepted due to the label's enthusiasm.[16] The EP titled Irony Is a Dead Scene was released on August 27, 2002.[20] The EP features Weinman, Pennie, Benoit, Wilson, Patton on vocals, and ex-bassist Adam Doll assisting with keyboards and sample effects.[1]
Miss Machine (2003–2005) [ edit ]
The Dillinger Escape Plan performing in Eindhoven, 2005
In 2003, the band appeared on the soundtrack for Underworld with the song "Baby's First Coffin", their first original song with Puciato on vocals. The band's second studio album (their first album with Puciato), Miss Machine was released on July 20, 2004, through Relapse. The album polarized The Dillinger Escape Plan audience; some fans were critical of the band's increasing artistic and musical departures from their earlier efforts, while others preferred them.[1]
Following the release, The Dillinger Escape Plan began a two-year touring cycle, headlining tours of their own or occasionally providing support for acts such as Slipknot, System of a Down, and Megadeth.[1][21] These tours were replete with injuries; in late 2004, guitarist Benoit suffered nerve damage (brachial plexus neuritis) in his left hand, and other than a short return to the stage in 2005, he has not played with the band since.[22] Former Fenix*TX guitarist James Love ended up playing most shows in the late 2004–2006 period. In 2005, the band was forced to drop out of Dave Mustaine's "Gigantour" slightly early due to a rotator cuff injury and fractured vertebrae Weinman had sustained performing in Anaheim, California at all-ages venue Chain Reaction.[1][not in citation given]
Ire Works (2006–2008) [ edit ]
[...] These things had developed with him [Ben Weinman] over the years. And to be honest, some people in the band were fed up. And I was the one who left to improve the situation. The others stayed... That's just the way it is... I don't harbor any ill will towards the other members. The band is still a great band. I still love their music and I love to play such music. I just had enough of a lot of things. —Chris Pennie, 2008[23]
In 2006, Weinman finally underwent surgery for his shoulder but chose not to treat his neck because of the risks involved.[1] In June 2006, the band released both the digital EP Plagiarism, a cover album, and Miss Machine: The DVD, which featured live footage of its world tour.[25] Simultaneously, The Dillinger Escape Plan opened for AFI on tour after being invited by vocalist Davey Havok.[25][26] Shortly thereafter, the band toured with label mates Dysrhythmia and later with progressive rock band Coheed and Cambria.[25] Four shows before the end of the Coheed tour, Weinman flew home for "undisclosed personal reasons", which were later revealed to be compounding medical and financial problems, as well as frictions with his bandmates. The group played four dates as a four-piece.[1] In a 2008 interview, Greg Puciato said that the relationship between Weinman and Pennie had been acrimonious for several years, involving heated arguments, and the other members had already foreseen a dissolution.[27]
While resting his arm, the guitarist stated he began to compose and experiment with sound design and electronics for the upcoming album.[2] During the time he was apart, Chris Pennie received a call from Coheed and Cambria guitarist Travis Stever who offered him to join the band when their former drummer, Josh Eppard, left them. Coheed had been impressed with Pennie after seeing him live, and Pennie accepted the offer.[citation needed] Pennie left The Dillinger Escape Plan amidst writing Ire Works in 2007.[29][not in citation given] In a 2017 interview, the drummer pointed out two defining incidents for his departure: before releasing Miss Machine, a member of the band turned down a tour slot with a "really big" band without clearing it with the other members, straining his relationship with Weinman, and legal issues of the guitarist in 2006 which put the band on hold.[31] Other reason was his priority in composing and studying music over touring and contractual commitments. According to The Dillinger Escape Plan members and Relapse Records's Matt Jacobson, Pennie did not informed them until late contractual schedules for the new Dillinger album.[26]
The Dillinger Escape Plan performing in Budapest in 2008
Weinman started to program drums daily for two months out of desperation.[33] On June 15, the band announced the title of the album as well as confirming the departure of Pennie.[34] Among the drummers considered to handle drum duties were Morgan Ågren and Sean Reinert, but the band decided to choose the relatively unknown Gil Sharone of Stolen Babies by the suggestion of Chris Hornbrook. Eventually, The Dillinger Escape Plan completed their follow-up album to Miss Machine in 2007, titled Ire Works.[36] Ire Works was released on November 13, 2007, through Relapse. Despite the inner turmoil, when the record was finished the band was more satisfied with it than with any of the previous ones, calling it a "turning point".[2][37] The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 142 with 7,000 copies scanned, but was later corrected when it was revealed that Relapse did not account for album pre-release sales, increasing the number of total copies sold to 11,000.[1] Ire Works had been a critical and commercial success, with the album being on many critics' top ten lists, making it the band's most critically successful album. Jason Lymangrover of AllMusic stated that "[if] DEP aren't careful and continue down this innovative path, they could easily be labeled the Radiohead of metalcore."[38] On February 6, 2008, the band had two songs from Ire Works broadcast on two television programs in the United States. The song "Milk Lizard" was featured on the CSI: NY episode "Playing With Matches",[39] and the band performed live the song "Black Bubblegum" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.[40]
Missing from the new line up was Benoit, who had left the band because of injury. Although assured his place in the band is secure should he ever be able to perform again,[41] Jeff Tuttle formerly of Heads Will Roll and Capture the Flag took his place on stage. Tuttle, however, does not make an appearance on the record.[42]
Party Smasher Inc. and Option Paralysis (2009–2011) [ edit ]
In January 2009, Sharone left the band and was replaced by Billy Rymer.[1] The Dillinger Escape Plan played in Australia, where they joined Nine Inch Nails onstage during the Soundwave 2009 festival, helping them perform the songs "Wish" and "Mr. Self Destruct" as part of the last encore song of Nine Inch Nails' live show at the event.[1]
The Dillinger Escape Plan announced their departure from Relapse Records on May 27, 2009. The band had become dissatisfied with the music industry and music media, and Weinman decided to create the independent record label Party Smasher Inc. to release their fourth studio album.[1]
Since June 2009, they began to release several demo snippets on their YouTube channel of songs from their upcoming album.[43] Furthermore, a website for the record was set up, linking to all of the studio update videos and demo snippets.[44] During their North American East Coast tour with Thursday in December 2009, the band sold download cards at their shows that entitled the customer to a download of the 10 song album upon its release with 3 additional exclusive bonus tracks.[45] The song "Farewell, Mona Lisa", debuted on Liquid Metal SXM on Christmas Day, 2009;[46] it became available for download on January 19, 2010.[47] "Chinese Whispers" was debuted on Full Metal Jackie’s syndicated radio show broadcast on 29 stations throughout the USA on the March 5, 2010, and was subsequently played on the next two days. On March 9, the blog MetalSucks featured the online debut of the song.[48] The band released their fourth studio album, Option Paralysis on March 22, 2010, through Party Smasher in partnership with Season of Mist[49][50] Option Paralysis was confirmed as the title of the new album in a press release by Season of Mist. Puciato has noted that Option Paralysis was the toughest album the group and himself have ever written. In an interview in The Aquarian Weekly, Weinman stated that it was the most organic and less forced than previous works.[51]
The Dillinger Escape Plan started the Option Paralysis touring cycle with a short North American tour with Thursday in December 2009, followed by a headlining run in Feb/March 2010 with Darkest Hour, Animals as Leaders, and Iwrestledabearonce. While on the tour, the band received a Golden God Award from Revolver magazine, for "Best Underground Band", which Weinman and Puciato accepted.[52] After a short trip to Europe, they participated in Warped Tour 2010, playing June 24 through August 15.[53] During a January 12, 2011 interview on the Metal Injection Livecast, Puciato announced that the band was currently in the process of writing new music which would either surface as an EP later in the year or else a full-length album the following year.[54] However, in 2011 The Dillinger Escape Plan continued to tour, accompanying Deftones for a nine-week-long North American trek from April to June. Touring continued with former labelmates Mastodon, both in the US in late 2011 and the UK in early 2012, followed by their second appearance at Soundwave Festival in Australia, as well as dates with System of a Down in New Zealand and Australia. The group also played its first shows in Malaysia and Bangkok, as well as their first South American performance, headlining the second stage on the first night of the prestigious Rock al Parque festival in Bogota, Colombia.[55]
One of Us Is the Killer (2012–2014) [ edit ]
On August 17, 2012, the band announced via their Facebook page that Tuttle had left the band to pursue other projects in music and film.[56] On November 24, the band played at the California Metalfest alongside bands such as Killswitch Engage and As I Lay Dying. While playing this show, a mystery guitar player was noticed filling in for former rhythm guitarist Jeff Tuttle, who had left the band in August. A couple of weeks later, during a phone interview (on the Metal Injection Livecast) while in the studio recording their new album, Weinman announced that this mystery guitar player was James Love, who had played with the band briefly while they toured in support for their album Miss Machine.[57]
On February 18, 2013, the band announced the title of their new album, One of Us Is the Killer,[58] On March 12, they released the first single from the album. On April 23, The Dillinger Escape Plan released the music video for "When I Lost My Bet", the first from the upcoming album. It was directed by Mitch Massie and was posted on the band's Facebook page and Sumerian Records' YouTube account. Subsequent videos released from the album were "One of Us Is the Killer", "Hero of the Soviet Union", and "Paranoia Shields". The band released their fourth studio album, One of Us Is the Killer on May 14, 2013 through Party Smasher in partnership with various labels around the world, including BMG for Europe, Grind House for Japan, Remote Control for Australia and Sumerian Records for North America.[49]
While touring North American in April 2014, the band released the non-album single, "Happiness Is a Smile". The single was only released as a seven-inch vinyl and a cassette and was only available the buy on this tour.[59][60] On July 14, 2014, it was announced that the band would be playing for two weeks as the opening slot on the Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden North American tour. This decision was announced following the supposed disbandment of Death Grips, who was originally scheduled to appear as the opening act.[61]
Dissociation and disbandment (2015–2017) [ edit ]
In May 2015, Kevin Antreassian, a former member of New Jersey progressive metal band Knife the Glitter and former guitar student of Ben Weinman, became the new rhythm guitarist of the band replacing James Love.[62][63] In July, Weinman announced during an Australian interview that the band would return to the studio in November to record the follow-up to One of Us Is the Killer.[64][65] In the following year, BBC Radio 1 premiered the band's new single "Limerent Death", which is to be featured on their upcoming sixth studio record Dissociation.[66] In an interview with Noisey, Weinman said the Dillinger Escape Plan would stop performing,[67] with Puciato later saying "we're breaking up."[68] Puciato was quoted saying that the band still enjoyed writing, recording and performing together but "we started to reach what felt like a thematic conclusion to our band", comparing the decision to a filmmaker who enjoys the current film he is creating but cannot continue the process indefinitely.[69] Weinman said, "we are going to do the cycle for this album and that's it."[67] Dissociation was released on October 14, 2016, through Party Smasher in partnership with Cooking Vinyl.[70]
On February 12, 2017, during their European farewell tour, The Dillinger Escape Plan was involved in a vehicle crash after a truck collided with their bus near Radomsko, Poland. Thirteen people were injured in the incident, but the band members were not seriously hurt.[71] In April 2018, Antreassian revealed that he ended up with two fractured vertebrae and had to play with a back brace for a month.[72] Fans raised over $20,000 in a week to the band following the crash.[73]
On September 5, The Dillinger Escape Plan were honoured at the 2017 Association of Independent Music Awards. The band
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of code that does something amazing and that anyone can use.
When Linux appeared on the scene Linus Torvalds became the figurehead of a new way to write software. He is definitely not the first person to use the open source model, but the market needed a figurehead, an origin story, to create a cohesive narrative. That Linux narrative said “Yeah, this Linux stuff is free but it was made in the spirit of exploration and creation by a cool guy from Finland. So install it on a commodity PC to run your website instead of paying $10,000 for a bunch of Sun servers.” That sales pitch worked and today Linux runs the web.
Bitcoin is solving a similar problem. In the same way Linux connected us to powerful servers that could sell us dog food, bitcoin is connecting us to powerful servers that bypass the nasty accretions associated with modern banking.
Perhaps bitcoin, in its current incarnation, will fail. But if there were one central voice, one “person” running the show, I think the conversation would be much different. We will trust one real person we don’t really know to make a great web server. We wouldn’t as readily trust one real person that we don’t really know to hold our wallets. But if his or her product is well-vetted and he or she is a shadow, the story is far different.
I understand the impetus to unmask him. But there is no need. In fact, what bitcoin needs to be is a product without an owner, a hunk of code that does something amazing and that anyone can use. It is Linux without Linus, TCP/IP without Cerf and Kahn.
Sirer puts it very well:
What matters is Satoshi’s actual legacy. Our banking infrastructure is archaic, having been left fallow since the Y2K rewrite. There is very little transparency and auditability in the financial system. There had been precious little innovation in retail banking since 1959 until a few years ago. Even today, banks offer klunky, terrible interfaces to our money.I’m not going to claim that a virtual currency like Bitcoin is the ultimate solution, or even a contender for a credible solution at the moment. Bitcoin cannot scale to the globe, even with the recent planned improvements, and it has great difficulty on the security front. But there are some novel technical ideas in there that can enrich our global society; some discovered by Satoshi, others by people before him. Responsible media needs to drop the pointless Satoshi manhunt and focus on the technology and its implications. That’s where the real action is.
It’s becoming clearer and clearer that every effort to identify Satoshi will be met with another, more compelling argument that he or she is someone else. It is a game of whack-a-mole that will confound journalists for the next few years until it stops. Perhaps one day there will be a final reckoning, but that will come long after it particularly matters.
History books will have some trouble teasing out the real Satoshi, but I would note that the best book on Bitcoin, Nathaniel Popper’s Digital Gold, doesn’t actually try to name the culprit. Instead it focuses on the wacky characters who took the idea and ran with it. Some were successful, some flamed out, some got sick and could not continue.
But the thread remains the same: bitcoin is a tool for everyone, everywhere. It does not belong to one person. If it did, bitcoin as we know it would morph into something that would buck its all-too-human creator. Even Satoshi said we are all Satoshi. In this rare case I think usually sloppy sentiment is beautifully true.Nearly three years after Dr. George Tiller was gunned down while serving as an usher at a Lutheran church in Wichita, Kansas, the role of religion in the lives of doctors who provide abortion care, and the religious activists who support their work, remains underreported.
Physicians for Reproductive Health and Choice and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice recently commemorated the National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers, held on the anniversary of the 1993 assassination of Dr. David Gunn by an anti-choice extremist outside his medical office in Pensacola, Florida.
“Dr. Tiller’s murder really affected me,” Sister Donna Quinn, a nun, feminist activist, and former clinic escort (or as she describes it, “peacekeeper”) at a clinic on the south side of Chicago, told me this week. “To think that he was murdered inside a church really brought it home to me.” Doctors and other staff at clinics are heroes, she emphasized, “making sure women are at peace with this decision, making sure they know what they are doing, and that everything is safe for them.”
A doctor I spoke with this week, who is Catholic and provides abortions, described to me how she chose OB/GYN as her specialty, and deliberately decided to perform abortions because of the lack of providers.
This doctor, who practices in the South, described her evolution from an anti- to pro-choice. Raised a practicing Catholic, the doctor said that as a young adult, “ironically,” she didn’t believe the Catholic Church was conservative enough. She joined evangelical groups like Campus Crusade for Christ while in college.
Although she was taught abortion was wrong, abortion and contraception were rarely discussed at the Catholic Church the doctor attended as a child. It was from evangelical organizations and friends that she received anti-choice literature—but she eventually found these views to be “judgmental,” she said. By the end of college, she was pro-choice. “I felt it could be squared with my religion,” she told me. “I talked to other Catholics or Christians who are pro-choice.” Reading literature from organizations like Catholics for Choice, she said, she came to understand “how the holy spirit comes through your conscience.”
She also learned, the doctor added, that the Catholic Church “has changed its position on abortion multiple times.” She came to the conclusion that its current stance is “arbitrary, this is kind of a man-made construct of the Catholic Church.” She added, “I didn’t find anything in the Bible to make me think it was black and white.”
Quinn, a coordinator for the National Coalition of American Nuns, the Women-Church Convergence, and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice—Illinois, is a well-known advocate for equality for women within the Catholic Church. “I want to call the church as I have been for years to leave its totalitarian way of governing its people,” she told me. The church should “respect the right to dissent. Do not excommunicate, silence or expel those who work for justice, particularly reproductive justice.”
Quinn has advocated for women voting for leadership, for the ordination of women, inclusive scripture and canon law, and for a “feminist sacramental system.” All of this, she says, “would be preparing for respect for women’s moral agency and primacy of conscience.”
Catholic parishes encourage people, said Quinn, to protest outside abortion clinics. Catholic parishioners protesting at the clinic where she was an escort reported her to the local Cardinal. As a result, she was rebuked by her order in 2009, and decided not to continue her work as an escort. Her activism, however, continues unabated, including recently organizing an event, “Contraception Is Not Controversial” in Chicago with Democratic Representatives Mike Quigley and Jan Schakowsky.
The doctor said she is worried about the increasing number of restrictions on abortion states are implementing. (To get a sense how women’s access to abortion is shrinking across the country, take a look at this map assembled by the Guttmacher Institute.) Twenty-four hour waiting periods, for example, can cause a woman to miss the one day a week a clinic performs abortions, pushing the procedure off another week and making it riskier and more expensive to perform.
Quinn, too, worries about how women “are disparaged as they go into clinics. They’re prayed at that God is not supporting this. This is nonsense.” The growing number of crisis pregnancy centers are “applying the principle that women should not enjoy sex, that women are on a pedestal like the blessed mother.”
For the doctor, her faith is “an important part of my life I think it still helps me find balance and determine what actions to take. I do feel like I have a calling for certain things, including the work I do, and that comes from my faith and my beliefs.”
“I’ve been working on it for a long time,” said Quinn of her activism. “I began to see that they [the Bishops] try to control with books they write and decrees they make, policies. They try to control your mind, but to control your bodies is something I am going to stand up and fight.”Visual Programming with cables
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Cables is your model kit for creating beautiful interactive content. With an easy to navigate interface and results in real time, it allows for fast prototyping and prompt adjustments.Working with cables is just as easy as creating cable spaghetti:You are provided with a given set of operators such as mathematical functions, shapes and materials.Connect these to each other by virtual cables to create the scene you have in mind.Easily export your piece of work at any time. Embed it into your website or use it for any kind of creative installation.Cables will be launched for private beta soon.It will be under construction and experimental for quite some time, but it is still ready for you to play with it.Cables is being developed by undev – a Berlin based creative studio for interactive realtime graphics, data-visualizations and app development.We are passionate coders and designer with a long history in programming for the demoscene.Need an expert to create interactive visual content for you? Or do you have a question about cables?Here is what you need to know on this Wednesday, October 19, four days before the Washington Redskins travel to Detroit to play the Lions.
Timeline
—Today's schedule: Practice 1:30; Kirk Cousins and Jay Gruden news conferences and player availability after practice, approx. 3:30 p.m.
—Days until: Redskins @ Lions 4; Redskins vs. Bengals in London 11; Vikings @ Redskins 25; Redskins @ Cowboys on Thanksgiving 37
First thoughts on Redskins vs. Lions
—It’s probably good for the Redskins that the Lions were able to beat the Eagles and Rams in the first two games. They’re human and it would have been hard for them to get too excited for a 1-5 or 2-4 Lions team. But as it is they are playing a team that is just a game behind them, and they should remember that the Lions made the playoffs just two years ago.
—Are the Lions a passing team? They have that reputation, having finished in the top five in passing attempts in four of the last five seasons. But this year Matthew Stafford has attempted 212 passes, 15th in the NFL. They are, however, not really a running team; they're 21st n rushing attempts. The offense just isn't getting many snaps.
—A look at the defense tells you why. They can't get off the field. Remember when the Redskins were last in the NFL in defensive third down conversions? Washington has improved somewhat over the last couple of weeks and now it’s Detroit bringing up the rear at 49 percent. The Redskins also could find the territory near the goal line to be friendlier than it has been so far this year; Detroit’s defense is also last red zone defense.
—Here’s something I’ll bet you didn’t know—Lions QB Matthew Stafford, the top pick in the draft in 2009, is only about six months older than Kirk Cousins. Sunday will mark Stafford’s 100th career start. Although he “owns” a losing record at 45-54 the Lion’s record can’t be blamed predominantly on Stafford. That is due to problems that date back to long before Stafford was born. I’ve always liked him as a player although he perhaps has been a little more of a gunslinger that I’d prefer in my ideal QB. The Lions haven’t lost in any of his three career starts against the Redskins.
—The Lions are dealing with some injuries at running back. They picked up Justin Forsett after the Ravens let him go but last week their feature back was Zach Zenner, who came to Detroit as an undrafted free agent in 2015. Against the Rams last week he had 14 carries for 58 yards. Ameer Abdullah was supposed to be their lead dog at running back but he is on injured reserve with a foot injury. Theo Riddick is their leading rusher this year but he sat out the Rams game with a hip injury and his status is up in the air.
Tandler on Twitter
Kirk Cousins will make his 32nd start for the #Redskins on Sunday, giving him the equivalent of two full seasons as an NFL starter. pic.twitter.com/M03Y0PzFgy — Rich Tandler (@TandlerNBCS) October 18, 2016
In case you missed itRead here. Map source here. Brand new peer-reviewed study that analyzes subfossils from a Swiss lake confirms what hundreds of previous peer-research have found: that the Medieval Warming had temperatures significantly warmer than modern ones.
"Thousand years of climate change reconstructed from chironomid subfossils.....Based on their analysis of fossil chironomids (non-biting midges) -- which were identified and quantified in four sediment cores extracted from the bed of Lake Silvaplana -- the authors constructed a detailed history of that region's mean July air temperature.....Larocque-Tobler et al. report that "at the beginning of the record, corresponding to the last part of the 'Medieval Climate Anomaly' (here the period between ca. AD 1032 and 1262), the chironomid-inferred mean July air temperatures were 1°C warmer than the climate reference period (1961-1990)," which would also make them warmer than most subsequent temperatures as well. And in looking at their graphs of 20- and 50-year running means, it can be seen that the peak mean warmth of the Medieval Warm Period exceeded that of the Current Warm Period by approximately 0.5°C in the case of 20-year averages and 1.2°C in the case of 50-year averages."At some point in the future, it will be known as the ‘Gabriel Agbonlahor paradox’; how one player, struggling to live up to his promise, inexplicably raises his game every time he faces Arsenal. The reason he enjoys playing against Arsenal, however, is because he’s readily able to expose one of Arsenal’s big flaws: the team’s vulnerability to the counter-attack.
The warning signs were there in pre-season where Arsenal were exposed continuously on the break by Napoli. Arsene Wenger expressed those concerns post-match saying that a midfield of Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere “gave too much distance to Napoli’s players, and we marked them from too big a distance.”
However, at that time, that partnership was considered to be an experiment; a mock test of the midfield that we’re likely to see regularly deployed in the future. However, inactivity in the transfer market and injury to Mikel Arteta forced Wenger’s hand earlier and in the first game of the new season, the young duo started together in the heart of the midfield.
For 30 minutes they looked comfortable with Wilshere involved in the goal which gave Arsenal an early lead. But then the inexplicable happened, as Agbonlahor went on a mazy run and was later brought down by Wojciech Szczesny for a penalty. After Christian Benteke put in the rebound, Arsenal lost control. Aston Villa had countless breakaways opportunities in the second-half and as Arsenal failed to take their chances, Villa exposed them.
Defeat, and the way it happened, was a massive blow to the work Arsenal did last year and indeed, in pre-season on their shape. The Gunners are playing a formation that more closely resembles a 4-4-2 than the 4-3-3 that it did in previous years. There a number of reasons for this. Firstly, the players have changed. The old system was built around Cesc Fabregas and the direct passing style he brought, so Wenger has altered it so it suits the qualities of the players at his disposal. He says this is a team that flourishes on “a game based on very quick combinations” therefore moving to a 4-4-2 (4-2-3-1 might be better) allows the players to play closer to each other.
The second reason is that the pressing has changed. Tomas Rosicky works in tandem with Olivier Giroud to close down the defenders while their team-mates behind look to get tight to the opposition. The idea is that it then becomes more difficult to pass the ball through. Yet, the issue against Aston Villa was that there was a lack of tactical clarity when the ball did get through, particularly on the counter-attack.
A lot of it was Arsenal’s own undoing despite the fantastic game-plan that Paul Lambert executed. For Aston Villa’s second goal, Arsenal piled numbers forward but left no protection back when the visitors stole the ball off Santi Cazorla. The third goal was a carbon copy of the one Michu scored last December in the 2-0 defeat when Arsenal chasing the game, left nobody back for the corner-kick. For Koscielny’s second yellow-card, both full-backs got forward at the same time – something Arsenal had worked hard on to correct last season but it seems it’s less of a priority this season (judging by the pre-season games).
But to understand the malaise, one has to look at the way Arsenal conceded their first goal. There was simply nobody taking responsibility and by the time Arsenal realised Agbonlahor had drifted into a pocket of space, he was already running at pace at the heart of the defence and there was little time to react. Normally, there’d be Mikel Arteta there and players like Koscielny instantly feel more secure. Therefore it was probably naïve for Wenger to expect Wilshere and Ramsey to hold the midfield together in the first game of the season. In time it might work but the respective strengths of the two players are in a way, negated with Arteta.
Wilshere actually had the stronger game, attempting to hold his position and in rare moments we did see his trademark burst from defence. But he was the one who put Cazorla in trouble in the lead up to Aston Villa’s second goal with a square pass. And while Wilshere is a good passer, it probably should have been Ramsey who took the main responsibility for distributing as it suits him more (and he has played the position more recently). Instead he tried to resume the role that he played alongside Arteta, using his energy to break down attacks and driving forward when he should have held his position more.
Indeed, you can make the argument to say that Ramsey’s running to cause disorder only worked last season because he had, alongside Arteta, the balanced structure. For the lead up to Aston Villa’s first penalty, Ramsey was the one found wanting as he was caught up the pitch when Agbonlahor drove forward with the ball.
As a result, Wilshere was caught with acres of space to defend (and he probably should have adjusted his position quicker to meet Agbonlahor’s run. Instead, the Villa striker had all the momentum to skip away).
Arsenal’s unbeaten run at the end of last season was built on a pragmatic approach; a design based on efficiency, greater organisation and communication at the back (and very reliant on taking what little chances the team creates).
Starting Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey together in midfield so early in the season was, even if he had little choice, a bit like ripping up that formula.Wellesley College Art Exhibit Has Some Students Creeped Out
Tony Matelli’s sculpture the Sleepwalker is just art, the curator claims.
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For students at Wellesley College, the sight of a nearly naked man lingering on the school’s campus has caused a bit of a stir.
An incredibly life-like model, called the Sleepwalker, was put on display to tease the latest exhibit “New Gravity” at the school’s Davis Museum, featuring artist Tony Matelli.
The exhibit is meant to upend expectations, and challenge people’s perceptions of what art is by taking over two floors of the gallery space, and extending outside of the building with the models on display, according to museum curators. But the “hyper-realistic” human figure that looks as though it’s lazily creeping along the roadway like a zombie with nothing but white underwear on had students raising their eyebrows on Tuesday.
“So this is what happens when guys come to Wellesley,” one person tweeted, after taking a photo of the Sleepwalker model. “What will the Wellesley townsfolk think?”
Kate Leonard called it “a bizarre choice for outdoor art at a women’s college,” while another person wondered on the museum’s Facebook page, “how many people have called the police?” already.
Some students even went as far as creating a petition demanding the president of the women’s college immediately remove the figure from the campus, calling it inappropriate, and citing its potential to possibly trigger thoughts about sexual assault. More than 183 students signed the Change.org petition as of Tuesday night.
Lisa Fischman, director of the Davis Museum on the school’s campus, who curated the display, responded to the criticism that was floating around social media, as they started setting up the statues on Tuesday in the snow. Her response? The Tony Matelli exhibit is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.
“I love the idea of art escaping the museum and muddling the line between what we expect to be inside and what we expect to be outside,” she wrote in a post on the museum’s website. “Reaction to the Sleepwalker’s presence has been varied.”
Here’s how she describes the Sleepwalker that all the students were talking about:
Matelli’s Sleepwalker—considered up close—is a man in deep sleep. Arms outstretched, eyes closed, he appears vulnerable and unaware against the snowy backdrop of the space around him. He is not naked. He is profoundly passive. He is inert, as sculpture. But he does inspire narrative. He appears to have drifted away from wherever he belongs and one wonders why; one wonders also how he has gotten so lost, so off course. He is a figure of pathos, and one that warrants our measured consideration. Perhaps he carries metaphorical weight.
Fischman said all day, after the installation went up outside, she closely watched from the fifth floor windows of one of the school’s buildings, “as students [stopped] to interact playfully with the sculpture.”
She said they were taking “selfies,” stopping to gawk at it, and sharing pictures via Twitter. But some were also perturbed. “I have also heard the opinions of others who find the sculpture troubling,” she admitted.
But it seems as though for Fischman evoking strong feelings of wonder, disapproval, or even fear, is exactly what was intended. “As the best art does, Tony Matelli’s work provokes dialogue, and discourse is at the core of education,” she said, adding that the museum set up stations at the school where students can write open letters about how they feel about the Sleepwalker, and weigh in. Students are also being encouraged to respond online.
However, some students still asked that the Sleepwalker at least remain indoors. “While art holds a valuable place in our community, we are particularly concerned that the student body was not consulted on such a sensitive and potentially upsetting matter, particularly given that this installation was placed in a highly trafficked location, with no real option for students to avoid it,” students wrote on the Change.org petition.
The exhibit, which was supposed to open Wednesday, February 5, was postponed because of the wintry weather barreling down on the Bay State. But Fischman said those that are curious to catch what else Matelli has to offer through his work can attend the gallery opening Thursday.After a couple of weeks with some very big upgrades, we now have a poor week for potential upgrades and profit.
Sadly I got no upgrades exactly right last week, but hopefully I'm wrong with some this week and we get some surprises in the form of big upgrades.
Pedro Leon and Azmoun look like they could turn a profit once the upgrades are issued, but if EA release more Impact packs (guaranteeing 1 impact player for 1k FIFA Points) then it's possible that they will not be worth it and go for <10k.
Once each player has finished their match, I will update this post to show the upgrade that they will be getting, making it easier for you to decide who to invest in or sell.
As always, stats are taken from WhoScored, but as the Mexican league isn't covered by it, SofaScore will be used to check Ortíz's upgrade. The stats to look out for are Total Shots, Key Passes and Interceptions.
Southampton's new Italian striker has been in great form since joining, with 6 goals in 4 games so far, 4 in 3 in the league. Spurs should be his toughest test yet, as they aim to get into the CL again.
With an average of +7 in his 3 league games, Gabbiadini could be a very nice investment if he keeps playing well, and with Spurs' defence not exactly being solid, there's no reason he can't get a decent upgrade.
Plays: Spurs (A), Sunday 10:15am (ET)
Prediction: +5
Results: +1
What could have been a good game for Gabbiadini was sadly ended in the 32nd minute when he was forced off injured, with Southampton going on to lose the game 2-1. He did manage to have 1 Shot in that time, so he will be boosted to an 83 Overall.
The Pitbull as he is known, faces tough opposition in Torino - Belotti in particular - in a game they need to win to keep up their push for European football.
Sadly, his game style does not suit Impact stats, as he has an average of just 6 over his last 5 games - ranging from 0 to 3. This means that his upgrade will most likely be very small and he will almost certainly be unprofitable.
Plays: Torino (A), Saturday 1:00pm (ET)
Prediction:+2
Result: +1
A very disappointing game all round for Medel and Inter Milan. The game ended 2-2, with Medel being subbed off after just 57 minutes. He only managed to make 1 Interception in that time, so will be boosted to an 83 Overall.
Probably this week's best chance of making profit on Impacts. Leon has been averaging at over +5 per match in his last 5 games, with 3 Key Passes per game. Eibar host Espanyol in a mid-table battle, with both teams hoping a win can boost them to try and reach the EL qualifier places. At home, I can see Leon doing very well, especially with Espanyol's defence being very leaky - conceding 11 in their last 6
Plays: Espanyol (H), Saturday 8:00am (ET)
Prediction: +6
Result: +9
A great performance from Leon helped Eibar hold Espanyol to a draw, with Leon grabbing the assist for their goal. He made a total of 1 Shot, 6 Key Passes and 2 Interceptions giving him an upgrade of +9, boosting him to 87 Overall.
Rostov's shock run last season, which saw them finish 2nd and qualify for the Champions League group stages ended with a narrow defeat to Manchester United on Thursday. Azmoun played most of that game, so I'm not sure how big his role will be on Sunday as Rostov like to rotate their strikers around.
If he plays then he should get a decent upgrade against a poor Krylya side who are fighting relegation.
Plays: Krylya Sovetov Samata (A), Sunday 7:00am (ET)
Prediction: +4
Result: +1
I suspected he might not play a big role in this game, and I was proven correct. Azmoun came off the bench in the 81st minute, as Rostov unsuccessfully tried to find a late winner, in their 0-0 draw against Krylya Sovetov Samara. He did manage to have 1 Shot, so will move to 78 Overall.
CDM's are always very difficult to predict upgrades for. Monterrey host Atlas in what should be a close game. Monterrey don't normally dominate matches, so I expect Atlas to fair bit of possession. This may give Ortíz a chance to make a few interceptions, as well as possibly making a couple of key passes. His upgrades have been fairly random (between 1 and 7) so whether he gets to elite or not remains to be seen.
Plays: Atlas (H), Saturday 9:00pm (ET)
Prediction: +4
Result: +0
Monterrey eased to a 2-0 win over Atlas to move up to 2nd place in the league. Sadly for us, Ortíz was only used as a late substitute - coming on in the 77th minute - and failed to make any impact, so he will remain his 75 rating.
Make sure you follow me on Twitter, @Darren_8196, to keep up with all of my predictions and articles, and you can find my FIFA Mobile Impact Player upgrade predictions on Futhead, as well.After The Pirate Bay switched to CloudFlare's SSL service it is no longer being blocked by most UK Internet providers. Subscribers of BT, EE, Virgin and TalkTalk can reach the site without problems via the default https address. The "bug" also affects secure versions of other blocked sites, but not all.
Following a series of blocking orders issued by the High Court, several UK ISPs are required to restrict access to many of the world’s largest torrent sites and streaming portals.
The most prominent target of these blocks is without doubt The Pirate Bay. As one of the most visited sites on the Internet it has been a thorn in the side of the entertainment industries for years.
The Pirate Bay was one of the first sites on the UK blocklist and access has been barred since 2012. Or rather should have been barred.
For a few weeks most UK Internet subscribers have been able to access TPB just fine. Ever since the site switched to CloudFlare and made the secure https://thepiratebay.se version default, it has become widely accessible again.
TorrentFreak did a quick round among subscribers of various ISPs and found that The Pirate Bay is no longer blocked by Virgin Media, TalkTalk, BT and EE. At the time of writing only Sky appears to block the site consistently.
As a result, The Pirate Bay’s direct UK traffic is steadily increasing.
The Pirate Bay is not the only site that’s widely accessible again. The same applies to the https versions of Torrentz.eu, Rarbg.com, Isohunt.to and various other ‘blocked’ sites. For some sites, including Kickass.to and Extratorrent, the results vary per ISP.
The operator of the Pirate Bay proxy ilikerainbows.co, which had its own domain name added to the blocklist last week, believes that the unblocking relates to the use of https strict.
“I believe it’s because of how CloudFlare works, Simply put when you enable HTTPS Strict on CloudFlare they remove the HTTP Header from the request during HTTPS Connections, thus when they try to inspect the header to a list of ‘banned’ websites it won’t register,” Rainbows’ operator tells TF.
“So any site that uses CloudFlare, has a properly configured and signed SSL Certificate and enables HTTPS-Strict under CloudFlare should be able to evade the ban that’s imposed by Virgin and perhaps other providers,” he adds.
What further complicates the matter is the fact that it’s harder to block The Pirate Bay by its IP-address, as the true location is hidden by CloudFlare’s network of addresses now.
While it may be harder to block sites, it’s not impossible. Sky appears to have no trouble keeping sites blocked, although that probably requires some rather advanced and invasive monitoring tools.
TF asked several ISPs for a comment on the issue and Virgin Media informed us that they still comply with the court order.
“Virgin Media is required to block certain sites by the UK High Court. As a responsible ISP, we comply with court orders addressed to us,” a spokesperson informed TF this morning.
Virgin’s comment suggests that the https version of TPB is not covered by the order at all, and that it was previously blocked by IP-address. However, Virgin couldn’t comment on this suggestion.
We’ll update this article as more information comes in.White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, who was thrust into the spotlight for his role creating the controversial travel ban, will write President Trump's upcoming speech on Islam, CNN reported.
Miller is drafting speeches Trump will give in Saudi Arabia and Israel.
In Saudi Arabia, Trump will "deliver an inspiring yet direct speech on the need to confront radical ideology and the president's hopes for a peaceful vision of Islam to dominate across the world," national security adviser H.R. McMaster said.
“The speech is intended to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilization and to demonstrate America’s commitment to our Muslim partners,” McMaster said.
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Miller played a key rule creating the administration's initial travel ban on citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries, which was denounced by critics as a fulfillment of Trump's promise for a "Muslim ban."
Miller, who helped write Trump's GOP convention and inaugural addresses, is also writing a second speech in Israel that will be given at the ancient fortress of Masada, according to CNN.
Other advisers giving input for the speeches include McMaster, senior adviser Jared Kushner and deputy national security adviser Dina Powell.
Trump is preparing for his first foreign trip, which will also include stops in Belgium and the Vatican.
The trip comes as the Trump administration is battling several controversies, including reports that the president shared classified intelligence with Russian officials and asked former FBI Director James Comey to end a federal investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.The mother of an injured Army veteran of the Iraq war is selling a rare letter from President Obama to cover her son's medical and personal expenses despite the president's handwritten promise to do "everything we can over the next four years to support your family."
Cherry McKimmey told Secrets, "Something good might as well come out of that. It is doing no good lying in my drawer. It means absolutely nothing to me."
She received the note from Obama in July 2009 after a non-stop effort to beg federal officials to help her son, David McKimmey.
McKimmey was campaigning for the the Veterans Administration to do more to help him recover from injuries for which he received the Bronze Star with Valor for crawling back into a truck fire to save two soldiers who eventually died. He suffered burns to his face and hands is still likely to lose his leg.
McKimmey said that her son faced long drives to VA specialists and despite his injuries, was categorized as a vet with minor injuries, robbing him of special care.
In response to one of her letters, Obama wrote back: "Cherry - Thank your for your note. We are grateful for your son's service, and Michelle and I intend to do everything we can over the next four years to support your family and other military families. God Bless, Barack Obama"
But McKimmey said while the letter was a nice touch, nothing was done to help her son, who is the single father of three young children, one just six months old. He is living on disability benefits.
She and her husband are providing some financial help, but David needs more, said his mom. McKimmey said she saw that another Obama letter was auctioned, so she turned to Maryland-based Alexander Historical Auctions for help.
Alexander President Bill Panagopulos is offering the letter in his current three-day sale of historical relics and artifacts. Because Obama letters are rare, he expects it to bring $3,000-$4,000. He is also eliminating his normal commissions.
In Alexander's description of the letter, which goes up for sale Wednesday, Panagopulos tied in the VA scandal that Obama continues to struggle with.
"The 2014 Veterans Administration scandal damaged Obama's reputation, and to many veterans, president Obama failed miserably in his promise" made to McKimmey. "McKimmey's son David is among those affected by the breakdown of services. He was 70 percent disabled by an IED explosion which blew him from his vehicle...he now must wait for extended periods of time for tests and care, and is often forced to endure long (and for him, potentially health-damaging) trips out-of-state to obtain treatment readily available nearby. And his family matters are in a state of chaos as he became the sole caregiver to his three infant children. This lot is being sold-commission free to the seller, and a portion of the buyer's premium will be donated to the seller as well," pledge the auctioneer.
The veteran's mother, who lives near her son in Torrington, Wyo., said he needs help with his medical issues, long rides to physical therapy with a totally destroyed ankle, and raising his young family.
"It's for David," she said of selling the Obama letter. "He's an awesome, awesome kid."
Now years after receiving Obama's letter, McKimmey believes that the president was just trying to placate the family. "We just assumed everything would be taken care of," she said in a telephone interview. "We should have known better."
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
The mother of a veteran is selling a hand-written note from President Obama for money to pay for her son's medical... in Washington Examiner's Hangs on LockerDomeiPhone 6s fingerprint sensor pitted against Xperia Z5 Compact
Apple made big improvements to Touch ID within the latest iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models. The fingerprint scanner recognition is significantly faster compared to the previous iPhone models, so much so that some are complaining they are unable to touch the home button to check the time as the phone unlocks too quickly.
Sony Mobile has introduced a fingerprint sensor power button for the first time with the Xperia Z5 series. If you are wondering, how the phone fares against Apple’s best, then check out the video below. It shows the fingerprint sensor of the iPhone 6s pitted against the Xperia Z5 Compact to see how quick it is. We won’t spoil the surprise, but it’s good to see how competent the Sony offering is.
Thanks Edison!New York "Taxi King" Gene Freidman could receive a
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, “everybody in this room, including the reporters, God bless you.”
Amid continuing recriminations Thursday between left and right about inciting political hatreds, a Republican congressman — Mark Sanford of South Carolina — said Trump is “partially to blame for demons that have been unleashed.”
The take-away: Standing apart
Though Republicans are in charge, the Senate is far from squarely behind all of Trump’s stances.
That became even clearer when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pushed through a bill that allows Congress to block Trump from curbing or changing sanctions against Russia. See Dan Janison’s column for Newsday.
Read the tea leaves
Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein issued a cryptic statement Thursday night that is unusual for its lack of explicit context or specifics. Here's the text:
"Americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous 'officials,' particularly when they do not identify the country - let alone the branch or agency of government - with which the alleged sources supposedly are affiliated.
"Americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations. The Department of Justice has a long-standing policy to neither confirm or deny such allegations."
Pence lawyers up
Vice President Mike Pence has hired a former federal prosecutor, Richard Cullen, as an outside lawyer to help him respond to both the congressional and special counsel Russia investigations.
Cullen, a Brooklyn native, worked as a counsel for members of Congress during the Watergate and Iran-Contra investigations, and was on President George W. Bush’s legal team during the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election.
The Washington Post notes an interesting connection: Fired FBI Director James Comey once worked with Cullen at his law firm, and Cullen is godfather to one of Comey’s daughters.
Nothing indicates Pence is a target of current investigations, but he is a potential witness. He pushed for firing National Security Adviser Mike Flynn for misleading him about Russia contacts.
Laughing at him Down Under
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull performed a mocking impression of Trump at a press dinner Wednesday night in Australia’s capital city, Canberra.
“The Donald and I, we are winning and winning in the polls. We are winning so much,” Turnbull said, channeling Trump’s speaking style. “... You know, the online polls. They are so easy to win. I have this Russian guy. Believe me, it’s true. It is true.” It was supposed to off the record, but a recording got out. (Click here to hear it.)
Early in his presidency, Trump and Turnbull had a testy phone call, but they got on better in a meeting in New York last month.
New Cuba restrictions
Trump on Friday will sign a directive to reverse parts of the Obama administration’s legacy of easing sanctions on Cuba by reinstating some restrictions on travel and commerce, Newsday’s Tom Brune reports.
Trump’s policy aims to shift the flow of U.S. money from the Cuban military that controls much of the economy flowing to the emerging private sector. It seeks to force Cuba to hold free and fair elections, release political prisoners, and allow political and religious freedom.
But officials acknowledged Thursday that Trump would not completely reverse Obama’s opening to Cuba, saying, “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.”
What else is happening:ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – The leader of the NDP in Newfoundland and Labrador says she felt “betrayed” by her caucus after members sent her a letter asking for a leadership review next year, but Lorraine Michael says she has no plans to resign.
Michael says she was shocked by the contents of the letter she received in an email over the weekend after returning from vacation.
A caucus spokeswoman says the letter asks for a leadership convention in 2014 to ensure party renewal ahead of a provincial election in 2015.
Michael, who has led the party since 2006, says it’s the first time she has heard of any issues regarding her leadership from caucus colleagues.
She says she doesn’t understand why the caucus chose to write her a letter instead of having a face-to-face conversation.
Michael says she met with the party executive Monday and they support her leadership.
She says she intends to meet with the caucus this week in hopes of resolving any issues and coming to a mutual agreement.Online real estate listings have undoubtedly changed how people search for houses. Never before, after all, did buyers have this much information available. But while most real estate agents are now savvy enough to ensure that they have beautiful images for their listings, most of these glamour shots don’t reveal all that much about a home’s layout (and occasionally do their best to hide some of a home’s quirks).
To give buyers a more realistic view of what to expect from a home, Zillow is introducing video walkthroughs today. These videos will be integrated right on the service’s listing pages.
Agents can create them by using the Zillow target="_blank" href="https://premieragent.zillow.com/crm/app">Premier Agent App, and sellers can create their own through the Zillow Real Estate App, but the sellers’ agent will have to approve the video before it goes live.
These videos can be up to two minutes long and there is no audio. The apps allow agents and sellers to record footage in short segments, too, but the more continuous a video is, the better an impression of a home the potential buyer will probably be able to get.
As a Zillow spokesperson told me, the reason to remove audio “comes back to user experience—we know home buyers love video, but also that these need to map back to browsing behavior.” The idea was to give potential buyers a consistent experience that is easy to consume on mobile.
The company says these videos are meant to “fit into the browsing behavior of homebuyers, who are increasingly searching for homes on their smart phone.” Two-thirds of its traffic coming from mobile devices (and more than 70 percent on the weekend).During my last days at Qantas I remember Alan Joyce was asked how he felt about Borghetti getting the top job at Virgin Australia, to which Joyce replied "better the devil you know". On the basis of the relative performance of the companies in 2012, it would appear that Borghetti is the devil that Joyce, the executive team and the Qantas board, are not so acquainted with after all. Second-half results After digging deeper into the Virgin Australia results, however, the evidence reveals the hazards an airline faces when it chases a greater share of the corporate market. Over the six months to December 2011, Virgin Australia reported a net profit after tax of $51.8 million, which means that over the second half of 2012 it made a loss of $29 million.
Over the same second-half period, Virgin Australia accelerated the growth in domestic capacity by 14.1 per cent, which is almost three times the long-run average. This expansion was on top of first-half growth in domestic capacity of 5.3 per cent. The acceleration in domestic capacity in the second half of 2012 placed significant downward pressure on Virgin's domestic yields. Measured on a revenue-per-available-seat-kilometre basis, Virgin domestic yields fell in the second half by 4.5 per cent compared with the first half. The strong first-half result also reflects the fact that Virgin gained significant load, and to a lesser extent, price benefits, from the Qantas shutdown, which occurred late in October 2011. Corporate travel CEO Borghetti indicated in today's results that he has reached his target of 20 per cent of total domestic revenue from the corporate and government markets, but that can be achieved simply by allocating more capacity to city pairs that have greater government and corporate mixes.
For example, sending more capacity to Canberra, the golden triangle (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) and to regional mining routes will boost the corporate and government proportion of revenue. The real meat in Virgin's strategy sandwich is whether they have stolen corporate and government customers from Qantas. This is difficult to prove because of the lack of publicly available data. My gut feeling is that Qantas has retained a significant number of large corporate accounts, which probably cost them an arm and a leg through cheaper pricing, while Virgin has snapped up a large segment of the disgruntled small- and medium-sized corporate market. Airfare inelasticity The difficulty with the corporate market is that it isn't typically stimulated by average airfares.
Corporates and public servants travel not because there is a good deal on airfares, but because they must hold meetings, or they must attend conferences and other engagements that require travel. Meetings and conferences are primarily a function of the economy - the stronger the economy, the more such gatherings take place. The demand for meetings and conferences will also depend - generally to a lesser extent - on the total cost of travel. This total cost includes airfares, accommodation, food and beverages, land transport and the time/opportunity cost of travel. Airfares will often only represent about 15% to 20% of this total cost. If too much capacity is supplied by an airline to a corporate-intensive segment of the market then the airline must push the average airfare down hard to stimulate customers to travel on those seats because demand is inelastic to the average airfare. Borghetti holds a lever that can only influence 15% to 20% of the total cost of travel to the corporate, and can't influence the number one driver of that travel, which is the state of the economy.
Poaching Virgin can only expand its yields and capacity at an above-trend pace if it is able to snatch a large number of customers from Qantas. That poaching will prove difficult for Virgin if Qantas drops its prices and matches Virgin with capacity increases of its own. This outcome assumes, of course, that Qantas' on-time performance remains high, its frequency at the peak on critical, corporate-dense city pairs remains strong, and its at-airport and in-sky products are high standard. On the basis of recent performances and struggles, these may be strong assumptions. Loading Procurement departments of companies all across Australia that have not yet negotiated their corporate travel contracts should be rubbing their hands with glee over the coming months because the deals emanating from Qantas and Virgin will be the best for years if capacity at the market level continues to grow strongly.
Tony Webber was Qantas Group chief economist between 2004 and 2011. He is now managing director of Webber Quantitative Consulting and Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Business School, and contributed this article to BusinessDaySo, we had CNN editing Trump tweets, where they removed the word “crooked” when referring to Hillary Clinton. HLN, CNN’s sister network, blurred a pro Trump t-shirt worn by a retired police officer who saved a baby from a hot car. And the PBS NewsHour decided to clip portions of their interview with Green Party candidate Jill Stein, where she went after Clinton for her position on trade, namely the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Now, we have a Donald Trump’s campaign website being blocked, but not Hillary Clinton’s by the Wi-Fi network at the University of Miami. The school said it was blocked due to malicious activity, but have since restored access (via Miami Herald):
The site you are attempting to visit was found to be unsafe or pose harm to your system and/or device,” said the alert message that popped up instead. No such problem arose for users who went to hillaryclinton.com. The problem was identified late Friday on Twitter by the UM College Republicans. […] Alerted to the problem, a UM spokeswoman said the university’s information technology problem would investigate. A few hours later, the university issued a statement saying UM’s network had automatically blocked the site after detecting “malicious activity.” The school has since manually “whitelisted” donaldjtrump.com so that it is once again accessible. […] "Further investigation determined a hosting service for the Trump website had the malicious activity, not the Trump website itself."
This very well could be an issue that isn’t related to liberal bias that infests college campuses. But don’t try telling that to Trump supporters—and I’m a tad skeptical given the vicious anti-Trump sentiment that is exhibited by the Left.A couple of days ago, Nintendo of Spain announced winners for a play Nintendo Switch contest. Basically, a few random fans would be chosen at random and given the chance to play the contest in an event held at a major city in the area. You know, a standard event Nintendo has been holding all across the globe at the moment. I mean, Nintendo UK and Nintendo of America advertised the exact same thing a while back.
But while the contest went fine there, it seems foul play was afoot at Nintendo of Spain. Why?
Because 15 of the 20 people selected… were related to Nintendo in some way. They were either partnered with the company for YouTube video purposes, or in one case, actually in a relationship with a Nintendo employee!
No, we’re not making this up. Nintendo of Spain seemingly cheated at their own contest.
And as you can guess, this didn’t go down well online. Oh no, you had complaints from people on Twitter:
Mucha casualidad que las mismas personas con relación evidente con @NintendoES siempre ganen sus sorteos y concursos. ¡Corrupción al poder! — Poké✘Perto (@pokexperto) February 6, 2017
Pues yo pensaba que el #SoySwitchTONGO era menor, pero indagando flipas todavía más. Leven tiene CASUALMENTE el partner con Nintendo: pic.twitter.com/5L8THSji03 — Hiro (@Hirobyte) February 6, 2017
You had videos about it from notable YouTube stars in the country:
Heck, there were even threats flying around here! Mostly against the folk on YouTube yes, but a few others were sent to reporters by relatives of the accused as well.
In other words, Nintendo had created GamerGate 2.0.
And the parallels didn’t stop there. Oh no, just like before, the press didn’t report it on either.
No, we’re not kidding. You had a clear example of a conflict of interest interfering with a contest. It was clearly newsworthy and relevant to post about.
Yet no one in the Spanish gaming media mentioned it. Why? Because they were too worried about losing access to review copies and events. In other words, their interests outweighed those of the public.
Still, there was some good news here. Because unlike with GamerGate, the accused actually fixed their mistakes. Yep, Nintendo of Spain actually bothered choosing the contest winners again. So hey, the 15 questionable ones are no longer going to the Switch event. That’s certainly better than doubling down on the mistakes and attacking your audience.
But it’s still not a situation that should have happened to begin with. Let’s hope this sort of corruption never happens again!
Source:
Nintendo of Spain Supposedly Rigged Contest (Reddit)This video is no longer available
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2,179Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsFormer Trump refugee director did not notify superiors about family separation warnings Court rejects challenge to Mueller's appointment Trump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report MORE took issue this week with the news media's coverage of the investigation into Russia's meddling in the presidential election, arguing it has blown actions by President Trump and administration officials out of proportion.
"I'm not able to comment on this investigation," Sessions told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a radio interview Tuesday highlighted by CNN.
"I would say this, that I do feel like often the actions that are perfectly normal and natural are being projected by the media in lights that are just not justifiable," he continued.
"It's really painful to see that happening."
Sessions didn't elaborate on what he viewed as unfair media coverage.
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Sessions, who as a senator from Alabama was an early backer and surrogate for Trump's campaign, recused himself earlier this year from the investigation into Trump campaign associates' ties to Russia.
Sessions handed control of the probe over to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to head the investigation in May.
The attorney general also commented on a Tuesday request by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee asking Rosenstein and the Justice Department to appoint a second special counsel for the investigation.
Sessions said the request would be "properly responded to" by the department but did not give further information on how the department would handle the request.
Trump has sparked speculation that he may fire Mueller, who has recently been escalating the investigation into Trump campaign officials and business associates.The Go project is moving fast. As we learn more about Go we are compelled to change our tools, libraries, and occasionally even the language itself. We permit backward-incompatible changes so that we can learn from, rather than immortalize, our mistakes. We believe flexibility at this stage of Go’s development is essential to the project’s development and, ultimately, its longevity.
Since Go's launch we have been making releases approximately once a week. Accompanying each release are notes describing what changed, with any backwards-incompatible changes signposted. Questions I hear often are "Is Go stable? How can I be sure that I won’t have to update my Go code every week?" The answer to those questions are now "Yes," and "You won't."
With this week’s release we’re introducing a new release tagging scheme. We intend to continue with our weekly releases, but have renamed the existing tags from release to weekly. The release tag will now be applied to one hand-picked stable release each month or two. This more relaxed release schedule should make life easier for the average Go programmer.
Users will still need to update their code periodically (this is the cost of using a young language) but with less frequency. An additional benefit is that by tagging stable releases less often we can put more effort into automating updates. To this end we have introduced gofix, a tool that will help you update your code.
The revision formerly tagged release.2011-03-07.1 (now weekly.2011-03-07.1 ) has been nominated our first stable release, and has been given the tag release.r56. As we tag each stable release we will post an announcement to the new golang-announce mailing list. (Why not subscribe now?)
What’s the upshot of all this? You can continue to keep your Go installation updated using hg update release, but now you should only need to update when we tag a new stable release. If you wish to stay at the leading edge, you should switch to the weekly tag with hg update weekly.
Happy coding!
By Andrew GerrandIt has become the must-have play for any serious postseason team: a pick-and-roll involving a wing ball handler and whichever teammate is being defended by the opposing point guard. It is a way to yank the other team's weakest defender, and often its most important offensive player, into untenable mismatches.
The Celtics knew every playoff opponent would try it against Isaiah Thomas, but not every team has Jimmy Butler -- a bruising, creative ball handler who can rain fire from midrange and bulldoze little guys in the post. Editor's Picks Zach Lowe's NBA awards picks: MVP, DPOY, ROY and more Zach Lowe makes his picks for the hotly contested MVP race, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and more NBA awards for 2016-17.
Zach Lowe's NBA awards: All-NBA, All-Defense and All-Rookie Zach Lowe makes his picks for all three All-NBA teams and both All-Defense and All-Rookie teams. 1 Related
In the early part of the series, Chicago had Butler screen for Rajon Rondo, an arrangement that didn't inflict as much pain, because Thomas could skitter under Butler's screens and dare Rondo to chuck. But over the past two games, and especially in Game 4, the Bulls targeted Thomas by having his man -- now Isaiah Canaan, assuming Rondo doesn't make some superhuman return from a broken thumb -- screen for Butler on almost every possession.
The Celtics tried to have Butler's man dip under those screens and meet him on the other side, so that Thomas could stay on Canaan instead of switching onto Butler. That is easier theorized than done. Sometimes, they've had Thomas lunge at Butler, impeding his drive, before recovering to Canaan somewhere along the 3-point arc -- hopefully before Butler can whip the ball to Canaan for a pick-and-pop triple.
And sometimes, they've just eaten the switch. Thomas is 5-9, but he's stronger than brutes anticipate.
"He's a tough, stocky little dude," said Miami's James Johnson, who formed one of the league's best wing-point guard pick-and-roll tandems this season with Goran Dragic. "He gets low. And when you try to back him down, he pulls the chair on you. He's got a lot of antics."
No set of antics can hold Butler for long. The Celtics can help Thomas by flooding Butler's side of the floor:
NBA
That might coax Butler into swinging the ball, and depending on the shot clock and Chicago's level of focus, he might not get it back.
But letting Butler bludgeon Thomas over and over is not ideal. It risks fatigue and foul trouble for Boston's offensive engine. The Celtics can hide Thomas on Paul Zipser, but it takes only one possession, or maybe half of one, for Butler to register that and bring Zipser (and Thomas) up for a pick-and-roll.
So toward the end of the third quarter in Game 4, Brad Stevens unveiled an alternative -- a zone-style defense that basically amounted to cloaking Thomas in a game of hide-and-seek:
After every Boston basket, Thomas ran back into one of the corners. Butler would bring the ball up and find a wing player on either side of him, usually Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart, with some Jae Crowder mixed in. One Celtic would shadow Butler. The other stood sentry until someone else set a screen for Butler. The Celtics were preemptively switching Butler-centric pick-and-rolls with like-sized defenders before the pick-and-roll even happened.
In that clip, you can see Thomas on Canaan in the left corner. Butler sees it, too, and waves Canaan up. But Thomas stays put; Smart is already there, waiting for Canaan. Thomas found the nearest Bull, and the whole Boston defense changed shape in response to Butler's next action. Butler could, of course, call Thomas' new mark up for a pick-and-roll, but Boston would repeat this Whack-A-Mole as the shot clock ticked away.
The little gimmick took Chicago out of its rhythm as Boston salted away the game. If the Bulls were going to attack Thomas, they would have to do some gymnastics to find him, and they'd find him on the wing, where the Celtics could use the sideline as an extra defender.
This isn't rocket science. Chicago will be ready for this in Game 5, assuming Stevens even uses it. There are obvious counters, including all the usual ways to beat a zone. If two Celtics sandwich Butler, one Bull can flash to the foul line, catch a quick pass, and survey a 4-on-3. Put a little extra shooting on the floor, and those 4-on-3s are death to a zone.
Mismatches generally emerge as offensive players dart around, and the Bulls might be able to find a good post-up someplace -- or just pounce on a scramble situation:
Chicago tried having Canaan rush to screen for Butler at half court, before Thomas could retreat into hiding, but Boston was ready for that:
Smart sniffs out the Canaan pick, snaps into duty, and orders Thomas the hell out of harm's way. Smart, Bradley and Crowder are like older brothers stepping in between Thomas and his bullying playground tormentors.
But Thomas ends up on Dwyane Wade, still a dangerous one-on-one threat against smaller guards. Chicago gets the Butler-Thomas matchup, anyway. It doesn't produce a good look -- Wade bonks that triple -- but the play shows the Bulls can pick this defense apart if they get into their offense fast enough.
It will be interesting to see how this cat-and-mouse game evolves in Game 5 and whether other teams with vulnerable point guards ape Stevens' strategy.
Other thoughts on a weird 2-2 series:
• Chicago has to try something else when Thomas and Al Horford run a pick-and-roll against Robin Lopez, surrounded by three shooters in the small-ball groups that have flipped the series. Fred Hoiberg has had Lopez slide along with Thomas at the point of the screen, usually around the 3-point arc, and Thomas has just sliced Lopez apart. He zips around him, splits defenders, bounces a pass to Horford rolling into a 4-on-3 -- all fatal blows to Chicago's defense.
Lopez just doesn't have the mobility to hang with Thomas out there. Boston scored 1.205 points per possession over Games 3 and 4 on shots that flowed out of a Thomas pick-and-roll, per Synergy Sports. That includes Thomas' own attempts and shots from teammates one or two passes removed. That figure would have led all high-volume pick-and-roll ball handlers in the regular season, per Synergy.
Cristiano Felicio fared better trapping Thomas in Game 3 but has faded since; Hoiberg yanked him after a botched assignment in the first half of Game 4, and he never saw the floor again. Hoiberg went without a true center down the stretch of that game, using a Nikola Mirotic-Bobby Portis frontcourt. There was even a surprise appearance from King Joffrey Lauvergne.
You could see the reasoning, at least. The Mirotic-Portis combo offered more speed, switchability, and shooting -- the latter being key around Butler and Wade.
But Lopez's rebounding, screening and midrange shooting have been elemental to whatever success Chicago has had. Boston even started sending an extra defender into Lopez's line of sight on pick-and-pops, opening up new passes:
NBA
Going small generally works because it involves putting your five best, most skilled players on the floor. That is not the case for Chicago. The Bulls are probably not going to win this series on Boston's terms. They might not win it on their terms, either, but there is an in-between point somewhere.
I don't know what the answer is. Maybe they should have Lopez hang back, and rely on Canaan -- and other Chicago defenders -- to stick on Thomas' hip around screens, so that Thomas can't launch off-the-dribble 3s. That's a gamble; Thomas hit 37 percent of his pull-up 3s this season (and 34 percent last season), and if Canaan falls behind too often, Thomas will drain daggers. Maybe they should just have Lopez sell out and trap, forcing Thomas to retreat toward midcourt and give up the ball. Now that Boston has gone small, there really isn't another hiding spot for Lopez on defense.
Sometimes the best adjustment is to do nothing and just execute better. I don't think that's the case here.
• Boston should keep running variations of the Thomas-Horford dance until Chicago stops it. When the Celtics get too cute, bad stuff happens. They opened the second half of Game 4 with a pindown for Gerald Green, who proceeded to turn the ball over. In the fourth quarter, Horford ambled up to screen for Thomas, but before he got there, Thomas tried to slip him an entry pass -- presumably to then take a handoff from Horford -- through a crowd. Chicago stole it and ran out on the break.
Variety is important, but not when the other team has shown no response to your bread-and-butter. Keep it simple.
• I liked Chicago trying Canaan over Jerian Grant and Michael Carter-Williams. The Bulls don't need a non-shooting ball-pounder next to Butler and Wade. They need Patrick Beverley, but they don't have Patrick Beverley. Canaan has been a disaster in Chicago, but his 26 percent mark from deep this season is an outlier. He hit 36 percent last season, and 40 percent of his catch-and-shoot triples, the kind he'll get spotting up around Butler. (He hit only 33 percent of those attempts the season before but drilled 43 percent of his pull-up 3s. Canaan has had a bizarre trek through the NBA.)
Grant hit 37 percent from deep this season and 40 percent after the All-Star break. He has wobbled against Boston's pressure defense, but he deserves some time. Carter-Williams probably doesn't. You can almost hear the backboard shrieking in terror when Carter-Williams winds up for a floater. Thomas is ignoring both Grant and Carter-Williams to clog the lane:
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Chicago might at least consider Denzel Valentine. He's a defensive liability, but he can hang against some Boston lineups.
Chicago should play a little longer without a traditional point, though that might not be the silver bullet. Butler, Wade and Zipser -- the most likely perimeter trio in such lineups -- logged only 69 minutes together in the regular season, and opponents outscored Chicago by 10 points in that time, per NBA.com. Even in the playoffs, Chicago has mostly used those three alongside one of their point guards in small-ball lineups, a setup Hoiberg might want to look at again.
• Boston's guards have been doing their best to gang rebound since Game 3. It has only stemmed the tide a bit, but that is enough.
• Butler is Chicago's best option on Thomas, but he's not quick enough to stay in front of him one-on-one. No one is. With the floor spread, Boston might want to just clear out and let Thomas isolate against Butler instead of sending someone to screen for him.
• An important subplot: how Boston fares in the precarious minutes with both Thomas and Horford on the bench -- 27 minutes through four games. Boston's four-man bench mob -- Smart, Jonas Jerebko, Kelly Olynyk, and Terry Rozier -- is plus-6 through 14 minutes, and it extended Boston's lead in the second quarter of Game 4. The group has found weird ways to manufacture buckets: designed post plays for Smart, Olynyk's herky-jerky slow-motion drives and other stuff.
Boston rounds out that group with one starter, usually Bradley or Crowder. Chicago needs to win those minutes. The Bulls need to win any minutes Thomas rests. Boston fell apart in the third quarter of Game 4 when Thomas sat with foul trouble, even though Boston's four other starters stayed on the floor. Boston's offense has fallen into a sinkhole without Thomas all season.
• A subplot within the subplot: the battle between Wade and Olynyk on the pick-and-roll during the second quarter, when Butler rests. Wade goes at Olynyk every time, with the help of some nasty screens from Felicio, a grinning human cinderblock.
• Boston has thrown some occasional traps at Butler on the pick-and-roll. Something to monitor.
It feels like Boston has solved this series, but just when you think you can predict the future, wacky stuff happens. On to Game 5...And it has been my best cake day so far!
Normally I try to take photos of the box and of the box just being opened when I receive a gift, however I couldn't find my camera and the suspense was killing me! The Harry Potter exchange was the reason I joined reddit gifts. I saw photos on the r/harrypotter subreddit and new I had to be involved. This was some two years ago and I've participated in many other exchanges but if this exchange were a man, it would be the man I wanted to marry. My Secret Santa has kept contact with me through out the whole process asking me questions and getting me pumped up.
Opening my gift was like opening a treasure chest. I started with the wand box, which had ALIVAN'S MASTER WAND MAKERS embroidered on it in gold leaf. I was intrigued. I've seen several wands before, from the replicas to homemade. I've even crafted several wands myself. The layers within the box were preparing me for what sort of awesomeness lied within. First the gold leaf, and then a certificate of authenticity with the date of my wands creation (1/3/14) and its material (Walnut 15in I would describe it was sturdy, and loyal). This is neat I thought to myself. Then a red velvet bag within the box and under the certificate. This must be a very precious object. My trembling hands opened the velvet satchel to unsheathe a slender object wrapped delicately in tissue paper, finally the wand within revealed itself. I was in awe. I said "Woah! Woah!" out loud to a empty room for several minutes.
This wand is beautiful. Its a shame to keep it hidden in a box. I am going to need to make a special shelf for it to live on.
After I picked myself up on the floor I continued looking through my gifts. Two candles, scented like ButterBeer (damn, can I still get one of those butterbeer drinks from starbucks? I never did.) and the second, Dumbledore's Office (when I die I want heaven to smell like this candle. Its almost like Black berry's and cream, with years of wisdom folded in.) Two body creams, (My SS asked if I used lotion, which I do because hand washing and working with clay makes my hands very dry) the creams are scented like Sweet Pumpkin Pie and Butterbeer. One is extra special because its my SS's favorite and they no longer make it. She pulled it our of her personal stash to share with me. Boat loads of freaky wizarding candy, like Bert Bott's every flavor beans, Jelly Slugs (which I ate promptly, they were delicous!), and pet cockroach and pet rat gummis (also a green rubber rat not for eating!). Two lip balms, in Butterbeer and Pumpkin Pasties because YUM according to my SS. I agree! Flavored lip balm is wel...the BALM. Get it? Like the bomb... I'll show myself out.
Just kidding! I am not done yet! In addition to this already Noah's Arc like box of gifts I received a pair of Spectra Specs and a HUGE warm Hufflepuff Crest Throw tapestry. I had forgot that it was on my wishlist, lord knows I'll use it with all the ice storms we have had in my neck of the woods. All of this, and my SS had wrote a letter for me in a card.
Thank you Mrowy. You have made me feel so special. Thank you for sharing the things that you love with me and buying me some things I never would have gifted to myself. This has all been amazing. For some reason "Hello sweet friend" really touched me, I know you didn't write that, but you did pick it out and it feels perfect for the occasion.
With that my friends I say, "Mischief Managed!"France votes to curb free Amazon deliveries in bid to boost struggling small bookstores
Updated
French politicians have approved a bill that will prevent Amazon from offering free deliveries of discounted books, in a move branded discriminatory by the American online retail giant.
The bill, designed to support struggling small bookstores, was backed unanimously in the lower house National Assembly and now looks set to become law following consideration by the Senate.
The draft law seeks to restrict the likes of Amazon from combining free delivery with discounts of up to 5 per cent on books, the maximum allowed under existing French legislation.
In 1981, the government ruled that publishers must set a unique selling price for their books in a bid to protect small retailers, and set a limit of 5 per cent on any discount.
Amazon was scathing in its response.
"Any measure aimed at raising the price of books will only reduce French people's spending power and introduce discrimination against online consumers," the company said in a statement.
While the measure is not specifically aimed at Amazon but at all retailers dispatching books by post, culture minister Aurelie Filippetti has singled out the US giant's practices in the past, blasting both free deliveries and the firm's tax arrangements.
The online retailer reports its European sales through a Luxembourg-based holding company, taking advantage of the Duchy's relatively low corporate tax rates for earnings outside its borders.
Amazon insists the arrangement, which has been criticised by politicians across Europe, is legal under the European Union's single market rules.
During the parliamentary debate preceding the vote on Thursday (local time), Ms Filippetti blasted Amazon for its "dumping strategy" and for selling books at a loss.
"Once they are in a dominant position and will have crushed our network of bookshops, they will bring prices back up," she said.
France is proud of a network of bookstores it says is "unique in the world" and crucial for culture to reach small towns.
The country has about 3,500 such stores - including 600 to 800 so-called independent retailers that do not belong to a publishing house, a chain or a supermarket.
Christian Kert, a politician from the main opposition right-wing UMP who introduced the bill, says online retailing is the only sector in the book market that was on the rise.
"It's hard for independent bookstores to find their place as their return on investment is very low," he said.
AFP
Topics: world-politics, small-business, business-economics-and-finance, retail, industry, books-literature, arts-and-entertainment, france
First postedThis post was contributed by a community member.
It's not over until we say it's over.
That's the "Animal House"-inspired motto of a group of area residents who are fighting to keep – an independent store that's attracted legions of devotees since it opened in 1998 – in Vienna.
Norm Yow, the shop's owner, said he was initially excited when he heard The lot had been vacant for two years, and Yow believed increased traffic to the strip mall would improve his already thriving business. His landlord, the Bethesda-based company Finmarc, even used the impending
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is acceptable markup. Non-standard markup may be changed or removed from the page, causing unpredictable results.
For example, you may have a custom component my-row that renders as a tr and would be logically used like this:
<table> <my-row></my-row> </table>
Since only tr is allowed inside a table, the browser will hoist the my-row element above the table during its parsing of the document. By the time Vue runs you'll have this:
<my-row></my-row> <table></table>
There are also cool non-standard features for Vue templates that the DOM parser will strip out:
Self-closing tags: if your component doesn't need a slot, Vue allows you to make it a self-closing element.
<!--Will be discarded by the DOM parser--> <my-component/>
Non-kebab-cased components: HTML is case insensitive which means you're restricted to kebab-case components in the template. Vue will happily accept camelCase or PascalCase, though. Same with props.
<!--Will be discarded by the DOM parser--> <PascalCaseComponent camelCaseProp="test"></PascalCaseComponent>
None of these issues occur if you use string templates (or render functions) since the DOM parser is not a factor there.
Clash with templating engines
If you're using Vue.js in conjunction with a templating engine, any common syntax can be problematic.
For example, Handlebars and Laravel Blade both use the double curly braces {{ }} syntax that Vue uses. When your template is processed, the templating engine won't be able to distinguish the Vue syntax which will cause a problem.
This is usually easy to get around by escaping the Vue syntax e.g. in Blade you can put an @ in front of your braces and Blade will know to ignore them e.g. @{{ forVue }}. But still, it's an additional thing to annoy you.
Server-side rendering
You quite simply can't use a DOM template if you want to server-side render your Vue app, as the HTML document is not an input of the SSR process.
Free Vue.js Crash Course! Learn what Vue is, what kind of apps you can build with it, how it compares to React & Angular, and more in this free 30-minute video introduction. Enroll For Free! See our other courses
Avoiding DOM templates
How can you architect a Vue.js app without a DOM template, or at least a small one?
1. Abstract markup to components
Your root instance can hold some state, but generally, you want any presentational logic and markup to be abstracted to components so it's out of your DOM template.
Single-file components are the superior choice. If you're unable to include a build step in your project and don't like writing your templates as JavaScript strings (who does), you can try x-templates.
x-templates
With x-templates, your template is still defined in the page, but within a script tag, and will, therefore, avoid processing by the DOM parser. The script tag is marked with text/x-template and referenced by an id in your component definition.
Vue.component('my-component', { template: '#my-component' }
<script type="text/x-template" id="my-component"> <div>My component template</div> <NonStandardMarkupIsFineHere/> </script>
2. Mount to an empty node with a render function
Abstracting markup into components hits a wall when you realize you still need to declare your root-level component in the DOM template.
<div id="app"> <!-- We still have a DOM template :( --> <app></app> </div>
If you want to totally eliminate your DOM template, you can mount your root-level component(s) with a render function.
Let's say you have one all-encompassing component that declares the other components called App. App can be declared with a render function and mounted to an empty node since render functions will replace their mount element.
<div id="app"></div>
new Vue({ el: '#app', components: { App }, render: function(createElement) { return createElement(App); } })
And with that, your app is free of any DOM template!
If you can eliminate all string and DOM templates from your app you can use the smaller runtime-only build of Vue. This is an ideal project architecture and is the one you'll see used in vue-cli templates.
SummaryFrom the start of his campaign, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been promising that he will build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and that Mexico will pay for it. Not if these men have anything to say about it. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Former Mexican president Vicente Fox is fiercely opposed to his country paying for the massive wall that Donald Trump wants to build on the border between their two countries, saying in an interview that Trump is "a crazy guy" and "a false prophet" who should not be elected president.
"I'm not going to pay for that f------ wall," Fox said in an interview with Fusion's Jorge Ramos that was posted online Thursday afternoon. "He should pay for it. He's got the money."
Trump quickly fired back in a tweet, focusing on the former president's language choices: "FMR PRES of Mexico, Vicente Fox horribly used the F word when discussing the wall. He must apologize! If I did that there would be a uproar!"
Fox became the latest world leader to raise grave concerns about Trump's approach to global diplomacy, and he said in the interview he does not understand how Hispanic Americans could vote for a presidential candidate like Trump. Fox said he is confident that Trump will not win the presidency.
[Pope Francis joins a chorus of world leaders in condemning Donald Trump]
"Democracy cannot take that, the crazy people that [don't] know what is going on in the world today," said Fox, who then marveled that more than 40 percent of Hispanics who participated in the Nevada caucuses on Tuesday voted for Trump. "I would like to know who those Hispanics are, because... they are followers of a false prophet. And he’s going to take them to the desert, and if they think that they will benefit with an administration led by Donald Trump, they’re wrong. They must open their eyes. Please: You Hispanics, Latins in U.S., open your eyes. It's not to defend our race, it's not to defend our creed, it's to defend this very same nation that is hosting you. This nation is going to fail if it goes into the hands of a crazy guy."
"What is Trump?" Fox said. "He’s not a Republican. Absolutely not. Those are not the Republican principles. He is not a Democrat. He is just himself. He is egocentric."
Donald Trump speaks during a campaign party at the Treasure Island Ballroom in Las Vegas on Feb. 23. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Fox is not the first prominent Mexican official to criticize Trump. Earlier this month, former Mexican president Felipe Calderon said that his country will not pay for Trump's "stupid wall." Trump responded by saying that such opposition adds another 10 feet to the height of the massive wall — a comment that has become one of Trump's most popular lines at campaign rallies.
['Build that wall' has taken on a life of its own at Donald Trump's rallies]
And Trump often has to defend his own use of bad language, although he has yet to say the "f-word" out loud at a rally. But he has said many other foul words that are bleeped out in television newscasts and obscured in newspaper articles. At a rally in Portsmouth, N.H., in early February, Trump mouthed the f-word as he said: “We’re gonna have businesses that used to be in New Hampshire, that are now in Mexico, come back to New Hampshire, and you can tell them to go f--- themselves!”South Florida Democrats who didn't get enough of the 14-month presidential primary contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are getting a chance to reprise the battle in a high-profile local contest.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the fill-in for Clinton — a well known, long time leader in the Democratic Party, favored by the party establishment and major donors.
Tim Canova plays the role of Sanders. He's a little known outsider, never before active in Democratic politics, who is energizing legions of small campaign contributors from around the country.
Canova is challenging Wasserman Schultz's bid for the Democratic nomination for a seventh term in the U.S. House representing parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Clinton won the Democratic presidential nomination; voters in the 23rd Congressional District will decide on Aug. 30 if Canova or Wasserman Schultz gets the nomination to run for Congress.
Canova is running against Wasserman Schultz much the way Sanders ran against Clinton. He says the incumbent is too beholden to the desires of big corporate campaign contributors to represent the interests of average people. Sanders said the same thing about Clinton when they were foes; he's since endorsed her.
Canova said Wasserman Schultz has lost some of her progressive ideals during her 25 years in public office. Wasserman Schultz rejects the underpinnings of Canova's assessment and said she's not afraid of calling herself a liberal. Like Clinton, who touted her ability to get things done, Wasserman Schultz is running as an experienced hand who has built relationships in Washington that allow her to pass legislation even in the hyper-partisan capital and secure money for priorities important to Florida.
At least one part of Canova's assessment is correct: Wasserman Schultz is a political insider and preferred candidate of the Democratic Party establishment and many of its key constituency groups. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and the political arm of the Congressional Black Caucus all support her re-election, along with more than 50 labor unions and the Florida LGBTA Democratic Caucus.
To demonstrate her support for Wasserman Schultz, Clinton visited the congresswoman's Davie campaign headquarters on Aug. 9. "I can't think of anyone who [more] deserves your support for re-election, starting with the primary on August 30th, than my friend Debbie," Clinton said. "Debbie has been a leader... she has done a tremendous job in raising the importance of the issues that concern all of you, her constituents."
Canova has support from the most prominent outsider of 2016: Sanders. The unsuccessful presidential candidate has endorsed Canova and helped him raise money. In an Aug. 9 email to his political network, Sanders wrote that the contest "is very important for Our Revolution because if we can win this tough fight in Florida, it will send a clear message about the power of our grass roots movement that will send shockwaves through the political and media establishments."
Canova also has support form several labor unions, the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida and the groups Democracy for America and Progressive Democrats of America.
Canova has gone after Wasserman Schultz from the left, arguing the incumbent isn't sufficiently committed to increasing Social Security benefits, hasn't been willing to flout the interests of Big Sugar and push hard enough for Everglades restoration, and has been unwilling to tackle the predatory practices of payday lenders. Wasserman Schultz disputes those contentions.
Running in a district with a large Jewish population, both tout their ties to the religion and to Israel. Wasserman Schultz is the first Jewish congresswoman elected from Florida; Canova's step-father is Jewish.
Wasserman Schultz said Canova wouldn't be good for Israel, citing his calling on his website for demilitarization in the Middle East. He responded that he was referring to Saudi Arabia and Iran, not to Israel.
They also disagree on Obama's 2015 deal with Iran aimed at preventing that country form obtaining an nuclear weapon. Wasserman Schultz voted for the agreement, which she said was the most difficult and complex vote she's cast. Canova's position isn't clear. He said in July he has concerns about the agreement and didn't know how he would vote; in January he said he would have supported the agreement.
Canova opposes the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which he said would cost American jobs. Wasserman Schultz voted in support of legislation that created an expedited approval process for the trade deal, but said she is still evaluating the agreement herself and doesn't know how she'd vote.
Wasserman Schultz, who opposed the proposed 2014 amendment to the state Constitution to authorize medical marijuana in the state, hasn't spelled out her position on this year's version of the amendment. Canova supports legalizing medical marijuana.
They also differ on a significant environmental issue: Canova opposes oil fracking in Florida; Wasserman Schultz is OK with fracking as long as there is "significant" government regulation.
The candidates said they agree on many policy areas, including abortion rights and LGBT rights, equal pay for women, and opposition to easing the decades-long embargo against Cuba without significant concessions from that country. Both support a ban on the purchase of so-called assault weapons and support closing the so-called gun show loophole that allows some firearm purchasers to avoid background checks.
Echoing Sanders, Canova has also sharply criticized Wasserman Schultz for the way she ran the Democratic National Committee, which she served as national chairwoman from 2011 until last month. For months, the Sanders camp complained that the DNC under Wasserman Schultz had tilted the presidential nominating process toward Clinton, something she repeatedly denied.
When WikiLeaks published leaked Democratic Party emails in July showing some party staffers had been favoring Clinton, Wasserman Schultz resigned as party chairwoman — something that gave Canova a further fundraising boost and a bonanza of publicity.
The association with Sanders helped Canova raise enough money to be seen as a credible challenger, and enabled him to hire field canvassers and run advertising in the expensive Miami-Fort Lauderdale TV market, something few challengers can pull off if they're not independently wealthy.
Wasserman Schultz's association with Clinton could also be a plus with primary voters in the 23rd District, where 68.1 percent of Democrats voted for Clinton in the March 15 presidential primary — more than 64.4 percent of the vote she won statewide.It's the end of the world as The 100 fans know it.
With a death wave threatening to kill all (remaining) life on Earth only six days away, tensions will continue to escalate from the moment the CW drama returns on Wednesday, until the heart-pounding Season 4 finale on May 24. "It gets intense, man," says Eliza Taylor, who was in New York City to promote her new movie Thumper at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Given the approaching apocalypse and the limited space the Second Dawn bunker provides, Clarke will once again be faced with impossible choices that challenge her to weigh her own humanity against what's necessary to save the last vestiges of the human race."I think it's fair to say that Clarke isn't going to balance things as well as she has in the past because the stakes are just that high," Taylor explains. "Just when you thought our show couldn't get anymore intense, it's the end of the world again. I think people will be interested to see how she's kind of losing it, but determined to push through."
Fortunately, this time around Clarke will really take advantage of the support system surrounding her in a way she never has before. "I think, in general, Clarke is leaning on her friends more this season, which is great because last season she just ran away and got weird in the woods by herself and didn't want anyone's help. So I think she's leaning a lot more on her mother [Paige Turco], on Bellamy [Bob Morley], on Raven [Lindsey Morgan] and even Murphy [Richard Harmon]," Taylor says.
The CW announces finale dates for all your favorites
Because of Clarke's willingness to share the burden this season, that means fans shouldn't expect the season to end with a solo Clarke pushing a button or pulling a lever to save the day. "It's going to be really different for Clarke in unspeakable ways," the actress teases. "I think fans are going to love the ending. This has been my favorite ending to a season yet. It's really cool."
Taylor also reveals that the season finale will set up future seasons "very differently" than the finales have in the past — but when asked whether that meant the rumors of a time-jump were true (the planet will be uninhabitable for five years after all), the star stayed mum.
The 100 airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on the CW.
(Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by CBS, one of the CW's parent companies.)By Claus Brinker
An incident described as “Islamophobic” and “hate motivated” has cropped up in the national news this week. The Washington Post reports that, on Monday night, a severed pig’s head was thrown at a mosque doorstep in Philadelphia. Police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. The specific crime is somewhat unclear, but Rue Landau, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations says the act may be in violation of the city’s ordinance on ethnic intimidation and institutional vandalism, considering that Muslims are notoriously adverse to pork. In any case, police will be monitoring the mosque more closely [mission accomplished?] because, as officer Pete Berndlmaier noted, the perpetrators might “up the ante.”
This use of pork in a threatening manner comes at a perfect time for Muslims, who have been under scrutiny around the world for several recent atrocities committed in the name of Islam. As has been the case for some time, many people in non-Muslim countries feel somewhat uneasy about massive numbers of Muslims moving into their cities and towns. Many non-Muslims have heard about what life is like in Muslim countries and they don’t want their own countries to be like this. And with the recent acts of terror committed by Muslims on both the North American and European continents, the cry to reject Muslim immigration has been raised with greater furor than ever.
Luckily, for Muslims, this pig-headed vandalism has come along and can be used to berate anyone opposed to further immigration of Muslims as “hateful” and it provides much needed evidence that Islamophobia is on the rise. Unlike the terrorist attacks committed by Muslims, nobody died. But the theory seems be that somebody might die unless this nasty nationwide trend of anti-Islamic rhetoric is curbed. Since, the Washington Post and numerous other national media outlets are trying draw our attention away from threatening behavior that actually kills, to behavior that is mildly offensive, let us take the bait. Let us assume the pig head incident was not a hoax perpetrated by Muslims in order to elevate their victim status. Rather, let’s assume that there is a very real and rising Islamophobic threat.
In this time of terror and tension between groups with diametrically opposed value systems who are forced together by a globalist system that wants them to abandon their values and become better consumers of globalist products and services, it’s important for Muslims to remember that not all non-Muslims are violent. The vast majority of non-Muslims are, in fact, peaceful. Most non-Muslims just want to live their lives with a relative level of security for themselves and their family. Believe it or not, this includes white non-Muslims. Yes, even white people are, for the most part, a non-violent and peace-loving people.
And yet, it cannot be denied that some non-Muslims, including white non-Muslims, are not peaceful. Some are willing to take a severed pig’s head and throw it at a mosque in a drive-by pig’s-head-throwing. And, let’s face it. The terror may not stop there. Other acts of vandalism may follow as well. Or somebody may write on Facebook or Twitter that they want fewer Muslims in their country, which will probably be interpreted as a microaggression. These are, of course, troublesome portents to the average Muslim, but to understand why this is happening, we need to look at root causes. What actually motivates a non-Muslim to become radicalized to the point where they are willing to throw a pig’s head or commit a microagression on social media? Perhaps it’s the same kind of things that cause a Muslim to become radicalized and murder people in the name of Islam.
As we’ve been told by many liberal acquaintances, and liberal journalists, and liberal college professors, and liberal politicians, when non-Muslims oppose Islam then they are actually helping ISIS, the most well-funded Muslim terrorist organization in history, by making normal peace-loving Muslims feel alienated and unwanted in non-Muslim countries. This feeling of alienation then drives peace-loving Muslims to become radicalized and kill people. Now consider the perspective of the average non-Muslim. Unlike Muslims, who have countries that are explicitly Muslim, non-Muslim Americans and Europeans don’t have countries that are explicitly for them. These non-Muslim governments want to throw open the borders to foreigners of completely different cultures and any non-Muslim citizen in these countries who opposes mass immigration is labelled in the harshest, most ostracizing and career-ending manners possible. (“Racist!” “Fascist!” “Bigot!” “Nazi!” “Islamophobe!” “Uncompassionate!”) Talk about alienation! Sometimes, when people feel they have no peaceful way of expressing themselves or being heard, they turn to acts of terror, like throwing a pig’s head at a mosque.
So we should not be surprised if radical Islamophobia is on the rise. Non-Muslims are being deliberately silenced, informed that their opinions are not important, and that their governments will not defend them or their way of life. But Muslims should look on the bright side. In spite of the tiny fraction of the non-Islamic community that does harbor anti-Islamic sentiments and are willing to act upon them with harmless forms of vandalism and microagressions, the vast majority of non-Muslims harbor no ill-will, or at least not enough to take any meaningful action against Muslims. While a huge number of non-Muslims may in fact be unhappy by how their government is bringing huge numbers of Muslims into their country, the social costs are simply too great to bother with actually opposing what amounts to a tremendous victory and conquest for Islam over its non-Muslim enemies.
Further good news for Muslims can be found in the large numbers of young people, who, having completed their indoctrination in the public school system and academia are convinced that they have no culture, heritage, history, or lineage that is even worth defending. The one thing that many of these freshly brainwashed youths do feel is duty-bound to defend the rights of other people to come and destroy the culture, heritage, history, and lineage of our ancestors. As a result, they are opening their arms and welcoming those who may someday be our new masters (if the Muslims could have it their way…and who is stopping them, really?). Not only that, these young “tolerant” and “open-minded” liberals will fight on behalf of Muslims against anyone who opposes the total accommodation of Muslim peoples in non-Muslim countries.
To recap, Muslims really don’t have much to fear from radical Islamophobes. Yes, Islamophobia is on the rise, but most non-Muslims have not been radicalized and pose no threat to the burgeoning Muslim populations in both North America and Europe. Additionally, the governments, the media, and the educational systems of these two continents seem more interested in defending the interests of Muslim migrants than that of their own citizens. So Muslims have that going for them as well.
That said, however, we should not be surprised if anti-Muslim activities become more a regular occurrence, specifically among White Americans and Native Europeans. These populations are becoming completely shut out of the political discourse that concerns their own well-being, and as a result we will see some individuals take more drastic actions to ensure the survival of their people, not unlike a fearful creature backed into the corner of a cage. Such a scenario has unpredictable consequences. Will the beast attack? If so, how much damage will it do? Or, can it be contained until its spirit is broken? I, for one, hope the animal breaks out of its cage altogether.
AdvertisementsIn an appearance Monday on the Christian televangelist network Daystar, conservative commentator Cal Thomas warned that the legalization of same-sex marriage undermines “all of human history” and poses a greater threat to America than Islamic extremists.
Responding to a question about “what can be done about the federal judges that override the majority of voters on marriage,” Thomas responded with apocalyptic warnings.
“Look at Mesopotamia. Look at the Roman Empire, which collapsed from within through moral impurity before they were conquered from without. And that’s my great fear. I don’t fear the Russians or the fundamentalist Muslims as much as I fear ourselves. We are committing moral suicide in this country: 55 million dead babies through abortion and counting, we’re mainstreaming same-sex marriage and the polygamists are right behind,” he said.
“You have the people who believe in adult-child marriage, they already do this in certain Muslim countries, these people want the rights as an adult to marry a child,” he added. “So all I’m asking, and what I do in debates is say, if the line has shifted now and we accept same-sex marriage, where would you then draw the line and on what basis? It’s all about the polls, feelings and the culture at the time, it’s not about established truth and real history.”Written by Riri (@lillyums)
This week's Cosplay Wednesday features Shaina of Shainadilly Cosplay. We have her Rocket Girl Tristana cosplay in this feature, which is a popular and well known League of Legends champion. I've only started playing League of Legends just under 2 years and I don't play it much, but I sure know Tristana! In the game she is a race of Yordles (think cute small people with elven ears), and generally known to play the ADC role. She carries a gun named, Boomer, and is generally seen as a cheerful and friendly Yordle who never backs down on a challenge. Check out how Shaina wore Tristana!
Cosplayer: Shaina of Shainadilla Cosplay (FB, IG, YouTube)
Cosplay: Rocket Girl Tristana from League of Legends
Photographer: Nathan WongIn an apparent demonstration of unity, the entire Dallas Cowboys team, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones, as well as executive vice presidents Stephen Jones, Charlotte Anderson and Jerry Jones Jr., all decided to 'take a knee', notably before the national anthem was sung.
Boos were heard from the crowd in Arizona which reportedly included a large number of Dallas fans...
Crowd erupts in boos as owner Jerry Jones and entire Dallas Cowboys team kneel live on Monday Night Football pic.twitter.com/ZBKt3KMXYR — Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) September 26, 2017
"...as they take a knee collectively, boos can be heard from this sell-out crowd in Arizona..."
As ESPN reports, Jerry Jones and his daughter, Charlotte Jones Anderson, said their players wanted to take a knee as a statement for equality and unity, but also wanted to separate that message from the national anthem.
A little less than an hour before kickoff, Jerry Jones said he respected the players "individually and collectively," but he did not want to get into the political element of the debate.
"We want them to do what's in the best interest of the Dallas Cowboys," Jones said. "That's where the obligation is and again I don't want to get into this area of debate but I do want to emphasize how important it is to me that we respect the sanctity of the flag."
Jones was one of seven NFL owners to donate to Trump's inauguration.Twin Cities Pride organizers are asking police officers not to march in the big Minneapolis parade on Sunday in light of the Philando Castile case and continued tension between officers and marginalized communities.
After St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted Friday in the shooting death of Castile, many who plan to attend the parade voiced their concerns about a police presence, organizers said.
Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau, who broke barriers as the first lesbian to lead the department, called the decision "divisive" in a letter to parade organizers Thursday: "I am beyond disappointed that you didn't feel you could talk with me before making such a divisive decision that has really hurt so many in our community including the LGBT members of this Department (and their family members)."
Later, she replied to someone on Twitter who told her not to attend.
The annual parade, which draws about 350,000 people, has started in previous years with several marked squad cars and uniformed police officers heading down Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis.
This year, organizers said, there will be only one unmarked police car — mandated for safety reasons — at the front of the parade. There will be “limited police participation in the parade itself,” Twin Cities Pride said in a statement. There will be fewer police officers in uniform compared to last year, when Minneapolis police upped their patrol after the shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, organizers said.
“We always have several police departments wanting to roll down Hennepin with lights and sirens to participate in this announcement that the parade is about to begin,” organizers said in a statement. “With the recent verdict in the Philando Castile case Twin Cities Pride has decided to forgo this part of the police participation in the parade for this year and respect the pain the community is feeling right now.”
While many regular parade attendees applauded the change, those in uniform criticized it as “exclusionary.”
St. Paul Deputy Police Chief Mary Nash said she was disappointed and that her colleagues have shared their frustration.
Nash, the department’s LGBTQ liaison, said 12 to 25 St. Paul officers have taken part in the parade in previous years.
“I understand people are angry and we can respect their feelings, but the reality is at the end of the day if we can’t work together it becomes more challenging to become better as a community and to become better as a police department,” Nash said.
Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, said organizers should be “ashamed” and called the action “disturbing.”
“It’s shameful to see this group of leadership head in this direction,” Kroll said in a statement. “With the uptick in terrorist attacks worldwide, this outward anti-police sentiment is alarming. For an organization that prides itself on being accepting and inclusive, the hypocrisy amazes me.”
Twin Cities Pride Board Chairwoman Darcie Baumann said the organization did not intend to “hurt or harm or make anyone feel excluded.”
“Unfortunately, we have hurt and offended the LGBTQ police officers, and that was not at all our intent,” Baumann said. “But in the wake of the verdict, we want to be sensitive to the population that is grieving … and seeing those uniforms brings angst and tension and the feeling of unrest.”
Across the country, other Pride events are taking similar action.
Organizers in Portland, Ore., are asking officers to consider not wearing their uniforms because some “don’t feel comfortable attending alongside police in uniform,” according to the Oregonian. Various law enforcement officials were upset and at least one county sheriff’s department decided to not march at all.
In the Twin Cities, Eva Wood, anti-violence program director at the LGBTQ-rights group OutFront, said she supports the organizers’ decision.
“I personally think they made the right call,” Wood said.
The increased police presence in response to the Orlando shooting at Pride last year left many people of color feeling “unsafe,” Wood said.
“Specifically, the queer and trans people of color reached out to us saying cops in uniform at Pride might make white people feel safe, but not us.”Archaeologists working in the Titicaca Basin have discovered a mortuary used by ancient Bolivians to strip the skin from the remains of the dead. It appears they used calcium oxide – a substance more commonly known as quicklime – to to dissolve these bodies down to the bone.
The mortuary site, a religious complex known as Khonkho Wankane, was a space used by ritual specialists to process human remains. Corpses were cut into pieces and then cleaned and curated using the quicklime, which was procured by heating limestone. The quicklime, when exposed to air, covered the bones in calcium carbonate, or lime plaster. By boiling body parts in pots of quicklime, the flesh and fat became easier to remove from the bones.
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This would have been quite dramatic, and an indelible part of the mortuary ritual itself. As the researchers write in their study:
The reaction produced by adding quicklime to water is a violent one, where heat is produced and gas is released. This would have been quite an impressive sensory experience. Modern indigenous communities in Bolivia conceptualise smoke, gas and mists as ways in which offerings are transmitted to the supernatural realm. Similarly, the visceral, gaseous process of cleaning human remains to produce plastered bones may have conveyed the deceased to the otherworldly realm.
So why did they do it? Traci Watson from USA Today explains:
The end product of that grisly work: relics that could easily be carried on the road by people who lived in the region more than a thousand years ago and seem to have had both a reverence for the dead and a highly unsettled lifestyle. The process created "portable ancestors for a mobile population," said study co-author Scott C. Smith, an archaeologist at Franklin & Marshall College. The discovery shows "the dead still played an active and important role in the lives of the living."
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As the researchers themselves put it, "The evidence suggests that during a time of heightened movement and circulation, Khonkho Wankane was propelled to prominence in part because of a ritual process of preparing human remains for a mobile agropastoral population."
Excavations at the site yielded a number of clues, including 1,000 teeth and small bones sheathed in a thin layer of white plaster, mostly from the feet and hands. The discovery of small blocks made from a white, chalky substance — likely the remnants of quicklime — indicated that the substance was used at the mortuary. The archaeologists also found body parts coated with the plaster, including a piece of skull, and an intact skeletal hand and foot.
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Check out the scientific study at Antiquity. And be sure to read the entire USA Today post.
Images: Scott C. SmithWhile Liquigas Cannondale is thrilled with his two stage wins so far in the Tour de France, they’re not happy with his victory routines. In stage two, Sagan mimicked a body builder muscle routine and in stage four he executed a perfect running man pantomime.
The exposure was invaluable but the Liquigas sponsor believes that Sagan should have made his gestures more sponsor-focused. “We are pleased, that goes without saying,” said Renato Laffalotti of Liquigas. “But we ask ourselves, what does body building have to do with liquified gas products? Could he not mimic holding a tank of propane and hooking it up to a barbecue set?”
The Italian sponsor is reportedly angry that Sagan works out his victory plans with no regard for the commercial interests of the major finical sponsor for the team. “Cavendish, when he rode for HTC in the Tour, he would cross the line acting like he was making a cell phone call on an HTC cell phone,” said Laffalotti. “That sells products, that moves merchandise. If we sold running shoes, we would be thrilled with his stage four antics — but we sell gas.”
According to several sources within the Liquigas Cannondale squad, Sagan is too young to understand the commercial implications of his stage winning demonstrations. “Peter is only 22, he doesn’t get the whole commercial thing. He doesn’t process how important sponsors are,” said team spokesman Luigi Fontana.
Sagan has had it clear that he works out his victory routines with friends over the phone. Team management has apparently tried to contact these friends. “Liquigas just wants a discussion with the friends and perhaps a reminder that Peters’ salary is pad by Liquigas. So any physical displays at the finish line need to respect the needs of the primary team sponsor,” said Laffalotti.
While several riders such as Garmin-Sharp’s Robbie Hunter have criticized Sagan’s attention-getting antics, it appears that Liquigas is the most upset. “The Tour de France is our showcase,” said Laffalotti. “If he wants to do the running man gestures in Qatar, that’s one thing. At the Tour, we expect more respect.”
While not as disappointed as Liquigas with Sagan’s lack of sponsor support at the finish line, bike sponsor Cannondale is also wondering what Sagan could do for their brand. “Hey, he’s a happy-go-lucky guy,” said Michael Rooks, head of global marketing at Cannondale. “But would we like him to point at the bike frame and give it a thumbs up? Sure, that would boost sales.”
According to Rooks, Cannondale’s creative team has offered to develop some more sales focused victory routines. “There are still plenty of stages left in the Tour. We’ve talked to Peter about a few things, given him a routine or two to practice. Making the letter C with his fingers, stuff like that. It should be exciting,” said Rooks.”One of the most spectacular natural caves I've ever adventured into, Tham Lod is a piece Mother Nature's masterpieces in the Mae Hong Son region of Northern Thailand. The Lod is a natural limestone cave system, its main feature is the freshwater stream which runs through the middle of the cave for about 200-300 meters. Inside it's walls are covered with massive formations and columns over 20 metres high, making you feel like very insignificant. Right in the middle of the cave there is no artificial light, so to explore the caverns inside you need a guide with lantern to show you around. I decided to attempt walking through the cave myself on foot, unfortunately the water was too high and I couldn't walk much further than 100 meters inside before making my way back to the exit.
This photo was taken just inside the exit of the cave, standing on one of the 50 meter columns overlooking some kayakers making their way downstream after paddling through it. The funnest way to explore the cave is on the water, hiring a kayak from Cave Lodge, and with an experienced guide you can do 2-6hrs kayaking downstream to many more amazing caves. It's such a rush, and easily the most fun I had in Southeast Asia.
Tham Lod Cave in the Mae Hong Son Wilderness, Northern Thailand.It looks as if the virtual Saudi Spring has come to an end.
After three years of relative online freedom during which Saudis, inspired by the Arab uprisings, took to social media to demand political and economic reforms or to organize consumer boycott or women driving campaigns, the government is stepping up harassment of Twitter users and bloggers.
Three lawyers who criticized Justice Minister Mohamed al-Issa on Twitter because of the glacial pace of reforming the country’s antiquated legal system are being sued by the ministry. They are accused of defaming the ministry and retweeting caricatures critical of the minister. They have been interrogated since
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led Westfield to the 2013 state title game... collected 51 tackles, six for loss, three sacks, one forced fumble and one pass breakup... rated the No. 13 prospect in Indiana by ESPN.com and the No. 49 weak-side defensive end nationally by 247Sports.com... three-year football, basketball and baseball letterwinner... 2014 Academic All-State honoree is a member of the Principal's Advisory Committee... parents are Robyn and Todd Robinson... born on Oct. 25, 1996, Jacob Richard Robinson intends to study business.
Offensive lineman for head coach Brian Butts at Ross High School... 2014 Division III all-state and all-district selection... three-time all-city and two-time first team All-Southwest Ohio Conference honoree... named the top offensive lineman in Ohio Division III as a junior and senior... selected to play in the 2015 Ohio North-South Classic... ranked the No. 3 offensive guard in Ohio... rated the No. 36 prospect in Ohio by 247Sports.com and the No. 61 offensive guard nationally by Scout.com... three-year football and one-year track letterwinner... parents are Sara Barnes and Israel Stepaniak... uncle, Taylor Barnes, was a pitcher at Ohio State University... born on May 15, 1997, Simon Vai Stepaniak intends to study sport marketing and management.
Defensive back for head coach John Konecki at Crete-Monee High School... played against Indiana unanimous consensus All-American running back Tevin Coleman (2012-14) in youth football... 2014 all-state and all-conference selection... Crete won the 2012 Class 6A state championship... rated the No. 16 prospect in Illinois by Rivals.com and the No. 77 safety nationally by ESPN.com... parents are Kenyatta Stringer and Myk Hamer... born on Oct. 12, 1996, Omari Juwan Stringer-Crawford intends to study criminal justice.
Wide receiver for head coach Chris Andriano at Montini Catholic High School... two-time all-state, all-area and all-conference selection... team captain made 66 receptions for 949 yards and 13 touchdowns as a senior... also rushed for 185 yards on 30 carries with five scores... set the school's single-game mark with 14 catches... caught 54 passes for 970 yards and 12 TDs in 2013... Montini Catholic advanced to four straight 5A state title games and won championships in 2011 and 2012... rated the No. 7 prospect in Illinois by ESPN.com and the No. 58 wide receiver nationally by Scout.com... four-year football letterwinner... also lettered in basketball and track and field... parents are Theresa Gardley and Leon Thornton, Jr.... born on Feb. 1, 1997, Leon Thornton III intends to study business marketing.
Wide receiver for head coach Scott Perry at Lake Mary High School... named first team all-state, all-district and All-Central Florida as a senior... recorded 84 receptions for 1,853 yards and 21 touchdowns as a senior... ranked No. 5 in the Orlando Sentinel's 2015 Central Florida Super60... holds the program's career, single-season and single-game receiving yardage and touchdowns records... caught 52 passes for 826 yards and 13 TDs his junior campaign... Lake Mary finished with an 11-1 record and won back-to-back district championships in 2013 and 2014... four-year football letterwinner... also lettered in track and field and lacrosse... runs the 300m hurdles and participates in the long and triple jump competitions... member of the National Honor Society... parents are Jeff and Amy Nickel... born on March 21, 1997, Nicholas Ofenmu Westbrook intends to study sport marketing and management.
Running back for head coach Patrick Cilento at Bullis School... first team all-state, all-metropolitan and all-conference selection as a senior... rushed for 4,496 yards on 613 carries (7.3 average) with 51 touchdowns in his career... made 46 receptions for 697 yards and eight TDs... collected 1,899 rushing yards, 18 scores, 22 catches, 354 receiving yards and five touchdowns in 2014... finished his career as the program's all-time rushing leader... rated the No. 19 prospect in Maryland and the No. 62 running back nationally by Rivals.com... parents are Harmony and Isaac Williams... Devonte Zerone Williams was born on Feb. 5, 1997.
Defensive lineman for head coach Bob Head at West Orange High School... collected 81 tackles, 10 for loss, seven sacks and five pass breakups as a senior... earned first team all-county and all-district honors... voted to the Central Florida All-Star Game... team captain led West Orange to an 11-1 record... ranked No. 12 in the Orlando Sentinel's 2015 Central Florida Super60... rated the No. 50 strong-side defensive end nationally by 247Sports.com... parents are Arthur Wilson and Rasheda Mayse... born on Sept. 12, 1997, Brandon O'Shea Wilson intends to study business management.Share this with your friends
In the midst of celebrating the first legal recreational marijuana sales in the US in nearly 100 years, there seems to be an awful lot of bitching about the price of legal weed. For every celebratory post on my Facebook news feed, there are at least two critical posts: photos of receipts from adult use shops with nasty comments about pricing, posts about black market pot being cheaper, posts glorifying states where people don’t go to jail for possession of small amounts. And posts about the “greed” of Colorado retail operators.
Let’s get something straight: what’s happening in Colorado is HUGE. Colorado is the only place in the entire world where recreational use is actually legal, and this is without question the biggest thing to happen for marijuana in any of our lifetimes. It’s certainly worthy of major celebration.
Yes, it’s decriminalized in other places, and medical qualification is pretty liberal in some areas, but that’s not the same thing as legalization, not by a long shot. The critical thing to remember is this: PEOPLE ARE STILL GOING TO JAIL FOR CANNABIS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY AND ALL OVER THE WORLD, and any advocate or activist who doesn’t recognize the significance of Colorado’s legal status and instead wants to bitch about prices is, for lack of better terms, an asshole.
Let’s think for a moment about the people who have opened the first pot shops in Colorado. Application for the first round of adult use retail licenses is limited to operators of licensed Colorado medical marijuana dispensaries. The folks who operate these dispensaries have served the state’s medical patients, lobbied for new laws, and put their freedom on the line in the face of federal law for years…they aren’t johnny-come-lately opportunists simply looking to make a quick buck.
And as they open the nation’s first retail stores, these business owners are our “guinea pigs” in terms of gauging how the feds will react to state legalization. These first adult use retail operators in Colorado are assuming a huge risk for their businesses, their finances, and their very freedom, and they aren’t doing it behind closed doors, they’re doing it in front of news media from around the world.
Opening a pot shop in Colorado isn’t cheap. License fees for retail operations are not cheap: after an initial $500 application, owners must pay $250 for each “key employee,” $75 for each member of support staff, $250 for vendor registration, and between $3,750 and $14,000 for a business license, depending on the existing medical marijuana license held by the owner, which costs between $7,500 and $18,000 depending on the number of patients served. An optional cultivation fee adds another $2,500.
Due to concerns about federal asset forfeiture that include real estate, it is notoriously difficult to rent property for marijuana businesses, and property owners generally charge a steep rate that reflects the legal and financial risk of renting to a marijuana business. Marijuana retail business owners are also likely to spend large amounts of money on legal counsel through the planning stages of their business, and will also have paid to retain a lawyer as they begin operation.
And it’s not exactly easy to get business loans for marijuana operations – the ability to use banks at all is currently questionable, so operating on a cash basis is necessary.
But despite the initial costs, yes, the owners of these shops will probably make money, and lots of it. One proprietor told a local news source his shop’s first day of operation was likely to generate $30,ooo in revenue. At that rate, shop owners should do quite well.
And shouldn’t they, after all? Advocates for legalization have been shouting for years that taxing and regulation will be good for our communities. We can’t be so short-sighted as to think that marijuana won’t be regulated to some degree in our country. All of our complaints about the black market would still hold true in an unregulated system: “Dealers don’t ID so kids can get it on the black market,” “you don’t know what you’re getting on the street,” “it will bring money to our communities,” and etcetera ad nauseam…Isn’t this what advocates have been saying all this time in order to get pot legalized?
Decriminalization just doesn’t go far enough. Sure, it’s great that recreational smokers don’t go to jail for an ounce of weed. But their pot doesn’t just magically appear. Where’s the protection for the growers? Where’s the protection for your buddy who sells you the weed, the guy who’s likely to have more than an ounce at any given time? Is it ok to have a system that puts folks like them in prison so you can have your bargain priced quarter today?
Because the prices won’t always be this high in Colorado. After the news reporters leave, after the first pot tourists go home, and after the initial buzz dies away, supply and demand will dictate market prices, just like it does in any other industry. That’s capitalism for you. And to me, it sounds pretty sweet.
Yes, the 27.9% state tax on retail sales is steep, and cities can add additional tax. However, Colorado voters overwhelmingly approved this tax, which will fund education as well as regulation of the new industry. While it adds cost to customers, the tax also makes an effective (and valuable) statement that recreational marijuana is here to stay, and will be a boon to the state, which only adds to public support and perception of recreational marijuana’s potential as a viable and legitimate industry.
Considering all this, it’s no surprise that prices are higher than what one might find on the black market – or the medical market – in other states. It’s also important to note that Amendment 64 also allows adult residents of Colorado to cultivate 6 plants at home, so people who cannot afford retail prices do in fact have another option for legal use.
So before you start spouting off on Facebook about how much better a deal you can get on your home state’s black market, think for a minute about the cost of getting arrested. Think about the cost of having your home raided, your children taken away, your freedom gone. Even if you feel the security of decriminalization, think about the other folks who don’t.
The initial cost of retail marijuana in Colorado may be steep, but freedom is priceless.Tell Congress: Don't Undermine Our Access to Birth Control!
by: American Association of University Women (AAUW)
recipient: U.S. Senate and House of Representatives
Last week, the Obama administration stood firm on women's health. Faced with mounting pressure from conservatives, the president announced that women working at religiously affiliated hospitals, schools, and other businesses would have the same insurance coverage for contraception as every other woman under the new health care law. Their coverage will be paid for not by their employers but by insurance companies. This commonsense accommodation respects religious freedom and women's right to affordable preventive health care.
Now, conservatives in the Senate and House of Representatives are trying to make it possible for any employer to deny women contraception coverage. Send a message to Congress: Stop trying to roll back access to birth control!
read petition letter ▾
As your constituent, I urge you to stand firm on women's health and to vote against any proposal to limit contraception coverage for women employees or students at religiously affiliated businesses or schools. The commonsense regulation finalized by the Obama administration last week takes into account genuine concerns over religious freedom and respects the beliefs of religiously affiliated employers. Now, some in Congress want to undo that reasonable rule and further undermine contraception coverage by allowing any employer -- religiously affiliated or not -- to deny coverage to their employees.
I believe that all women should have access to contraception, have it without a co-pay, and have it no matter where they work or learn. Please oppose any measures aimed at weakening this sensible regulation and work to support women's access to birth control. Dear [Decision Maker],As your constituent, I urge you to stand firm on women's health and to vote against any proposal to limit contraception coverage for women employees or students at religiously affiliated businesses or schools. The commonsense regulation finalized by the Obama administration last week takes into account genuine concerns over religious freedom and respects the beliefs of religiously affiliated employers. Now, some in Congress want to undo that reasonable rule and further undermine contraception coverage by allowing any employer -- religiously affiliated or not -- to deny coverage to their employees.I believe that all women should have access to contraception, have it without a co-pay, and have it no matter where they work or learn. Please oppose any measures aimed at weakening this sensible regulation and work to support women's access to birth control.Tensions surrounding another Brisbane university student election have boiled over, this time at the Queensland University of Technology, following the arrest of two students at the Kelvin Grove campus today.
QUT security manager Fergus Ross confirmed that the police were called after a student refused to leave the campus, following a complaint from a campaigning QUT student “about intimidator behaviour by another person, who was allegedly circulating a petition”.
“As the person had not acquired prior approval to petition students, as per QUT policy, QUT security asked that person to identify himself. After repeated refusals, QUT staff, as per policy, asked him to leave which was again refused,” Mr Ross said in a statement.
The students were allegedly distributing flyers promoting a demonstration against the Newman government job cuts tomorrow and gathering signatures for a petition on the same issue when they were arrested.
A police spokeswoman confirmed that two people had been arrested following an “incident at an educational facility at Kelvin Grove” just after 10.30 this morning.A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel denied Trump's request to resume enforcement of his travel ban executive order. | Getty Trump: 'Legal system is broken'
President Donald Trump called the legal system "broken" on Saturday morning, a day after he suggested the White House could release a further draft immigration order early next week.
"Our legal system is broken! "77% of refugees allowed into U.S. since travel reprieve hail from seven suspect countries." (WT) SO DANGEROUS!" the president tweeted.
Story Continued Below
On Thursday, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel denied Trump's request to resume enforcement of his travel ban executive order, which bans Syrian refugees from coming to the U.S. and halts visas from being issued to people from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Trump cited a Washington Times article on how analysts believe refugees from those seven countries are trying to come to the U.S. before the travel ban is put in place again.
The president also tweeted Saturday morning about his proposed border wall, saying the prices will go down for the wall once he gets involved with negotiations.
"I am reading that the great border WALL will cost more than the government originally thought, but I have not gotten involved in the....." he wrote. "...design or negotiations yet. When I do, just like with the F-35 FighterJet or the Air Force One Program, price will come WAY DOWN!"
The border wall is expected to cost $21.6 billion, despite Trump's initial estimate of a $12 billion figure and a $15 billion figure from GOP leaders Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, according to a Reuters report.Before a World Cup qualifier in September, Uruguay's Luis Suarez and Barcelona team-mate Lionel Messi of Argentina posed for photos in special kits promoting the 2030 bid
Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay are to make a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
The three countries' presidents announced the plan in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, although the bidding process will not begin for several more years.
The 2030 World Cup will mark the centenary of the tournament, which first was held in Uruguay in 1930.
In June, Uefa said it would "strongly support" either a pan-British or an English bid to host in 2030.
"The first meeting [for the bid preparation] will be organised in the first week of November," Paraguay's president Horacio Cartes said.
"Other countries are going to want to host but there is a very strong argument in favour of Uruguay, which will celebrate 100 years [from first hosting]."
A joint bid from the United States, Mexico and Canada is the favourite to win hosting rights for the 2026 tournament, with Morocco the only other candidate so far.
A total of 48 teams, rather than the current 32, will compete at an expanded tournament in 2026 after changes announced by Fifa earlier this year.
The 2018 World Cup will be held in Russia, while Qatar is to host the 2022 event.Carly Fiorina informs Seth Meyers she just bought his.org domain. (Photo: NBC/“Late Night With Seth Meyers”)
Carly Fiorina made headlines this week when Internet users searching for information on the newly declared Republican presidential candidate discovered she had failed to secure CarlyFiorina.org — a site that was instead registered by an anonymous critic who used 30,000 sad-face emoticons to represent how many people the former Hewlett-Packard CEO laid off during her tenure at the company.
“You can’t buy every domain name,” Fiorina said Tuesday. “Maybe we should have, but we didn’t.”
Fiorina had some fun with it on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on Tuesday, saying she had purchased SethMeyers.org before her appearance.
“Do you know who owns SethMeyers.org? I do,” she said. “I just bought it in the greenroom … I really did.”
The domain redirects to her campaign’s website.
“Actually, it was really cheap, Seth. I hate to tell you,” Fiorina said.
“Well, I’m gonna start laying people off, so you have something to put on it,” Meyers quipped.
Earlier in the interview, Fiorina tried to distinguish herself from the rest of the GOP pack.
“I’m not a professional politician,” she said. “I’ve done different things. I run charities, I run businesses. I started as a secretary.”
Fiorina also attempted to distinguish herself from Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
“Hillary Clinton is kind of the personification of a professional political class,” she said. “Doesn’t mean she’s a bad person, it’s just she’s been in politics all her life, and a lot of people are tired of that.”[review] Bad Company 2 – PC/360/PS
Tip: Scroll all the way down this post for the new “tl;dr” review
Note: The author of this review has only played the PC version for an upwards of 20 hours. This review applies solely to the PC, but can be also used as a console review if the PC exclusive sections are strictly ignored. Thanks and don’t get mad.
A lot of times we see something building, and we almost never anticipate it properly. This method of preparation, or lack thereof, eventually strikes us cold with one of two feelings. But Bad Company 2 has avoided that gradual path. Instead, its pin of greatness lies in harmonial balance in all spectrums.
A wise man once said that the greatest key to immersion are visuals. Maybe that wasn’t all, because you definitely have to throw the prominent element of sound into the mix. In video games, the combination is savored when it all seems to flow together.
When I first began to play the Bad Company 2 beta, I was not impressed by the graphics. However, I still did enjoy them, save for the frequent frame rate inconsistencies. But what struck me most is the level of improvement and dedication DICE seemed to put into polishing and optimizing Bad Company 2. On the beta, I had to tweak the settings to run the game exclusively on DirectX9, so that I could achieve desired frame rates that normally lied ~60+ FPS with no Vsync.
Let’s face it, Bad Company 2 is a visually superior and technically phenomenal game to look at… or stare, if that’s how you go. Paired up with a great headset and computer and max settings (or HDTV for you console guys) this is shaping up to be one of the best looking games out there. The explosions in the distance are jaw dropping (and in most cases framerate dropping as well). For PC gamers, a good processor is more prominent here than would be a great GPU.
To complement the great visuals, DICE has given us ear shattering sound effects. While they are most evident during the multi player, you will be sure to hear a variety of bullets whizzing by, helicopters soaring above, explosions in the distance, and in the corner of your mind that enemy approaching from behind. All of these elements are crafted together to bring you top of the line battlefield style immersion that the series was always known for. Even after some time of playing one may become de sensitized to the amazing sound – but fire up your other average FPS, and the difference is clear. Bad Company 2 excels in the sound department.
While in the campaign all this is experienced, it presents itself better in the multi player. But what the campaign does have to offer is a great way to get warmed up for the multi player. In the campaign, you will travel dense jungle, cold mountainous terrain, and sightless desert. You may even come across towns or small villages. The single player of Bad Company 2, in comparison to the first, is largely more linear. While I don’t prefer this myself, since I personally see it as a setback, what the linear nature of the game allows it to do is to better reveal the story within and mend a closer relationship to your squadmates.
One of the ways that relationship between you and your squadmates is strengthened is by the humor in the game. During battle, one may hear Haggard or Sweetwater shout satire insults at the other. Multiple jests are made at Modern Warfare 2 as well. Some interaction and character development is furthered in the cut scenes, which are identical to in game, visual wise. In the end, it results in a bond between you and your squadmates that ultimately gives you the desire to accomplish your mission.
The mission is skewed, though. At times you will find yourself wondering where you are, or what you’re doing and why. The first half of the single player seems dull and something difficult to trek through, but it speeds up in the latter half of the game. That said, the game is only around five to six hours long on normal or easy difficulty. The story, at its core, works well for an FPS game and leaves interest, but takes a while to pick up. It is not very replayable, but at most you can go back and collect various weapons and destroy M-COM stations. Each unique weapon you collect is housed in a supply drop. These supply drops are located at various checkpoints in the campaign, where you may receive ammo and switch out equipment.
Overall, Bad Company 2’s campaign may not be the heart of the game, but it is something that one should definitely try to beat once.
The true relic of Bad Company 2 is its explosive multiplayer. Ranging from a 24 player max on the consoles to the 32 player max amount on the PC, it is where the name Battlefield is truly distinguished.
In multiplayer, you have your signature Battlefield experience. While a slight repitition, it is a formula done right, but this one also ushers in some new techniques. Like the specialization system, where you may apply up to 3 specializations (one being a vehicle spec) that increase your performance in one way or another. For example, I have the increased accuracy for my vehicles, and the 4X optical sight for my Engineer. I haven’t unlocked the final slot yet, but I did in the beta.
Some specializations seem to be outrageously advantageous over the others in one particular category (that happens to be very broad), giving an edge to those who have unlocked it. Generally, they seem to be somewhat balanced. On top of those specializations, you also have your four classes of Assault, Engineer, Medic, and Recon. Recon is by far the most played, and often the smallest contribution ingame to actually completing the objective. Then you have your main weapon, side arm, and gadgets. All side arms are usable by all classes, but most weapons and all gadgets are exlusive to their particular class.
From resemblance, Bad Company 2 is closest put to Battlefield 2. The setting is very roughly similar, but similar it is. Bad Company 2 improves the general FPS mechanics, by having squads, with the ability to create and lock them, and huge bonuses for teamwork done within the squad (points in particular, some badges included).
There is a metric ton of content in the multiplayer. Allow me to briefly (if possible) describe them:
1) Four game modes, Rush, Conquest, Squad Rush, and Squad Deathmatch. Rush is attackers vs defenders, where the defenders must kill an allotted amount of attackers, and the attackers must destroy M-COM stations while the bases constantly move forward, providing more M-COM stations to destroy. Conquest is multiple flags, which can be freely controlled by either faction. Each team starts with an amount of tickets. The more flags you have, the better. Having the majority of flags basically puts you in the winning race, for each flag you have a ticket will decrease in a consistent manner from the enemy team’s ticket bank. Squad Rush is just rush with squads only, and Squad Deathmatch is a kill by kill elimination game between Squads only.
2) The stats system allows you to view your kills to deaths, veteran status, skill level, and other stuff. You can also check out the leaderboards to see your spot in the world, and your comparison your friends. Friends can be added through the friends tab. Very basic, search for a friend and add him. He will have to accept your request. From there, you can directly compare stats, remove, or join the game together. The server browser is extensive, but not as I would have hoped. The filters for ranked, not empty, not full, punkbuster, and map/game mode are there, but they do not seem to allow all options. For example, I can only pick one map that I would like to show up. Rather, I would prefer two out of all the maps, etc, which the system does not allow.
3) Next to all this is the Squad system. You can freely join Squads on your team, you can create squads. There are enough squads for the whole team to have two players to each squad. Of course, a one man squad is completely unnecessary, but is possible. You may also lock squads, to prevent those who aren’t your buddies from getting in. You may also join the game in an open squad. There is a huge issue though, while the squads are vastly improved from the first game, you cannot choose to not be spawned on (individually), and you cannot kick people from squads. But, there are huge point bonuses for doing things squad related. Anything you would do in other situations, if done with a squadmate, yields more points. There are also tons of badges and pins for your trouble, which add onto your score. Stuff like dog tags for knifing people. But the knifing in this game isn’t any improved over the first’s, because now you have a wacky animation which can cost you your life.
There’s a lot to say about Bad Company 2. There’s even more to say about how good it is. When it comes down to it, there’s really very little to say bad about Bad Company 2. While the game is currently plagued by connectivity issues because of hordes of players wanting to rack up and rank up, we are positive that DICE and EA will ammend these issues as soon as possible. There are often complaints about the kill delays, and those small things that ruin the game for some people. But most of the time, they are fine. We are sure DICE, along with multiple patches, will add plenty of extra content to keep that hunger of Bad Company 2 going, as was evident from the first game.
What makes Bad Company 2 what it is, though? There’s one crucial thing that I’ve saved for last, and that is the destruction 2.0 system. Throughout the various landscapes that are prevalent in multiplayer and single player, you, as the man behind the weapon, hold the privilege of destroying terrain as you see fit. However, saying terrain is rather the wrong word, as it is more of destroying structure. Small holes can be put into the ground as cover, but most of the destruction occurs above ground. Whole buildings can collapse with proper planning, and you can even blow through that wall your enemy is hiding behind. Its an action packed innovative way to keep the rounds fresh and new each time. It is what makes Bad Company 2 more of Bad Company 2 than the generic FPS game. All in all, Bad Company 2 is a great FPS. There are flaws, yes, but those flaws will not leave you disliking the game anymore, but those flaws are overshadowed by the unique things that Bad Company 2 has begun and done right. An FPS fan of any kind is sure to find something he leaves in this hallmark of the genre.
AdvertisementsNot only did Japan win silver in the 4-x-100-meter relay at the Rio de Janeiro Games, but a brother from Jamaica ran the anchor leg.
Asuka Cambridge, whose first name means “flying bird,” is the son of a Jamaican father and Japanese mother. Born in Jamaica, he moved to Japan at age 2. On Friday night in Rio de Janeiro, he took the baton even with Trayvon Bromell of the United States and slightly ahead of the great Usain Bolt.
As Bolt pulled away for his historic ninth sprint gold medal, Cambridge and Bromell dueled for the silver. Cambridge finished.02 seconds ahead of Bromell, who tumbled after the finish line with an injured Achilles tendon. The U.S. team was later disqualified for an illegal handoff.
The Japanese team’s time was 37.60 seconds. Jamaica won in 37.27.
At a post-race news conference, Cambridge, who does not speak English, sat impassively with his teammates next to the Jamaicans as Bolt fielded questions. Finally, someone asked Cambridge about his Jamaican heritage.
“Although I was born in Jamaica and my dad is Jamaican, I was brought up in Japan and always trained in Japan,” he said through an interpreter. “I’m really honored to be part of the Japanese and win a silver medal here.”
Japan’s only other Olympic sprint medal is a 4-x-100 bronze from the 2008 Beijing Games. But Japan has been gaining notice for strong relay performances based on seamless handoffs. Bolt and his Jamaican team practiced their handoffs once or twice after arriving in Rio. The Japanese team has been practicing since March.
Bolt wasn’t surprised to see Japan come in second. “It’s just teamwork,” he said. “Over the years I’ve noticed, China and Japan, these guys always have great baton exchanges.”
Cambridge, 23, has a personal best of 10.10 in the 100 and 20.62 in the 200. In the individual 100-meter dash in Rio, he made it as far as the semifinals, where he finished seventh in his heat.
The 2020 Olympics will be in Tokyo. The Japanese team has now won silver. With Bolt retiring, Cambridge and his teammates are hoping to win the gold on their home soil.“My father’s assassination is the screw in the regime’s coffin,” said Fares Tammo, who spoke by telephone from the Kurdish city of Irbil in neighboring Iraq. “They made a big mistake by killing my father.”
Mashaal Tammo, 53, was a respected activist who had been released last summer after spending more than three years in jail. Activists and relatives said he was killed by four masked gunmen who stormed his house on Friday, and they blamed government forces for his death.
Founder of the liberal Kurdish Future Movement Party, Mr. Tammo had angered both the government and rivals in the Kurdish community with his outspoken support for a pluralistic democratic state, in which Kurds would be an essential component.
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Kurds make up about 10 percent of Syria’s 20 million people, concentrated in the remote northeast, which borders Iraq and Turkey, but also in Damascus and Aleppo, the country’s two largest cities. They have long faced harassment and discrimination, and for years many were denied Syrian citizenship. Though the community has sympathized with the uprising, its traditional leadership has yet to decisively enter the fray against Mr. Assad, and the government itself, veering between crackdown and concession, had appeared reluctant to provoke the Kurds.
Early in the uprising, the government informally negotiated with Kurdish leaders, reaching what some had termed “a gentleman’s agreement” to forestall mass unrest. Mr. Assad even promised to give tens of thousands citizenship in April, though activists say few have received it.
The Syrian news agency blamed an “armed terrorist group” for Mr. Tammo’s death, a phrase it often deploys to underline its view of the uprising as an armed insurgency led by militant Islamists.
“There’s a real potential for it getting out of hand,” said Peter Harling, a Syria-based analyst and researcher with the International Crisis Group.
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He said the killing was a vivid illustration of the consequences of the government’s shift toward what it calls the “security solution,” a decision that seems to have been made before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began in August.
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“The security solution essentially amounts to giving a free hand to the security services to dramatically raise the levels of violence in an attempt to restore the wall of fear,” Mr. Harling said. “In doing so, the regime has undermined its own ability to think and act politically. This is sheer violence, with no limits, a ‘solution’ that has every chance of creating many new problems.”
Activists said Mr. Tammo’s funeral quickly turned into a rally attended by as many as 50,000 people. Video broadcast on Al Jazeera showed his coffin draped in a Kurdish flag and covered in flowers. At the funeral, activists said, mourners shouted for the fall of Mr. Assad, who inherited power 11 years ago from his father, Hafez.
“Leave! Leave!” went the cry.
“This assassination will be an essential turning point for the Kurdish movement all over Syria, where the silent, neutral Kurdish majority will join the revolution and expand their rallies,” Jouwan Yussef, a Kurdish activist and friend of Mr. Tammo’s, said from Qamishli. “Mashaal’s blood will unify the Kurds.”
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Mr. Tammo was politically involved for more than 30 years, and activists feared that the assassination of such a high-profile figure signaled a new tactic.
Mr. Tammo’s death came on the same day that Riad Seif, a dissident and former political prisoner, was beaten so badly in Damascus that he was sent to the hospital.
Both are members of the Syrian National Council, a newly formed opposition front.
“The regime adopted methods of direct attacks and political assassination of symbols and leaders of the opposition,” the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group, said in a statement. It called Mr. Tammo’s killing “a dangerous turning point.”
The assassination also unleashed indignation abroad. A small protest was organized at the Syrian Embassy in Beirut; in Austria, 11 opponents of Mr. Assad’s government were arrested overnight as they tried to storm the Syrian Embassy in Vienna; and five protesters were arrested Saturday at the Syrian Embassy in London.
The United States called Mr. Tammo’s killing and the beating of Mr. Seif “a clear escalation of regime tactics.” The European Union echoed the statement on Saturday.
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“These appalling crimes further add to the E.U.’s grave concern over the situation in Syria,” Catherine Ashton, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, said in a statement. “All those responsible for and complicit in these crimes must be held accountable.” She condemned acts “aimed at inciting inter-ethnic and inter-confessional conflict.”
Fares Tammo said his father’s assailants asked him to come outside his house in Qamishli, but he refused. The assailants went inside instead. Another son, Marcel, and an activist, Zahida Rashkilo, were wounded when they tried to block their way.
“They managed to reach him anyway,” Mr. Tammo said.
In an interview last month, a day after surviving an assassination attempt, the elder Mr. Tammo accused the government of trying to kill him but vowed to fight on.
“We’re living in chaos, and the regime is pushing us toward even more chaos,” he said. “But we’ll never stop.”Bart Lorang calls it a "paid, paid vacation."
The CEO and co-founder of Denver-based software provider company FullContact is offering his employees a $7,500 bonus to go on vacation, on top of their normal vacation pay.
So what's the catch? There's three, as Lorang describes in a blog on the company's website.
First, employees must completely go off the technology grid, meaning no e-mail, texting or phone calls. In conjunction with the first rule, employees are not allowed to do any work while on their trip.
Third, employees must actually go on a trip. Lorang explains he believes all his employees deserve a nice vacation, and he chose the $7,500 dollar amount because he believes it is enough for a family of four
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th inning guys, though.
A sizable portion of the team’s success in building strong bullpens lay in its middle relief core. We’re all familiar with the Scranton Shuttle, and oftentimes discuss the top-heavy nature of the bullpen – but that’s not quite fair to the pitchers that handle the 6th and 7th, if only for a season or two. Joe Girardi loves having defined roles for his relievers, and having dependable arms to bridge the gap between the starter and Betances/Chapman will be vital this season (lest we forget that two of the five starters will essentially be rookies).
Luckily, the Yankees have two reliable arms to lean on in that role.
Tyler Clippard
Here’s your semi-regular reminder that the Yankees traded Clippard straight-up for Jonathan Albaladejo in 2007, who would go on to throw a grand total of 59.1 IP in parts of three season with the team, pitching to a 4.70 ERA (5.21 FIP).
Clippard has been a dominant reliever for the better part of a decade now, posting a 2.77 ERA (144 ERA+) in 587.2 IP out of the bullpen, while serving as a Bizarro World version of Michael Pineda. That is, his FIP in that time (3.59) is significantly higher than his ERA, which leads to his bWAR (12.3) being much stronger than his fWAR (7.1). He has accomplished this by maintaining consistently low BABIPs (.234 as a reliever), ridiculously high infield flyball rates (16.2%, against a league-average that tends to fall between 9.5% and 10%), and plenty of strikeouts (27.7 K%).
The 32-year-old was in the midst of what may have been his worst season prior to being acquired by the Yankees last year, which raises some red flags. There are reasonable explanations for that, though, including the sheer incompetence of the Arizona Diamondbacks; and not just in a general sense, either, as they may’ve asked Clippard to shelve his slider. It was far from his best offering (though, he had excellent results with it in 2015), as he’s always been a fastball/change-up pitcher – but not having that show-me pitch in his pocket could have led to hitters being better able to sit on straighter stuff. The increased use stands out quite a bit:
It also bears noting that his fastball velocity dropped with the Diamondbacks, leading to less separation against his bread and butter change-up:
That increase, depending upon the tracker, is between 0.6 MPH and 0.8 MPH, which is noteworthy. As per PITCHf/x, Clippard’s fastball velocity was 90.8 with the Diamondbacks and 91.5 following the trade (which is close to his career velocity of 91.8). Combining the increased slider usage, increased velocity, and competent coaching staff, Clippard’s peripherals in his time with the Yankees were right in-line with his career norms.
Adam Warren
Calling Warren’s time with the Cubs a disaster might be putting it far too lightly. He posted a 5.91 ERA (5.83 FIP) in 35.0 IP with Chicago, posting career-worsts in K% (17.8), BB% (12.5), GB% (43.3), HR/FB (16.7%), ERA, and FIP, earning a trip to the minors in doing so. And the most frustrating part of it all may be that there’s nothing on the page that screams bad luck (his BABIP was a career-low.242, and that HR/FB wasn’t absurdly high), nor did his pitch selection or velocity change all that much. To wit:
The only thing that stands out here is the dip in the use of his slider, which has been an effective pitch throughout his career. It isn’t as though he stopped using the pitch, though, and the fact that he went deeper into counts more often than ever last year may have reduced his use of the pitch as he attempted to avoid walks.
As was the case with Clippard, however, Warren bounced back in the Bronx, with all of his peripherals gravitating to within spitting distance of his career norms, and his ERA dropping to 3.26 (4.30 FIP). It may be a simple matter of an extended slump coincidentally ending when he went back to the Bronx (he allowed 12 ER in his last five appearances with Chicago, and then reeled off nine straight scoreless outings with the Yankees), or it could be some combination of comfort and coaching. There may not be a genuine explanation, in short – but it’s comforting that the Yankees received the Warren of old.
When the season begins, I suspect that Clippard will serve as the designated 7th inning arm, with Warren acting as a fireman, of sorts. Girardi used Clippard to record more than three outs just once in 29 appearances, whereas Warren went more than an inning nine times (including four times in a row in late September). And given their ages and recent patterns of use, that makes sense.
As for what to expect statistically, the projection systems see Clippard essentially duplicating his 2016 season, and Warren splitting the difference between 2016 and his career norms. I think both will be better than that, due to Girardi’s ability to manage the bullpen (as well as my irrational attachment to both pitchers).A Cup O’ Tea with An Englishman In San Diego: Talkin’ Comic-Con… (28th September 2014)
s02e01 – Sunday 28th September 2014: 1000pst/1300est/1800gmt
interact on the Google+ Event page:
https://plus.google.com/events/c2mh275ba7cgqee911n280nhjl8
or watch along LIVE on the YouTube page:
iTunes link – don’t forget to comment and subscribe!
— Hey – have you missed us?? —
This is the first of the new season of weekly San Diego Comic-Con Live Shows, a Hangout On Air taking place every Sunday (6pm GMT / 10am PST / 1pm EDT) and hosted by Leonard Sultana, aka An Englishman In San Diego.
Each week, the best bloggers on t’web talk about San Diego Comic-Con, about con and pop culture and, for an hour or so, we invite guests to talk to us and get nerdy and geeky about everything that orbits the Best Pop Culture Convention On The Planet!
YOU can watch and interact online, either by Twitter (tweeting with the hashtag #CupOTeaSDCC) or via the Hangout Event Q&A. Schedules permitting, Leonard will be joined by guests from the SDCC blogging community and some surprises!
Guests, this week:
Megan Gotch (The Nerdy Girlie)
Jesse Linn (The Nerd Truth)
If you have anything you’d like to have discussed in these post-Con shows, please put a suggestion in the comments – we’d love to hear what you’d like to talk about. And don’t forget to join in the conversation LIVE during the show, using the Q&A button in the video preview above or on Twitter (#CupOTeaSDCC)
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The victory of Benjamin Netanyahu and the extreme right in the Israeli elections sorely disappointed those who had pinned their hopes on the Labor-led Zionist Camp so they could resume the peace process. Ad Policy
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Obama administration and the European Union (EU) now have to face the fact that the Palestinians have no partner for peace. They will have to take actions they had hoped to avoid and ramp up outside pressure on Israel to reach a just and lasting agreement.
Yet Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory are not the only battleground where the future of Palestinians and Israelis is being decided. The United States is also an important sphere. And, coincidentally, two major—and very different—American Jewish conferences bookended the Israeli elections. The Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) National Membership Meeting was held in Baltimore from March 13 to 15, and the J Street National Conference is being held this week in Washington, DC, from March 21 to 24.
J Street is the larger and better-funded organization, but JVP is proving to be a real magnet for American Jews who are outraged by Israel’s policies and even more by Netanyahu’s claim to be speaking in their name, and who want to take action, including boycotts. JVP’s roughly 204,000 Facebook “likes” are more than seven times that of J Street’s, and its 41,800 Twitter followers are well over three times those of J Street’s.
J Street, does not support the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, defining itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace” and as part of the American Jewish establishment. JVP, which has supported BDS for years, issued a statement earlier this year fully endorsing the BDS call. It positions itself as pro-justice and universal human rights and says the mainstream Jewish community does not speak for it.
Despite, indeed because, of these out-of-the-box positions, JVP is growing fast. In recent months, the number of chapters across the United States increased from forty-one to seventy-two; the number of members has shot up to 9,000, and online supporters have nearly hit the 200,000 mark. Significantly, much of this growth happened after Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” against the besieged Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014, pushing thousands off the fence of inaction.
JVP’S burgeoning energy and maturity drew hundreds to its conference, which sold out at 600 participants six weeks early; nearly 200 additional video passes were also issued. The theme of the weekend was “We’re Not Waiting,” and participants came from as far as England and California to compare notes, strategize, mourn the lives lost over the summer and celebrate their growing strength. There was a striking number of young people as well as grandparents, long-time activists and newcomers to the cause. And this year, this Palestinian went to the conference, too.
Why would a Palestinian even want to participate in an American Jewish conference? For one thing, JVP is a key player in what is now a fast-growing US movement for Palestinian human rights and equality between Palestinians and Israelis. As a co-founder of another key player—the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (though no longer directly engaged in its work)—I can sense that this movement has come of age.
Within the last generation, several major national organizations have grown out of the efforts of handfuls of volunteers working out of people’s homes, their personal resources stretched to the limit. These organizations are now managing real money and staff out of offices based in DC and all over the US. More important, they are now collaborating effectively both within the movement and across other movements.
For example, several organizations—JVP, the US Campaign, Code Pink, American Muslims for Palestine and others—pooled efforts around the #SkipTheSpeech drive to convince Members of Congress to turn their backs on Netanyahu’s meddlesome foray into US foreign policy. This generated more than a hundred thousand letters, calls and visits, and helped encourage the nearly sixty members who ended up skipping the speech, emboldening them to be critical.
Another example is the way groups in the movement for Palestinian rights are also deeply engaged in the #BlackLivesMatter movement and related campaigns for the rights of individuals and communities violated right here at home.
The mix and vitality of the movement was reflected in the mix of speakers at the JVP national meeting: legendary activist Angela Davis, Rabbi Brant Rosen, feminist and anti-violence crusader Andrea Smith and Dream Defender Ahmad Abuznaid, among others. The vast majority of participants were Jews, but, ironically, almost the first people I met at the conference were three other Palestinians, including one who had trekked in from California. “We wanted to be here,” they told me, “to speak about the work we’re doing and to learn from others.”
JVP has always invited Palestinian voices to speak on its panels; indeed, I spoke at its 2011 conference. But there had been few other Palestinians then; now there were many, alongside participants from several Christian denominations and representatives of other national organizations. JVP provided a safe and embracing space for all those present, allowing the most difficult discussions to take place with heat but without rancor, including around anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
Beyond taking the pulse of the movement, it was important to be at the JVP conference in order to gain insights into the changing discourse around Israel-Palestine in America. In a sense, the Israel-Palestine battleground in the United States is all about shaping the discourse. How are Palestinian rights defined these days? What are the goals of the movement? How and in what form can/will Jews and Palestinians live together? When does joint Palestinian-Jewish activism tip over into normalization of the brutal status quo?
National and local grassroots organizations have been engaged in changing the discourse for years, alongside professional media organizations such as the redoubtable Institute for Middle East Understanding. And the BDS campaigns that so many groups are now working on do help to provide some of the answers. But much of the discourse still needs framing. Moreover, there has been a tendency to see BDS as a goal in itself, overlooking the fact that the Palestinian civil society call for BDS specifically spells out the goals as the achievement of freedom from occupation, justice for the Palestinian refugees and equality for the Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Israel and its US allies are only too well aware of the importance of shaping the discourse. They have been trying hard to clamp down on criticism of Israel, seeking to conflate such criticism with anti-Semitism. Israel’s supporters have successfully driven resolutions at student associations describing legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies as anti-Semitism.
JVP is among the groups pushing back against this conflation. It is vital for the larger movement that Jewish voices consistently reaffirm that criticism of Israel’s occupation and denial of rights to generations of Palestinians is not anti-Semitic; it is a stand against policies and practices that are just plain wrong.
But JVP is also joining other groups in pushing the boundaries of the discourse, in imagining how to resolve the conflict and shape a different future. As a Palestinian, I never imagined I would witness such a thoughtful—and brave—discussion of the Palestinian right of return in a public American space, let alone an American Jewish space. But here it was. Liat Rosenberg of Zochrot (“Remembering”) and Basem Sbaih of Badil (“Alternative”) were invited to keynote a plenary titled “Reclaiming the Past in Order to Realize the Future” that was moderated by Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark, an emeritus professor at New York’s Baruch College and a longtime activist.
One of my fondest memories of the conference was when Rosenberg pointed out how much land would be available for returning Palestinian refugees given that most Israeli Jews are still concentrated around the Tel Aviv area. “Oh, a land without a people,” was Neimark’s riposte, quick as a flash.
So many players in the American Jewish establishment have for decades deployed their skills and energies in the service of Israel’s illegal colonial enterprise. And here, at this conference, were a multitude of Jews, at their most savvy and strategic, working in favor of Palestinian rights and equality for all.
The last person I saw at the conference was a freshly minted attorney, a thoughtful young Muslim American woman of South Asian heritage who had also flown in from California. “Why did you want to be here?” I wondered. “We need to show JVP that they have allies,” was her moving response. “It’s a lonely battle.”
Yes it has been. But not any more.Tech Company Develops Robots to Replace $15 /Hr Workers – Can Produce 1 Burger Every 10 Seconds
On Wednesday Governor Cuomo’s New York Wage Board set a new minimum wage for New York City’s 200,000 fast food workers.
City establishments will now be required to offer employees at least $15 per hour by the end of 2018.
The move also makes it cost effective for companies to fire humans and hire robots.
Momentum Machines has developed a robot that can put out one burger every 10 seconds.
And, it literally does everything. From slicing the tomatoes and pickles, to grinding the meat and toasting the bun.
The machines are more sanitary and efficient than the typical fast food worker. And the robots come to work everyday and don’t sass the boss.
So now fast food companies won’t have to worry about the $15 an hour mob.
Nice work, Democrats.One of them is reported to be an MLA from south Gujarat who is also Vasava’s close aide. PTI
Two more Gujarat Congress MLAs resigned on Monday to join the BJP, reducing the party’s tally to 50 in the 182-member Assembly. With this, as many as seven Congress MLAs have quit to join the BJP in the last one year.
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While Congress MLAs Chhabil Patel, representing Abdasa Assembly seat in Kutch district, and Prabhu Vasava, from Mandvi in Surat district, resigned on Monday, sources said the BJP has approached at least three more MLAs from the party. One of them is reported to be an MLA from south Gujarat who is also Vasava’s close aide.
The BJP seems to be targeting MLAs from areas where it has no candidate or where it faces dissent.
Seeking to control the damage, the AICC general secretary in charge of Gujarat, Gurudas Kamat, is set to meet the party MLAs. Patel and Vasava, who did not attend the ongoing Assembly session, submitted their resignations to Speaker Vaju Vala. “I want Narendra Modi to become the Prime Minister and lead the country. By joining the BJP, I want to make my contribution,” said Patel, speaking to the media after his resignation. Originally from the BJP, Patel quit the party about 18 years back.
Vasava, on the other hand, has always been a Congress loyalist.
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The other five Congress MLAs who quit earlier are Vitthal Radadiya (Dhoraji), his son Jayesh Radadiya (Jetpur), Jasa Barad (Somnath), Rajendra Chavda (Himmatnagar), Bavku Undhade (Lathi, Amreli).Washington (CNN) Zac Petkanas thought he was done with politics after the 2016 election. He was ready to move into the private sector -- or maybe chase a dream job in the art world.
Then his boss, Hillary Clinton, lost.
Within 48 hours -- infuriated by the Cabinet prospects being floated by Donald Trump's transition team, like Wisconsin sheriff David Clarke for homeland security secretary -- Petkanas had decided he couldn't change careers yet.
"Tuesday was the election. Wednesday I was sleepless and tired and very sad," he said. "And Thursday I got extremely angry."
Petkanas quickly transitioned from Clinton's director of rapid response -- a role that made him the campaign's chief Trump hit man -- to director of the Democratic National Committee's war room, where he'd lead the party's resistance to Trump's actions.
"The signals that were coming out of the White House lit a fire under a lot of people," Petkanas said. "He re-engaged a whole slew of people, talented people, driven people, to stay in the fight."
But many of her former staffers -- especially mid-level Brooklyn veterans -- are now on the front lines of the left's anti-Trump resistance.
Many say they're apoplectic over revelations that top Trump advisers were in constant contact with Russians known to US intelligence during the campaign.
Some ex-Clinton staffers have moved into Democratic organizations that are shifting their focus to opposing Trump -- such as Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon, now a senior adviser to Priorities USA; policy adviser Corey Ciorciari, now helming the Center for American Progress war room's policy and research efforts; and Cristobal Alex, Clinton's national deputy director of voter outreach and mobilization, who is now the president of the Latino Victory Fund.
Others are racing to fill the holes in the Democratic Party exposed by November's results, in an effort to help activists newly energized by Trump's victory strike back in upcoming elections, at congressional town halls and more.
Clinton veterans' new projects
One example many Clinton veterans point to: Run for Something, which launched on Trump's Inauguration Day with the goal of recruiting, training and funding first-time candidates for office.
It was co-founded by Amanda Litman, the Clinton campaign's email director, who said in the immediate aftermath of the election, she was looking for a new challenge after several years in online fundraising.
After the election, though, she said she and other Clinton staffers felt like they had failed.
"Once we got over the shock and the sadness and the heavy drinking -- catching up on sleep, cleaning my apartment for the first time in six months -- a bunch of us were talking about different things," she said. "Do you stay in politics because it's incredibly important? Do you leave because you're so cynical and jaded and feel like the work we've been doing doesn't matter?"
Once Litman chose the first option, she leaned heavily on Clinton campaign staffers.
She said Run for Something was built through volunteer efforts of Clinton veterans: The campaign's website director built Run for Something's website for free; Clinton's finance team helped Litman figure out how to raise money. Many of its 1,000 operatives who have volunteered to help future candidates are Clinton alumni.
Litman said friends asked her why she wasn't spending more time going out and relaxing after the election. But she came to feel like she had two options: working, or yelling at the television as news of Trump's transition moves came in.
"One is productive and one scares my dog," she said.
Fueling the Trump resistance
Litman met her co-founder, Ross Morales Rocketto, through his wife, former Clinton digital staffer Jess Morales Rocketto -- who is now organizing airport protests and consulting for United We Dream and the National Domestic Workers Alliance in fighting Trump's executive order banning immigration from seven majority Muslim countries.
JUST WATCHED Chelsea Clinton finds her voice Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Chelsea Clinton finds her voice 01:57
Other Clinton staffers are filling out the offices of rising Democratic stars like California Sen. Kamala Harris -- who hired ex-Clinton aides Lily Adams and Tyrone Gayle to lead her communications shop. Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal hired Clinton veteran Omer Farooque as communications director.
Clinton campaign rapid response team veteran Jesse Lehrich is leading communications for Organizing for Action, while Clinton rapid response spokeswoman Adrienne Watson is the Democratic National Committee's national press secretary.
Another former Clinton communications staffer, Xochitl Hinojosa, is advising former Labor Secretary Tom Perez -- who has called on party members to treat Trump as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell treated Obama, opposing him at every turn -- in his bid for Democratic National Committee chairman.
Jimmy Dahman, a Clinton field organizer in Iowa and then Ohio, has launched TownHallProject.com -- where he and a team of volunteers have made a point of tracking every town hall, coffee meeting or other opportunity for constituents to reach their congressional delegation.
His site's database of upcoming meetings has served as a crucial tool for progressives to identify upcoming events to attend and protest.
Dahman decided to launch the volunteer-driven project after watching a crowd of 100 spontaneously show up at a town hall held by Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colorado, to protest his support for repealing Obamacare.
"I thought, I wonder how many people feel the same way but didn't know the event exists," he said.
Former Clinton deputy national press secretary Jesse Ferguson, senior adviser Leslie Dach and communications department chief of staff Lori Lodes are all consulting for Protect Our Care, the coalition fighting Trump and congressional Republicans over the future of the Affordable Care Act.
Ferguson cited Clinton's oft-repeated Methodist creed -- "do all the good you can, for all the people you can, in all the ways you can, as long as ever you can."
"It's one that many of us took to heart," he said. "There's no better example for the idea that you get knocked down, you have to pick yourself back up. She taught us that and, for a lot of the staff, they're going to go and live that idea."When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Bretton Woods institutions —the IMF, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO)/GATT—appeared invincible. Orchestrated by the United States as the sole superpower, they seemed set to durably underpin a universal economic order. But they are now in rapid and unmistakable decline, which can only be reversed by a major shift in approach by their political masters.
As the Cold War receded, all three institutions felt a strong wind in their sails. Hundreds of millions of Chinese, Russian and Vietnamese workers became part of the global market economy. The Eastern Europeans became enthusiastic joiners of the European Union. China, Russia, and dozens of other countries embarked on comprehensive negotiations to become members of the WTO, not only adopting the totality of the rules that govern trade, but accepting even tougher disciplines than applied to existing members. Previously planned economies became active members and users of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, eagerly adopting the tenets of the Washington Consensus. Meanwhile, economic growth in the developing world surged, democracy spread, and international conflicts declined in frequency and intensity.
But, as we now know, this trajectory was not to last. The outward appearance of a powerful apparatus remains, but the Bretton Woods institutions are now in trouble, hampered by profound disagreements among the large powers over ownership structure and/or their direction, and seemingly paralyzed by their incapacity to adapt to the rapidly changing world around them.
Dysfunction is evident for each of the Bretton Woods institutions.
Frustrated by the Doha deadlock, the United States and its allies have launched mega-regional negotiations that in effect promote alternatives to the WTO as rule-maker in addition to bypassing China, India and other large developing economies. India has just returned the favor by torpedoing the Bali trade-facilitation negotiations. China is stalling on a new Information Technology agreement and promoting its own version of Asian mega-regionals. The United States is, in turn, opposing China’s efforts to join the negotiations on International Services, which are being conducted outside the WTO.
The IMF still plays a role in acute crisis situations, but—despite its attempts to adopt a less rigid stance on issues ranging from fiscal adjustment, inflation targets, to capital controls—it remains profoundly distrusted by many developing countries. Still viewed as an instrument of the finance ministries and central banks of rich countries, the IMF suffers from near-pariah status in Asia where the memories of draconian austerity policies it imposed during the crisis of the late 1990s linger, prompting various initiatives to establish alternative crisis rescue facilities, and inviting increased self-reliance through large-scale, foreign-exchange reserve accumulation. Attempts to reform its ownership have failed, scotched by the U.S. Congress.
Meanwhile, the World Bank’s development lending has shriveled to insignificance in comparison not only to private financial flows, but also to national sources of aid and development finance. The so-called BRICS bank (founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is meant to compete with the World Bank and overcome some of its shortcomings.
Completing this unsettling picture, the G20, which has officially replaced the G7 as the premier economic forum, has achieved little since the financial panic of 2009 abated. Many observers now view it as little more than an oversized talking shop.
The change of fortune for the Bretton Woods institutions is not difficult to explain. It is in no small part a result of its own success in invigorating growth, trade and foreign investment across the developing world. Most important, however, is the fact that the group of the world’s largest economies—those that can call the shots—is no longer formed by a small group of rich countries with similar worldviews. It now includes several countries with large populations, diverse political systems and different economic structures, whose only common trait is that they are relatively poor.
As examples: China (a mass manufacturer) and Russia (a commodity exporter) are now part of the world market, but they remain state-led autocracies. India, South Africa and Brazil retain some of the world’s highest trade barriers. While these rising powers rightfully insist on a larger role in global institutions, they also understandably place a higher priority on fighting their own pervasive poverty than solving the world’s problems.
At the same time, industrial countries continue to be plagued by economic crisis. They are seeing internal divisions deepen and budgets tighten. The United States’ ill-fated and enormously costly foray into Afghanistan and Iraq has made the American public even more skeptical of foreign entanglements than it naturally might be. Large factions in the U.S. Congress favor a smaller role of government at home and see even less of a need for investing in international institutions.
So while in theory the need for the Bretton Woods institutions to support the globalization of markets is greater than it has ever been, in practice the deals needed to retain their vitality have been difficult to strike.
The United States ( the richest economy in the world ) and China ( the second richest economy in the world ) are now respectively the largest and second largest trading nations. They have the greatest interest in open and predictable international markets and the greatest influence among their peer groups. Yet, while they talk of partnership, the undercurrent of rivalry is evident in their actions, and even more so, in the dearth of any joint initiative to tackle the major issues they confront in common.
It would be misleading and alarmist to suggest that the decline of Bretton Woods constitutes an immediate threat to open trade, globalization or the extraordinary development progress we have seen in recent years. These advances certainly depend in part on international institutions, but, at their core, they are driven by fundamental forces—most notably technology and countries’ desire to better the lot of their people by engaging in international trade and investment. After all, economic progress and globalization held sway long before the Bretton Woods institutions were established.
However, it would be equally wrong to underplay the long-term risks that lurk behind the widening shortfall in international economic governance. The global economy needs better rules to keep trade open and predictable, more effective regulation of large international banks, stronger rescue mechanisms at times of crisis, and development paradigms that do not devastate the environment or trample on workplace safety standards.
More ominously, as we have seen at the border of Ukraine and in the East China Sea, geopolitical and security concerns can feed into economic disputes (and vice versa) contributing to a dangerous escalation.
The Bretton Woods institutions are not dead—far from it. The major powers may still find a way to reform and allow them to adjust to the world’s new distribution of economic power. What we know for sure: until they do adjust, vital reforms will be delayed and international investors and exporters can expect to face a riskier environment than in the past; and they will never regain their vitality without the active support and sustained collaboration of China and the United States.
Uri Dadush is a senior associate in Carnegie’s International Economics Program.Fantasy Premier League Attacking Analysis For Gameweek 30
Welcome back to another Fantasy Premier League Attacking Analysis For Gameweek 30 article. jamieFPL returns to analyse which teams have the highest chance of finding the back of the net this weekend.
The Gameweek 30 fixture list has been decimated due to rescheduling and we’re left with just five matches instead of the usual ten. This means that our tables will be without the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal who all miss out.
We are going to use recent goalscoring form, opposition defensive statistics and the bookies odds to determine which teams have the best chance of scoring in Gameweek 30.
Recent Team Goalscoring Form:
The table below displays the top seven teams based on average goals per game (GPG). It also highlights how many of each team’s goals were scored at home compared to away. The data taken from last four Premier League matches.
Team Home Away GPG Stoke 3 4 1.75 Bournemouth 3 3 1.50 Man City 6 0 1.50 Tottenham 4 2 1.50 Leicester 3 2 1.25 Swansea 1 3 1.00 Southampton 2 1 0.75
Stoke have edged their way to the top of the goal scoring form table for Gameweek 30 on the back of their four match unbeaten run. The Potteries have proved consistent both home and away averaging 1.75 goals per game.
Bournemouth, Man City and Tottenham place just behind with 1.50 goals per game. The Cherries have shown no signs of struggling on the road, unlike Man City who have failed to score in their last two away from the Etihad.
Goals have been a minor issue for Spurs in the league recently, but a visit to Aston Villa should spring them back into life. Elsewhere, Leicester keep picking up the points, but with significantly less goals than in the first half of the season.
Team Odds To Score In Gameweek 30:
The table below displays the top seven teams based on the bookies odds to score anytime in Gameweek 30. The odds have been converted to an implied chance percentage.
Team To Score Leicester 62% Man City 60% Tottenham 60% Bournemouth 44% Stoke 35% Southampton 32% Norwich 27%
Leicester are the bookies favourites to score this weekend when they host Newcastle. The Foxes have slightly favoured home matches but shouldn’t encounter too many problems scoring against one of the league’s leakiest defences.
Man City fall narrowly behind in the bookies predictions, despite failing to score in their last two away outings. A visit to Carrow Road is the perfect opportunity for the blues to recover their poor form on the road.
Tottenham are tied with City at second and surprisingly considering their opposition, Aston Villa, who are conceding for fun. Pochettino rested the likes of Kane & Alli midweek in the Europa League, meaning the England youngsters will be fresh for their visit to Villa Park.
Who Faces The Worst Defence In Gameweek 30:
The table below displays the top seven teams based on opposition defensive form. It highlights the opposing team’s average number of goals conceded (GC) and big chances conceded (BCC) per game. The data taken from last four Premier League matches.
Team Vs. GC BCC tot AVL 15 15 LEI new 9 4 mci NOR 6 4 STO sou 5 6 AVL tot 5 5 NOR mci 5 4 BOU swa 4 9
Tottenham are the chosen ones this weekend as they face Aston Villa. The Villains have looked lifeless and a glance at the table displays this. Their whopping 15 big chances conceded have resulted in an average of 3.75 goals flying past them in the last four weeks.
Leicester have the second easiest fixture on paper and will be looking to maintain their five point lead at the top against Newcastle. Three points could be enough to take the Magpies out of the relegation zone this weekend, so don’t expect it to be a complete pushover.
Man City will overtake Arsenal if they manage to beat Norwich at Carrow Road this weekend. The Canaries have just a point from their last ten matches, so it would be a big surprise to see Norwich take any points from this one.Adult whale Lulu was one of UK’s last resident pod and had never produced a calf, probably because pollutants in her blubber had caused infertility
One of the highest concentrations of toxic pollutants ever recorded in a marine mammal has been revealed in a Scottish killer whale that died in 2016.
The adult whale, known as Lulu, was a member of the UK’s last resident pod and a postmortem also showed she had never produced a calf. The pollutants, called PCBs, are known to cause infertility and these latest findings add to strong evidence that the pod is doomed to extinction.
The level of PCBs found in Lulu’s blubber were extreme at 950mg/kg, more than 100 times the 9mg/kg limit above which damage to the health of marine mammals is known to occur. A 2016 analysis showed the average concentration for killer whales in the north-east Atlantic was about 150mg/kg.
'Extraordinary' levels of pollutants found in 10km deep Mariana trench Read more
Lulu died after becoming tangled in ropes used to haul up creels, the netted cages used to catch lobsters and crabs. But Andrew Brownlow, head of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, said: “Given what is known about the toxic effects of PCBs, we have to consider that such a high-pollutant burden could have been affecting her health and reproductive fitness.”
Brownlow, also a veterinary pathologist at Scotland’s Rural College, said: “Lulu’s apparent infertility is an ominous finding – with no new animals being born, it is now looking increasingly likely that this small group will eventually go extinct. One of the factors in this groups apparent failure to reproduce could be their high burden of organic pollutants.”
The examination of Lulu found she was at least 20 years old, well above the age of sexual maturity, which ranges from six to 10 years old. However, analysis of the ovaries shows she never
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’m not sure which scared me more: listening to my wife scream her death wish or whisper it.
I hated the hospital—it sapped me of all energy and optimism. I can’t imagine what it was like for Giulia. She was psychotic, yes, and tormented by her own thoughts, and she needed care and help. And for her to get that care she was locked up against her will and pinned down by orderlies who injected medicine into her hip.
“Mark, I think this is worse than if Giulia had died,” my mother-in-law said to me one night after leaving Saint Francis Memorial. “The person we visit is not my daughter, and we don’t know if she is coming back.” I was silent, but agreed. Every evening I ripped open a wound that I’d spent the whole preceding day trying to patch up.
The week Mark and Giulia got engaged, when they were both 23 years old. (Photo: Courtesy of Mark Lukach)
Giulia stayed in the hospital 23 days, longer than anyone else on her ward. Sometimes Giulia’s delusions scared her; other times they assured her. Finally, after three weeks on heavy antipsychotic medications, the psychosis began to lift. The doctors still didn’t have a firm diagnosis. Schizophrenia? Probably not. Bipolar disorder? Unlikely. At our discharge meeting, the doctor explained to me how important it was for Giulia to take her medication at home, and how this might be difficult because I couldn’t forcibly inject it the way the orderlies did in the hospital. Meanwhile, Giulia still slipped in and out of delusions. During that meeting, she leaned over and whispered to me that she was the devil and needed to be locked up forever.
There's no handbook on how to survive your young wife’s psychiatric crisis. The person you love is no longer there, replaced by a stranger who’s shocking and exotic. Every day I tasted the bittersweet saliva that signals you’re about to puke. To keep myself sane I hurled myself at being an excellent psychotic-person’s spouse. I kept notes on what made things better and what made things worse. I made Giulia take her medicine as prescribed. Sometime this meant watching her swallow, then checking her mouth to confirm that she hadn’t hidden the pills under her tongue. This dynamic led us to become less than equals, which was unsettling. As I did with my students at school, I claimed an authority over Giulia. I told myself that I knew what was better for her than she did. I thought she should bend to my control and act as my well-behaved ward. This didn’t happen, of course. Psychotic people seldom behave. So when I said Take your pills or Go to sleep, she responded badly, often with Shut up or Go away. The conflict between us extended to the doctor’s office. I thought of myself as Giulia’s advocate, but often, with her physicians, I didn’t side with her. I wanted her to follow medical advice that she herself did not want to follow. I’d do anything to assist her doctors with their treatment plan. I was there to help.
"Mark, I think this is worse than if Giulia had died," my mother-in-law said to me one night after leaving Saint Francis Memorial. "The person we visit is not my daughter, and we don't know if she is coming back."
Once discharged, Giulia’s psychosis lasted another month. It was then followed by an eight-month-long haze of depression, suicidality, lethargy, and disengagement. I took a few months off of work to be with Giulia during the day and keep her safe, even get her out of bed. Throughout, her doctors kept tweaking her meds, trying to find the best combination. I took it upon myself to make Giulia take her pills as prescribed.
Then, finally, almost abruptly, Giulia was back. Her psychiatrists told us that her long episode was probably a one-and-done thing: major depression with psychotic features—a dressed-up term for a nervous breakdown. We needed to be proactive and careful about Giulia maintaining balanced and stable habits. That meant her staying on the pills, going to bed early, eating well, minimizing alcohol and caffeine, exercising regularly. But once Giulia returned to health we greedily inhaled our normal lives—windy walks on Ocean Beach, actual intimacy, even the luxury of stupid, meaningless fights. Soon enough she was interviewing for jobs, and landed a position even better than the one she had left when she was hospitalized. We never considered the possibility of a relapse. Why would we? Giulia had been sick; now she was better. Preparing for further illness felt like courting defeat.
Strangely, though, when we tried to return to our pre-crisis lives, we found that our relationship had flipped. Giulia was no longer the Type A partner who sweated the details. Instead, she was focused on living in the moment and being grateful for her health. Now, out of character, I was a stickler, the Felix who dwelled on nitty-gritty. This was weird, but at least our roles still complemented each other, and our marriage hummed along. So much so that a little over a year after Giulia’s return to sanity, we consulted with her psychiatrist, therapist, and OB/GYN, and Giulia got pregnant. Not even two years after I delivered Giulia to the psych ward, she gave birth to our son. During Giulia’s five-month maternity leave, she swooned, soaking up all the tiny glory that was Jonas—his smells, his doe eyes, his lips that puckered when he slept. I ordered diapers and enforced a schedule. We agreed that Giulia would return to work and I’d be the stay-at-home parent, writing while Jonas napped. That was great—for 10 days.
The family on a favorite hike in the East Bay hills. (Photo: Courtesy of Mark Lukach)
After just four sleepless nights, Giulia became psychotic again. One week she was skipping lunch in order to pump breast milk while FaceTiming me and Jonas. The next she was chattering compulsively about grand plans for the universe. I packed a bag of bottles and diapers, buckled Jonas into his car seat, cajoled Giulia out the door, and again drove to the ER. Once there, I tried to convince the on-call psychiatrist that I could handle this. I knew how to care for my wife at home, we’d done this before, all we needed was the same antipsychotic medication Giulia had done well on in the past. The doctor disagreed. She sent us to El Camino Hospital Mountain View, an hour’s drive south from our house. There, a doctor instructed Giulia to nurse Jonas one last time, before she took the meds that would poison her breast milk. As Jonas ate, Giulia prattled on about how heaven was a place on Earth and how God had a divine plan for everyone. (This may sound comforting, but trust me: It wasn’t.) Then the doctor took Jonas from Giulia, handed him to me, and took my wife away.
A week later, while Giulia paced in the psych ward, I visited our friends Cas and Leslie in Point Reyes. Already, Cas knew, I was worrying about falling back into my role as Giulia’s keeper, the psychiatrist’s enforcer. As we walked through a swampy marsh near California’s spectacular coast, Cas pulled out of his back pocket a small paperback book and offered it to me. “There might be another way,” he said.
The book, R.D. Laing’s The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness, was my introduction to anti-psychiatry. The book was published in 1960, when Laing was just 33 years old and drug treatment was becoming a dominant practice in the treatment of mental illness. Laing clearly didn’t like the shift. He didn’t even like the assumption that psychosis was a disease that needed to be cured. In an argument that in some ways predicted the contemporary neurodiversity movement, Laing wrote, “The cracked mind of the schizophrenic may let in light which does not enter the intact minds of many sane people whose minds are closed.” To him the strange behavior of psychotics was not de facto bad. Perhaps they were making legitimate attempts to communicate thoughts and feelings that conventional society did not permit? Could it be that family members, as well as doctors, defined certain people as crazy in order to discredit them? Seen from Laing’s view, the construction of mental illness is demeaning, even dehumanizing—a power grab by the supposed normals. I found The Divided Self extremely painful to read. Among its most searing lines for me: “I have never known a schizophrenic who could say he was loved.”
Psychiatric crises are episodic, but they cut deep into relationships and the lacerations take years to mend.
Laing’s book helped spawn the Mad Pride movement, which modeled itself on gay pride, reclaiming the word mad as a positive identifier instead of a slur. Mad Pride came out of the psychiatric survivor movement, with its goal of taking mental health treatment decisions out of the hands of doctors and well-intentioned caregivers and putting those decisions into the hands of patients. I admired all of those rights movements—every person deserves acceptance and self-determination, as far as I’m concerned—but Laing’s words hurt. I’d made loving Giulia the center of my life. I put her recovery above all else for almost a year. I wasn’t ashamed of Giulia. Just the opposite: I was proud of her and how she fought her illness. If there was a green or orange psychosis-supporter ribbon, I would have worn it.
Yet Laing ripped through a conception I had of myself that I held dear: that I was a good husband. Laing died in 1989, more than 20 years before I picked up his book, so who knows what he really would have thought. His ideas about mental health and its treatment could have shifted with the times. But in my admittedly sensitive state, I felt Laing saying: Patients are good. Doctors are bad. Family members botch things up by listening to physicians and becoming bumbling accomplices in the crime of psychiatry. And I was an accessory, conspiring to force Giulia to take medication against her will that made her distant, unhappy, and slow, and that silenced her psychotic thoughts. That same medication enabled Giulia to remain alive, so everything else was secondary, as far as I was concerned. I never doubted the rightness of my motives. From the beginning, I’d cast myself in the role of Giulia’s self-effacing caregiver—not a saint, but definitely a guy working on the side of good. Laing made me feel like I was her tormentor.
Giulia's second hospitalization was even harder than the first. On the quiet nights I spent at home, after Jonas fell asleep, the reality hit: This isn’t going away. In the psych ward Giulia took to collecting leaves and scattering them throughout her room. When I’d visit, she’d unleash a flood of paranoid questions and accusations, then bend down and scoop up the leaves and inhale, as if the smell might anchor her thoughts against floating away. My mind raced, too. Laing’s ideas raised so many questions. Should Giulia even be in the hospital? Was this an actual illness? Did the pills make things better or worse? All these queries piled self-doubt on top of my sadness and fear. If Giulia had a disease like cancer or diabetes, she’d guide her own treatment; because she was mentally ill, she didn’t. Nobody even put much stock in Giulia’s opinions. And psychiatry is not a field with rock-hard data behind its diagnoses and treatment plans. Some of the most prominent leaders in psychiatry have recently lambasted their own discipline for its inadequate research basis. In 2013, Thomas Insel, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, criticized the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, psychiatry’s so-called bible, for lacking scientific rigor—in particular, for defining disorders based on symptoms instead of objective measures. “In the rest of medicine,” he said, this would be considered antiquated and insufficient, “equivalent to creating diagnostic systems based on the nature of chest pain or the quality of fever.” Allen Frances, who oversaw the 1994 edition of the DSM and who later wrote the book Saving Normal: An Insider’s Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life, put it even more bluntly: “There is no definition of a mental disorder. It’s bullshit.”
Still, Giulia’s doctors, parents, and I made decisions for her. She continued to hate the pills we all forced her to take, and she emerged from her second psychosis much the same way she did her first: with the aid of meds. She returned home after 33 days, still intermittently psychotic but mostly under control. She didn’t talk about the devil or the universe anymore, but, once again, she was barely there, lost in depression and a chemical fog.
During her recovery Giulia attended group therapy, and sometimes her friends from that group came over to our place. They’d sit on our couch and commiserate about how much they hated their pills, their doctors, and their diagnoses. This made me uncomfortable, and not just because they nicknamed me the Medicine Nazi. Their conversations were informed by the anti-psychiatry movement, and that movement is founded on the idea of patients supporting patients—or psychiatric survivors supporting psychiatric survivors, as they call themselves—regardless of whether those survivors are good influences or not. This terrified me. I feared Giulia’s recovery being taken out of the hands of sane, compassionate people—i.e., her medical team, family, and me—and given over to people like herself, who might be psychotic or suicidal.
(Photos: Courtesy of Mark Lukach)
Unsure how to deal with this and frankly exhausted by our regular fights over taking her prescriptions and seeing her doctor, I called Sascha Altman DuBrul, one of the founders of the Icarus Project, an alternative medical health organization that “seeks to overcome the limitations of a world determined to label, categorize, and sort human behavior.” The Icarus Project categorizes what most people consider mental illness as “the space between brilliance and madness.” I didn’t feel great picking up the phone. I wasn’t seeing the brilliant side of Giulia’s behaviors, and I wasn’t eager for more judgment and guilt. But I needed a new way to think about our struggles. DuBrul instantly put me at ease. He started by arguing that each person’s experience with mental health is unique. This may sound obvious, but psychiatry, to some extent, has been built on generalizations. (That’s part of the critique from Insel, Frances, and others: Psychiatry, as it exists in the DSM, is just a directory of catchall symptom-based labels.) DuBrul didn’t like the idea of people’s singular experiences being stuffed in one of a handful of available boxes.
“I have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder,” DuBrul told me. “While that term can be really useful for explaining some things, it’s lacking in a whole lot of nuances.” He said he found the label “kind of alienating.” All that resonated with me. For Giulia, too, none of the diagnoses seemed quite right. In her first psychotic break, psychiatrists ruled out bipolar disorder; in her second, three years later, they were certain she was bipolar. Besides, DuBrul said, no matter the diagnosis, psychiatry “gives you terrible language for defining yourself.”
The doctor took Jonas from Giulia, handed him to me, and took my wife away.
As for medication, DuBrul said that he believed that the answer to the question of whether or not to use pharmaceuticals needed to be far more nuanced than yes or no. The best response might be maybe, sometimes, or only certain medications. For instance, DuBrul shared that he takes lithium every night because he’s confident that, after four hospitalizations and over a decade with the label bipolar, the medication is a positive part of his care. Not the whole solution, but a piece.
All this was very comforting, but I really perked up and started paying careful attention when DuBrul introduced me to the concept of mad maps. Like advanced directives for the dying, DuBrul explained, mad maps allow psychiatric patients to outline what they’d like their care to look like in future mental health crises. The logic is: If a person can define health, while healthy, and differentiate health from crisis, that person can shape his or her own care. The maps are not intended to be rejections of psychiatry, though they could be that. The maps are designed to force patients and family members to plan ahead—to treat a relapse as possible or even likely—in order to avoid, or at least minimize, future mistakes.
When Jonas was 16 months old, Giulia and I put a bottle of anti-psychotics in our medicine cabinet, just in case. This might seem reasonable, but it was silly. We hadn’t yet heard of mad maps, so we’d never discussed what a situation would have to look like for Giulia to take the pills, and that made the medication useless. Was she going to take them if she wasn’t sleeping enough? Or was she going to wait until she was already psychotic? If she waited until she was psychotic, she would also likely be paranoid, meaning that she wouldn't take the pills willingly. Me convincing her to do so at that point would be almost impossible.
Let me lay out a scenario: Just a few months ago Giulia was painting furniture, at midnight. She usually goes to bed early, an hour or two after putting Jonas down. Sleep is important, and she knows it. I suggested she go to bed.
“But I’m having fun,” Giulia said.
“Good,” I said. “But it’s midnight. Go to bed.”
“No,” she said.
“You realize what this looks like, right?” I said.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m not saying that you’re manic, but on the surface, this looks like mania. Staying up late, painting, feeling full of energy....”
Giulia exploded. “How dare you tell me what to do? Stop running my life! You’re not in charge.” The fight lasted days. Anything that echoes how we acted “when she was sick” can lead to trouble. We played nice in front of Jonas, but for the next 72 hours all tiny missteps triggered titanic reactions.
Then, a week after the painting fight, Giulia had a tough day at work. As we got in bed to go to sleep, she quietly said, “I’m scared about how stressed out I feel.”
I asked her what she meant. She stonewalled. “I don’t want to talk about it because I need to sleep, but I’m scared.”
Which in turn scared the hell out of me. She was worried about her mental health. I tried to swallow my anger and fear that she wasn’t taking care of herself. But I didn’t sleep, and I blamed it on her, and we fought for another few days.
Giulia has been healthy for over a year now. She’s thriving at work, I’m back in teaching, we adore our son Jonas. Life feels good. Mostly.
(Photo: Larry Rosa)
Giulia takes a medicine dosage that seems to work without any uncomfortable side effects. But even during our best moments as husband and wife, father and mother, we can feel lingering traces of our roles as caretaker and patient. Psychiatric crises are episodic, but they cut deep into relationships and the lacerations take years to mend. When Giulia was sick, I acted for her in what I believed was her best interest, because I loved her and she wasn’t capable of making decisions for herself. On any given day during one of her episodes, if you asked, “Hey, what do you want to do this afternoon?” she might answer, “Throw myself off the Golden Gate Bridge.” I saw it as my job to keep our family together: pay bills, hold down a job, care for Giulia and our son.
And now, if I suggest that she go to bed, she complains that I’m telling her what to do, micromanaging her life. Which makes sense, because I did tell her what to do and micromanaged her life for months at a time. Meanwhile, I’m quick to gripe that she’s not taking care of herself well enough. This dynamic isn’t unique to us—it exists in countless other families who lived through a psychiatric crisis. The onetime caregiver continues to worry. The former (and perhaps future) patient feels trapped by paternalistic patterns.
I feared Giulia's recovery being taken out of the hands of sane, compassionate people—i.e., her medical team, family, and me—and given over to people like herself, who might be psychotic or suicidal.
This is where mad maps offer a shard of hope. Giulia and I, finally, are trying to make one, and now that we’re doing so I have to concede that in some ways, Laing was right: The treatment of psychosis is about power. Who gets to decide what behavior is tolerated? Who chooses how and when to enforce the rules? We started trying to create Giulia’s map by discussing the pills in the medicine cabinet. Under what circumstances would Giulia take them, and how much would she take? I took a hardline approach: No sleep for one night, pills at maximum dosage. Giulia wanted more time before jumping to medication, and favored starting the dose out light. We argued bitterly as we outlined our positions and punched holes in each other’s logic. Ultimately we had to sit down with Giulia’s psychiatrist to figure it out. Now we have a plan—for one bottle of pills. It’s a small victory, but a genuine step in the right direction in a world where such steps are rare.
We still have a lot to decide, most of it tremendously complicated. Giulia still wants three kids before she turns 35; I’m interested in avoiding a third hospitalization. When we set aside time to talk about things, we know we’re making calendar space to fight.
But I believe in these talks, because when we sit down together to discuss medication dosages, or a timeline for getting pregnant, or the risks of taking lithium during pregnancy, we are essentially saying, “I love you.” My exact words might be “I think you’re rushing things,” but the subtext is “I want you to be healthy and fulfilled, and I want to spend my life with you. I want to hear how much you disagree with me, about something that is as personal as it gets, so that we can be together.” And Giulia might be saying, “Give me some space,” but in her heart it’s “I value what you’ve done for me, and I support you in everything you do, and let’s make this work.”
Giulia and I fell in love effortlessly, in our carefree teens. We’ve now loved each other desperately, through psychosis. At our wedding we promised this to each other: to love each other and stick together in good times and in bad. In hindsight, we also should have promised to love each other when life is normal. It’s those normal days, now transformed by crisis, that have strained our marriage most. I realize no mad map is going to keep Giulia out of the hospital, nor prevent us from fighting over her care. But the faith required to try to plan a life together feels good and grounding. I’m still willing to do almost anything to make Giulia smile.
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Lead photo by Larry Rosa.Did you see that? Right there…back at the beginning of that first sentence. What are we talking about? The word “Did," of course! Did you notice anything strange about that word? Did you? For example, did you notice that it contained one letter twice but it looked different each time it appeared?
“Did," when it appears at the beginning of a sentence, starts out with an uppercase “D" and ends with a lowercase “d." They're the same letter, but they look different. Have you ever given any thought to how strange that is? Why can't all letters simply be the same? Why do we have both uppercase and lowercase letters?
When it comes to letters, case refers to whether letters are written in larger uppercase form, which is also often known as majuscule or capital letters, or smaller lowercase form, which is also known as miniscule or small letters. For example, the first three letters of the alphabet in uppercase form are A, B, and C. Those same three letters in lowercase form are a, b, and c.
Historians believe that majuscule or uppercase letters came first. The first alphabets were written entirely in large majuscule letters, evenly spaced between well-defined upper and lower bounds.
Over time, however, it was only natural that smaller versions of each letter would develop. This probably happened as letters were written quickly. To save time and space, letters became smaller and more rounded as scribes hurried to finish their work.
These smaller versions of letters eventually evolved into an entire miniscule set of letters. Compared to majuscule versions, the miniscule versions offered improved and faster readability in addition to being easier and faster to write.
At first, scribes would only use majuscule or miniscule letters, but not a mixture of both. That changed over time, though. Although there were no official capitalization rules in the English language until the early 18th century, scribes had traditionally written certain letters, such as nouns and the first letters of sentences, in a larger, distinct script for hundreds of years.
Today, lowercase letters are used most frequently, with uppercase letters reserved for special purposes, such as capitalizing proper nouns or the first letter of a sentence. The terms “uppercase" and “lowercase" come from the way in which print shops were organized hundreds of years ago.
Individual pieces of metal type were kept in boxes called cases. The smaller letters, which were used most often, were kept in a lower case that was easier to reach. Capital letters, which were used less frequently, were kept in an upper case. Because of this old storage convention, we still refer to small letters as lowercase and capital letters as uppercase.
The distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters doesn't exist in all languages, though. Certain Eastern and Asian writing systems, including certain Indian, Chinese, and Japanese alphabets, do not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters.Zach Lowe and Stephen Jackson react to the news that the Miami Heat are expected to sign Joe Johnson, and not the Cleveland Cavaliers. (1:03)
The Miami Heat expect to sign former All-Star guard Joe Johnson, sources tell ESPN's Zach Lowe.
Several playoff teams pursued Johnson, but the Heat clearly moved to the front of his wish list, league sources told ESPN's Chris Broussard.
Johnson cleared waivers Saturday at 5 p.m. ET after negotiating a contract buyout with the Brooklyn Nets. Sources told ESPN's Marc Stein that the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks are the other finalists on Johnson's list, but all signs point to Johnson choosing Miami.
Editor's Picks Will Joe Johnson help Heat become contenders? How does Joe Johnson fit with the Miami Heat? Can he be the guy who puts the Heat over the top? Kevin Pelton examines the potential for Johnson to be a difference-maker.
Cavs star LeBron James said earlier Friday that Cleveland was interested in acquiring Johnson, saying "he knows we want him."
"If he decides to come [to Cleveland], it'd be great," James said. "But if not, we'll continue to move on with what we have."
Johnson averaged 11.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.1 assists for the Nets this season on 40.6 percent shooting overall and 37.1 percent from 3.
Before negotiating a buyout with the Nets, the 34-year-old Johnson was making $24.9 million this season in the final year of a mammoth six-year, $124 million deal that was the league's largest at the time when he signed it in 2010.
Miami has two available roster spots after making trades last week that moved its payroll back under the league's punitive luxury tax line.
By shedding what essentially were the original salaries for Mario Chalmers and Chris Andersen, the Heat are in position to avoid the dreaded repeater tax status that would drastically hinder their ability to execute sign-and-trade deals and would also make it far more expensive to sign free agents.
Finals Frontier? Joe Johnson has the third-most games played among active players who never have reached the NBA Finals.
Active Players - Entering Saturday Player Games Andre Miller 1,291 Vince Carter 1,252 Joe Johnson 1,119 Jamal Crawford 1,078 -- ESPN Stats & Information
Although there are complicated alternatives within the league's rules, signing Johnson prior to March 10 -- or adding any player who shakes free after being bought from a current team by March 1 -- could throw the Heat back above the luxury tax line.
For that reason, Heat president Pat Riley acknowledged being in a bit of a dilemma when he met with reporters late Thursday. By waiting several days as part of a loophole to maintain future flexibility, the Heat would miss out on adding a player such as Johnson. By adding help now in a player such as Johnson, it would provide a major boost to an injury-ravaged roster that is fighting to remain in position for one of the top four playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.
The Heat still aren't certain if leading scorer Chris Bosh will return this season as he continues to seek treatment options for an undisclosed medical condition that has sidelined him since Feb. 9. Reserve guard Tyler Johnson underwent shoulder surgery earlier this season, and Miami announced Friday that backup point guard Beno Udrih had season-ending foot surgery.
ESPN's Marc Stein and Michael Wallace contributed to this report.Nicknamed “the world’s smartest billionaire” by the Financial Times, Jim Simons founded the highly successful $63 billion Renaissance Technologies fund. According to recently-released 13F forms filed with the SEC, we can see that in Q4 the fund upped its Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) and Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) positions but cut back its exposure to NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA).
With a personal wealth of $18 billion, Simons is an award-winning mathematician and professor who started his career cracking Cold War codes. Last year he described how these same mathematical skills helped him reach investing gold: “In looking at the data, after a while I realized: it looks like there’s some structure here. And I hired a few mathematicians, and we started making some models — just the kind of thing we did back at IDA [Institute for Defense Analyses]. You design an algorithm — you test it out on a computer. Does it work? Doesn’t it work? And so on.”
The quantitative trading fund, which continues to strictly adhere to mathematical and statistical methods, is now followed closely by investors keen to replicate its returns. In particular, Renaissance’s highly-secretive employee-only Medallion Fund has made a profit of about $55 billion over the last 28 years, which, according to Bloomberg, makes it about $10 billion more profitable than funds run by big-name hedge fund managers such as Ray Dalio and George Soros.
Now let’s dig down into three of the fund’s latest- and most interesting- moves:
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
in Q4 Renaissance increased its AMD holding dramatically. The 254% increase means the fund now holds 11.5 million shares worth $130.7 million. AMD released its much-anticipated Ryzen 7 processor to the market at the beginning of the month. Ryzen puts pressure on AMD’s larger rival Intel’s processor offerings both in terms of price and performance. For example, the company’s high-end 95W TDP Ryzen 7 1800X is only $499 – while its equivalent Intel silicon chip, the 140W TDP i7-6900K, costs $1050.
However, some Ryzen reviews commented on inefficiencies particularly in gaming workloads with the Windows 10 scheduler named as one potential culprit for the bottleneck. Now, just two weeks from the launch date, AMD has released a statement that there will be no major changes to the processors. AMD are concentrating on “many small changes that can improve Ryzen performance in certain applications”. In particular, AMD referred to “targeted optimizations” for software that “can better utilize the topology and capabilities of [AMD’s] new CPU” as well as “simple changes that can improve a game’s understanding of the ‘Zen’ core/cache topology.”
According to financial accountability engine TipRanks, the stock has a moderate buy analyst consensus rating with 9 buy, 10 hold and 2 sell ratings. Due to the recent peak in prices, the average analyst price target of $11.03 now represents a 22.76% downside from the current share price of $14.28.
Gilead Sciences, Inc.
The fund displayed a bullish attitude towards this healthcare stock. With a 171% increase, Renaissance now holds 5.2 million Gilead shares worth $377.7 million. While there are positive catalysts on the stock such as Gilead’s HIV drug Bictegravir, the market is frustrated that Gilead has not made more strategic acquisitions to counteract declining prices and demand for its key hepatitis C franchise. Indeed, Barclays analyst Geoff Meacham decided to voice his frustration in an open letter to Gilead Sciences to “help [the company pro-actively] carve a roadmap to a re-rating”.
Meacham made five key suggestions for GILD: consider transformational M&A deals outside of core business areas including antivirals; cut costs in the hepatitis C unit if the market continues to decline; clarify potential impact of the HIV franchise by providing guidance; take a more aggressive approach to in-licensing/business development; and focus on reinvesting via M&A and other growth measures instead of capital return.
One possible acquisition for Gilead is Incyte, a small molecule hematology-oncology platform, which could cost Gilead around $35 billion. Shares in Incyte have been rising on this speculation- with Credit Suisse analyst Kennen MacKay raising his price target for Incyte to $174 from $136.
Like AMD, the analyst consensus rating on Gilead Sciences on TipRanks is moderate buy with 13 buy and 6 hold ratings. The average analyst price target however reveals a considerable 22% upside from the current share price of $68.10.
NVIDIA Corporation
The fund cuts its Nvidia holding by 4% to 3 million shares worth $330.3 million. The market has been encouraged by the announcement of Intel’s $15 billion acquisition of Nvidia competitor Mobileye on 13 March- which works out at a 40% premium on Mobileye’s share price before the deal.
What does this mean for GPR and chip maker Nvidia? First of all it supports the current valuation of Nvidia shares at $101, given that Nvidia is trading at 8×2016 sales vs the 43-2016 sales paid for MBLY by Intel. While Nvidia’s large size means that it would be very difficult to achieve the same upside Mobileye, it is worth remembering that Nvidia is the leader in the GPU industry, and its Drive PX2 and Tesla P100 cards are key players in the autonomous industry. This is crucial because the Mobileye deal- and its timing- represent the fact that the market is taking driverless technology and its power to transform the auto market very seriously indeed.
With 14 by, 9 hold and 4 sell ratings, the stock has a moderate buy analyst consensus rating on TipRanks while the price target of $108.95 suggests 12-month upside potential of close to 7%.Belinelli still adjusting to defensive scheme
SAN ANTONIO — After his team limited high-scoring Rockets guard James Harden to nine points on 2-for-10 shooting in the first half of Thursday's preseason game, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich opened the second half with newcomer Marco Belinelli defending him.
It was a test Belinelli said he needed, even if Harden went on to score 13 points on 5 of 6 shots.
“He's one of the best players in the league,” said the 6-foot-5 swingman who signed with the Spurs in July. “I made some mistakes on defense, but I'm going to get better. For everybody, it's not easy to guard a guy like him. He can do everything. He can shoot; he can go in; he gets a lot of fouls. It's not easy for everybody.”
Adjusting to the Spurs' defensive scheme always is difficult for newcomers, and Belinelli understands it will be a season-long process.
“It was a little bit hard to understand the system at first, especially on defense,” he said.
“It's got to be better for sure.”
Break for Leonard: Small forward Kawhi Leonard was suited up and on the bench for Thursday's game but did not play. This was by design, with Popovich announcing before tipoff he had given the third-year player the night off.
Leonard, who was ordered by Popovich to stay off the court all summer in order to give a sore left knee every opportunity to heal, said he needs more time to get in game shape.
“I think I'm close,” he said. “I find my legs not under me or getting tired still. I'll probably take these next couple practices, go as hard as I can as long as I can and hopefully by (Oct.) 30th I'll be in game shape.”
Veteran guard Manu Ginobili also got the night off.
The military look: The Spurs' new alternate uniforms, with a military-style camouflage look, were unveiled photographically Thursday on the Spurs' official website (Spurs.com) and got an immediate thumbs-up from a very important player on the team.
“I love 'em,” Tim Duncan said.
Popovich had not seen the new gear and said it was unlikely he would have an opinion about them when he does.
“I don't care,” he said. “I just care how we play, not how we look.”
Now the real work begins: The next time the Spurs play it will count: The Oct. 30 regular-season opener against the Grizzlies.
Popovich's plan for the next five days includes a day off Friday; practice Saturday; a day off Sunday; and practice sessions Monday and Tuesday before the Wednesday game at the AT&T Center.
[email protected]
Twitter: @Monroe_SAAccused government whistleblower Edward Snowden is seen on a screen as he speaks via video conference with
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have to win.’ If the president remains committed to this crucial fight, Republicans – and the American people – will stand with him.
Steele used to be a cheerleader for sending troops into Afghanistan, but now he claims that Obama should have known better. I guess he also lied about Republicans standing with Obama. Not to mention that he seems to have forgotten who started this war.
UPDATE: Conservatives are going nuts about Steele’s statement, and are calling for his resignation. One GOP operative put it this way: “This is the height of stupidity and epitomizes the problem that is Michael Steele.” In fact, the December statement by Steele (quoted above) was originally distributed by another GOP operative. And the RNC communications director tried to “clarify” Steele’s statement, but only managed to make things more murky. So, will the Republicans jettison their chairman and engage in another costly leadership fight just before the all-important midterm elections?He won the Pulitzer Prize for his play, 'Buried Child,' was nominated for an Oscar for his role in 'The Right Stuff' and recently appeared on Netflix's 'Bloodline.'
Sam Shepard, the respected Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist and Oscar-nominated actor, has died. He was 73.
Shepard died Thursday from complications from ALS at his home in Kentucky, according to his spokesman.
“The family requests privacy at this difficult time,” said spokesman Chris Boneau. Funeral arrangements remain private, and plans for a public memorial have not been determined.
Shepard won the Pulitzer in 1979 for his play Buried Child and was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar in 1984 for his role in The Right Stuff as Chuck Yeager. He was in a romantic relationship with Jessica Lange from 1982 to 2009.
In 2015, he appeared on Netflix's dark family drama Bloodline as patriarch Robert Rayburn, which marked one of his final on-camera appearances.
His first New York plays, Cowboys and The Rock Garden, were produced by Theatre Genesis in 1963.
For his playwriting, Shepard won the Drama Critics' Circle Award and Outer Critics Circle Award in 1986 for his play A Lie of the Mind. He won 11 Obie Awards for the off-Broadway plays La Turista, Forensic and the Navigators and Melodrama Play, The Tooth of Crime, Action, Curse of the Starving Class, Buried Child, Fool for Love and the trilogy Chicago, Icarus' Mother and Red Cross.
True West and Fool for Love were both nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Revivals of Buried Child (1996) and True West (2000) were both nominated for Tony awards. His final play, A Particle of Dread, premiered in 2014 at New York's Signature Theatre.
Shepard made his screen acting debut in Bob Dylan's movie Renaldo and Clara. His film acting credits also include Steel Magnolias, playing the husband of the beauty shop owner; Terence Malick's Days of Heaven, for which his movie career took off; Resurrection; Frances; Country; Fool for Love; Crimes of the Heart; Baby Boom; Bright Angel; Defenseless; Hamlet; The Notebook; Black Hawk Down; Don’t Come Knocking; The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Brothers; Safe House; Mud; August: Osage County; Cold in July; Midnight Special; Ithaca; In Dubious Battle; and You Were Never Here.
He wrote the screenplays for Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point; Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas, which won the Palme d'Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival; and Wenders' Don't Come Knocking. He also directed for film, including 1988's Far North and 1992's Silent Tongue.
Shepard also played drums in a band he formed called The Holy Modal Rounders, who were featured in Easy Rider, and he accompanied Bob Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
Two volumes of his prose and poetry were published, Hawk Moon and Motel Chronicles. His novel, The One Inside, was published in February by Knopf.
Shepard directed his plays at San Francisco's Magic Theater and at the Royal Court in London. He was also active in the University of California, Davis Drama Workshop.
Samuel Shepard Rogers III was born in Illinois on Nov. 5,1943, and grew up in Cody, Wyo., and Duarte, Calif. After a brief try at college, he dropped out to join a theater troupe. He began writing plays when pursuing an acting career in New York. Cowboys was based on his roommate and himself. His Western persona — jeans, boot, Western shirt — bespoke his upbringing.
Shepard taught playwriting, leading classes and seminars at workshops and universities, including a turn as a Regents Professor at UC Davis.
He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1986 and received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy in 1992. In 1994, Shepard was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. In 2009, he received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a master American dramatist.
In 1999, Shepard received Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations for his performance in Dash and Lilly.
He is survived by his children, Jesse, Hannah and Walker Shepard; and his sisters, Sandy and Roxanne Rogers.“The critics hated it. And mostly they were right.” – The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Miles Davis’ On the Corner
Between 1968 and 1975, Miles Davis just about single-handedly pulled a genre through the wringer. He didn’t just catch up with the innovations of rock and R&B, he quickly went into someplace new. Even now, nearly 40 years after they were recorded, his two Osaka live albums – Agatha and Pangaea – are a dense, frantic kind of funk/jazz/rock that there isn’t really a word for.
Between the release of In A Silent Way and those two live albums, Miles Davis’ music took a number of turns and jumps: the electrified jazz of Bitches Brew, the swaggering rock of Jack Johnson, the kaleidoscopic funk of On the Corner. As good as that trilogy is, the album I’m most drawn to lately is one of Davis’ most overlooked: the double album Get Up With It.
On the surface, it looks like just a collection of outtakes, no different from the filler releases from Miles Davis’ retirement: Directions, Circle in the Round, etc. But the material here wouldn’t have fit on any of the previous albums, yet here it pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle. It goes from ethereal to frantic, from chugging funk to electrifying soloing. There’s even a blues tune. It’s a mix of Miles unlike any other, purposefully contrasting one shade of Miles Davis with another, until everything comes together as a kind of portrait.
The earliest number here is “Honky Tonk”, dating from the Jack Johnson sessions in early 1970. The sound of this band is distinctly different from the others: it’s stripped down, funkier in a more James Brown way. John McLaughlin’s guitar cuts and chops it’s way through Michael Henderson’s basslines and the keyboard duo of Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock. Airto Moreira is there, too. This one may have sounded a little familiar to listeners at the time; excerpts from a live version appeared on 1971’s Live-Evil.
From there, the music covers Miles Davis’ major bands of this period: “Rated X” and “Billy Preston” both showcase the On the Corner band, which featured both a sitar (played by Khalil Balakrishna) and Indian percussion from Badal Roy. Later, the keyboards and exotic drums vanish, replaced by raging guitars via Lucas and Cosey, as Davis starts playing electric organ, banging out chords to steer his band mid-song.
The bluesy “Red China Blues”, recorded in early 1972, is the album’s most digestible song. A fun, late night jam kind of number it’s a moment of rest from the rest of the album’s challenges. But even here, Mile Davis’ trumpet sounds sharp, piercing. He cuts through the backing track like a knife; it’s said the song wasn’t even meant for Davis, he just liked it and added his horn on a whim.
It’s flip side is “Rated X”, presented here as a tense, frantic funk with Davis stabbing at an organ, playing long droning chords as his backing band throbs and drops in and out behind him. It’s a musical panic attack. And funnily enough, it was what he opened concerts with for a spell, too. Here’s it’s deep in the running order, originally ending side two of the record with a bang.
But the two most important songs here at the two long ones, each of which complements the other. One’s a slow, ethereal piece, the other a driving funk. One inspired Brian Eno, the other could pass for a Can number. And somehow, each is recognizably Miles Davis. Let’s look at them individually.
Opening the record is “He Loved Him Madly”, a long, slow number where Miles Davis barely touches his trumpet. It opens with a moaning organ, some light drumming and guitar plucking. After a while Dave Liebman’s flute comes in, as does another guitar or two. It takes over ten minutes for the rhythm section to even kick in. And Davis’ trumpet doesn’t even show up until after that. But when he does, it’s a knockout: his playing is mournful, haunting. It’s spooky, coming to you from deep in a fog. You’re hearing music from a ghost. Eno name checked this one as an influence on his ambient experiments.
Opening side three – or, as you’re probably listening to it now, CD Two – is the half-hour long “Calypso Frelimo”. It’s a driving, pounding track. Henderson’s relentless bassline keeps pushing the groove forward as Miles Davis and others solo. This was a staple of Davis’ live sets at the time. And although he was a formidable live act – just look at albums like Dark Magus – it was rarely the unrestrained monster that it is here.
It’s not just a showcase for Miles Davis or his talented rhythm section of Henderson, Al Foster and James Mtume, though. There’s his two explosive guitarists, Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas, and solos from Liebman and saxophonist John Stubblefield. An interesting side note: this dense, jamming half-hour take comes from one session in September 1973, too. On previous albums, his master takes were usually cobbled together from different sessions, mixed together by Teo Macero. Here? Well, Davis’ band shows pretenders like Return to Forever, The Grateful Dead and even CAN how to jam.
Chronologically speaking, the last two numbers here date from October 1974. Each features both Cosey and Lucas – “Maiysha” also has the late Dominique Gaumont on guitar, too – and have some of the densest funk of his career. They also represent some of the last recordings of this period of Davis’ career: early in 1975, Davis retired from music. He’d be back a few years later, but his music was never as far-out again.
Taken as a whole, Get Up With It compresses electric Miles Davis down to two CDs worth of music. It ranges from churning funk to spooky ambience to driving jams. During this period, Davis didn’t just change the direction of jazz – within a few years it went from “The Girl From Ipanema” to Jaco Pastorius’ fretless electric bass on “Teen Town” – but it just anticipated directions in music over coming decades: critics hated On the Corner on it’s release; within a decade, Lester Bangs was telling readers to walk around listening to it on headphones and see for themselves how it captures the energy of the street.
And of all the albums Miles Davis released then, the only one to capture the entire freewheeling sense of change and exploration is still Get Up With It. As it turns out 40 years later, the critics were mostly wrong.Stephen Lennox and Jordan Bainbridge have been fined (Picture: NCJM)
Two Geordies have been fined after they sparked a major alert at an airport when they climbed onto a baggage chute into a restricted area.
Stephen Lennox and Jordan Bainbridge crawled along a black conveyor belt at Newcastle International Airport.
Gatwick earthquake rocks building as 3.7 magnitude tremor is felt in London
They were spotted peering over the check-in desk by staff before they climbed onto the belt. They managed to get to the departure area before being arrested.
Prosecutor Justin Gibson said they weren’t due top go on holiday and told police that they were ‘just having a laugh’.
He added: ‘The airport was functioning at the time of the incident when they went into the restricted zone.
‘Their own personal safety was part of the concern as well as the airport infrastructure.’
Mr Gibson said the pair entered the airport with a youth but he didn’t follow them down the baggage chute and was not charged.
They told police they were just having a laugh (Picture: Rex Shutterstock)
The court heard Lennox and Bainbridge had drunk a couple of cans of lager before getting the Metro to the airport.
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Charles Weidner, mitigating for Lennox, said: ‘He acknowledges he had done wrong. He acknowledges it was something stupid and apologised for his behaviour.’
John Williams, mitigating for Bainbridge, told the court his client suffers from bipolar disorder and was sorry for his actions.
Detective facing the sack for farting on duty and repeatedly saying 'c**t'
Lennox, 24, from Felling, and Bainbridge, 20, from Gateshead, both pleaded guilty to being an unauthorised presence in a restricted zone at an airport.
Magistrates fined them £120 each and they were ordered to pay a £30 victim surcharge.
The pair were also given a 12-month restraining order to prevent them from visiting the airport.
Reverend George Curry, chairman of the bench, told them: ‘Security was at a level of severe and now it is at critical after recent events.
‘You could have found yourselves in more trouble had it been critical.
‘If you’re going on holiday you have to go from somewhere else. That is the consequence of your foolish behaviour.’They Choose You is a collaborative art mixer and ephemeral art installation for adoptable cats and people taking place at Artscape Youngplace, Flex Studio #107.
Saturday, November 22 and Sunday, November 23, 2014
10:00 am – 5:00 pm (both days)
They Choose You will feature rescue cats from Toronto Cat Rescue, all available for adoption. It is art as activism, sincere and absurd at the same time, with a motive somewhere between a cat lady’s dream and a creative way to build community. The lives of the cats are intertwined with the humans who inhabit the same city, allowing for an experiential connection in a shared space, beyond the walls of the animal shelter. Visiting with the cats is free! If you fall in love with one (or two!) and would like to adopt, the adoption fee is only $50, so if you have been thinking about adopting, MEOW is the time!
What can we learn from co-existing with other species? How can a life lived with animal companions alter our perspective and interactions in contemporary life? This event considers these questions and seeks to create an open space where visitors may interact with cats and kittens through play and touch. Such encounters carry the potential for deep connections between non-human ‘others’ and us, existing together in the present moment.
Cat Crafternoon with Emily Gove: Sunday, November 23, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Spend the afternoon crafting with human and feline friends! Join us to craft your own leather cat pouch, fabric kitty brooch and crinkle blob cat toy while in the company of adoptable kitties. All supplies and snacks provided. Activities are suitable for all ages, but children must be accompanied by an adult.
$25/person to register for the Cat Crafternoon. You can register via email with Emily: [email protected]. She will follow up with all the details!
Here’s a link to the Indiegogo campaign in support of this project. Check it out and share: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cats-they-choose-youKerala will hold an exclusive day-long transgender athletic meet, a first in the country, at the central stadium in the state capital on April 28.
The event reflects the state’s policy to stop the social stigma and ostracism that the “hijra” — the word covering most Indian languages to refer to eunuchs and transsexuals — has been facing since British colonial times.
At least 100 athletes, representing the southern state’s 14 districts, are expected to participate. The majority of participants will be hijras, who identify neither as male or female, but as members of a third gender — a group comprising transvestites, transsexuals, and castrated men.
“We are excited. The event is expected to reveal fresh talents. Talent is generally suppressed in the community and this is an opportunity to showcase it,” said transgender athlete Sreekutty, who had competed and won in the boys section of a district-level meet.
Hijras have been around in India since ancient times, often assigned the most sensitive task of guarding royal women. But their social marginalization happened during the British rule when they were labelled a “criminal tribe”.
Over time, hijra became an insulting word and members of the community were forced to eke out meagre incomes from ceremonies, begging and sex work, and became the target of vicious attacks.
Kerala took the initiative in 2015 to formulate a transgender policy, aimed at ending the discriminatory treatment and bringing the hijras to the mainstream.
The state set up a transgender justice board to deal with their complaints, and a separate column, called intersex, was introduced in the birth and death registration form. Also, it was made mandatory for all government buildings to have separate washrooms for the third sex.
The efforts have paid off to some extent as S Shyama, a transgender woman, enrolled for her PhD last week after completing her postgraduate course.
Still, members of the community feel society has yet to open up.
The athletic meet, organized by the state sports and youth affairs department, is a step to complement the reforms initiated to give respectability to hijras.
The state sports council and organizations have pledged support to the event.
“Such sporting events will bring some semblance of acceptability,” another athlete said.
Athletes will compete in six categories — 100, 200 and 400m sprints and 4x100m relay, shot put and long jump. Each athlete can participate in at least three events.
“We are planning to make it a big event. We have included many from the third sex in the organizing committee to make it a successful event. Many athletes have started training in district sports councils,” said Sanjay Kumar, the director of sports and youth affairs.
First Published: Apr 19, 2017 18:41 ISTGlutamate receptors are the most prevalent excitatory neurotransmitter receptors in the vertebrate central nervous system and are important potential drug targets for cognitive enhancement and the treatment of schizophrenia. Allosteric modulators of AMPA receptors promote dimerization by binding to a dimer interface and reducing desensitization and deactivation. The pyrrolidine allosteric modulators, piracetam and aniracetam, were among the first of this class of drugs to be discovered. We have determined the structure of the ligand binding domain of the AMPA receptor subtypes GluA2 and GluA3 with piracetam and a corresponding structure of GluA3 with aniracetam. Both drugs bind to GluA2 and GluA3 in a very similar manner, suggesting little subunit specificity. However, the binding sites for piracetam and aniracetam differ considerably. Aniracetam binds to a symmetrical site at the center of the dimer interface. Piracetam binds to multiple sites along the dimer interface with low occupation, one of which is a unique binding site for potential allosteric modulators. This new site may be of importance in the design of new allosteric regulators.The operator of four adult tube sites has prevailed in a battle against a distributor of adult movies. Hydentra HLP filed suit against Sun Social Media alleging that its content appeared on the sites without permission. But was sending DMCA notices through the mail really the best way to get content removed?
As the former operators of Megaupload are only too aware, hosting user-uploaded content can be a perilous activity, even when the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is followed to the letter. Sun Social Media (SSM), a US-based company behind several video platforms, have also had a taste of the risks.
In addition to dating sites, SSM owns four so-called tube sites – Playvid.com, Playvids.com, Peekvids.com, and Feedvid.com. Adult video company Hydentra HLP (also known as MetArt Network), the operator of more than a dozen porn sites, sued SSM claiming that more than 70 of its videos appeared on SSM’s sites without permission.
According to court papers, SSM sites host more than 475,000 adult videos uploaded by their users. Each must agree only to upload videos to which they have the rights. Once uploaded, an independent outside contractor checks every video to ensure they don’t contain criminally illegal content or spam. If they do they are blocked.
In addition to SSM and its four videos sites, Hydentra named two other defendants in the case, SSM director Konstantin Bolotin and Constantin Luchian of IncorporateNow Inc, a company that among other things acts as SSM’s registered DMCA agent. Documents show that SSM accepts copyright claims in various formats, from email and fax, their ‘contact us’ page, through to the unlikely option of posting claims through the mail. Claims are processed within 48 hours.
Importantly, SSM also has a repeat infringer policy operating on a “three strikes in six months and you’re out” basis. To date, SSM has reportedly terminated more than 1,000 users for multiple infringements.
Hydentra hired anti-piracy company Battleship Stance LLC to tackle infringement on various platforms including those operated by SSM. In the majority of cases these were sent electronically and actioned quickly. However, on one occasion the company chose to send 56 DMCA notices to SSM’s DMCA agent IncorporateNow. Printed on paper, delivered through the mail.
The package was signed for on January 20, 2015 by IncorporateNow’s landlord’s receptionist but for reasons that aren’t clear, DMCA agent Constantin Luchian never personally received the package. As a result the content stayed up.
On June 4, 2015, Hydentra filed a complaint against SSM, who at this point became aware of the allegedly infringing content. SSM disabled the files as appropriate but the lawsuit continued.
Hydentra filed claims for direct infringement, contributory infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, inducement of copyright infringement plus various claims related to trademarks.
Later, both parties filed Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment on each of the plaintiff’s claims. At the Federal Court in Miami, things didn’t go well for Hydentra.
“The Court agrees with Defendants that in imposing liability upon an internet service provider for third-party users’ uploading of copyrighted material, Plaintiff must establish that Defendants engaged in a volitional act to cause the illegal copying,” the judge wrote.
“To find otherwise would impose liability upon an otherwise passive internet service provider for conduct that is simply out of its control.”
No such acts were established resulting in SSM’s motion for Summary Judgment being granted and Hydentra’s being denied.
In respect of the claims of contributory infringement, SSM said that it could not be held liable since it had no knowledge of the paper-based DMCA notices. Once notified via lawsuit, all of the videos were removed. The judge said the matter of lost notices couldn’t be resolved during a motion for Summary Judgment.
“Neither party has cited cases, nor has the Court been able to locate cases, where a DMCA Designated Agent lost take-down notices, causing an internet service provider to incur liability for copyright infringement based upon constructive knowledge,” the judge wrote.
Furthermore, for a contributory infringement claim to succeed, Hydentra would need to show that SSM’s tube sites were not capable of “substantial noninfringing uses.” The company failed to do so.
“While the record is clear that at times, third-party users of Defendants’ Websites upload copyrighted material, there is record evidence that the Websites are capable of being used for purposes other than copyright infringement,” the judge noted.
SSM’s motion to dismiss was granted. The claim of Vicarious Copyright Infringement received the same treatment.
“To prevail on a claim for vicarious infringement, a plaintiff must allege that the defendant ‘infringes vicariously by profiting from direct infringement while declining to exercise a right to stop or limit it’,” the judge wrote.
“Plaintiff’s argument that the infringed videos somehow attracted and
drew more visitors to Defendants’ Websites, which allowed Defendants to receive more revenue in advertisements, is not supported by record evidence and is highly speculative.”
The claim of Inducement of Copyright Infringement was dealt with even more swiftly.
“The Court agrees with Defendants that there is no record evidence that Defendants induced the third-party users into uploading copyrighted
material. To the contrary, the record is clear that Defendants operated as passive internet service providers,” the judge wrote.
Val Gurvits of Boston Law Group, who along with local counsel Brady Cobb defended the tube sites, is pleased with the result.
“SunSocial had a strong record of responding to DMCA notices and of terminating repeat infringers. Of note is that in dismissing their copyright claims, the court actually ruled on the underlying merits of the case, and not on DMCA safe-harbor,” he informs TF.
Nevertheless, Gurvits says that the sending of the paper notices was a troubling development.
“Plaintiff intentionally manufactured a DMCA ‘non-compliance’ situation by interjecting paper DMCA notices into an established course of dealings via electronic ones. They first sent all DMCA notices electronically, and SunSocial diligently acted on all of them. Then for some reason they sent 56 paper notices (allegedly in one FedEx package). Then they continued to send electronic notices,” Gurvits says.
“The only reason for Hydentra to interject paper notices into an established exchange of electronic notices is because they hope that recipient will mistakenly miss some of them. It seems they used this process as a pretext for filing some of their other presently pending lawsuits.”
Meanwhile, Hydentra is extremely active taking down content from Google, with more than 2.4 million URLs removed to date.According to vice.com, the students from the Pyongyang university have been given a crash course in cryptocurrencies (in particular bitcoin) — something that’s never happened before.
It’s the first hard evidence of North Korea’s growing interest in cryptocurrencies and bitcoin. While the course could be a normal opportunity given the current appeal of bitcoin, some experts suggest it’s evidence of a more sinister fascination, related to hacking, theft, and even the avoidance of sanctions.
Earlier in November, Federico Tenga, the Italian founder of bitcoin startup, Chainside, traveled to Pyongyang to teach more than three dozen of the country’s elite students about bitcoin and the blockchain technology that underpins it.
Tenga initially contacted the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, the only foreign-funded school in North Korea, proposing a talk about bitcoin at a finance conference organized there. But after President Donald Trump banned U.S. citizens from traveling to North Korea, the university cancelled the conference.
Instead, the school contacted Tenga and invited him to teach the course.
“For sure, it is a weird country,” Tenga said. ”It is almost like going to another planet.”
Tenga spent a week at the the Pyongyang university, during which he gave five 90-minutes lectures to a class of 40 students between the ages of 20 and 25, as well as an extra seminar to faculty members.
The students were well aware of what was happening in the world outside North Korea and they’d heard about bitcoin, they didn’t know how mining and trading worked. Despite their lack of knowledge, Tenga said the students caught on fast.
Tenga said he was only allowed to visit places outside the university with an official from the government — but while inside the school’s walls, he was on his own.
In July, a report from Recorded Future, a security intelligence company backed by the CIA and Google, claimed that bitcoin mining was taking place in North Korea based on monitoring internet traffic coming out of the country.
Despite that report and other claims regarding North Korea’s bitcoin activity, Tenga is skeptical the Hermit Kingdom is mining its own bitcoin — a process which requires a lot of sophisticated and specialized computers. Clearly, North Koreans are interested in the technology, Tenga said, so someone could have been simply running tests but not fully mining the cryptocurrency.The Finnish man whose young daughter’s Winnie the Pooh laptop was confiscated by police because she tried to pirate a popular album has settled his case.
The man, Aki Nylund, paid €300 ($391 USD) to put the incident behind him.
That’s half what TTVK, a copyright enforcement firm, had originally asked for this spring. In November, after Nylund refused to pay, police came to his door and demanded recompense for attempted piracy: Nylund’s daughter, who was 9 at the time, had tried to download an album by Finnish pop singer Chisu. Though the download didn’t work and the girl went to a store to purchase the physical album, police still confiscated the girl’s laptop.
Certainly, though, Nylund’s not happy about having to settle.
“My daughter looked me in the eye and asked, ‘But Daddy, why do adults have to accept responsibility if the child has done wrong?’” Nylund wrote on Facebook.
The fact that uniformed police entered a resident’s home to take a child’s laptop, especially considering she purchased the album, has been held up as an example of pro-copyright groups’ overreach. It’s even prompted a scathing blog post from Finland’s Minister of Sport and Culture, who wrote that copyright enforcement groups should target “large-scale piracy of intellectual property rights…not individual people.”
Chisu, for her part, has distanced herself from the case, saying she had nothing to do with TTVK’s actions.
Nylund wrote on Facebook that he’d and his daughter received plenty of support from filesharers around the world, including gifts: a free Macbook Pro, a suede jacket and pirate hat, money for the “incoming fight for justice,” and a promise of plane tickets out of Finland if he ever ran into more serious legal trouble.
Photo via Aki Nylund/FacebookAadhaar, India’s 12-digit unique identification number, has lately been at the centre of a debate over data protection and privacy as the Narendra Modi government attempts to make the biometric platform mandatory for more and more schemes and services.
In a long chat with Quartz, Nandan Nilekani, the first chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which implemented the Aadhaar project, vigorously rejects the criticism of the platform. And although he’s clear about the need for a modern data protection and privacy law in India to create a more secure digital ecosystem, the former Infosys CEO also seems a bit frustrated by Aadhaar being singled out for scrutiny. Nonetheless, the billionaire-technocrat is sure that he wouldn’t have done it any other way.
Here are edited excerpts from the interview:
Quartz: How do you feel about the Modi government’s push to make Aadhaar mandatory for a number of things, including now for filing income tax returns?
Nilekani: The Aadhaar ID always was meant to be a platform and, obviously, reducing wastage and fraud in benefits was a key part of that. But it was also meant for other applications.
So I think there are two parts to this. One is the extension of Aadhaar-based DBT (direct benefit transfer) to more and more programmes. So that is really linked to the original thing, which is that in many of programmes there is a lot of fraud and wastage, a lot of duplicates. If you use Aadhaar to remove the duplicates, you save a lot of money and the government has said that it has saved around Rs49,000 crore so far. This is all related to efficiency of governance, making sure that the genuine people benefit.
We have to reduce tax evasion and using the Aadhaar numbers to remove duplicate PANs is a solid way of doing that.
And a good example of that is the savings they’ve made on LPG (liquefied petroleum gas cylinders). They were able to redirect that to provide LPG connections to the poor. And you know that more than 20 million people have got the Ujjwala LPG connection and that has been financed, in some sense, from the savings from the LPG programme.
The second part is the use of Aadhaar to make sure that another government document is not duplicated. Because in many of our government-issued documents, the issue of duplicates arises. It’s not an entitlement issue as such, it’s not about giving a benefit but it’s about government statutory documents.
There is some concern over the government’s push to make it mandatory.
You see, when you want to clean up PAN (Permanent Account Number), let’s say you have 250 million numbers. You want to make sure that an individual has only one PAN, (so) you have to make it (Aadhaar) mandatory. If you don’t, half the people give their Aadhaar numbers and half don’t, the duplicates still remain, no?
But doesn’t that create conflict with what the supreme court has reiterated often, which is not to make Aadhaar mandatory?
So, if you look at what was said in parliament three-four days back, the government passed the law, the Aadhaar bill. And in the government’s view that law is really what stands today. Similarly, making PAN mandatory has been done by making a change in the finance bill, so it has been done through a legal process.
So to your mind, it doesn’t create a conflict?
No, I don’t think so. I think we have to reduce tax evasion and using the Aadhaar numbers to remove duplicate PANs is a solid way of doing that.
I don’t have an Aadhaar number, and I’d like to believe that I’m an honest tax payer. But essentially now there is no way that I can pay tax without getting an Aadhaar number.
Suppose you have to drive on the road, you have to get a driver’s licence. Do you feel that is an imposition of the state? Similarly, when you have to travel abroad, you have to get a passport. Do you see that as an imposition of the state?
But I already have a PAN for my tax.
See, if the government decides that there are a lot of duplicate PAN cards and many people are evading tax with that. And if they use the Aadhaar number to remove duplicate PAN cards, what about that is bothering you?
What we’ve seen in the last few weeks is the existence of databases online where the Aadhaar number and other identity details are freely available, perhaps because the data hasn’t been held securely by agencies other than the UIDAI.
Which is illegal, by the way. The law is very clear about this. The Aadhaar Act very clearly says that the Aadhaar number cannot be published or displayed.
So obviously, I think we have a larger issue in India and it’s not just linked to the Aadhaar database. I think there are many, many databases, both in the private and the public sector, which need to be secured and kept encrypted and so on. We need to ensure all databases—whether in the public or private sector, whether they have the Aadhaar number or don’t have the Aadhaar number—should be secure.
If information about me lies across multiple databases and I have an Aadhaar, then the Aadhaar becomes a digital, sort of, link that exists across these multiple databases. What security concerns does that create if these other databases are not secure?
These databases are still under the law of that department. Your banking data still comes under the Banking Secrecy Act, your PAN data comes under the Income Tax Act. So just the fact that the Aadhaar number is there in both databases, by itself, doesn’t mean anything, unless somebody shares across it. And there are laws to prevent that (sharing) from happening. Having Aadhaar alone doesn’t increase the probability of that happening. Every sub-activity has some confidentiality requirement.
Instead of having a larger conversation about creating a more secure digital ecosystem, you think Aadhaar is being demonised?
Absolutely. India needs a modern data protection and privacy law, because today there are many, many sources of digital data. You have your phone, when you move from a feature phone to a smartphone, there is a dramatic increase in the level of data that somebody is able to gather about you.
So the smartphone itself is a huge risk from a privacy point of view. When you use the internet, other people are reading your emails and parsing your emails to figure out what your interests are. Today, we have a proliferation of CCTV cameras in malls, ATMs, hotels, bars, and everywhere, all of which are recording your behaviour, your activities. When the drones come, they’ll be flying around, peeping in your bedrooms. And when you get the internet of things, you’ll have hundreds of sensors all over the place collecting data.
India needs a modern data protection and privacy law because today there are many, many sources of digital data.
The point is that, whether we like it or not, we’re entering a world where there is going to be massive data generation due to a whole lot of technological advances. So we definitely need a modern data protection and privacy law. In fact, I wrote to the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) in 2010, and I’ve worked on it. I actually worked with the government and came out with the first draft.
But to say that because of Aadhaar privacy is gone, as if there’s nothing else happening on the planet, is, I think, a bit disingenuous.
My understanding always was that this 12-digit number is something that people keep to themselves…
It’s not private, you do use it in different things.
When I go and ask for my pension, I give my Aadhaar number. When I get my LPG, I give my Aadhaar number. Obviously, it is the responsibility of the agency, to which you give it,
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(Idaho) and district (the District of Wyoming) in which the crime was commited -- in other words, from that same part of Yellowstone which is in Idaho. The population of that area?
Zero.
Pictured above is a map of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Most of it is within the borders of Wyoming, but northern and western slivers lie within Montana and Idaho. University of Michigan law professor Brian C. Kalt has written a paper about why the piece within Idaho is the perfect place to commit a crime. Dan Lewis summarizes: Link via Dan Lewis Legal Article | Image: USGSEpisode 11: Hop Farming with Eight One Two Farms
The boys from Eight One Two Farms joined us (well, joined Matt and producer Brad because Dustin had a “scheduling conflict”) to talk about hop farming and opening a brewery. Hop farming, especially on the small-scale, is a growing trend, but Eight One Two is upping the ante by introducing indoor growing, creating new hop flavors, and adding a brewery to their farm.
You can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and whichever podcast app you use on Android. Make sure you leave use reviews as those help us rise on the charts. How cool would it be for an Indiana beer podcast to be #1? Help us get there! And make sure you check out the video versions of our show on YouTube.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Keep tagging us in your photos, we love seeing what everyone is doing and drinking!
If you haven’t bought one of our two shirts (crew & tank) then what are you waiting for?
Show Notes:
Beer Flight:WonderCon 2017 hasn’t even started yet (but it will, one week from today!) – but it may already be time to start looking to 2018. Released today with the WonderCon 2017 Quick Guide are the dates for next year’s convention, taking place once again in Anaheim: Friday, March 23 – Sunday, March 25, 2018.
That means for the second year in a row, the convention will bypass Easter, which is set for April 1, 2018. That also shifts it a week earlier than this year’s convention, which may have moved to avoid another Easter scheduling conflict.
The Anaheim Convention Center is currently undergoing construction for expansion, which should be completed this fall (and which also means you’ll get to enjoy it all next spring). The expansion will include the addition of 200,000 square feet of flexible space that can be used for panel or mixed space, and will also expand Car Park 1, and a climate-controlled connection to the second level of the current convention center.
That 200,000 will bump Anaheim up to 1,800,000 square feet – which is still a far cry from the San Diego Convention Center’s current 2,600,000 square feet, but still very impressive.
Will you be attending WonderCon Anaheim 2018? Let us know in the comments.After the 2012 campaign, Mitt Romney insisted he wasn’t going to run for president again. Now, a 2016 run appears likely but probably won’t be successful. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Joshua Spivak is a senior fellow at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College in N.Y. He blogs about government at http://recallelections.blogspot.com/.
Taking heart to the saying “third time’s the charm,” Mitt Romney has shaken up the nascent 2016 presidential race with his announcement that he may not be done seeking the presidency. The electorate may be tired of Romney, but his persistence is somewhat presidential: A quarter of presidents ran unsuccessfully for the office at least once before winning. From Thomas Jefferson to George H.W. Bush, there is a long history of losers coming back to claim the White House.
Still, Romney’s supporters should have good reason to be worried that his third time could be another flop.
What separates Romney from other comeback presidents is that he’s already received his party’s nomination and lost once before. The recent comeback kids did not receive the nomination in their first runs for office. For example, both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush came in second in their earlier attempts for the nomination. Reagan, probably the most noteworthy candidate who ran more than once, boosted his name-recognition and his credibility with the party’s conservative base in his first two runs, especially when he almost toppled sitting President Gerald R. Ford in 1976.
But once you look at the candidates who received the nomination, lost the general election and ran again, the road back to the White House appears much tougher. The last person to lose as a nominee and then go on to win the presidency — or even to get his party’s nomination more than once — was Richard Nixon, who lost the election on a razor-thin margin in 1960 and then won triumphantly in 1968. Before that, it was fairly common for a party to renominate a candidate. William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic nominee three times and never won; Adlai Stevenson got the Democratic nomination twice in the 1950s; Thomas Dewey was the unsuccessful Republican nominee in 1944 and 1948. But all of these candidates share something Romney lacks: Their campaigns occurred before the advent of the current primary and caucus system for choosing a nominee. These earlier nominees needed only to appeal to the narrow support of a political convention.
The modern primary and caucus system, which has been revised after each quadrennial election, gained ascendancy in the 1970s. Since then, not only has no politician come back after winning a nomination but losing the general election, none have really tried. Even when it is discussed, as it was with Ford, Al Gore and John Kerry, the candidates later thought better of the idea. What has happened instead is a weird split between whom the two parties select.
The Republicans have regularly nominated the guy who effectively came in second in the previous race — this happened with Reagan, Bush, Dole, McCain and Romney. (Romney technically came in third in 2008, but that was due to his early, post-Super Tuesday exit once he saw victory was out of reach.) This suggests that past candidates are helped by running a strong race, yet knowing enough to drop out and rally around the party’s standard-bearer once the nomination appears lost. These silver-medalists seem to gain instant credibility within the party for their strong, but losing runs.
The Democrats seem to have a very different standard. Since 1972, Al Gore is the only nominee to have previously run for president. (Gore gained a huge leg up by serving as vice president first.) While all signs point to Hillary Rodham Clinton changing this trend, recent history shows that Democrats appear to want to see a fresh slate of presidential contenders.
There’s no clear reason for this discrepancy, although the fact that Republicans have been very interested in nominating their second-place finishers their second time around may be enough to get first-time losers to run again.
This recent history, which rejects presidential nomination reboots, is probably based on the primary system itself. The old convention system rewarded nominees who were plugged in to the old system and who had the support of a core base of party leaders. The transactional nature of the convention itself meant that it was easier to deal with the known quantity, especially since the state party leaders may have already made deals with the candidate and his advisers in a previous race. It made sense for leaders to go back to the same well, even if it may have meant running a loser a second time.
But candidates now need to appeal to a very different universe of electors in the primary system. The past nominee has to overcome the stigma of losing — and, as polls show, the party faithful are quick to turn on a loser. Primary voters, always looking for a winner, are happy to ignore the last loser and seek a new man or woman for the job. This fact may be why few candidates attempt a second run these days. It’s not that the candidates have lost the desire or drive. It’s just that they can see that, in addition to all the other hurdles, they now have to overcome the “loser” label.
Mitt Romney and his supporters may be excited by the examples of comebacks among presidential candidates. But those happened in a much earlier, different time. Having to overcome the stigma of leading his party to a 2012 loss might be a game-ender.MLS Fantasy Strategies: Preparing for the Round 31 DGW
This article is part of our MLS Fantasy Strategies series.
The end is near with just four rounds remaining in MLS Fantasy Manager. Just as MLS teams are jockeying for playoff positioning, Round 31 is prime time to make a move up the fantasy leaderboard. While eight teams play twice this round, be mindful of the Round 32 schedule too, as 14 of 20 teams will be inactive. With that being said, let's hone in on the top players at each position that could earn a bonanza of points in Round 31.
The Round 31 transfer deadline is Wed, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m. (EDT) DGW Teams Wed, Sept 28 Sat./Sun, Oct 1-2 Chicago Fire* at Seattle Sounders at Columbus Crew SC Columbus Crew SC at D.C. United vs. Chicago Fire D.C. United vs. Columbus Crew SC at Toronto FC Montreal Impact vs. San Jose Earthquakes at Orlando City SC Orlando City SC at Toronto FC vs. Montreal Impact San Jose Earthquakes at Montreal Impact vs. Real Salt Lake Seattle Sounders vs. Chicago Fire at Vancouver Whitecaps Toronto FC** vs. Orlando City SC vs. D.C. United
* only team with two road games
** only team with two home games
Highlighted teams also play in Round 32
MUST HAVES
Nicolas Lodeiro
Lodeiro has single-handedly revived the Seattle attack since entering the lineup nine games ago. He's played a part in a goal in eight straight games and has scored at least eight fantasy points in six of those eight games. The Sounders are in a good position heading into their last five games, and they'll continue to lean on their new leader as they battle for a playoff berth. Given his ability to produce fantasy points regardless of goals or assists, Lodeiro is a must-have this round and is a top candidate for the captain's armband.
THE OTHERS
FORWARDS
Ola Kamara
Kamara has come alive with five goals and 39 fantasy points over his last three games. He's scored a brace in consecutive games, and suddenly Crew SC have renewed hope as they chase the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Columbus kick the DGW off with a pivotal game at D.C. United on Wednesday before returning home to face the Chicago Fire. Look for Kamara to stay hot as Columbus fight for their playoff lives.
Jordan Morris
Morris has caught lightning in a bottle at just the right time for Seattle. The Rookie of the Year frontrunner has four goals in his last four games, including a two-goal, 13-point effort in Sunday's upset win at the LA Galaxy. The Sounders have positioned themselves to snatch the last playoff spot in the Western Conference, and a pair of favorable matchups beginning with the Chicago Fire on Wednesday makes Morris one of the most sought after transfers in Round 31.
Jozy Altidore
Despite coming up empty handed against Philadelphia on Saturday, Altidore is in fine form with seven goals over his last eight appearances. There's a possibility Sebastian Giovinco could return in Round 31, which would only enhance Altidore's fantasy appeal.
Other forwards to consider: Patrick Mullins (D.C. United); Cyle Larin (Orlando City SC), Didier Drogba (Montreal Impact); Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes); Luciano Acosta (D.C. United); Henok Goitom (San Jose Earthquakes)
MIDFIELDERS
Ignacio Piatti
The Impact have been fading fast and suddenly are in jeopardy of missing the playoffs. While Piatti hasn't scored or assisted in four straight games, the fact remains that he's the second-highest scoring midfielder in MLS Fantasy. Take away his three-point effort from Saturday and his totals have actually been somewhat respectable despite the lack of production. With two games this round, a double-digit total is a near guarantee, and he could very well top that on Wednesday alone by breaking out of his funk for his 15th goal of the season.
Kaka
As Kaka goes, Orlando City goes. Kaka's fantasy totals have been pedestrian over Orlando City's current three-game losing skid, with just nine total points in those games. If Orlando City are to make a playoff push, production from their Brazilian DP is a must. Orlando kicks off the DGW with a tough road game at Toronto FC, but particularly enticing is Sunday's home game against the Montreal Impact, who Kaka scored a brace against in a convincing 4-1 win on the road just three weeks ago.
Other midfielders to consider: David Accam (Chicago Fire); Lloyd Sam (D.C. United); Justin Meram (Columbus Crew SC); Osvaldo Alonso (Seattle Sounders); Ethan Finlay (Columbus Crew SC); Matias Perez Garcia (Orlando City SC); Patrick Nyarko (D.C. United)
DEFENDER
Justin Morrow
Morrow scored his fourth goal of the season against Philadelphia on Saturday, and he has factored onto the scoresheet in three straight games. The left back has piled up 20 points over the last three rounds, and with a pair of home games he's a good candidate to earn both attacking and defensive fantasy points.
Harrison Afful
Afful has a combined 15 points over the last two rounds, including a nine-point effort in Sunday's win over the Revs. He's earning bonus points on both sides of the ball, and with the Crew desperate for results, it would be no surprise to see him pop up with an assist this round.
Other defenders to consider: Steve Birnbaum (D.C. United); Hector Jimenez (Columbus Crew SC); Drew Moor (Toronto FC); Victor Bernardez (San Jose Earthquakes); Taylor Kemp (D.C. United)
GOALKEEPER
Clint Irwin
Irwin returned in Round 30 after missing 14 games with a quad injury. He has the distinction of being the only goalkeeper with two home games in Round 31, albeit against two teams fighting for the playoffs. Toronto FC are, however, fighting for first place in the Eastern Conference, and with a game in hand on current leaders New York Red Bulls we can expect a spirited effort from the Reds this round.
Stefan Frei
The Sounders suddenly find themselves in a prime position to leapfrog rival Portland Timbers for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. They'll be eying Wednesday's game against Chicago as a must win, and considering what's at stake, Frei looks to be the goalkeeper most likely to come away with a clean sheet in the midweek games.
Other goalkeepers to consider: Steve Clark (Columbus Crew SC); Bill Hamid (D.C. United); Evan Bush (Montreal Impact)Wide receiver Duron Carter is closing in on an agreement with the Indianapolis Colts, a source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
Editor's Picks Duron Carterâs addition could have impact on Reggie Wayne, Hakeem Nicks The looming signing of WR Duron Carter from the CFL could push a couple of Colts veteran WRs out the door sooner than expected, writes Mike Wells.
Carter, the son of Hall of Famer and current ESPN analyst Cris Carter, played for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League last season.
It has been reported that Carter wasn't eligible to sign with an NFL team until Feb. 10, but the Indianapolis Star reported that the receiver has an agreement with the Alouettes that he will be released from his contract immediately if he signs an NFL contract.
The 6-foot-5 receiver was very productive in the CFL last season with 75 catches for 1,030 yards and seven touchdowns.
Besides the Colts, Carter, 23, has drawn interest from the Minnesota Vikings, Carolina Panthers, Washington Redskins, San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns.
Carter might have had a more traditional path to the NFL if not for academic issues at Ohio State and Alabama. He went undrafted in 2013.
Information from ESPN.com's Pat McManamon and Ben Goessling is included in this report.In the coming weeks, Lyft will introduce a new program called Round Up & Donate, which will allow riders to make a charitable contribution when they take a ride with the service.
Riders will be able to opt into the program, which will automatically round up their fare to the nearest whole dollar. The company announced the program in an ad in The New York Times, stating that “parking your backsides in the back seats across the nation is a way to rebuild our communities around people, not cars.” A blog post aimed at drivers notes that if a fare is $12.75, it will be rounded up to $13, with the extra $0.25 going to a charity.
Riders will be able to pick from a list of charities
The company’s ad explains that users will be able to make a difference with climate change and the “pursuit of equality,” but it doesn’t specify what charities riders will be able to donate to. A spokesperson for Lyft says that users will be able to pick a charity from a provided list in the app, and that it will explore ways for passengers to vote on others for inclusion. The company also said that riders will be able to change the charity that they’re donating to, and will let them opt out of the program at any time.
A number of stores already allow shoppers to do something similar, and Texas ride-share nonprofit Ride Austin allows riders to do the same to “provide local charities contributions on an ongoing basis.” Lyft itself isn’t a stranger to charitable giving: earlier this year, the company announced that it would donate 1 million dollars to the American Civil Liberties Union.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
Update: Dianne Brame has been rehired by Chartwell's School Dining Services following the huge response from this story.
WEBSTER GROVES, MO (KTVI) - A St. Louis County cafeteria worker is out of a job after giving away free meals to a child in need.
For two years, Dianne Brame worked as a cafeteria manager at Hudson Elementary in Webster Groves, keeping kids’ bellies full for their all-important task of learning.
The lunch lady loved her job: “I knew kids by their names, I knew their likes and dislikes, so it was just fun.”
But recently, she came across a fourth grader who consistently came without money. She says he used to be on the free lunch program, but language barriers got in the way of reapplying: “I sent them paperwork so that they could get back in contact with me, but it didn’t happen,” she says.
For days, Brame snuck the boy lunches. She explains, “I let his account get over $45 which I’m only supposed to let it get over $10, and I started letting him come through my lunch line without putting his number in, and they look at that as stealing. I thought it was just taking care of a kid.”
She was trying to protect him from the bullying: a cruel side dish to the default cheese sandwich given to kids without lunch money. “The kids would ridicule and tell them, ah you don’t have any money, that’s why you have to eat cheese sandwiches every day,” Brame says.
On Tuesday, word got around to Brame’s supervisor, who put her between a rock and a hard place: either leave, or move to another school in a demoted position. The 60 year-old former manager felt she didn’t have a choice.
“My husband died in February, I lost my home, car got repo’ed,” she explains, “Hudson is in walking distance from me, so I took the firing. Fire me.”
Gary Woodruff, whose daughter attends Hudson Elementary, finds the punishment to be harsh: “It just seems a little excessive that they would do that to a lunch lady, I mean it’s a little bit ridiculous, especially nowadays with the economy and what not.”
Now, jobless and with the holidays right around the corner, Brame is on a tighter budget—giving cookies instead of pricier presents.
According to Brame’s employer, she does have the opportunity to appeal the decision. But Brame says she doesn’t want to bother, especially because she knows she violated protocol.
Looking back, she says she wouldn’t change a thing: “I don’t think any kid should be hungry. I don’t. And it’s my belief that some of these kids who go to school and get meals, that may be the only meal they eat that day.”Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx speaks about the Takata air bag inflator recall, Tuesday, May 19, 2015, at the Transportation Department in Washington. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / AP)
Washington — Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata Corp. is declaring 33.8 million vehicles defective, a move that likely will lead to the largest auto recall campaign in U.S. history.
Under heavy government pressure, the determination will force 11 major automakers to double the recall of vehicles with air bag inflators linked to deadly explosions, from the 17 million recalled to date. Government officials say the campaign could take years to complete and be the single largest U.S. recall of any consumer product, surpassing the callback of 31 million bottles of Tylenol in 1982 amid a poison scare.
The massive air bag recall covers more than 13 percent of all cars and trucks on the roads in the U.S. today. It would easily surpass the largest automotive recall — 23 million vehicles by Ford Motor Co. in 1980 for a transmission issue that only required the addition of a warning sticker.
"Today is a major step forward for public safety," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Tuesday. He called it "a monumental effort — there is no doubt about it."
It may be weeks or months before all additional owners know whether their vehicles are to be recalled by automakers. And it could be "some years" before there are enough replacement parts to fix every one, according to Mark Rosekind, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The air bags are linked to at least six deaths and more than 100 injuries, caused when propellant explodes with too much force and sends dangerous metal fragments flying.
Officials say there is a link to high humidity and moisture, though the precise cause of the problem is not known. Foxx said the government has "a lot of work to do" to figure out what is causing them to explode, but said it can't delay the recall.
The sweeping announcement is a major victory for NHTSA, which has been pressing Takata since November to declare millions of vehicles defective. The embattled Japanese air bag maker, whose North American headquarters is in Auburn Hills, said it made the move at the government's urging.
The government has imposed no fines at this time.
Tuesday actions are the latest move by the newly aggressive federal auto safety agency, which Rosekind has headed since December. NHTSA on Tuesday separately announced it will hold an unprecedented public hearing in July to force Fiat Chrysler to explain what NHTSA calls a pattern of improperly handling callbacks in 20 recall campaigns since 2013. And it comes after the agency faced heavy criticism last year for failing to discover General Motors Co. delayed recall of 2.6 million vehicles for ignition switch defects now linked to more than 100 deaths.
New vehicles declared defective by Takata on Tuesday include passenger air bags in the 2004-07 Honda Accord and 2003-07 Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe; and some air bags in 2001-06 Honda Civics. A few hundred vehicles from Daimler Trucks also are covered by Takata's new report. Others could be added as automakers review Takata's findings.
Ford, Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and other automakers said in statements they will respond quickly to the defect notices but don't know yet what vehicles will be covered.
Recalls date to 2008
Ten automakers previously had recalled 17 million cars and trucks with faulty Takata air bags: Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, BMW AG, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Mazda Motor Co., Mitsubishi and Subaru Motors USA. They issued callbacks even as Takata refused to declare the parts defective.
The recalls began in 2008 with Honda, and continued to expand over the last seven years. To date, the bulk of the vehicles recalled have been Hondas, which has reports of at least six deaths and 64 injuries connected to air bags exploding and sending deadly metal fragments flying.
In December, Takata came under harsh criticism at a congressional hearing over its refusal to declare the parts defective. Automakers dramatically expanded callbacks as a result. Honda has recalled 5.5 million vehicles since last year, and previously recalled millions more dating to 2008.
In April, NHTSA upgraded its investigation into 12 million vehicles with potentially defective Takata air bags. And it began levying $14,000 in daily civil penalties against the supplier for failing to respond to requests for information about more than 2.5 million pages of documents it has produced.
Under the consent deal announced Tuesday, NHTSA suspended more than $1 million in fines and said it would stop imposing daily fines. But it could impose fines down the road.
Takata has been working to dramatically boost production of replacement parts. The company said in March it had boosted production to 450,000 replacement kits per month, up from 350,000 in December, and expects to be producing 900,000 kits per month by September. Honda announced last year it also would buy additional replacement inflator parts from Swedish supplier Autoliv.
Some of the repairs — especially for passenger air bags — will be phased in, starting with high-humidity areas.
Takata says NHTSA could determine through testing at a later date that national recalls aren't required for all passenger air bags, which could reduce the 33.8 million figure. But it could also end up being higher, since it is only an estimated tally.
Upton pushes for answers
Takata has come under scrutiny and faces lawsuits over whether it addressed quality issues as it rapidly expanded air bag production. It has admitted to problems at plants in Mexico and Washington state.
Shigehisa Takada, chairman & CEO of Takata Corp., said Tuesday's deal "presents a clear path forward to advancing safety and restoring the trust of automakers and the driving public."
"It is clear that this is a complex issue which takes time to fully evaluate," he said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, said in an interview that Tuesday's move is "long overdue," but warned it could take years for Takata to build enough replacement parts. He wants NHTSA to order Takata to share data to allow other manufacturers to build replacements.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, said more needs to be done. "We know there's still a problem: We need answers, and we need action. Everyone involved, from Takata to NHTSA to the manufacturers, needs to buckle down and figure out what triggers the air bag explosions," Upton said. "We can do our part to hold their feet to the fire, and we will."
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee, said he hopes Tuesday's actions mark the beginning of the end to this saga.
"Folks shouldn't have to drive around wondering if their air bag is going to explode in their face or if their car is going to be on another recall list," he said. "We've seen the recall list double now to 30 million cars. Let's hope Takata's admissions today tells us the whole story."
Takata timeline
2007: Honda reports three accidents to Takata involving air bag inflator ruptures.
November 2008: Honda launches recall for 4,000 vehicles globally that have potentially defective propellant in driver's air bag inflators.
May 2009: Driver in a 2001 Honda Accord in Oklahoma dies after an air bag inflator ruptures.
July 2009: Honda recalls 510,000 vehicles globally.
December 2009: Driver in a 2001 Honda Accord in Virginia dies after inflator explodes.
February 2010: Honda expands earlier recall to 437,000 vehicles.
April 2011: Honda recalls 896,000 cars to find defective Takata air bag inflators installed as replacement parts.
December 2011: Honda expands global recall to 613,000 vehicles to find defective inflators installed as replacement parts.
November 2012: Takata notified of three more accidents involving ruptured air bag inflators — two in Puerto Rico and one in Maryland.
April 2013: Six automakers say they will recall 3.4 million vehicles worldwide, including more than 1 million in the U.S.
June 2014: NHTSA announces investigation of 1.1 million vehicles from five major automakers for problems with air bags. Toyota, Chrysler, Nissan and Mazda say they are cooperating with the investigation.
June 2014: GM recalls 29,000 2013-14 Chevrolet Cruzes with faulty air bags.
July 2014: BMW expands its recall to 1.6 million globally.
October 2014: NHTSA expands national recall to 7.8 million. It adds Ford, Chrysler, Mitsubishi and Subaru to the recall.
November 2014: NHTSA formally demands Takata declare that millions of vehicles sold with driver-side air bags nationwide are defective, the first step toward forcing the company to recall vehicles.
December 2014: Takata comes under harsh criticism at a congressional hearing.
April 2015: NHTSA upgrades its investigation into 12 million vehicles with potentially defective Takata bags. It begins levying $14,000 a day in civil penalties against Takata for failing to respond to requests for information.
May 2015: Takata announces 33.8 million vehicles are defective, leading to the largest U.S. recall of any consumer product. NHTSA suspends daily fines as Takata agrees to consent order agreeing to make improvements.
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1S7JVU5On Wednesday night, March 11, the state-appointed mediator sent word to the Bargaining Team (BT) that the Employer is refusing to come to the bargaining table, and is instead focusing on restarting classes. Shortly thereafter, however, the Employer made an about-face: CUPE 3903 received a subsequent call informing the Union that York University will return to the bargaining table.
The BT met today, March 12, to discuss next steps. In response, CUPE 3903 sent a message to the mediator reemphasizing our priorities: tuition indexation for all members, LGBTQ recognized as an Equity-seeking group, and some reasonable financial relief to Graduate Assistants. York University could end this strike now by granting these provisions, which cost the university almost nothing, but which are vital to keep graduate education accessible. The Union asked to meet Friday morning, as well as Sunday, to move forward. We await a response.
We call on all picket lines to stay strong to support the Bargaining Team and the Union. We call on our Unit 2 comrades to continue to join us.
We are encouraged by the over 4,600 undergraduate students who have expressed their solidarity in this statement. We are also encouraged by roughly 275 members of the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) who have expressed their support, as well as by the countless letters to the Senate Executive from individual departments across campus. We are encouraged by the 188 members of Unit 2 who have signed their names to a letter to the Senate Executive in solidarity with Units 1 and 3. We are encouraged by the 140 law students who signed the letter in support of the CUPE 3903 strike. With our allies, we are strong!
We call on all allies to show up in force to the rallies planned for Monday, March 16 at York, in order to send the message that the York University administration cannot undermine the membership’s will with threats to restart classes and a refusal to negotiate.
We call for the continued support from undergraduate students and YUFA to continue to put pressure on the Senate Executive not to restart classes in support of CUPE 3903.
President Shoukri: Call your negotiating team back to the table, and tell them to give us the University we deserve!Is this email not displaying correctly? Try the web version. Attendance Soars at Fifth Global Conference Anti-corruption fighters gathered in Manila at the end of January, joining together to lead the way towards a corruption-free society. The Fifth Global Conference of Parliamentarians Against Corruption was the most successful and well-attended conference since GOPAC’s inception. Over 500 legislators, representatives from NGOs and civil society actors assembled for the event at the Philippines International Conference Center in Manila, Philippines from 31 January to 2 February. The three days were packed with insightful dialogs and GOPAC Members returned to their countries energized with new ideas to strengthen their fight against corruption. The GOPAC Manila Secretariat will shortly release a full conference proceedings book. For a copy of the Declaration and Resolutions, please visit the GOPAC website. We are also posting photos from the event on the GOPAC Facebook page and on Flickr. We invite everyone to browse the photos and tag themselves where appropriate. GOPAC Welcomes Senator Angara as New Chair of Board of Directors Prior to the opening of the Fifth Global Conference of Parliamentarians Against Corruption, GOPAC held its biennial Board of Directors meeting. The Board of Directors elected a new Chair, Senator Edgardo Angara, who previously sat on the Board as Vice-Chair. Sen. Angara has been a strong advocate for the fight against corruption for over a decade and in addition to his dedication to the GOPAC Board, he is the Chair of the Southeast Asia Parliamentarians Against Corruption and GOPAC Philippines. Hon. Given Lubinda’s term as Vice-Chair has come to an end but his strong commitment to GOPAC and the fight against corruption will continue. Mr. Ricardo Garcia Cervantes from Mexico will continue in his role as Vice-Chair and Mary King from Trinidad and Tobago will remain as Secretary. GOPAC would like to thank outgoing Chair Dr. Naser Al Sane who has been a strong leader for the organization over the past four years. His hard work and dedication have laid a solid foundation for the organization, ensuring GOPAC is a sustainable and strong leader in the anti-corruption fight. Dr. Al Sane will remain on the Board of Directors as a Member-at-large of the Board of Director’s Executive Committee. He was also appointed Chair of the GOPAC Management Committee. Visit the GOPAC website to read more about our Board of Directors. Examining Constituency Development Funds in Zambia GOPAC partner and fellow anti-corruption leader, Tearfund, joined us for the Fifth Global Conference of Parliamentarians Against Corruption where they unveiled their research report Constituency Development Funds: Transparency in grassroots development or political patronage. The report, which examines the constituency development fund in Zambia, was a joint effort between Tearfund and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ). During the launch of the report, EFZ and Tearfund called on parliamentarians to: Enhance transparency, ensuring that information is useful and understandable at the local level; Promote meaningful community participation throughout the process, from the decision making to the monitoring of projects; and
Reduce the level of influence that the Parliamentarians have over decisions on the use of CDFs.
The report shows that these aspects can make a difference to the outcome of local development projects. At the closing ceremony of the Global Conference the African Parliamentarian Network Against Corruption (APNAC) noted their intention to work to reform CDF practices. Click here to read the full report. GOPAC Founder Appointed
Chairman Emeritus At the Board of Directors Meeting held following to the Fifth Global Conference of Parliamentarians Against Corruption, the GOPAC Board of Directors unanimously resolved to appoint GOPAC Founder John Williams to the role of GOPAC Chairman Emeritus. The appointment comes in recognition of Mr. Williams’ extensive contributions to the organisation and ensures that GOPAC does not lose his advice and experience. He will represent GOPAC as special envoy in certain occasions when needed. Mr. Williams came to the conclusion of his tenure as our Chief Executive Officer at the Global Conference in Manila, Philippines, which closed on 2 February. Mr. Williams founded GOPAC in 2002 as an international organization of parliamentarians dedicated to improving parliaments as institutions of oversight. He built the organisation up for ten years, first as chairman and then as CEO. GOPAC exists because of his vision and determination, and we are all thankful to him. We look forward to working with Mr. Williams in his new role as we all join together to fight against corruption and foster an even stronger and successful GOPAC over the next decade. New GOPAC Chapters in Mongolia and Peru GOPAC welcomed a new national chapter in Mongolia this past month. Twelve members from across party lines in the Parliament of Mongolia joined together to officially launch GOPAC Mongolia. The announcement was made on 14 January during a press conference by the Chair of GOPAC Mongolia, Mrs. Burmaa Radnaa, at the State Great Hural of Mongolia. A second new national chapter was founded during the Fifth Global Conference of Parliamentarians Against Corruption. Legislators from Peru gathered at the conference and committed to fighting corruption and promoting good governance in their country and around the world. GOPAC Peru is the sixth chapter for the GOPAC América Latina y el Caribe regional chapter. Open Government Partnership Meeting in Santiago de Chile GOPAC Global Task Force (GTF) Advisor Vicki Baxter Amade attended an Open Government Partnership (OGP) meeting in Santiago, Chile on 10-11 January. The OGP has grown from 8 to 58 countries during its first years, and the meeting in Chile provided an opportunity for the Organization of American States countries to discuss progress. Ms. Baxter Amade spoke on a panel on open parliament, where she discussed the plans of GOPAC’s Participation of Society Global Task Force (GTF-PoS) in addressing the need for parliamentarians to become more engaged with their constituents. She called on civil society to ensure that this is a two-way process, encouraging them to actively demand action from parliamentarians to combat corruption. In addition to representatives from the Americas, the final plenary included the Hon. Nick Hurd, United Kingdom’s (UK) Minister for Civil Society and the new co-chair of the OGP. Hon. Hurd stated the UK aims to shift the focus of the OGP from quantity to quality and also commented that the UK intended to place transparency, good governance and combatting corruption at the very top of the international agenda during the UK chairmanship of the G
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are not convinced on that point.
Oliva was discovered to be carrying a photograph of JonBenet in his personal property. Also, Oliva had in his possession a poem he had written, titled "Ode to JonBenet."
In the 2002 jailhouse interview that was part of the "48 Hours Investigates" broadcast, Oliva denied hurting or killing JonBenet. He also said he had never used a stun gun on a child.
But Oliva did admit to an obsession with the Ramseys' youngest child.
"I believe she came to me after she was killed and revealed herself to me," he said. "I'd like to see a memorial set up for her. I haven't seen that, anywhere."
In an interview with the Daily Camera after the 2002 CBS broadcast, then-Boulder Police chief Mark Beckner said Oliva remained a suspect in the Ramsey case.
"We haven't cleared anyone per se," Beckner told the Camera. "Before you solve the case, you can't say anyone has been cleared. I think we've been very careful at not doing that at all."
Tuesday, city spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said, "Over the history of this case, there have been a variety of people we have looked at for potential connections. Mr. Oliva is one of those people.
"The police department is certainly very familiar with him, both because of the investigation that was done in the context of the Ramsey case, and because of his criminal history and the fact that he is a registered sex offender."
Huntley added, "The police department diligently investigated these current allegations and believes there is probable cause to support the arrest. But we're currently not comfortable ruling anybody out as a suspect, or ruling anybody in as a suspect, in the Ramsey case."
The department would have no further comment, she said.
'Dr. Phil' on the case
Former Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy did rule suspects out, doing so with a July 9, 2008, letter to John Ramsey. Lacy said she was clearing John Ramsey, his deceased wife and their son, Burke, of any suspicion in JonBenet's murder due to new findings based on analysis of what is termed "touch" DNA.
Lacy's successor, Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett, has openly questioned Lacy's decision to issue that exoneration, and is not bound by that or any other decisions his predecessors made in the case.
John and Patsy Ramsey were both indicted for child abuse resulting in death and accessory to first-degree murder by a Boulder County grand jury that reviewed the case for 13 months before being disbanded in October 2000. The indictments were not disclosed to the public at that time and only became public 13 years later after a lawsuit filed against Garnett secured their release.
Those indictments were never prosecuted by former Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter, however. He concluded they were based on evidence insufficient to secure a conviction at trial.
JonBenet, who had enjoyed some success in the world of children's beauty pageants, was found bludgeoned and asphyxiated with a garrote in her family's basement the afternoon of Dec. 26, 1996. About eight hours earlier, her mother had frantically called 911. She reported that upon waking that day, she had found a 2 ½ page ransom note on a staircase leading to the family's kitchen.
The ransom note sought $118,000 in exchange for the child's safe return. That amount matched John Ramsey's bonus that year for his work as president and CEO of Boulder's Access Graphics, then a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin.
There was never an attempt to collect that money. JonBenet's body was ultimately discovered by her father that day in a little used room in the family's basement after he and family friend Fleet White were prompted by the lone detective on the scene to conduct another search of the house.
Members of the Ramsey family have always maintained their innocence in the case and asserted that an intruder gained access to their home on Christmas night.
Every aspect of the Ramsey saga is likely to get a thorough examination in the coming months, with television productions geared to the passing of 20 years since JonBenet was killed.
The "Dr. Phil" program is the latest to have contacted potential guest experts with invitations to participate in a Ramsey production.
Mitchell Byars contributed to this report.
Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, [email protected] or twitter.com/chasbrennanMicro Focus International plans to beef up its range of software quality assurance tools with two acquisitions it announced Wednesday.
It has agreed to buy Borland Software, a developer of application lifecycle management tools, for $75 million, and in a separate deal has also agreed to buy Compuware's application testing and automated software quality business unit for $80 million in cash.
[ Keep up with app dev issues and trends with InfoWorld's Fatal Exception and Strategic Developer blogs. ]
Borland is a shadow of its former self: in May last year it sold Codegear, its software development tools division that published JBuilder, to Embarcadero Technologies for $30 million, and in January it lost its CEO Tod Nielsen to VMware, where he became chief operating officer. Last year it reported a net loss of $216 million on revenue of $172 million from its remaining application lifecycle management activities.
Micro Focus, a developer of enterprise application modernization and management software based in the U.K., hopes the purchases will help it to enlarge its share of the automated software quality assurance market, which it says is worth over $2 billion annually.
Buying Borland will allow Micro Focus to address a broader market, and bring it new customers, particularly in the U.S., the company said. It also expects to be able to cut costs significantly by eliminating duplication in the two companies' back-office functions and IT systems.
As for the Compuware products Micro Focus is buying, it will sell those alongside its existing automated software quality product, Data Express. From last April through this March, Compuware generated around $74 million in revenue and $5 million in pretax profit from its application testing and automated software quality business, Micro Focus said.
Borland has the approval of both companies' boards of directors, but must still win over regulators and its own and Borland's shareholders. It expects to complete the Compuserve deal by the end of June, and the Borland acquisition late this quarter or early next.When my first daughter was a year and a half old I replied to an ad on Craigslist from a young woman, I'll call her Y, looking for work as a part-time caregiver. I was newly pregnant with my second daughter and in need of a few days a week to write, shop and collect my sanity.
When Y showed up at my front door for the interview, I was immediately put at ease -- warmth and sincerity radiated from her like the steam from my (unfortunately) decaffeinated latte. Within 10 minutes of our first meeting, she had gained the trust of my toddler and I was ready to hand her the keys to my house.
The next few months were rather difficult for my family. My second pregnancy was accompanied by a myriad of problems including a brutal bout of prenatal depression and preterm labor that left me on bed rest for the last two and a half months. During this time I was forced to lean on those around me. Y proved herself to be a steady constant for both my daughter and myself, she was someone with endless patience for the trying terrible twos and the energy to do the activities I couldn't.
When the baby was born, Y proved even more invaluable. Given that my time and attention was split between the two children, and Y mostly babysat while my older one was in morning preschool, the baby and Y formed a relationship that could only make a mother jealous. When Y would climb our front stairs, the baby's face would light up as though Elmo himself had come to pay her a visit. She would reach for Y and giggle as Y smothered her cheeks with kisses. Mommy who?
It was obvious from the beginning that Y was queer. She dressed in typical San Francisco "butch" fashion and was always open about her social/sexual life. I loved this about her. While I am a rather feminine, girly-kind-of woman, I was excited to have a different example of femininity to show my girls. Being a woman did not have to mean growing your hair long, dressing in skirts and playing princesses; here was a model of a woman who defied all that.
One evening, nearly two years after I first hired her, Y and I sat chatting at the end of a workday, as we often did. While the girls played at our feet, she told me the news; Y had decided to start hormone therapy and begin the process of transitioning to a man.
My initial reaction could be summed up with three words: confusion, bewilderment and skepticism. Although I consider myself to be quite progressive and supportive of the LGBTQ community (both of my maternal grandparents are gay) I was pretty certain that this was the wrong decision. "Are you sure?" I asked. "Is it because you are trying to distinguish yourself from your identical twin sister?" "There are easier ways to not have a period anymore." "Could this be a fad?" Unsurprisingly, Y was upset with my inability to provide unconditional support.
While I tried to disguise my questions as legitimate concerns, in reality I was scared. How would she change? What did this mean for our relationship? How would this affect my girls? They already had one straight male caregiver (my husband), but now, who would provide them with that other side of femininity? I worried about losing a friend and a piece of my family.
Y's identical twin sister almost exclusively dates transgender men. Although many research studies have established a correlation between the sexuality of identical twins (these twins are more likely than not to be of the same sexual orientation), little research has been conducted on gender identity and identical twins. There are a handful of cases where both siblings in a set have transitioned to the opposite gender, and a handful of other cases where just one sibling transitioned. Genetic composition may be playing an important role here, but for now, it is too early to tell.
Whether gender identity is genetic or not, there is a bounty of evidence pointing to a biological connection. With the use of MRI brain scans, doctors have found that both male-to-female (MtF) and female-to-male (FtM) transgender persons show significant neurological differences from the non-transgender. When shown erotic images, MtF subject's brains respond closer to that of a biological female than a biological man. The FtM subjects showed brain responsivity that differed from both biological men and women.
Y's twin sister, N, has called Y "Brother" since they were little, and she was not surprised by his decision. Similarly, my older daughter did not flinch when Y changed his name and cut his hair short. To Elana, Y had never been a girl, yet somehow not quite a boy. Before I knew of Y's gender identity, I would argue with my toddler when she referred to Y as a boy. "No," I would reply, "Y is a girl." Even at three years of age, Elana would look me dead in the eye and tell me I was wrong (though she did use female pronouns when referring to him).
Over the next year and a half, Y experienced many physical and emotional changes. His weekly testosterone therapy changed his body quickly, his hips narrowing, upper body muscles growing, voice lowering, and rapidly growing facial hair. The emotional changes also started soon after the introduction of the hormones, and this is what I feared most. The testosterone left him more masculine. His perception on everyday issues became more concrete, while he grew less emotionally involved with drama that surrounded him. In addition, his confidence, as well as his sex drive, skyrocketed.
However, there was one very important aspect of Y that never changed -- his close relationship with my children. As a caretaker, he continued to be fantastic, loving my two girls as though they were his little nieces and he was their uncle. Their admiration for him never faltered, he was exactly who he always was -- fun, creative, and loving.
Having a non-female caregiver gave my daughters additional benefits. Since my husband, their father, works long days, it was refreshing to have a masculine figure helping in their early childhood. While I know nothing about cars and bugs, and tend to lean toward the more traditional girl clothing, Y was there to point out fire trucks, help them search for worms at the park, and dress them in bib overalls. He also braided their hair, taught them how to bead necklaces and bracelets, and threw spontaneous dance parties. It was the exact same things that he had done when he was a woman.
Y's transition changed me too. Watching Y's struggle with weekly hormone therapy, decide when to come out to his family, friends, and employers, and select the appropriate public restroom, transformed my beliefs on gender identity. Even though I always supported the notion that people could be born into the wrong gender, I now view gender as more fluid -- if there is a spectrum for sexuality, maybe there is also one with gender. I started making sure that I approach gender more sensitively with my own girls, allowing them to tell me who they are.
Because of Y's influence in our lives, I made the conscious effort to choose gender-neutral toys and clothing. When the decisions were still mine to make, I purchased balls and blocks, in lieu of Barbies and Hello Kitty, and opted for brown and green shirts, instead of pink and purple. Once the girls began to exert their own unique fashion sense, I encouraged them to select their own clothing, making sure that they had a variety of colors and styles to pick from.Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, the U.S. alone has lost close to 3 million jobs, according to the AFL-CIO and Economic Policy Institute. That's because American manufacturers can't compete with cheaper Chinese imports, and there are a lot more of them after China joined the WTO. So many U.S. companies laid off workers and closed factories.
John Bassett III, a third-generation furniture factory owner in Virginia, refused to do that. He decided instead to take on the Chinese.
"He's absolutely relentless, “says Beth Macy, author of Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local -- and Helped Save an American Town.
Bassett traveled from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to northern China to visit a factory that made knockoffs of the furniture his factory made. Bassett pretended to be interested in doing business with the Chinese manufacturer, who was willing to supply Bassett with furniture provided he closed his own factory.
Not a chance. Bassett returned to the U.S. and organized a group of other U.S. furniture makers to file a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, charging Chinese manufacturers with dumping products -- selling them for less than the cost of production. He eventually won, saving 700 jobs in the process and a small Virginia town.
But winning trade complaints is not the only reason Bassett has succeeded.
"In his factory he's constantly coming up with ways to make things cheaper, quicker, more efficient and to inspire his workers to be the most productive workforce," Macy tells Yahoo Finance in the video. One example: a "speed delivery system" that gets his product to market far faster than the Chinese-produced furniture coming by container ship from Asia.
"The Chinese are not super people," Bassett told his workers. "They cannot suck the ocean dry!"
More from Yahoo Finance
How the 1% lives: unique, over-the-top home features
The myth of 'economic patriotism'
Move out? Millennials should live with their parents as long as possibleChevron pushes ahead in key First Amendment case
FORTUNE -- Now that Chevron has begun sifting through 421 tapes of unreleased footage from a documentary film called Crude -- which a federal appeals court ordered filmmaker Joe Berlinger to turn over to the oil giant three weeks ago -- the sensitive First Amendment issues raised by the case seem to be multiplying, not abating.
The documentary concerns the 17-year-old litigation by a group of Ecuadorian Indians against Texaco, bought by Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) in 2001, for Texaco's alleged role in oil and toxic-waste dumping between 1972 and 1992.
Berlinger resisted Chevron's earlier attempts to inspect his outtakes by invoking his journalist's privilege; thus, the case is creating precedents that, under certain circumstances, could also be used to make reporters turn over their notebooks or, conceivably, testify about sources. When the federal appellate court ordered Berlinger to turn over certain outtakes last month, media companies including Associated Press, ABC, NBC, CBS (CBS, Fortune 500), Dow Jones, HBO (like Fortune, a unit of Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500)), the New York Times, and the Washington Post had submitted a friend-of-the-court brief urging the narrowest possible ruling.
Those issues are heating up again because Chevron claims that the outtakes it has seen so far dramatically confirm its earlier suspicions that attorneys for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs, who are suing Chevron in Ecuador, have been secretly colluding with the ostensibly neutral court-appointed expert in that case, Richard Cabrera. (Cabrera has previously dismissed such allegations as "unthinkable.") In November 2008 Cabrera recommended to the court in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, that it order Chevron to pay $27.4 billion in damages. Chevron believes the evidence of collusion is now strong enough as to warrant deposing filmmaker Berlinger about the circumstances surrounding the outtakes, and what occurred when the cameras stopped rolling.
Steven Donziger -- one of the plaintiffs lawyers allegedly depicted meeting with Cabrera in the outtakes -- declined to comment. A lawyer for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs, Ilann Maazel of Emery Celli, declined to discuss specific charges leveled in Chevron's papers, but said that Chevron's filing violated court orders, and that it was a "desperate," "diversionary tactic" designed to distract attention from Chevron's commission of "one of the greatest environmental disasters in the world."
The filmmaker, Berlinger, said in an email, "I am dismayed at the level of mischaracterizations in Chevron's Memorandum brief.... The footage citations are being taken out of context and not being presented to the court in its entirety, creating numerous false impressions, precisely what we feared when we were first issued the original subpoena."
What the footage shows
With those provisos, here's what Chevron says the outtakes show. (Though Chevron filed a CD displaying certain outtakes with the Manhattan federal court, I have so far been unable to see it, as court clerks have said that it is not yet available for viewing or copying.)
Chevron claims that one outtake shows lead plaintiffs attorneys Donziger and Pablo Fajardo and several of their litigation consultants meeting with Cabrera on March 3, 2007, two weeks before Cabrera was officially appointed to become the ostensibly impartial and neutral "global expert" in the case, and discussing how Cabrera would perform that task and how the plaintiffs would secretly assist him.
"Although the cameramen obviously attempt to avoid filming Cabrera," Chevron attorneys allege in their filing, "he can be seen in the margins of the screen. When the discussion turns to plans for drafting Cabrera's report, Fajardo tells the assembled group that the expert is going to'sign the report and review it. But all of us... have to contribute to the report.' Toward the end of the portion of the meeting shown on film, Donziger brags: 'We could jack this thing up to $30 billion... in one day.'"
Chevron claims that another outtake depicts a follow-up meeting the next day, without Cabrera, at which one of the plaintiffs litigation consultants, Dick Kamp, allegedly comments, "Having the perito [expert, i.e., Cabrera] there yesterday in retrospect... That was bizarre." According to Chevron's brief, in response "Donziger looks at Kamp for about two or three seconds. He then instructs Kamp: 'Don't talk about it,' and tells the camera crew, 'And that is off the record.' Donziger tells the experts, 'I've got total control over the film....' He then retracts his statement, saying, 'I'm just joking, I really don't.' Donziger then explains, 'That's the way it works,' adding, 'Believe me, I would much rather have it work the normal way... I would rather have it work the normal way, then I wouldn't have to worry about stuff like that.'"
In his email to Fortune, filmmaker Berlinger said that, "in order not to waive my journalist's privilege, I am not able to comment on the specific content of the footage." Nevertheless, he did say this: "Chevron's accusation that we were instructed by and obeyed the instruction from the plaintiffs to avoid filming Richard Cabrera or anyone else in the March 3, 2007 meeting at Selva Viva in Quito, Ecuador is completely false. I was not personally present at the meeting, but Crude producer/camerman Michael Bonfiglio has no recollection whatsoever of being asked to avoid filming Mr. Cabrera or anyone else in the room, and confirms that had he perceived any individual's presence in that meeting to have been in any way inappropriate, we can only imagine that we would not have been permitted to film the meeting. In fact, it defies logic that if we were instructed not to film someone, that he is in our footage."Ezzat Alizizi of Team Broderick, a mixed-martial arts club in Grimes, competes in a recent tournament. (Photo: Special to the Register)
Josef Reed bounced between his divorced parents’ homes while he was in middle school and high school.
He logged time in Waukee, Perry and Woodward-Granger high schools. He was a smart kid, excelling in advanced math classes and taking Talented and Gifted courses.
But Josef also was disruptive and caused trouble. He seldom finished his work and fell behind his classmates each year.
“I had a lot of trouble with authority,” he said.
Josef turned 18 in 1995 and dropped out of Woodward-Granger. He said only one teacher — civics instructor Steve Richardson — asked him to reconsider.
“Don’t become the people you can’t stand,” Richardson, a former state lawmaker from Indianola, told him.
But that's eventually who Josef became, traveling a dark road for years before finding peace with the help of friends and a club that reached out to boys wrestling with some of the problems that plagued Josef for much of his life.
'A fast way out'
U.S. Navy veteran Josef Reed fought back from alcoholism and now dedicates his time to a mixed-martial arts club for youths in Grimes. (Photo: Special to the Register)
Alcoholism ran in Josef’s family. He drank and experimented with other drugs, too.
Josef got his high school diploma by taking courses at Des Moines Area Community College, but there was little cause for celebration.
He put siding on housing to make money and lived with a friend in a broken-down trailer that was from a job site.
He drank a lot.
“I needed a fast way out of a bad situation,” Josef said.
He joined the U.S. Navy and eventually was stationed in Florida. The kid who always struggled with authority found that regimented military life suited him.
“It gave me a sense of purpose I never had before,” Josef said. “There is the camaraderie you have. It’s a family.”
Josef worked as an avionics technician. He repaired and installed navigation and sonar systems on Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, the Navy equivalent of the Army’s Black Hawks.
'You could do this'
He discovered his talent for engineering. His girlfriend at the time, who eventually became his wife, did not want to be married to a military man.
She sent him catalogs for the University of Central Florida. She circled courses and majors in the books.
“She kept saying, ‘You could do this,’” Josef said.
So he did, earning a degree in electrical engineering from Central Florida in 2005. He left the Navy and worked on the space shuttle program until it shut down.
Then Josef worked as a contractor for companies that do business with the military: Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and others.
Josef was a savant in his work. The rest of his life was a mess. His wife eventually became his ex-wife.
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“It was a typical military marriage,” Josef said. “We married too young, and it didn’t work out.”
Josef still drank to excess. He sought help for alcoholism while still in the Navy. But a squadron councilor told him admitting the problem would be "detrimental to his career."
“I knew I had a problem with alcoholism,” Josef said.
Becoming what he hates most
Professional MMA fighter Jordan Young teaches technique to a member of Team Broderick, a MMA team for youth in Grimes. Club founder Colin Broderick watches. (Photo: Special to the Register)
Leaving the Navy didn’t help his drinking. Josef kept it together at work, but he lost many nights to booze.
He often drank with a college buddy. The friend got picked up on his third or fourth drunk driving charge in 2008.
Josef didn’t see him until a year and a half later, while on a contract job at General Electric. His friend was sober, clear-eyed and physically fit. The friends discussed sobriety, but Josef wasn’t ready to make any big changes.
Several months later, Josef woke up one morning and discovered that a road rash covered his body, one of his wrists fell limp and was badly bruised. He hurt all over.
He pieced together what happened through the haze of a blackout drunk. He recalled an angry exchange with his girlfriend at the time.
She tried to leave. He grabbed the handle of her car door. She ran over him and dragged him down the street for a block.
“I realized I had become the thing I hated most,” Josef said. “This was the exact opposite thing I wanted when I left home.”
Josef called his sober friend, who arranged for him to get into an in-patient treatment clinic in Florida.
In July 2015, Josef was five years sober and had finished a contract job in Tulsa, Okla. He lived alone in a small apartment and had no friends in the city.
“I realized I didn’t know what I was gonna do with my life, and I felt exactly like I did before I left Iowa,” Josef said.
So he moved back to Iowa and kept busy with contract work. But he wanted something more.
Reconnecting with his roots
Team Broderick's logo carries the slogan "Get Your Mind Right," which helps U.S. Navy veteran and recovering alcoholic Josef Reed stay focused on helping others. (Photo: Special to the Register)
Josef reconnected with a classmate from Waukee High School, Colin Broderick. The two were troublemakers in their youth, but both had cleaned up their lives by age 38.
Colin ran a mixed-martial arts club for youths called Team Broderick. He trained the boys in jujitsu and wrestling.
The club serves nearly 30 boys ages 5 and older. Some are hard luck cases like Colin and Josef back in the day.
“There’s nobody on this team by accident,” Colin said. “Everybody comes to us for a different reason.”
Last year, the team won a championship in Kansas City, Mo. They had a strong showing at meets in Minneapolis, St. Louis and Dallas.
The club focuses on good citizenship. Each practice includes time for the boys to share what good deeds they’ve done between meetings.
A new familyThe club takes camping trips and go to Iowa Cubs games.
It’s a tight group. A 6-year-old on the team asked a high school sophomore on the team to go to his birthday party. And the older boy showed up.
One of the young grapplers recently posted on Facebook: “Without them, I wouldn’t know who to call family.”
Team Broderick was exactly what Josef was looking for. Colin is the trainer. Josef handles the business end of things. He’s getting the club certified as a non-profit.
Josef raises money. He does public relations. He arranges travel.
And he marvels at how these boys set goals and achieve them, some against long odds.
Josef sees a lot of himself in these boys.
There was no such club for him when he was the age of these kids. Josef is thrilled to be a part of it now.
The team motto is: “Get Your Mind Right.”
That fits Josef just fine. He took the long way around to get his mind right, but these boys are helping him keep it there.
Daniel P. Finney, the Register's Metro Voice columnist, is a Drake University alumnus who grew up in Winterset and east Des Moines. Reach him at 515-284-8144 or [email protected]. Twitter: @newsmanone.
Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/1OZOkmZHearthstone: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan is coming in December (Blizzard)
Potions are all over Hearthstone’s Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. Whether they’re being custom-brewed by Kazakus or pulled out of thin air by Kabal Chemist, Potions are being created all over the place. So far, Priests and Mages have been the recipients of some powerful brews, but their Kabal brethren Warlocks have had little choice in the way of the potion department.
That is, until now.
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Yahoo Esports is exclusively revealing Felfire Potion, a new card for Warlocks.
Warlocks are about to make everything go boom with Felfire Potion (Blizzard)
In typical Warlock fashion, the AOE damage spell affects everyone, including their own minions and hero health. If you want to blow up literally everything, Felfire Potion is for you. For everyone else, sorry about your minions and health.
Check out all the other cards revealed so far in our Hearthstone: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan gallery.
Taylor Cocke likes big explosions. Follow him on Twitter @taylorcocke.James Holmes' photo from his Adult Friend Finder profile. Hold the Reddit hype The site broke important Aurora news, but "crowdsourced" journalism is as sensational and market-driven as the MSM
As you will know if you are a person on the Internet, a lot of the most important details about the shooting in a Colorado movie theater last Friday have come out through the Internet. We were able to find victims' Twitter accounts (including that of Jessica Ghawi, who posted enthusiastically right up to the start of the movie), survivors' stories on WordPress, and one of the few photos of accused shooter James Holmes on Adult Friend Finder.
But these are arguably only the visible outcomes of a distinctly online process of information-gathering: crowdsourced news. A thread on Reddit started by a survivor of the attack became a central clearinghouse for information on the incident, with eyewitnesses showing up to share their stories and answer questions while other users compiled the scattered data points into more comprehensible forms like timelines. They even managed to break news, as Morgan Jones, the aforementioned timeline-maker, was also the one who unearthed the shooter's picture.
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Matthew Ingram argues that this represents a new form of "citizen journalism" in which self-motivated individuals come together to collectively determine the facts about an ongoing news story. Rather than a single reporter working individually to gather all of the important facts by herself, a large number of individuals can each gather a single piece of information and present it, unfiltered, in a public forum; lacking an editor, any inaccuracies can simply be corrected after the fact. "They may not replace the traditional journalism we’re used to," Ingram writes, "but they are certainly going to help, and they could even bring additional benefits that mainstream journalism doesn’t provide."
Ah yes: the mainstream media, or MSM. The Web has long expressed rhetorical hostility to this grim specter, a brickbat later picked up by Sarah Palin in one of its mutated forms. Indeed, that traditional media outlets are flawed may be the one thing on which Palin and liberal bloggers can agree (though in fairness this is also a thing 79 percent of everyone can agree on). This has persisted even as the MSM has increasingly integrated the form and content of blogs, an integration that is seen as an uncompromising triumph of the new model, rather than an admission that the MSM and the Web have become mostly indistinguishable. In the words of the guy who made the shooting timeline on Reddit, the Web believes that "mainstream media coverage of almost everything is woefully inadequate."
One of the weirdest things about the Web is its eagerness to obsessively criticize every other form of media except the Web itself. Traditional journalism is dying, and it's just a matter of time before the Internet figures out a new and improved form that will make everything perfect forever. Ingram couches his assessment in the more reasonable terms of citizen journalism being a useful addition to journalism rather than a replacement for it, but he also claims it can be an improvement, and elsewhere uses the same apocalyptic rhetoric familiar from less cautious corners of the Web, with media dying out, closing its presses, etc., etc., etc.
But there's another possible objection: citizen journalism is doing more or less the exact same thing that traditional journalism has always done, except not as reliably or sustainably. Crowdsourced journalism doesn't seem to do long-term investigative journalism well, nor does it do well at identifying and tracing large-scale societal problems, or high-level analyses of medical, scientific or financial news, the kind of things that require expertise. Instead, it's really good at breaking news about shootings and war, the same "if it bleeds, it leads" coverage that the media is frequently criticized for overemphasizing. And while scoops like Reddit's discovery of the shooter's picture are great pelts for media professionals (the ones whose standards citizen journalist proponents otherwise disdain), in an era when any new piece of information is everywhere instantly, it's unclear what practical value that has. The rush-to-coverage aspect of news is arguably more of an ill than a good -- posters on the Reddit thread complain about it, though only in reference to the "'legitimate' news" -- and it's hard to tell why doing the same thing only faster is a laudable improvement.
Ingram points out that the worst inaccuracy to come out of the coverage was ABC's claim that the gunman was a Tea Party member, but the Reddit thread contains major errors about the numbers and identities of the dead and the motivation for the shooting, as well as a large number of kitten pictures. The ABC flub was a bigger deal only because it was more visible; were Reddit to become a regular source for news, such errors would be magnified as well. If we're to grant citizen journalism the same legitimacy as traditional journalism, then the fact that these errors happened online isn't somehow forgivable when they wouldn't be in broadcast or print media. It's true that the corrections appear just below the original statement of fact, but anyone who's traced death rumors online knows how long an initial error can persist. And so we are left with a very similar situation to traditional media: A large number of people are all working on a breaking story at the same time, seeing what information others have as it comes out (monitoring the Twitter feeds of other news orgs is like reading through a Reddit thread), and using their own resources to find out new information, eventually coming collectively to some sort of coherent picture.
Except here's the difference: the people doing it. Morgan Jones, the 18-year-old who constructed the timeline and found the shooter's picture, seems like he has a fantastic aptitude and temperament for journalism, and I hope he considers it as a career. But we can't rely on an 18-year-old journalistic phenom coming out of the woodwork every time a major story breaks. For all of their problems, one of the great values of journalistic organizations is that they have people on salary whose job it is to be aware of what's going on in a particular area of society, every day, all the time. All the little, seemingly unimportant stuff gets covered that way, and when a big story breaks there's someone with the expertise to put it in context. With citizen journalism, the only things that get covered are the ones with a critical mass of posters large enough to properly crowdsource the story on an amateur basis; "klatchsourced journalism" doesn't really make sense. And so the stories that get covered are the ones that have sufficient public interest -- which is to say that the market once again rules. Though the lesser-known stories often end up being the most important to our political life, the media gets criticized for only covering the things the masses care about, and rightfully so. But citizen journalism gives us the same thing, only minus the institutional bonuses you get from having regular journalists do it. As with other forms of Web journalism, the only valuable things are the ones attracting a lot of clicks.
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Why, then, do we insist on the superiority of citizen journalism? Well, because it's on the Web, which we think is different, and because we think that unlike the "media filter" that characterizes mainstream news coverage, the Web gives you just the facts, straight and true. The two assumptions, both wrong, are connected. It used to be that after someone died, the media would talk to family and friends to get a picture of what he or she was like, and these loved ones would give an account that took as a given the subject's demise, picking details that we'd prefer to be known after our death and omitting those we'd rather keep to ourselves. Interview subjects can put things in context, and reporters can put these statements in context, and so assemble a narrative. This is the "media filter."
What we get on the Web, however, is pure trace evidence: Facebook pages, Twitter posts, old photos from dating profiles. Because they were produced by the deceased, these things seem more true than your mother's recollection of you. But they're not, really. Your Internet presence was not produced in the context of your death, a fact unavoidably altering everything that came before, and is never complete. If, when we die, "who we are" is taken to be whatever we happened to post on Twitter rather than our loved ones' memories, that would seem to be a disservice.
Citizen
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the effect on the USB hole so cables could reach the connector to fit all rhe PCB's - so support for winkeyless's PCB has been dropped. I apologize to the ones that wanted to use it but I can't do it and get the keyboard done. EVE is very good at production and the release should not be delayed much if at all.UPDATE: May 9 - First let me say when I started working on the Mira I knew nothing about CAD. I'm SLIGHTLY more knowledgeable now.As some of you are aware the Mira was originally designed to utilize a winkeyless PCB.Hubble's original design was for a WKL version that had too long of blockers and there were other aspects of the design that made it impractacal to produce.Since I had the CAD files I found others to help revise the design. Due to my lack of knowledge about CAD and not knowing the exact measurements of the variety of PCB's - I was unaware when the dimensionsof the Mira were changed as we were redesigning it and this prevented the A87 form fitting the case.I tried to change the design so the A87, TX87, NERD, B-fake - would fit.I could do it but the increaserequired caused the bezel to be widened. EVE, the one manufacturing the Mira,didn't care for the wide body design and I agreed so we've returned to the the prototype everyone's seen and made slightadjustment to the inner dimensions to improve the TX87 fit. The NERD, B-fake, and Leeku's alps PCB's will also fit.The logo has been tweaked to decrease the "O'Mira" confusion.The changes have all taken time and delayed production somewhat. Leeku has been paid for all the PCB's and they have been produced. I will do my best to get photographs when the production begins.As for my lack of communication there have been several reasons but instead of making excuses I will simply say I understand why GB organizers don't communicate well - if you have nothing to sayyou had rather say nothing at all. My head is still sore from me beating my head against the wall in frustration with some of the issues ofrunning a group buy.I'll try to be better on giving updates.Update: May 30 - sorry about the lack of communication - my PC seems to want to stay in pieces. If anyone lives in or around Cincinnati and has time to help me resuscitate the POS PM me!Now for the real reason I'm posting - production is expected to begin Thursday - I want to verify with EVE before I mention shipping. The tweaking of the prototype took too long - that's on me. All I can do is apologize and tell you was to try to give you everything I promised.Update: June 7 - Rui and I reviewed the CAD files with EVE last week and any questions EVE had about the Mira SE have been answered to the best of my knowledge. Production should have begun but I was unable to get a clear ship date. given the conclusion of the Chinese GB for the Moon, the GH GB for the Mira SE, and the GH GB for the Moon it is unclear when production will be finished. I will let everyone know as soon as I get more information.To stop the rumbling - I have plate files already for alps and have made arrangement with Leeku for the alps PCB's.- I plan to have a GB for partial plates, brass plates, poly-carbonate plates for the Mira.- I will not release plate CAD files for plates at this time.- I will not start an interest check for either of these until I'm satisfied about the progress of the Mira's production and have arranged/have an idea of the cost of the plates.Update: June 21 - I've been trying to post weekly and I see I blew it this time.In reference to updates and timelines - I can only ask EVE and zzyjayfree the questions - if they don't answer me I can't walk next door or drive for 30 minutes to ask them face to face. zzyjayfree lives in Canada, EVE in China - if I don't have information I cannot relay it to you.As it stands - I've paid Leeku for all the PCB's, they have been made, and he is waiting to be told where to ship them.I will probably ship those to the US buyers myself. The last ones that were sent to China cost $9+ a piece with shipping and custom fees. I will ship them to everyone and you will have two shipping fees. The one from me will be the cost - the $2 paid for customs fees - that way you know I haven't forgotten the extra $2.Production - interesting that he machines the weights and plates first, then the cases. The cases are produced last because he anodizes them immediately to reduce corrosion.Update: July 8 - production is moving along. EVE is working on it and I'm going to start working on getting PCB's shipped to me and then to you. To whet your appetite EVE and zzyjayfree have supplied a few more pictures.Update: July 18 - most CNC work completed. Anodizing starting up, no pictures yet. Zzyjayfree is on vacation and none available from EVEUPDATE: July 31 - Sorry about the delay, I was waiting on pictures. EVE is about to start anodizing and is waiting on the PCB's from Leeku. Boards have been made long ago, just waiting for them to arrive at Eve's shop. Without further ado - PICTURESUPDATE: August 16 - still waiting on more pictures from EVE. I understand the anxiety and frustration on waiting- I'm feeling it too. I've been working on this for over two years, starting with CAD files that had issues to CAD designers with their own agendas. As my updates state on April 22 and May 9 state my attempt to redesign the Mira to fit the winkeyless PCB created a delay in production that we haven't recovered from. I'm reiterating that again so there is no confusion on that. We've almost crossed the finish line now so hang in there for a little longer. All 157 TX87 PCB's have been paid for, manufactured, and shipped to EVE. This is a change from what I said before but it will work better for all of you. 80% of the cost of manufacturing the Mira SE, anodizing it, and the boxes for it has been paid with the remaining 20% to be paid when all is completed and ready to ship. If anyone was wondering where the money is or where it is going, now you know.Several have asked for plates/spacers to take place of the diffusers. I've asked Eve if that is a possibility.Assembly - that can be arranged from the same group that is providing it for the Moon. I'm out of town right now and haven't read the thread yet but keep it in mind.Update: September 8 - anodizing is ongoingA big thanks to zzyjayfree for obtaining the photos!And all PCB's have been shipped to EVE.Progress - I'm starting to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnelUpdate: December 29, 2017:Update: January 2, 2018Information about shipping status update labels on the order verification spreadsheet:Reggie Bush & Kim Kardashian Engagement Plans
According to New Orleans Saints running back, he is feeling some pressure to announce his engagement to his Keeping Up with the Kardashians reality star girlfriend
The couple chatted it up with ET reporter Kevin Frasier and seem to suggest that an engagement announcement is forthcoming but it will be on their terms and on their time schedule.
According to the NFL player: "We've still got time. We'll know when the time is right. We're not planning according to what other people think or what they think we should do, or when they think it should happen. It'll happen, and we'll both know it's the right time, and when it does, we'll make it happen."
Kardashian, who did a short stint on Dancing with the Stars, gave her own spin with the comment, "He's trying to make it a good surprise." You can see her recent sexy Vegas photo shoot pics here.
Check out all of the HOT football couples here.
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More than 100 MPs have joined a cross-party demand for the NHS to fund abortions for desperate women who travel to England from Northern Ireland.
Pressure mounted on Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt tonight as he was accused of "inventing" a consultation to calm the growing row.
Abortion rights are severely restricted in Northern Ireland so hundreds of women travel to England every year to have the procedure.
But most have to pay in private clinics because the government "respects" Northern Irish policy in other parts of the UK.
The Supreme Court narrowly upheld this approach in the case of a 15-year-old girl who paid £900 - saying while Mr Hunt could change it, he was "entitled" not to.
Now campaigners fear the issue could be pushed into the long grass after the Tories signed a deal to stay in power with the anti-abortion DUP.
(Image: Getty)
More than 100 MPs have signed an amendment to the Queen's Speech calling for Northern Irish women to be allowed an abortion in England "without charge".
The amendment, signed by MPs from every party except the DUP, will only be debated and voted on if it is selected by Commons Speaker John Bercow tomorrow.
Tory Home Secretary Amber Rudd backed the principle of NHS-funded abortions, insisting the government is "absolutely committed to healthcare for women, and that includes access to terminations."
But Mr Hunt faced anger when he replied to MPs' protests by talking about a "consultation".
He told Labour MP Yvette Cooper: "I agree that all women in all parts of the United Kingdom should have the rights to access healthcare.
"I note there is a consultation on this matter about to happen, and I think the most important thing is that the voices of the women of Northern Ireland are listened to in that consultation."
(Image: PA)
Labour MP Stella Creasy, who drew up the amendment, demanded answers - saying "as far as anyone is aware, no such consultation exists".
She tweeted: "Wow hunt just invented a consultation on abortion access and claimed Northern Irish voices must be heard?! What?!
"No such consultation exists-outrageous!"
The Mirror contacted the Department of Health, but a spokesman was unable immediately to say what consultation Mr Hunt was referring to.
It was thought Mr Hunt may have been talking about a consultation on the law in Northern Ireland, rather than on access to abortions in England.
But the DUP said today that the decision is one for Jeremy Hunt - not politicians in Stormont.
DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr told the House of Commons: "This is not a matter for Belfast; it is a matter for NHS England."
(Image: Rowan Griffiths/Daily Mirror)
Ms Creasy told MPs: "It is women from Northern Ireland who will pay the price for the coalition deal that the Government have made unless we in this House speak up.
"The [Supreme Court] ruling in June this year was very clear that those women were being discriminated against."
Labour MP Jess Phillips added: "The Health Secretary has a real chance to help women who travel to this country by offering them safe, free abortions here in England.
"We would not tolerate other cultural practices such as female genital mutilation, so why do we tolerate this?
"Today I am here simply to ask for a change in health policy in this country. I want our NHS in England to provide a safe haven to the women of Northern Ireland."Our weekly “New Starts” roundup of new and newsworthy transportation projects worldwide.
Big Expansion in the Cards for Nashville-Area Transit
While there hasn’t been a formal decision made on which of three possible plans for expanded mass transit service in Nashville will advance, the region’s mayors and county executives who serve on the board of the Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization have put chips down on the more ambitious versions.
The Nashville Business Journal reports that the Nashville Area MPO board voted to formally adopt the organization’s 2040 transportation plan, which calls for a total of $8.5 billion in transportation improvements over that 24-year time frame.
The plan approved by the board includes $1.2 billion for mass transit improvements through 2040, a first for the region.
MPO Executive Director Mike Skipper cautioned that the $1.2 billion would not cover the entire cost of the improvements described in the plan. The MPO’s proposed transit network closely resembles the most ambitious of the three plans rolled out last month by Nashville’s Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Regional Transportation Authority of Middle Tennessee; Skipper said the total cost for the network would run anywhere from $3 billion to $7 billion, and that other local funding and federal grants would be needed to launch specific projects. The $1.2 billion, he said, was a building block local officials could use to secure additional funding for specific projects.
London’s Crossrail to be Named After the Queen
When it opens in two years, Crossrail, the new super-express line that will take several regional rail lines through central London, will be part of the London Underground family, at least in name.
Global Rail News reports that London Mayor Boris Johnson announced at a ceremony on Feb. 23 that the new tunnel would be called the “Elizabeth Line” and bear the familiar Transport for London (TfL) roundel.
“As well as radically improving travel right across our city, the Elizabeth Line will provide a lasting tribute to our longest-serving monarch,” Johnson said at the ceremony. Queen Elizabeth II herself attended and received a commemorative roundel bearing the line name.
Queen Elizabeth II stands with Mike Brown, London transport commissioner, at the entrance to one of the new platforms of the new Crossrail Bond Street station last week. (Richard Pohle/Pool via AP)
According to a post analyzing the name change on the London Reconnections blog, Johnson had pushed for this renaming for several years. The article also argues that the rebranding of the line as part of the TfL family reflects a high degree of image-consciousness on the part of London’s metropolitan transit agency, which entered the regional rail game when it launched the London Overground earlier this decade. The blog post noted, “In general, the public see TfL branded services as better (or at least very different) to their equivalents on national rail — even in situations where statistically it is not always the case. Building this image was a significant challenge at the beginning of the London Overground, and it is an image that TfL are no doubt keen to protect.”
The line will actually be the second one named for the current British monarch. The first, the Jubilee Line, got its name when it opened during the jubilee year of 1977, when Elizabeth observed the 25th anniversary of her ascension to the throne.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The original version of this article included the wrong jubilee year. We’ve changed it to the correct year.
Syracuse Considers Transit Improvements
The last streetcars to serve Syracuse, New York, made their final trips in 1941. A study launched last week by the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council raises the possibility that they might return to the city.
Downtown Syracuse, New York (Photo by David Wilson on flickr)
As WAER public radio reported, the council gave Syracuse residents a first look at a proposed two-line rapid transit system for the snowy Central New York metropolis at a Feb. 24 open house. The two proposed routes would form an X that crosses in downtown Syracuse. One would run from the city’s east side to Onondaga Community College south of downtown, while the other would begin at the regional transportation center north of downtown, then head west to the Syracuse University campus.
SMTC Director James D’Agostino told WAER that the study would examine the following questions: “Do we believe it’s feasible on one or both corridors? Do we believe it’s feasible to do bus rapid transit, light rail, streetcar, or all of the above? And a dollar cost associated with both the creation and maintenance of both of them.” He added that residents have voiced concerns about how the proposed transit improvements might affect plans to replace the elevated Interstate 81 viaduct through downtown Syracuse. “This project is independent of whatever solution is put in place for I-81, and is designed to work with whatever 81 does,” he said.
Information about the Syracuse Metropolitan Area Regional Transit study and feedback from the public open house can be found on the SMTC website’s SMART page.
Know of a project that should be featured in this column? Send a Tweet with links to @MarketStEl using the hashtag #newstarts.90% of Egyptian Women Suffer From Female Genital Cutting Despite Ban
The 2015 Egypt Health Issues Survey (EHIS) has found that around 9 in 10 women aged 15-49 have undergone female genital cutting (also known as female genital mutilation) despite a government ban on the practice.
The report is the second time ever a survey has recorded the prevalence of FGM among all Egyptian women aged 15-49. Previous studies focused on the prevalence of the custom among women who had been married or who are married.
FGM, which the 2015 EHIS says have been a tradition in Egypt since the Pharaonic period, remains widespread across Egypt but is expected to decline. For example, seven in 10 women aged 15-19 have been circumcised compared to eight in 10 women aged 20-24. However, for women between the ages of 25-49, the percentage of women who have been circumcised ranges from 89 to 97 percent.
Comparing the results to the 2008 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS), there has been a four percent decline in the overall rate of FGM for women aged 15-49.
The study also found differences between rates of FGM depending on whether women lived in rural or urban areas and the level of education they have received. For example, fewer than eight in 10 urban women have undergone female genital cutting compared with more than nine in 10 rural women. Meanwhile, women with no education are most likely to have undergone FGM (98 percent) while women with education and greater wealth are less likely to have been circumcised (70 percent).
Additionally, the study found that virtually all of the women who were surveyed had been circumcised before the age of 15, with half the circumcisions being carried out by traditional birth attendants and 42 percent by trained medical personnel despite the government’s ban.
As for why FGM levels remain high in Egypt, the survey found that many parents believe that female circumcision is required by religion. 59 percent of men agreed that FGM should continue, compared to 54 percent of women.
The 2015 EHIS was conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Population and is part of the DHS Program which is funded by USAID and supported by UNICEF and UNFPA.
History
This is the second report to be released this year on the issue of FGM. In May 2015, Egypt’s Minister of Health announced that 92 percent of married women have undergone female genital mutilation.
Despite a large number of men and women surveyed believing that FGM is condoned by Islam, Egypt’s top Islamic authority has condemned the act as ‘un-Islamic’ and ‘barbaric’. Previous studies have found the phenomenon is not necessarily linked to Islam, with Christian women also having undergone FGM.
Egypt banned FGM in 2008. Article 242 of Egypt’s Penal Code criminalizes the circumcision of girls and the punishment for performing FGM is a prison sentence ranging from three months to two years or a fine of EGP 5,000.
In January 2015, an Egyptian court imprisoned the first doctor ever brought to trial in Egypt on FGM charges that resulted in the death of 13-year-old Sohair al-Bata’a.
The doctor was sentenced to two years in prison with hard labor for manslaughter and three months for performing the banned practice. The doctor also received a fine of EGP 500 (USD 68).
The father of Sohair was also sentenced to three months in prison for FGM.
According to the World Health Organization, Egypt, Somalia, Guinea, Djibouti and Sierra Leone have the highest rates of FGM. A 2013 UNICEF report found that Egypt has the world’s highest total number of FGM sufferers, with 27.2 million women having undergone FGM.
Subscribe to our newsletterDennis Rodman: I'm doing Obama's job
Dennis Rodman is headed back to North Korea because, as he puts it, “Obama can't do s---.”
"We got a black president [who] can't even go talk to [Kim Jong Un]... Obama can't do s---, I don't know why he won’t do it,” Rodman told TMZ.
The former NBA star, who made a controversial trip to North Korea in February, said he plans to return in August for some more unofficial diplomacy. This time, he wants to broker the release Kenneth Bae, an American citizen imprisoned in North Korea.
“I’m gonna try to get the guy out,” he said. "…It's gonna be difficult."
But he’s hoping his “friend” will do him the favor. Rodman said he’s “absolutely” been in touch with Kim, keeping in contact with the dictator “through his people.”If you lived in parts of the Mid-Atlantic, South, or Midwest in the ’80s or ’90s, you were probably familiar with the discount department store chain Hills. (If you aren’t from that area, when you read this story, substitute your favorite now-defunct local or regional department or discount store for Hills.) This week, a local YouTube channel and a candle company teamed up to create a scented candle, and created a frenzy.
Hills stores had snack bars in the lobby, which were nothing unique: popcorn, fossilized hot dogs, soda, and Icees were all available. The stores also had housewares, clothes, and a great toy section, which starred in their most memorable commercials for shoppers of a certain age.
Hills disappeared in 1999 when dueling discount store Ames acquired it and swallowed up the stores, and those stores closed just a few years later.
The hyperlocal comedy channel Pittsburgh Dad integrated this into a tribute to Back to the Future, where the title character traveled in a DeLorean back to important dates in Pittsburgh history, including a visit to a Hills store in 1989 that included a stop at the snack bar for an Icee.
Here’s that clip: if it doesn’t skip to the right part, Hills is at 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Using this for inspiration, when the Pittsburgh Dad team worked with a local soy candle company to create themed scents in a bit of local corporate synergy, the first one was obvious: Hills Snack Bar. No, really.
The fragrance has notes of all of the things you love about snack bars: cherry Icee, warm pretzels, and popcorn. Day-old hot dog oil may have been too difficult to synthesize.
You can’t actually order the candle from the website until tomorrow, but you can apparently order over the phone. One of the company’s owners told the Buffalo News that they’ve shipped candles to 15 different states, and people are ordering up to five at a time.
“Everybody has a story about Hills. Everybody misses it,” one of the owners told the paper. Indeed.
If you can’t get enough defunct discount store merch, Pittsburgh Dad also has a store where you can buy T-shirts with the logo.
People love this candle that smells like a Hills snack bar [Buffalo News] (Thanks, Wendy!)Dr. Duke responds to “The Hill” authors who claim science undermines his views on race
A recent opinion piece in The Hill (DNA undermines David Duke’s brand of separatism) made inaccurate references to science in a confused attempt to attack me. The authors claim that race is “a sociopolitical construct,” which they note is the consensus of “social scientists.” It should be noted that social scientists are hardly the relevant authorities on the matter. Biologists, physicians, and forensic anthropologists have no trouble distinguishing between races based on physical, as opposed to social, attributes.
Indeed, the authors reference a study that claims that many whites have a small amount (1% or so) of African DNA that they are unaware of but that can be detected by modern genetic testing. The fact that even such a negligible contribution to an individual’s genome can be scientifically detected shows how distinct racial genetic difference actually are. These tests certainly are not looking at sociopolitical constructs in the DNA!
Are these obvious physical differences a “social/political construct?
That there are racial differences based on genetics and not just culture should not be covered up. Any pharmaceuticals company that failed to take into account racial differences in its testing and protocols would leave itself vulnerable to a class action lawsuit, because races tend to metabolize certain drugs differently. To ignore these differences would cause great harm to patients.
The same way, ignoring racial differences in cognitive, personality, and developmental attributes is causing great harm to people in terms of their education, their employment, and many other aspects of their lives. For half a century our political elite has been pushing the completely unscientific notion that there is no such thing as race (while often maintaining that whites (the White Race) alone are pathologically racist and evil), and over that time we have seen a complete deterioration of many of our communities through demographics.
This is particularly the case in the black community, where crime, drug abuse, illegitimacy, and a host of other social ills have become epidemic, despite the investment of trillions of dollars in taxpayer money. Maybe no one has all the answers, but if we are not allowed to ask the obvious questions or present undeniable evidence, how on earth can we expect things to improve?
Even black educators are now telling us that black children learn differently than white children and that teaching methods must be adjusted for black children to reach their potential.
Race is real. It is not a bad thing. It is a fact of nature. Biological diversity is a good thing in nature, and biological and racial diversity is a good thing in humanity. It creates the myriad expressions of humanity. Every race, every people must be free to create their own expressions of mankind. Forced massive immigration against the will of people does not lead to harmony but to conflict, hatred and often civil war. Better to to understand and embrace the reality of human differences than to again and again ignore human nature and thus nurture conflict and disharmony within nations.
Global diversity is a good thing. Forced diversity within nations of strikingly different people, cultures, religions and values is a recipe for human conflict not peace and goodwill between peoples.
— Dr. David DukeMy favorite gift of 2013 arrived in the mail a few days before Christmas: two cans of pure maple syrup made in Quebec by longtime friends, the Stevenson family. Printed on the metal cans is an image that instantly transports me back to my childhood in Canada: In a woodland scene, several men in plaid jackets pour sap from tapped sugar maple trees into buckets, and from there into a horse-drawn tank. Firewood is stacked alongside a red shanty, and steam rises from its roof. I can almost smell the sap boiling, and the scene conjures memories of Floyd Stevenson trickling hot syrup across a pan of fresh snow, and offering me a fork to taste the strands of sweet, frozen taffy.
In the eyes of a first-grader, Canada was a land of vast forests, deep snow, and crisp Macintosh apples. I knew that the nation that put a maple leaf on its flag wasn’t simply one big national park, but for many years afterward, Canada seemed to be a great green land where large carnivores still roamed, and key environmental protections remained intact.
In recent years, however, Canada’s conservative leaders—who are not so when it comes to conserving natural resources—have systematically trashed those protections. My Canadian friends tell me that many of their countrymen don’t even discuss climate change; it is considered unpatriotic to do so, now that Canada has hitched its economic sled to oil.
Oh, Canada. What happened to you, eh? Where is the “land glorious and free” described in your national anthem? Who is now standing “on guard for thee?” You have lost your true north.
Priming the pump. The natural resources that Canada is increasingly tapping today are fossil fuels. Canada’s crude oil production has increased by about a third during the past decade, mostly because of tar sands development in Alberta. If the Obama administration approves the Keystone XL pipeline proposed by the energy company TransCanada, the conduit will extend from Alberta to the US Gulf Coast and open new markets for Canadian oil exports.
While environmental activists in the United States have focused on Keystone, though, another Canadian project has flown under the radar. A federal review panel recently approved plans for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, a new pipeline and port that would facilitate oil exports from Canada’s Pacific Coast to Asia. According to a report in InsideClimate News, “The goal is to double or triple tar sands output in the decades ahead, clearing the transportation bottlenecks that have depressed prices for tar sands crude, and getting Canada's vast reserves onto more lucrative markets outside North America.” But while the government review panel assessed the climate impacts of building and operating the pipeline, it did not study the effects of the increased production that would result, saying that the latter was “beyond the scope of its review.”
Largely because of oil production, Canada is now expected to miss its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent (below 2005 levels) by 2020, which it committed to under the 2009 Copenhagen Accord. A government report released in October showed that emissions decreased between 2005 and 2011 but have since risen, and that by the end of the decade they will be 20 percent higher than the target. Annual emissions attributed to the tar sands are forecast to grow from 34 million metric tons in 2005 to 101 million metric tons in 2020. Canada’s per-capita emissions are now only slightly less than in the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Government complicity. Although the Canadian federal government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper claims to be committed to fighting climate change, its actions suggest otherwise. Ottawa has spent heavily on a pro-tar-sands advertising campaign and on lobbying in Washington for approval of the Keystone pipeline. Meanwhile, Wikileaks documents reveal that at least 13 agencies within the Harper government have had contracts with the US private intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor), which counseled them on how to handle environmental groups such as Greenpeace.
The Canadian government is also distributing largesse directly to extraction companies. According to a recent analysis by PostMedia News, more than $400 million in federal subsidies for biofuels, wind projects, and carbon-capturing technology have gone to profitable oil and gas corporations including Enbridge, Shell Canada, Suncor, and Husky. Some of these same energy companies are doing a poor job of reporting their environmental performance, compared with their global peers.
Government repression. Since Harper’s election in 2006, his Conservative Party government has withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol, gutted environmental legislation, forced the closure of an Arctic research station that monitored climate change, and, most recently, cut $100 million from the budget of the department in charge of protecting Canada's water and oceans. An online survey of Canadian government scientists found that 90 percent feel they can’t speak freely to the media.
Make no mistake: The United States has dragged its feet on climate too, and US media have criticized the Obama administration for its restrictions on access to government officials and scientists employed by public institutions. But that’s no justification for the Harper government’s relentless assault on science, which it pursues despite the fact that the majority of the Canadian public favors action on climate change, and even Shell Canada has called for more regulation.
A few Canadian cities and provinces are taking the lead on climate. British Columbia, for example, has run a successful carbon tax program for more than five years now, and a key part of Quebec’s climate change action plan for the years 2013 to 2020 is to establish a carbon cap-and-trade system. The federal government, however, remains firmly in the grip of the oil and gas industry, as in the United States, despite the fact that Canada’s energy industry accounts for less than 7 percent of GDP and employs fewer than 300,000 people. Far more important is the vast Canadian service sector, which accounts for about 70 percent of GDP and three-quarters of the labor force.
Shortchanging renewables. The Canadian federal government’s support for fossil fuels comes at the expense of other key industries, natural resources, and cultures. Climate change is wreaking havoc on ski resorts, forests that supply wood and paper products, and Canada’s many First Nations families who rely on fishing and hunting—and live in communities threatened by sea level rise and oil spills. Even the abundant oil from Alberta’s tar sands is of little benefit to consumers in eastern Canada, where two-thirds of Canadians live. Although Canada is one of the few developed nations that are net exporters of energy products, it is cheaper for Alberta to export oil to the United States than to send it to eastern Canada.
Alberta’s gain may be Quebec’s pain. Although Quebec has the lowest per-capita carbon dioxide emissions of any province in Canada—less than one-sixth those of Alberta—it will be hard hit by climate change. By 2050, winter temperatures are predicted to be 3.8 degrees Celsius higher in southern Quebec than in 1960, and a whopping 6.5 degrees Celsius higher in the north.
As the planet warms, renewable resources like maple syrup will be disrupted. The optimal temperature zone within which sugar maple trees can thrive has been shifting north. Maple trees would have to move about 90 feet a day to keep up, said Alain Bourque, director of climate change impacts and adaptation at Quebec’s research institute Ouranos, in a 2011 interview with The Montreal Gazette.
For a while, Canada’s northernmost syrup makers may benefit from a longer sap-flow season. But within my lifetime, the sugar maple forests of my youth will become climate refugees unable to flee. That makes the gift that I received this Christmas even more precious.Players love their character getting more powerful! It’s a strong reward for play and to engage players at the table, making them keep coming back for more!
But powering up through levels can start to take multiple sessions, while speeding up leveling takes some of the enjoyment out of anticipating a new level and appreciation of the previous level gained. And once you’ve given a +1 weapon, that’s it. The only thing to go onto is +2. And soon enough the party will all be equipped with +2 and we will be strapped for what to give as a reward next, while having made the party significantly more powerful at the same time. We want to give powering up rewards multiple times in play, but there is little granulation and so the rewards give too much too soon?
Here is your answer! The following is a way of granting more power to each player regularly through play, granted in manageable increments!
Here is the first example – Defensive Boons!
[[ I’m currently developing a PDF with a number of different Boon types, offensive as well. Providing many more hours of rewards in play ]]
Defence Boons
These upgrades are found as small, magic precious stones. The magic allows them to be pressed into armour and they will magically set themselves into the item. When finding these stones, it can be fun to say to a player ‘You’ve found a precious stone – what type is it and what does it look like?’, as the magic stone will become a part of their armour latter on, once used. So they will decide the new look of their equipment!
Each magic stone represents an upgrade stage. Armour can have multiple stones, each increasing the level of boon granted upon the armour and thereby the character that wears it!
Defence Boon Levels
1 This level grants the wearer to activate the boon as a free action on their turn, and for one round (until the start of their next turn) they receive +1 AC on top of their regular armour class. This can be done once per long rest. 2 The Boon grants a bonus for two rounds 3 The Boon grants a bonus for three rounds 4 In addition to the previous effect that can be activated, the Boon now has a reactive component! When the PC would be struck by an attack, as a free action the player can choose to activate the Boon to gain +1 AC. They decide this after finding out the attack roll result! However, this bonus only applies to this one attack and then the reactive charge is spent. See the recharge rules below.
Recharge cost : 20g 5 Reactive recharge cost reduced : 10g 6 Reactive recharge cost reduced : 5g 7 Reactive recharge cost reduced : 2g 8 Reactive recharge cost reduced : 1g 9 Reactive component will self recharge for free, once per week! You can still pay for a recharge, which doesn’t reset the recharge time.
Recharging Reactions
This can generally be done in town where spell services are performed. All the strange glass jars on the walls, mystic books and stuffed crocodiles owned by the NPC magic user are part of their effects for gathering energy over time. Collected inside all these knick knacks in their magic shop, which they can use for effects like recharging the reactive Boon in the adventurers equipment! The magic user, for their expertise, time and prior investment in miscellaneous strange potion bottles and crumbling scrolls, requires a fee in gold, as described in the table. Only one reactive charge can be held at a time by an item.
Sometimes a town is grateful for the adventurers deeds or the adventurers have proven to be good souls in how they act in town. And so the magic user providing the spell casting service will offer a certain amount of gold removed from the cost of recharge, to reward the PCs or attempt to gain some favor with the PC’s.
Other times the PC might find a recharging ritual circle in a dungeon, set up by humanoid monsters (the energies were to be used for evil designs, no doubt!). They can use the energy of these ritual circles (once! Then the circle is spent!) to recharge their Boon. A circle is the equivalent of recharging a certain number of golds worth – the GM determines the amount when they create the circle. This becomes another form of treasure to be found in dungeons! Otherwise the PCs can simply pay for the service in town and receive the benefit of the Boon.
Sometimes the player might be able to buy a one use portable magic device that can be used mid dungeon to recharge their item. It costs twice as much as a regular recharge and only one such portable recharge can be applied per item per long rest. It’s also a nice thing to come across – appreciate the generosity in the GM’s world if you find one!
How to Apportion the Rewards /
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’s black shoes and socks may take a back seat to their chromatic siblings but they are no less exotic. The black Indian granite is a charnockite from southern India and contains a distinctive pyroxene mineral known as hypersthene.
Ireland too contributes a piece of its geology to the jigsaw. The huge rock on which the sculptor has perched Wilde is a 35 tonne boulder of quartz transported from the Wicklow Mountains where it had weathered out of a vein in the Leinster Granite. Osbourne, who found the boulder himself, must be congratulated on placing Wilde so naturally. In the words of Wilde himself, “being natural is simply a pose,” but this reclining pose, as the subject faces his childhood home on Merrion Square, is a true demonstration of a master artist at work.
In addition to the beautiful use of wonderful natural materials, I love the cleverness of the sculpture. The vivid colours, straight from the natural world, capture Oscar Wilde’s flamboyant character so perfectly. One can easily imagine Wilde, adorned by his unapologetic smoking jacket, shimmering trousers, and cheeky smile, flicking his head towards a US Customs Control officer to offer: “I have nothing to declare but my genius.” He struts on, head held high, his heavily polished, charnockite-granite-black shoes clicking loudly as he exits.
Gavin Kenny
Ph.D. student, Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin
@GavinGKenny
All photos by the author unless otherwise stated.
53.343990 -6.267190
AdvertisementsA missing Asheville teen was found during a prostitution sting operation in east Tennessee on Tuesday.
Three suspects were arrested during the operation — Timothy King, Jesse McMinn and Tabitha Banks.
Investigators found the missing teen inside King's vehicle.
According to the arrest warrant, Knox County sheriff's deputies saw an ad on Backpage.com under the category “women seeking men.”
They made an appointment for the “two girl special,” and, according to the warrant, an undercover deputy went to a Holiday Inn in Knoxville. He was invited to room 358. He made a deal with two of the suspects — McMinn and Banks — for one hour of full-service sex for $340.
According to the warrant, McMinn gave the undercover deputy a condom and the two women removed their clothes.
Investigators said King registered the room and acted as security. They found more than $2,700 on him.
Banks said she gave him some of that money from prostitution and King gave the two women a ride from North Carolina, according to the warrant.
Finally, investigators said, they found the missing Asheville teen and brought her to a juvenile detention center in Knoxville to be reunited with her family.
Asheville Police said she was reunited with them two months after her parents reported her missing. About a week after her parents reported her missing, they told authorities she ran away.
"Usually, the age of entry is between 12 and 14, but we've had a couple of kids in our program that we knew were trafficking survivors and the youngest we had was 10,” Karen Cowan, director at Brandi Nichole Family Enrichment Center, said.
Cowan said girls or boys may be physically threatened into prostitution.
"Some guys that will beat you into submission and you're scared to death," Cowan said.
They may also be coerced mentally.
"There are others that are kids that run away that don't have anything and don't have anybody and this is a sense of belonging for them," Cowan said.
But, there are ways to help stop these crimes.
"The best thing that you can do with anybody is a relationship, and that's what's pretty much so missing now. We looked out for one another. We looked out for one another's children. We knew them. If something was going on, we protected not just ours, but yours, as well," Cowan said.
Banks and McMinn face charges of prostitution. King faces a charge of human trafficking.It is fair to say the opening quarter of the 2014-15 NHL season has been relatively sanguine, compared to many campaigns.
All 30 coaches who began the season in charge remained so on American Thanksgiving. There have been a few trades, but beyond two the New York Islanders made just before opening night to shore up their defense there hasn't been a landscape-altering move.
There has been a lot to be thankful for around the NHL this season, but teams also have things they would like to see change before the next holiday week. (Photo: Juan Ocampo/NHLI, Getty Images, Joe Sargent/NHLI) There has been a lot to be thankful for around the NHL this season, but teams also have things they would like to see change before the next holiday week.
There have been injuries and the Pittsburgh Penguins will miss Pascal Dupuis and the Vancouver Canucks will miss for Dan Hamhuis, but no star players are lost for the season and a few (Victor Hedman, Zdeno Chara and Ryan McDonagh come to mind) are about to return.
There were a few minor rule changes to start the season, and a tweak to the pre-overtime ice-cleaning procedure since 2014-15 began, but the consensus from the League's general managers after their meeting in Toronto earlier this month was the game is in a pretty good place.
It is certainly possible the sense of calm around the NHL will change soon. Right around this point in the season is when GMs start getting antsy if their teams aren't performing to expectations. There has been speculation about player movement and coach movement in the past week or so, and expect it to intensify.
Teams know that while there still might be three-quarters of a season to go, the majority of clubs in a playoff spot right now are going to be in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in April. For the 14 teams on the outside, there might only be a few in the top 16 that are vulnerable.
It is a holiday week in the United States, so let's take stock of what the best teams in the NHL are thankful for, and what those clubs would probably like to see change before the next holiday week a month from now.
DISCLAIMER: While the Super 16 is NHL.com's weekly power rankings, it focuses more on the "power" than the "rankings" when determining the order. It's not always going to look like the League standings and likely will take more of a long view than a short one. If two teams are close the tiebreaker almost always is this: If the two teams started a seven-game series right now, who would prevail? Stop by to see where your favorite team ranks, but stay for the information.
1. Pittsburgh Penguins (15-4-2)
GIVE THANKS: The Penguins wanted to improve their ability to possess the puck, and they have. GM Jim Rutherford wanted to improve the depth of his forward corps, and he did. Blake Comeau and Steve Downie have combined for 11 goals and 23 points. Add their salaries to that of defenseman Christian Ehrhoff, who has also been a nice fit, and they still cost less than what Matt Niskanen received per year from the Washington Capitals. That's good business.
WISH LIST: The biggest need is going to be someone to replace Dupuis, who is likely lost for the season because of a blood clot. Comeau did his best impression of a top-six forward with a hat trick against Toronto on Wednesday night, but this team needs another forward and must avoid any more serious injuries to the top eight or nine guys.
MUST READ: Brady McCollough of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette dives deep on Mario Lemieux's 30 years in the city.
2. Chicago Blackhawks (13-8-1)
GIVE THANKS: The commitment to defense has been excellent. In most years Chicago has been able to outscore anyone. This season the goals aren’t flowing like usual, but the Blackhawks are limiting shot attempts well and are among the NHL's best in goal prevention. If they remain a top-five team in goals against when the pucks start going in with more frequency, they have a chance to be as dominant as they were in 2013.
WISH LIST: Coach Joel Quenneville is not the most patient when it comes to line combinations, but there has been a little less stability up front than usual. Once Patrick Sharp is back from injury, the Blackhawks will probably look for a little bit of consistency in that department.
MUST READ: Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times writes about the other sides of Captain Serious.
3. St. Louis Blues (14-6-2)
GIVE THANKS: Vladimir Tarasenko has been an MVP candidate and a highlight machine. This could just say "Vladimir Tarasenko" like five times. He's been that good (and Jori Lehtera has been a great addition to play with him and Jaden Schwartz).
WISH LIST: The obvious need is clarity in net because of Brian Elliott's injury. Jake Allen gets his big chance, and maybe Martin Brodeur, in on a tryout, is back in the NHL next week. A bigger concern could be Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester. They haven't been bad, but they haven't been "one of the best pairings in the NHL" kind of great, either. Kevin Shattenkirk has helped mitigate this some, but the Blues should be better than about a 50 percent Corsi/Fenwick team when those two defensemen are on the ice.
MUST READ: Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes about how the "STL line" is starting to earn more attention from opposing coaches.
4. Tampa Bay Lightning (15-6-2)
GIVE THANKS: Anton Stralman might end up being one of the biggest bargains from the 2014 free agency period, at least among players who got long-term contracts. He's been fantastic for the Lightning, something pretty much anyone who has embraced analytics would have predicted. Even better, he's helped Tampa Bay withstand Hedman's injury. With a healthy Hedman, this team is ready for a deep playoff run.
WISH LIST: Whether or not Tampa Bay can challenge for a division title, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and the Presidents' Trophy could be determined by either improved play from Evgeni Nabokov or a new backup goaltender. Ben Bishop is on pace for 64 games, but will the Lightning need even more from him if Nabokov doesn't improve his.870 save percentage?
MUST READ: Kyle Alexander of Raw Charge writes about how Jon Cooper is creating successful minutes for the fourth line.
5. Nashville Predators (15-5-2)
GIVE THANKS: For all of the attention the Predators are receiving in discussions for awards (Pekka Rinne for the Vezina Trophy, Filip Forsberg for the Calder Trophy, Peter Laviolette for the Jack Adams Award, etc) what about David Poile for GM of the Year? It's a tough award to quantify. Should a GM get credit for drafting someone four years ago, or just the moves made in 2014? Poile had a fantastic offseason, and now the Predators have a healthy Mike Fisher as well.
WISH LIST: They have the highest PDO in the League. Granted, someone has to, but the team's shooting percentage and save percentage at even strength are both going to regress at least a little. Something to watch for in the next month is where Fisher fits and if he can play at his previous level. They don't need him to be a No. 1 center now, but if he could be a Jarrett Stoll-type for the Predators it would be a great addition.
MUST READ: Braden Thompson of On the Forecheck cautions that while Nashville's possession numbers are much improved, other indicators say there could be some regression coming.
6. Minnesota Wild (12-9-0)
GIVE THANKS: Scoring goals has been a struggle, particularly on the power play, despite dominant puck possession at even strength. Jason Zucker and Nino Niederreiter were expected to be depth scorers, but they've combined for 18 goals while Mikko Koivu, Thomas Vanek, Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund have combined for seven.
WISH LIST: Darcy Kuemper had a great start to the season in net, but has cooled of late and getting yanked after he allowed four goals on Wednesday has his save percentage down to below League average. Niklas Backstrom has been useful as the backup, and both have shiny goals-against averages because of the Wild's ability to limit shots, but a.911 save percentage throughout the season should make people in Minnesota a little uneasy come playoff time.
MUST READ: Alec Schmidt of Hockey Wilderness writes about what is plaguing the Minnesota power play.
7. New York Islanders (16-6-0)
GIVE THANKS: The obvious answer is the salary-cap situations in Boston and Chicago, which allowed the Islanders to add Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy, but GM Garth Snow deserves plaudits for being aggressive after years of preaching patience. John Tavares and Kyle Okposo have been great, but there is depth behind them and the Islanders have moved into the top-tier of the League in the possession stats as well.
WISH LIST: It's pretty hard to nitpick at this point, but the Islanders could win more games in regulation. They are 7-0 in games beyond regulation, and that is a tough standard to maintain. Even if they were 4-3 in those games this season would be a smashing success so far.
MUST READ: Arthur Staple of Newsday writes about the emergence of Leddy.
8. Los Angeles Kings (12-6-5)
GIVE THANKS: The play of Jonathan Quick was a divisive topic during the first three rounds of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He was great against the New York Rangers in the Cup Final, but far from his best while the Kings had to grind through 21 games in three rounds to get there. He has been pretty great again this season, and Los Angeles has needed it. The puck-possession numbers have improved slightly of late, but they're still not where people would expect them to be after dominance in that area from 2012-14.
WISH LIST: GM Dean Lombardi has some cap space now and the Kings will need another defenseman at some point. Los Angeles needs a little more from its bottom two forward lines as well. Anze Kopitar has been great and Jeff Carter's line has scored like crazy, but there are six regular forwards on the roster with sub-50 percent Corsi for percentages.
MUST READ: Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times writes about the extra workload for Drew Doughty so far this season.
9. Anaheim Ducks (14-4-5)
GIVE THANKS: It is early in the process but Josh Manson looks like he could be a find for the Ducks on the blue line. Clayton Stoner has predictably been a drag on the team's ability to possess the puck, but Manson has helped and gives them another option.
WISH LIST: The Ducks could use a little more clarity on which of their talented young wings are ready to be counted on consistently, but that's a minor thing. The biggest issue is Stoner, and whether or not he can play better or if coach Bruce Boudreau is willing to play six other defensemen.
MUST READ: Rob Vollman of ESPN.com writes that dealing away future first-round picks, like the Ducks did when they acquired Chris Pronger, is usually a good gamble.
10. Detroit Red Wings (12-5-5)
GIVE THANKS: Mike Babcock is doing a masterful job of putting his skilled young players in situations to succeed. He's leaning on the fourth line to eat up a lot of the defensive-zone faceoffs (they're not the only team trying to emulate what has been a staple in Chicago) and the kids are turning offensive-zone faceoffs into great possession numbers.
WISH LIST: Does anyone know if the Red Wings have been looking for another defenseman? Yeah, they're still looking, though Xavier Ouellet has not looked out of place in limited duty. If this team adds a high-level defenseman, Detroit could win the East.
MUST READ: The defensive shell sounds like a great idea, but it really isn't, writes garik16 for Hockey-Graphs. The Red Wings are a good example of a team that doesn't sit back much. Detroit is allowing 46.89 shot attempts per 60 minutes at even strength, and when the Red Wings are leading by two-plus goals that figure only rises to 50.0, the second-lowest in the League in that situation.
11. Montreal Canadiens (16-6-1)
GIVE THANKS: Adding P.A. Parenteau for Daniel Briere was one of the best trades in the past few seasons. Tomas Plekanec between Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk has been a great line. Dustin Tokarski has given the Canadiens a strong backup option to help keep Carey Price fresh. There's a lot that has gone right for Montreal, and it looks like a great team …
WISH LIST: … on paper. The issue to this point is the underlying metrics don't agree with Montreal's success. The Canadiens should be a better puck-possession team. It's not that they can't have success as a team that controls less than 50 percent of the shot attempts, but that means relying a lot on the goaltending and special teams and luck.
MUST READ: Marc Dumont breaks down a costly breakdown by the Canadiens against the New York Rangers.
12. Boston Bruins (13-9-1)
GIVE THANKS: The Bruins have been able to keep grinding out points without Zdeno Chara and David Krejci. They have a very good coach and one of the best players in the world in Patrice Bergeron, so that helps. Carl Soderberg has been an excellent find for Boston, and Seth Griffith provided an offensive jolt.
WISH LIST: GM Peter Chiarelli needs time. He needs to see what this team really looks like with Chara and Krejci, and to see if the collection of young defensemen they've been leaning on are ready to handle a Boychuk-less postseason.
MUST READ: Joe Haggerty of CSN New England writes the Bruins have weathered the injury storm and are in good shape for the playoffs.
13. Vancouver Canucks (15-6-1)
GIVE THANKS: Radim Vrbata signing with Vancouver wasn't a splashy headline in July, but no player who switched teams in the offseason has scored more goals than him (Patric Hornqvist has as many). The Canucks have a top line that dominates, a second line that is competent and some other guys who have produced a little better than recent Vancouver depth forwards.
WISH LIST: The Canucks are going to see what life is like without Dan Hamuis, figure out how long he is out and then what's the best way to replace his 20 minutes. Will Luca Sbisa or Yannick Weber be able to handle more? There's a couple decent third-pairing options in the minors, but a top-four caliber player might have to come from outside the organization.
MUST READ: Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail writes about Pat Quinn.
14. Calgary Flames (14-8-2)
GIVE THANKS: It is clear there are some serious building blocks on the Red Mile. Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie are great and signed to team-friendly contracts. Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau have played very well, and Marcus Granlund has helped fill in for Mikael Backlund.
WISH LIST: Getting Backlund healthy will help dig the Flames out a little from a possession standpoint, but they need to get a lot better or this run of success is almost certainly going to end. The team shooting percentage and save percentage have already started to slip a little. The stretch of six games just before the Christmas break could be a chance for them to prove this isn't a fluke.
MUST READ: Kristen Odland of the Calgary Herald writes about the emergence of Granlund.
15. Winnipeg Jets (12-9-3)
GIVE THANKS: They are not scoring enough goals, but at this point in the season the Jets have made what look like real positive strides toward competing for a playoff spot. The puck-possession numbers are up, the goals-against are down and the trio of Evander Kane, Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler has been really good.
WISH LIST: There is a little too much talent on this roster for the Jets to continue to shoot less than six percent as a team at even strength. It's hard to draw any conclusions with either goaltender just yet, but both have played well so far.
MUST READ: Garrett Hohl of Arctic Ice Hockey examines the reasons behind the goal-scoring slump.
16. San Jose Sharks (10-10-4)
GIVE THANKS: Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau are still in San Jose. It was a really weird offseason, but Thornton has been great and Marleau has been pretty steady. Without them, the Sharks would be much closer to a top-five draft pick instead of three points shy of a playoff spot despite some bad luck.
WISH LIST: Asking for patience in San Jose might be a touchy topic, but the Sharks have improved of late. The wins have not followed, but they should if the team continues to play well. Matt Nieto has great possession numbers against slightly above-average competition. He's playing really well, even if the columns that say GOALS and POINTS do not agree at the moment.
MUST READ: Ray Ratto of CSN Bay Area thinks it would be a bad idea for the Sharks to look for a new coach.
---NO ONE Died in the Boston Bombing Nor was ANYONE Even Hurt. (Except, of course, the innocent “suspects” the Tsarnaev brothers, who were killed/maimed by the police) This was a Total Hoax a False Flag Operation To Take Away Our Remaining Rights
By Lorraine Day, M.D.
My background: I am an Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon. For many years I was Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital, the onlyTrauma Hospital in San Francisco. For 25 years, I took care of massive injuries from gang wars, explosions, severe motor vehicle crashes, survivors of attempted suicide from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, etc.
I am fully qualified to assess the supposed injuries at the total HOAX “bombing” that took place at the Boston Marathon. And I am not the only one who is writing about this. There are many others who also understand that it was a HOAX!
The documentation for what I have written below is contained in the links given at the end of this article. Please read those articles and view those videos so you will have some facts evidence before you make up your own mind.
Consider these facts:
1. In the pictures taken immediately after the blast, there is NO BLOOD on the ground. That could never be. The bomb blast instantaneously would have spread blood from the injured victims everywhere.
2. There were only about 10 “victims” at ground zero of the blast and all of them are alive and do not appear to be even close to death. Where are these other “200” people who were supposedly injured?
3. When “blood” does eventually appear on the sidewalk at ground zero it clearly is some kind of paint NOT blood. The paint is bright orangish-red, obviously for the maximum frightening effect on the populace. REAL BLOOD is dark maroon.
4. Notice in the initial pictures after the (smoke) bomb exploded, almost all of the “victims” are holding themselves up on one elbow, or they are sitting up. No one is in severe pain, or really in any pain at all. Severely injured people are not propping themselves up on one elbow. They would have their head on the sidewalk.
5. Obviously, these crisis actors (See crisisactors.com) don’t want to put their head or the side of their face down on the dirty Boston sidewalk where everyone walks (and spits).
6. In one video, a man is seen clapping together two towels or other items, causing the crisis actors “victims” to be covered with soot so they’ll look more like bombing victims.
7. One woman “victim” is seen in early photos (but after the “bombing” has taken place) with no blood at all on her white blouse. However, later, she is taken off on a gurney with a lot of “blood” on her white blouse.
8. There are many “handlers” in the early pictures, positioning “victims” and assisting in the set-up of the HOAX scene. You might think that they would be concerned about being seen by the by-standers, but when a “bomb” goes off, most people run for their life, allowing the Hoaxsters and Crisis actors to set up their HOAX scenes undisturbed.
9. There are no Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) at the scene, no ambulances, and no fire engines (after all, a supposed “bomb” went off it would be mandatory for the fire department to respond). Where are they? The people “helping” the “victims” are also Crisis actors. No emergency medical personnel are on the scene.
10. Certainly, wheel chairs may be available at various places along a Marathon route, and at the end of the race, but wheel chairs are never found on ambulances. And wheelchairs are never used to transport severely injured victims. When a victim has lost a lot of blood, whether from internal or external bleeding, he or she is always kept flat and transported on a gurney. Otherwise the life of that victim is at severe risk.
11. The man with the supposedly blown off legs with about sixteen inches of bone (tibia) sticking out of one leg is taken away in a WHEELCHAIR! That would NEVER happen! If a person has both legs blown off, his blood loss would be so severe that if someone sat him up, he would lose consciousness (his heart could not pump enough blood to supply his brain when he was in the upright position) and he would die. No ambulance company would ever take on that liability, nor would any bystander. That man was a crisis actor who lost both of his legs in war some time ago while in the military. You will see in the documentation below. There are many former military personnel, amputees from war injuries, that are now being used as crisis actors for “drills” as it was repeatedly announced over loudspeakers that this (Boston Bombing) was.
The “gory blown-off” leg was nothing but a prosthesis (made by “central casting”) made to look like an amputation caused by an explosion. The prosthesis, however, is a very poor replica of a real amputated limb. I have performed many amputations of both legs and arms and I have seen many hundreds of severely injured limbs from all sorts of horrendous accidents. None of them ever look like that one. But apparently it is good enough to fool the population (most of whom have never seen such injuries). Unfortunately, the average American chooses not to spend any time investigating these events and chooses to believe the mainstream media propagandists.
The injuries and blood spatter are so badly done, they are almost comical to a trained trauma surgeon such as myself.
Also, that man who supposedly lost both his legs in the “bombing” seemed to be in no pain, nor did he have blood all over him. And 4 or 5 days later, when photographed in the hospital, he is giving a thumbs-up, happy-faced smile. This is ludicrous When a person loses even one limb, there is a “grieving” process that goes on for weeks, similar to the grieving response that would happen if a person lost a close loved one. And it’s usually months before one actually can face the situation and get on with his life.
One more thing: in the links below, there is proof that this man who supposedly lost both of his legs in the “bombing” was wheeled through the crowd TWICE in his wheel chair clearly for the media’s benefit: a photo opportunity! During one of those episodes, his fake “blown off” leg/prosthesis started to fall off and had to be put back on by one of the men in the yellow jackets, obviously an “insider” another crisis actor!
12. The glass from the “blown-out” windows from the “bombing” is all on the sidewalk. If the glass had been broken from a real bomb blast the glass would be inside the apartments or offices, not outside on the sidewalk.
13. The “runner” who fell down when the “bomb” exploded as though he had been “blown down” by the bomb, was an actor. There were many men much closer to the “bomb” that were not affected by its force at all.
14. The supposed “Principal” of the Sandy Hook school who was “killed” in that false flag attack, showed up alive and well at the Boston Bombing.
15. There are Craft International employees (operatives) on the scene. One is carrying 2 bags. The other operatives quickly leave ground zero BEFORE the bombs explode. Who is Craft International? A private contractor that provides security, defense and combat weapons training to military, police, corporate and civilian clients.
16. The U.S. and Israel desperately want to bomb Iran and need some event to polarize Americans so they’ll be willing to send their sons and daughters to die not for freedom but for the One World Government that is now gobbling up all the countries and resources in the world. This particular False Flag Attack allows them to blame it on two young, innocent supposed “Muslim Terrorists” in order to incite the American people into agreeing to go to war against Iran and Syria.
17. These 2 boys whose parents are from Chechnya had been interviewed by the FBI many times. They had even been sent to Chechnya by the FBI to attend a clandestine meeting, the purpose of which was to undermine the government of Chechnya.
18. The boys’ uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, had been married to Samantha, the daughter of Graham Fuller, a high level CIA agent.
19. The American wife of the older Tsarnaev brother is the granddaughter of a Skull and Bones member an organization that is part of the New World Order Illuminati.
20. Both boys were arrested alive and well. The older brother, according to an eye witness, was deliberately run over by a police car, then was shot multiple times and mutilated by the police. (See the picture of his corpse.) Witnesses say he was unarmed at the time of his arrest.
21. The younger brother was arrested without a struggle, but ended up almost dead, having been shot through the throat and possibly will never be able to speak again. How convenient! He was taken to a Jewish hospital and “cared for” by Israeli doctors before being transported to prison!
22. Many witnesses saw bomb-sniffing dogs both at the beginning and end of the race. Why didn’t the dogs find the bombs? Unless, of course, agents of the government contractor, Craft International, planted them. The backpacks they (Craft employees) were wearing (all black) are the same as the ones carrying the bombs, whereas the backpacks of the Tsarnaev brothers, who were Photoshopped into the crowd pictures, were not the same as the one seen surrounding the “bomb” after it exploded.
23.Numerous witnesses, including runners in the race, have stated that it was announced repeatedly over the loudspeaker that “This is a drill.” Indeed it WAS a “drill” with no one hurt or injured, except of course, the Tsarnaev brothers who were set up as patsies just like Lee Harvey Oswald in the JFK assassination. But the government has taken this False Flag “live” to deceive the American public into giving up their freedom for “safety.”
Little does the blind American public realize that those who are promising “safety” in exchange for the loss of the rights of the public, are the very ones who are setting up the “terror” incidents!
23.In 2012, the head of the Boston Emergency Services Department said, “A PLANNED Mass Casualty Event at a Marathon” is coming! Well folks, this was it!
24. And now, less than a month after the “Bombing,” the FBI agents who arrested and murdered - at least one of the Tsarnaev brothers have conveniently died in a “fall from a helicopter” during a “training drill.” Obviously, they have been silenced from telling what they know.
Here is the link so you can check it yourself.The Special Warfare insignia, also known as the “SEAL Trident” or its more popular nickname, "The Budweiser," recognizes those members of the United States Navy who have completed the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, completed SEAL Qualification Training (SQT) and have been designated as U.S. Navy SEALs. It is one of the most recognizable breast insignia of the U.S. Navy.
History [ edit ]
Established on 16 October 1970,[1] the Special Warfare insignia was initially issued in two grades, gold for officers and silver for enlisted. In 1978 the Silver SEAL insignia was abolished after which the Special Warfare insignia was issued thereafter. The SEAL insignia is therefore unusual in the Navy being as it is one of the very few breast insignia issued identically for both officers and enlisted personnel. This is partly due to the combined training both officers and enlisted receive, side by side, when involved in BUD/S training.
The Special Warfare insignia consists of a golden eagle clutching a U.S. Navy anchor, trident, and flintlock style pistol. The decoration is considered a successor to the obsolete Underwater Demolition Insignia.
The general design was likely derived from the British Combined Operations badge.
Designator and title [ edit ]
Sailors who complete BUD/S training at Coronado California are reclassified to the Special Warfare Operator (SO) rating. Sailors must complete SEAL Qualification Training (SQT) before receiving Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) 5326 Combatant Swimmer (SEAL) or, in the case of commissioned naval officers, the designation 1130 Naval Special Warfare (SEAL) Officer. Prior to the establishment of the SO rating in 2006, SEAL operators were sourced from regular Naval ratings, with the title of SEAL treated like a warfare qualification, attaching (SEAL) after the rating.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Cummings, Dennis J. The Men Behind the Trident: SEAL Team One in Vietnam. Naval Institute Press, 1997, p. 16.Everyone knows of these things called drones, but very few know what drones can actually do. This article will explore just some of the endless possibilities that remote control drones have in the current world and will have in the future.
Imagine this – within the next few years flying robots will be giving you the mail and instantly delivering your online purchases right to your front door. Also, your going to start watching a whole new type of sport on your TV – FPV drone racing.
Yes. And this is just the beginning
You probably remember Amazon talking about their plans to send your product to your door in just half an hour using drones. On top of that, the multi-billion pound company GoPro is starting its own drone development scheme too. In Hawaii, there is the DRWC (Drone Racing World Championship) where the prize is an incredible $100,000. Heck, NASA has even used drones to carry 10 pounds of medical supplies to a remote clinic in Virginia. Ultimately, all you need to know is that drones are becoming more popular and people are starting to get serious about them.
So when did this drone craze start?
Personal drones that you can make and fly started being produced in 2010 and since then have become ever more popular.
There are two types of drones – commercial drones and DIY drones. Commercial drones such as the Phantom, are drones that you can buy and control to take amazing areal photography. However, DIY drones is a newish hobby where people actually start building their own drones – usually for half the price of a commercial one.
Indeed, the DIY drone industry is becoming more popular by the day. Many people have setup business and shops purely around this upcoming industry – and they sell different types of drone parts. Whilst it is still relatively unknown at the moment, in my opinion, DIY drones are going to explode in popularity within the next two years.
What drones do we currently have?
Commercial Drones:
Let take a look at commercial drones first. The most popular high-end commercial drone is the DJI Phantom. It is a sleek white drone that flies for 15 minutes and produces some memorizing areal photography. This drone literally flew the drone industry out of a nerdy niche to an industry that the average consumer can enjoy.
Indeed, drones have also become ‘intelligent.’ For example, the Lily drone allows you to throw it in the air and it will automatically start flying and follow your every move. Check out the incredible video below and you’ll understand what I mean.
DIY Drones:
There are literally thousands of DIY drones. Making your own drone is (usually) a lot cheaper than buying a commercial drone. However, you need to have a decent knowledge of how they work beforehand.
Whilst DIY drones look less pretty, you can customise them to your own desires and ultimately have a drone that suits you. For instance, a commercial drone may not let you attach a certain type of camera to your drone whereas a DIY drone will. Oh yeah, and don’t forget that they are also really fun to make too!
The Future Of Drones
In July 2015, Facebook announced that it had created its own solar powered Aquila drone which will be able to fly around the stratosphere. It will then use lasers to beam Internet access to some of the most remote places in the world.
Indeed, Google created (and crashed) a similar type of drone and is also working on ‘Project Wing’ to compete with Amazons Prime Air.
But its not all about delivery and Internet. Scientists think that drones could start to aid farmers apply fertiliser and prioritize the best places to put it. This is already being used in Japan, where farmers are using drones to monitor crops and spray pesticides at a much lower cost than having a company do it for them. This is probably why China have
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60% 28 NWE 35 46 76% 29 NYG 33 38 87% 30 NOR 32 36 89% 31 PIT 32 46 70% 32 ARI 30 43 70%
The Broncos are 26th if you just go by starteryears. Note that I have done a similar analysis using AV (approximate value) before. It is interesting to note that of the teams that are worse than Denver in this, NE, NOR and PIT all have a shot at winning the super bowl this year. You can also see that I have tried to normalize for total number of picks (far right column) so that teams with a bunch more picks will get penalized while teams with relatively few picks won’t. You can see that while NOR has had little success by the starteryear metric, they have also had the second fewest total draft picks during this six year window (36, only CAR had fewer with 35). Normalizing by number of picks moves the Broncos up to 20th, which is a little better.
Of course, this brings up the argument about bad teams NEEDING to start players immediately while good teams don’t. I agree that is something that is hard to correct for, but one way to do so is to look at the total number of Pro-bowl (1st team) and All-Pro (1st team) selections that the players drafted by every team have earned. If you focus on this, during this time frame, the Broncos have been horrible.
Team ProBowl Selections AllPro Selections MIN 10 3 CAR 8 4 DAL 8 4 KAN 8 3 OAK 7 2 SEA 7 3 IND 6 0 WAS 6 0 ARI 5 2 CHI 5 0 LAR 5 2 PIT 5 2 TAM 5 2 ATL 4 1 BAL 4 1 GNB 4 0 NYG 4 1 MIA 3 0 NWE 3 0 PHI 3 0 HOU 2 0 LAC 2 0 NYJ 2 0 TEN 2 1 BUF 1 0 CIN 1 0 DET 1 0 JAX 1 0 SFO 1 0 CLE 0 0 DEN 0 0 NOR 0 0
Only three teams have not had a player that they drafted from 2012 through 2017 make the Pro-Bowl. I am not counting that 7th alternate selection that Trevor Siemian garnered last season. That is not counted by PFR and I don’t count it either. Only Cleveland and New Orleans are in the same boat of not having a Pro-bowl selection from their draft picks and New Orleans will most likely get two this year from Alvin Kamara and Marshon Lattimore.
Any time your franchise sharing a category with the Browns and only the Browns, it is a sad thing. Now, before you raise the issue, I will concede that C.J. Anderson has made the Pro-bowl (in 2014), but he was not drafted by the Broncos. Even if you expand the net to include undrafted college free agents, during this time window, you only get that one Pro-Bowl selection from the Broncos franchise.
If you look at the teams that are down near the bottom in this metric with the Broncos, you find a bunch of “perennial loser” franchises like Cleveland, Jacksonville, San Fransisco, Detroit, Cincinnati and Buffalo. With the exception of San Fran none of the cellar dwellars (at least in this metric) can claim anything close to the level of success that the Broncos have enjoyed during this time period.
Never forget that during the 2012 through to the 2017 season, the Broncos have had:
1 Super Bowl victory
2 Super Bowl appearances - Lamar Hunt Trophies
4 AFC West titles
5 Playoff victories
San Fran made the Super Bowl and lost in 2012 and then made the playoffs in 2013 and lost in the NFC title game. Cincinnati has made the playoffs four times but has not won a single playoffs game. Detroit has made the playoffs twice (and lost in the WC both times). New Orleans has made the playoffs once. Jacksonville will make the playoffs this year first the first time since 2007. Buffalo and Cleveland have not made the playoffs this century (ok, I joke, Cleveland has, they made it in 2002).
So what is there to do done? Do you see this as a failure on John Elways part or does the blame lie somewhere else? Let me know in the poll and the comments.With the Supreme Court largely upholding the federal health reform law, here's a snapshot of what's next for Oregon.
NUMBER OF UNINSURED:
612,000 state residents are uninsured, or about 16 percent.
WHERE THE STATE STANDS:
Oregon is working aggressively to implement the health care law and is farther along than most other states. The federal government has committed more than $60 million in grants to develop a health insurance exchange that could be duplicated in other states.
More
WHAT HAPPENS NOW:
State officials will continue creating the exchange so it’s ready to be implemented by 2014. They’ll also press ahead with Gov. John Kitzhaber work to create “coordinated care organizations” to lower Medicaid costs. The regional organizations would be responsible for integrating mental, medical and dental care for Medicaid patients and intensively managing chronic conditions like diabetes to keep patients out of the hospital. The Obama administration has tentatively agreed to give Oregon nearly $2 billion to help implement it. <
Waiting to read the ruling? Check yourself on
.
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and Nick Budnick
Throughout the day, watch for updates on oregonlive.com/health and for a full report in Friday's Oregonian as reporters Charles Pope, Nick Budnick, Joe Rojas-Burke and Keldy Ortiz talk to political leaders, health care providers and consumers about what the ruling means to them and what's next for Oregon's health reform agenda.FCC
The Federal Communications Commission announced Wednesday plans to free up 195 megahertz of wireless spectrum in the 5 gigahertz band to help increase Wi-Fi speeds and alleviate congestion in high-traffic areas.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski discussed the new plan at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The new spectrum allocation is the largest block of unlicensed spectrum that has been made available for expansion of Wi-Fi since 2003.
The effort is expected to increase Wi-Fi speeds by at least 35 percent, Genachowski said. And it will also help alleviate Wi-Fi congestion at major hubs, such as airports, convention centers, and large conference gatherings. The spectrum expansion is particularly important for home users as well, where increasingly more people and more devices are using unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum to connect devices for things like streaming high-definition video.
"We all know the frustration of Wi-Fi congestion at conferences and airports," Genachowski said in a statement. "Today, the FCC is moving to bring increased speed and capacity to Wi-Fi networks by increasing the amount of unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi. "
Genachowski said that when the FCC first made unlicensed spectrum available for Wi-Fi nearly 30 years ago, "no one knew the potential it held." Since then the unlicensed spectrum has been used to fuel several industries and product categories, including cordless telephones, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.
"We'll keep nurturing today's Wi-Fi as we also develop a next generation of spectrum policies to drive our mobile future for our innovators and our economy," Genachowski said.
The 5GHz band of spectrum that the FCC has targeted for unlicensed use is already being used by federal and non-federal users. And Genachowski said it will take considerable effort and collaboration with other governmental agencies to free up this spectrum. Still, he said the FCC will "move expeditiously to complete the proceeding."
The FCC has been working the past few years on freeing up additional wireless spectrum for wireless broadband use. The agency is currently writing rules for a wireless spectrum auction of lower frequency spectrum that broadcasters are voluntarily giving up. And the commission has also worked to reclassify spectrum designated for satellite use so that it could be used for wireless broadband services.
Chairman Genachowski has said several times publicly that it's also important to free up more unlicensed wireless spectrum. The commission has already taken steps in recent years to free up unlicensed spectrum in lower frequency bands. Lower frequency spectrum allows signals to travel longer distances and to penetrate obstacles like walls more easily.
In 2010, the FCC allocated unused spectrum between broadcast TV channels, called white spaces, for unlicensed use. And as part of the upcoming incentive broadcast wireless auctions, the FCC has also proposed to set aside some low-band spectrum for unlicensed use.
But the idea of setting aside spectrum for unlicensed use is not without controversy. Some lawmakers say unlicensed spectrum is a waste of resources. They'd like to see the government auction off as much spectrum as possible so that it can use the proceeds to help pay off the national debt or fill budget deficits. And because lower frequency spectrum allows signals to propagate over longer distances, there are also concerns about interference.
Still, Chairman Genachowski believes that making some spectrum available for unlicensed use will open the doors for new industries to arise, which will create American jobs and fuel new investment and innovation.Spurs are keen on Villarreal defender Mateo Musacchio [AS]
There are widespread reports in England and Portugal this morning that Tottenham are close to signing England Under-21 defender Eric Dier from Sporting Lisbon.
But, the incoming defensive recruitment policy is unlikely to end there for Spurs with Michael Dawson unlikely to fit into the plans of Mauricio Pochettino and fitness doubts remaining over Younes Kaboul.
Spanish newspaper AS confirm today that Tottenham are interested in Villarreal defender Mateo Musacchio.
An Argentine central defender, the 23-year-old has four seasons of Spanish football under his belt and has been a mainstay in the Villarreal backline.
Tottenham have reportedly received very good scouting reports on Musacchio and it could be a fairly easy deal to secure considering the player will likely presumably be keen to work with countryman Mauricio Pochettino.
The AS report does come with a rather large caveat for Tottenham though, the Spanish paper suggests that Musacchio would be a replacement for Jan Vertonghen.
The Belgian defender has been constantly linked with Barcelona and this could allow Vertonghen to move to the Nou Camp with Luis Enrique still keen on defensive reinforcements.The Kalmyk Project was the name given to Soviet plans to launch a surprise attack on the Northwest Frontier of British India via Tibet and other Himalayan buffer states in 1919-1920. It was a part of Soviet plans for destabilising the British Empire and other Western European imperial powers through unrest in South Asia. British Indian intelligence sent agents, among them F. M. Bailey, to Central Asia to trace early Bolshevik designs on India.
Soviet Russia intended to nurture political upheaval in British India in its strategy against British imperialism. In 1919, she sent a diplomatic mission headed by an "orientalist" by the name of N.Z. Bravin. This was at the time that Afghanistan had seen a coup d'état that placed young Prince Amanullah Khan in power and precipitated the Third Anglo-Afghan war. Bravin proposed to Amanullah a military alliance against British India and a campaign for which Soviet Turkestan would bear the costs.[1] These negotiations however failed to reach concrete conclusions, and the Soviet advances were also detected by British Indian intelligence. Among other works, this Bravin expedition established links at Herat with the Austrian and German remnants of the Niedermayer-Hentig expedition, and also liaised with the Indian revolutionaries of the Provisional Government of India in Kabul.[1][2]
A later plan considered by the Soviets intended to raise a force of nearly forty thousand cavalry troops from Turkestan or the Urals which would advance to India through Afghanistan, with help from Afghan tribes who may rally against Amanullah.[3] However, these plans presented their own problems. Amongst other routes to India that were explored were plans to foment unrest in Tibet and the Himalayan buffer states of Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal and Thailand and Burma through the Buddhist Kalmyk people, and use these places as a staging ground for revolution in India and the shortest route to Bengal which was the centre of the revolutionary movement in India.[4] This was to proceed under the cover of a scientific expedition under Indologist Fyodor Shcherbatskoy, and would arm the indigenous people in the North-East Indian region with modern weaponry before a regular supply could be arranged.[5] The Kalmyk project may have been the brainchild of Raja Mahendra Pratap who had led the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition into Afghanistan in 1915 and subsequently established the nationalist Provisional Government of India at Kabul in December that year. Pratap liaised with the Nascent Bolshevik Government and the Kaiser after 1917 to explore the scopes of a joint Soviet-German invasion of India through Afghanistan. The most notable of these meetings was Pratap's audience with Lenin arranged by People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in 1919 when he met the latter with a group of Indian revolutionaries from the Berlin Committee.[6] The project had the approval of Lenin.[7] Pratap himself had a strong obsession with Tibet, and made efforts as early as 1916 to penetrate into the Himalayan Kingdom to cultivate anti-British propaganda. His efforts were resumed after his return from Moscow in 1919. He was close to Fyodor Shcherbatskoy and Sergey Oldenburg, and intended to participate in People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs' planned expeditions to Tibet in summer 1919, and was privy to the organisation's designs in the region.[6]
However, the project was ultimately curtailed following the Czechoslovak uprising in the Trans-Siberian railway. Pratap himself set out alone to unsuccessfully pursue his goal in Tibet.[8]
References [ edit ]Paris Agreement on climate change, Obama did not even go through the motions. He bypassed Congress altogether
Obama Uses UN to Bypass Senate’s Treaty Consent Authority
President Obama has just committed his most flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution to date. He purported to commit the United States to a legally binding treaty without first obtaining consent by two thirds of the Senators present, as required under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. Obama is using the United Nations to end run the Senate with regard to the Paris Agreement on climate change negotiated last December. Last week, Obama submitted an instrument to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, for deposit with the UN, which he claims signifies official “acceptance” of the Paris Agreement by the United States. Obama said he and China’s President Xi Jinping together decided to “commit formally to joining the agreement ahead of schedule.”
Obama was constitutionally entitled to sign the Paris Agreement as an executive act, which he did in April of this year. However, signing the Paris Agreement was only the first step. In order for the Paris Agreement to actually take effect and enter into legal force, at least 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions need to formally join the Paris Agreement. This requires the further step of member states’ “ratification, acceptance or approval” of the Paris Agreement before their emissions can be counted towards fulfilling the 55 percent of global emissions threshold. The United States is the second highest emitter of emissions, after China. Together the U.S. and China account for around 40 percent of global emissions. If the United States and China were to formally join the Paris Agreement via ratification, acceptance or approval, the 55 percent threshold target would be well within reach. China presumably had no problem moving forward to formally join the Paris Agreement. However, in order to do his part so that the UN could declare the Paris Agreement to be in legal force sooner rather than later, Obama had to find a way to justify skipping over the constitutional requirement of U.S. Senate consent and still cause the U.S. to become bound to what amounts to a treaty. The answer was to pretend that what the UN itself regards as a treaty, to which its parties would be legally bound once it came into force, was not really a treaty after all. It was only an executive agreement, the Obama administration argues, that is within the president’s power to enter into without any congressional involvement. White House senior adviser Brian Deese offered up this sophistry at a White House press conference, held before Obama’s visit to China for the G-20 summit where he would act on the power he was usurping from the legislative branch. Deese claimed that Obama was using “his authority that has been used in dozens of executive agreements in the past to join and formally deposit our instrument of acceptance, and therefore put our country as a party to the Paris Agreement.” Deese tried to distinguish between “treaties that require advice and consent from the Senate” and “a broad category of executive agreements where the executive can enter into those agreements without that advice and consent.”
Blatant deception This blatant deception is undercut by the fact that the Paris Agreement is listed in the United Nations’ Treaty Collection under the heading “Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General.” Legally speaking, Obama should have followed the “ratification” route, which, according to the UN Treaty Collection website, “grants states the necessary time-frame to seek the required approval for the treaty on the domestic level and to enact the necessary legislation to give domestic effect to that treaty.” However, Obama knew that would be impossible. He chose instead a shortcut. He deposited with the Secretary General an instrument of “acceptance,” which the UN website defines as expressing “the consent of a state to be bound by a treaty,” with no domestic constitutional ratification required first. The Obama administration used similar tactics to commit the United States to Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal with Iran, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The administration treated it as a non-binding political agreement which did not require Senate consent. Only after a bipartisan backlash from Congress did Obama agree to a congressional review period after which the Senate and House could pass a resolution of approval, a resolution of disapproval, or do nothing. The House passed a resolution of disapproval. The Senate would have also passed a resolution of disapproval, but was blocked from doing so by a Democratic filibuster, which spared Obama from having to exercise his veto power.
In the case of the Paris Agreement on climate change, Obama did not even go through the motions. He bypassed Congress altogether. This matters because the Paris Agreement on climate change would drastically tie down our fossil fuel use in the immediate future and pick our pockets at the same time. In return, the developing countries offer meaningless voluntary pledges that they will do something about their own carbon emissions in their own time if they get paid to do it. Article 9 states that “Developed country Parties shall provide financial resources to assist developing country Parties with respect to both mitigation and adaptation in continuation of their existing obligations under the Convention.” (Emphasis added) Article 9 is thus written in such a way as to be legally binding on the developed countries like the United States which become parties to the Paris Agreement. President Obama is trying to use the United Nations treaty system to impose binding obligations under international law that he intends to outlive his presidency. As usual, the Constitution’s limits on his powers are of no consequence to him. Congress needs to step in immediately to make clear that his latest usurpation of power will not stand.
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Joseph A. Klein is the author of Global Deception: The UN’s Stealth Assault on America’s Freedom.
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A major cleanup of the provincial highway hasn't taken place since 2015, when 110 tonnes of garbage was removed from the area over the course of three days.
An excessive amount of trash this spring has led to calls for government action, and now Minister Al Hawkins said a plan is being worked on.
Minister of Transportation and Works Al Hawkins says a cleanup plan for the Outer Ring Road should be in place in the next few weeks. (Chris Ensing/CBC)
"I would hope within a couple weeks we will have a plan in place," he told the St. John's Morning Show on Thursday.
"It's shameful, it's absolutely shameful that we do have as much garbage along these roads. It's not acceptable in 2017."
While the province plans to clean up the Outer Ring Road, Hawkins said there are significant safety considerations for workers given the high volume of traffic.
Hawkins said the province is working with the City of St. John's on how to best tackle the cleanup, and how to do it in the fastest and safest way possible.
He said his department does not want people cleaning up roadside trash while commuters pass by at high speeds.
"Obviously it seems to be a systemic problem, particularly in areas that are arteries leading into waste centres," he said.
"Safety is number one. So we've got to put a solid plan in place. Whether we will have sections of the Outer Ring Road closed, or if we'll have the entire Outer Ring Road closed."
Enforcement
The transportation department is also working with Service NL in an effort to step up enforcement in the area, according to Hawkins. He said enforcement is key because after the big cleanup two years ago, the road was nearly as bad again just one month later.
Trash seen in a culvert on a section of the Outer Ring Road near St. John's this week. The provincial government has not initiated a major cleanup of the road since 2015. (Martin Jones/CBC)
The fact that each year seems to bring more garbage to the stretch of road shows that education campaigns are not working. Hawkins believes the only way to cut back on the trash is to crack down on those who use the highway as their personal dumping ground.
"You would think in 2017 that most people would be educated to the point that they know it's not proper to throw things out of the vehicle, or transport on our highways in open pickup trucks," he said.
"With all the promotion and education that's been done, it's unacceptable. We've got to start doing a better job of looking after the environment and taking care of our province."A fascinating world is on the way…
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Here’s how the adventure begins: 1. Purchase an Adventure Series Choose a base package of adventure books to send to a lucky kid, then add on any Upgrades you want to include to make the package more fun, personal, or educational. We don’t offer subscriptions, and you will be only charged one time for the package and delivery method you choose. Buy Now
2. The package arrives! A couple weeks after ordering, kids will receive an awesome package in the mail sent from abroad. Inside, they will find captivating adventure books introducing world cultures. The books recount the amazing life of Crameye Junker and his family’s mysterious travels around the world. Learn more
3. Join the “top secret” community of young explorers Kids will also find a confidential note inside their package inviting them to join our online community ~ Crameye’s World. Kids will not just learn about the world, but also become members of a special team fighting to protect all world cultures. We designed the community to not only be educational and fun, but also safe and secure. Read our Privacy Policy. Explore
4. Teach It! Our books are amazing 21st Century Learning tools on their own, but our accompanying workbooks and lessons in the Teacher’s Lounge make our adventure books an even more valuable tool in the classroom or homeschool environment. Lessons in the Teacher’s Lounge cover vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing, critical thinking, world cultures, projects and more. The Teacher’s Lounge is available as part of the Explorer Package and the E-Explorer Package. Learn more
The Books
Have a scroll through the eight books that comprise Series One of The Adventurous Mailbox
When you are finished, come inside The Adventurous Mailbox to meet the characters, see what kids will learn, and take a peek at the “secret” online community, Crameye’s World. There, kids will be able to talk to the characters and follow their blogs, as well as learn about world languages, art, food, UNESCO World Heritage sites, music, and so much more. Games, jokes, brainsteasers and contests will keep them laughing and engaged while learning. When you are ready to make a purchase, look over our special Upgrades that will make this gift even more special.Looking for a reason to not give up your coffee habit? Here's one possibility: heart health.
Numerous studies in recent years have reported that drinking coffee may be good for the cardiovascular system and might even help prevent strokes. Just last month, Swedish researchers announced results of a large study showing that coffee seemed to reduce the risk of stroke in women by up to 25%.
Not long ago, researchers thought quite the opposite about coffee and the heart, says Dr. Thomas Hemmen, director of the UC San Diego Stroke Center: "Coffee is fun and it tastes good, so people assumed for many years that it would be bad for you."
Studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s offered little in the way of confirmation or refutation. Several suggested an increased risk of heart attack among coffee drinkers. Others showed a lowered risk of heart attack and stroke. Still others found no connection at all.
Many of these early studies were criticized for being too small or too brief. In response, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health decided to look at coffee consumption, heart disease and stroke risk among more than 45,000 healthy men enrolled in the school's ongoing Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Their analysis, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1990, found that coffee drinking had no effect on the men's risk of heart attack or stroke.
But in the last few years, a spate of studies has revisited the question, and many of them have found — unexpectedly — that coffee drinking is linked to a decreased stroke risk.
A 2008 study of more than 26,000 male smokers in Finland found that the men who drank eight or more cups of coffee a day had a 23% lower risk of stroke than the men who drank little or no coffee. And a few other reports suggest the effect applies to healthy nonsmokers too. Researchers at UCLA and USC examined data on coffee consumption and stroke prevalence among more than 9,000 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. At a 2009 conference, they reported that the likelihood of stroke was highest among people who didn't drink coffee and lowest among those who drank the most coffee: 5% of people who drank one or two cups a day suffered strokes, whereas 2.9% of people who drank six or more cups suffered strokes. The study will be published in a few months.
Results from an even larger study of coffee drinking and stroke risk were published in the journal Circulation in 2009: Among the 83,000 women enrolled in Harvard's ongoing Nurses' Health Study, those who drank two to four cups of coffee a day had a 19% to 20% lower risk of stroke than women who drank less than one cup a month.
And this year, a study of more than 81,000 men and women in Japan showed that drinking one or two cups of coffee a day reduced the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by up to 23%. The findings were published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Such studies reveal that coffee isn't harmful, as once thought, and might even be beneficial, says Dr. Larry Goldstein, professor of medicine and director of the Duke University Stroke Center. But while they show an association between coffee drinking and lower stroke risk, they still don't prove that coffee is the cause, he says.
"People who drink coffee are different in many ways from those who don't drink coffee," says Dr. Nerses Sanossian, one of the authors of the UCLA-USC study and a professor of neurology at USC.
Any one of those differences, or more than one of them, could be behind the apparently lower stroke risk. Some of the studies that show a link between coffee drinking and reduced stroke risk have also shown that coffee drinkers are more likely to smoke, have lower education levels and have diets higher in potassium. And although it's unlikely that smoking, for instance, is behind their reduced stroke risk, it's possible that something else is. "It may be due to some other factors we haven't even taken into consideration," Sanossian says.
Even though coffee is considered safe, even in large amounts, you shouldn't rush to take up the habit, says Mark Urman, a cardiologist at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. "If you're not a coffee drinker, don't start drinking to prevent a stroke or otherwise," he says. Coffee can cause heart palpitations in some people, and withdrawal symptoms in those who try to skip their daily cups for a day or two. And many people, he adds, like to load their coffees with cream and sugar, which could very well counteract any advantage coffee has for the blood vessels and heart.
Definitive proof that coffee is good for the blood vessels is unlikely to emerge anytime soon, Hemmen says. Such studies would need to randomly select people to drink either a lot of coffee or a little coffee, and then researchers would have to closely monitor their coffee intake and health for decades.
And that, says Hemmen, would be "very difficult, and really expensive."
[email protected] C.B. Cebulski has taken the position as Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief, fans have hoped that he’d clean house at the legendary publisher. The publisher had become infected by creators who were more worried about preaching their own politics and cultural agenda over interesting, substantive, or even just plain fun stories. Not only that, these same creators have taken it upon themselves to attack fans and anyone who disagreed with their mind-numbing preaching. This strategy hasn’t really worked out as many of these creators’ books just got the axe at Marvel.
But Marvel writer Kurt Busiek wants to double down on this failing strategy. He went on a Twitter tirade to admit his displeasure of keeping true to the source material for many beloved characters. He even said he’d rather have forced diversity than well-written stories.
There are times I think Marvel should just have the Shaper of Worlds or someone wave his hands and render the classic characters more diverse. Which is why, I expect, many readers should be glad I’m not running Marvel. https://t.co/BQ2dJ5Q7Rv — Kurt Busiek Resists (@KurtBusiek) December 18, 2017
More from Bounding Into Comics
It seems that Kurt like most social justice warrior (SJW) types would rather take existing characters and just rebrand them. He wants to fill some artificial quota to make sure the pages of comics are diverse, but only in the artificial race way.
This way of thinking is not only a slap in the face to fans, but is an insult to those they are attempting to artificially include. He believes racially diverse characters are inherently unpopular. I guess that’s why Black Panther is the second most anticipated movie next year?
Busiek then goes on to say why DC and Marvel don’t make new characters. It’s because the stage is already too crowded.
But Marvel — and DC — have stages that are crowded with white guys, because they filled up most of the stage in the 1960s (or even 1940s), and new characters are hard to fit in without feeling irrelevant, because the stage is already crowded. — Kurt Busiek Resists (@KurtBusiek) December 18, 2017
This is complete garbage. One of my first comics that I picked up was Shi. The character of Ana Ishikawa is both amazing, complex, and not a traditionally white male. She is able to capture the struggle bi-racial people seem to grapple with going into adulthood when it comes to identity and what it personally means for them.
Busiek must have a short memory because despite a crowded stage in the ’90s, Paul Dini and Bruce Timm introduced us to Harley Quinn, who is now one of the most popular comic book characters. Or maybe Deadpool. His character took the world by storm on a crowded stage. There is plenty of room for new characters.
Making changes like that doesn’t change the main history, but it updates it. Making the characters more diverse, rather than locked into what Marvel could get on the newsstands in 1964 is conceptually a similar change. Keep the story, change the texture and context. — Kurt Busiek Resists (@KurtBusiek) December 18, 2017
In another turn of reasoning, Kurt Busiek then points to the idea of just “updating” characters. This to me doesn’t fly either. I mean I cannot think of another time where Captain America would have been more suited to make his debut. World War 2 makes perfect sense. Not only for his mythos, but the foundation for his character.
This just screams very lazy writing from cultural activists than people who actually care about telling a story. In fact, his line of thinking resembles the same as those who want to take down monuments. They want to destroy history because it doesn’t fit into the fake reality they’ve created in their minds.
It is not only disrespectful to the character’s history, but the people who created the characters.
Busiek is like the kid who sees a beautiful sand castle and comes over and kicks it over. He then proceeds to tell you, how to build the sandcastle the right way even if it doesn’t have a foundation.
And oddly, if DC were to do that with, say, the next iteration of the Legion, it wouldn’t feel all that odd. But it’s hard to imagine Marvel making such a change, or the audience not going ballistic if they did. — Kurt Busiek Resists (@KurtBusiek) December 18, 2017
Not surprising Kurt Busiek points to another iteration of an established comic to point to where you could sprinkle in some tokens, I mean diversity. He also acknowledges that the audience would go “ballistic” but not for the reason many comic book creators would claim. Many of them would say that comic book readers are just racist. They cannot accept new social norms. I don’t believe that in the slightest. Just stop by any comic book shop. Not only are the people some of the best and kindest, but they sure as heck don’t all look the same. And they also have very different ideas about the world.
We just want solid stories and art. It’s not hard to figure that out. But a forced political and cultural agenda pushed by creators such as Kurt Busiek blinds them to the reality of the situation.
Kurt responded with a heavy dose of sarcasm as users on Twitter called him out for his honesty for pushing propaganda in comics.
If only I was given the chance! This is an actual plan I’m eager to do! https://t.co/WK3aW63IAD — Kurt Busiek Resists (@KurtBusiek) December 18, 2017
I will give credit where it’s due. I want more writers to be as brave as Kurt Busiek. Not to attack or shame, but to at least have an honest discussion about comics and what it means for all of us. I, of course, have my feelings and opinions as any one does. And without these discussions, we can’t communicate as a community.
So what do you think? Is Kurt Busiek correct? Should we just rebrand existing characters to reflect the age we live in? Or, should we instead look to create new characters that reflect the new cultures, and peoples who now occupy our world? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
(Visited 4,352 times, 1 visits today)The quest for a perfect body is putting women in Tucson, Ariz., in danger.
The FBI is currently trying to locate Ivonne Clarisa Ceballos Tapia and Perla Guadalupe Rubio Prado. The two women are accused of performing illegal buttock injections with polyacrylamide hydrogel, a watery gel not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The FBI Phoenix office, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and the Arizona Health Care Fraud Task Force are also trying to identify potential patients.
“Polyacrylamide hydrogel is banned in the United States and should not be used in any medical procedure, including cosmetic surgical injections,” said FBI Special Agent Perryn T. Collier in a press release.
Anyone treated by Tapia and Prada is asked to seek medical attention by a licensed and certified doctor.
“Those who believe they may have been patients of Ms. Tapia and/or Ms. Prado are being encouraged to come forward, not only to aid investigators, but potentially seek services through our Victim Witness Assistance Program,” Collier said.
Dr. Ara Philipossian, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Arizona, said there have been numerous reports of patients suffering from painful lumps and masses on areas where the substance was injected.
“Although some studies have indicated polyacrylamide hydrogel to be a well-tolerated product, many more studies have shown that numerous adverse events occur after its use," Philipossian said. "These include hematoma, gel accumulation, asymmetry, infection, host tissue reaction mostly in the form inflammation, gel migration and gel induration."
The ‘backdoor butt job’ craze spreads much further than the Southwest. Deaths from illegal buttocks injections have been reported in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New York.
“People often try to find the cheapest procedures, and will even go so far as to leave the country. But these places aren’t using FDA-approved injectables,” Ellie Grigorian, of the Body Sculpting Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., said.
Grigorian says it is possible to get a bigger butt the safe way, and there are several board-certified surgeons legally performing these procedures nationwide.With cancer in remission, Sherry Pollex on hand to
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of Congress a high or very high rating for honesty and ethics, while 54 percent gave them a low or very low rating. And our own polling shows that overall disappointment with Congress is running high: In a survey conducted right after the election, we found that while just 34 percent of Americans have a favorable view of congressional Republicans, the favorability rating for congressional Democrats (39 percent) was only marginally better.
At the same time, there is good reason to believe that, whatever Americans’ feelings about Congress as an institution, the current anti-Republican sentiment is a function of the substantive issues currently being debated in Washington. Two-thirds of Americans, according to a recent CNN poll, say they favor a mix of spending cuts and tax increases—which is essentially the Democratic position in the fiscal cliff negotiations. It seems that Republicans, with their repeated insistence that they will not consider raising taxes on wealthy Americans, are taking a position that people simply find too hardline. And Obama, by advocating a balanced approach, has managed to position himself as the more moderate, appealing party in this negotiation.
So what should the GOP do? The answer is obvious: Republicans need to start articulating a message that shows some trace of conciliatory spirit. This shouldn’t be difficult. There is plenty of room for a conciliatory message on the fiscal cliff that is still to the right of Obama’s proposal: Republicans, for instance, could say that they favor a tax increase on the wealthy, but then argue that Obama’s proposed tax increase is too large.
The Republican Party is truly in crisis, and that crisis is now coming to a head. The popular vote in the most recent election was less an endorsement of Obama’s performance than a refutation of GOP extremism. The fiscal cliff negotiations have presented the perfect opportunity for Republicans to begin to repair their brand—to refashion themselves as a moderately conservative party that is open to compromise. But Republicans seem determined not to seize this opportunity. Until they do, their brand will remain in trouble.Tickets
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Contact us at 715-634-2484 or [email protected]'s Socialist President Pays Nearly $11,000 A Month For Haircuts
Enlarge this image toggle caption Dominique Faget /AFP/Getty Images Dominique Faget /AFP/Getty Images
French President Francois Hollande's coif — dark, thinning on top — hasn't really been a subject of conversation, until now. He's facing a scandal after it emerged that he pays a hairdresser nearly $11,000 (9,895 euros) every month.
The scandal, which has been dubbed #CoiffeurGate, was first reported by French satirical and investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchaine. French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll later confirmed the story and "tried to defend his boss," according to The Associated Press.
"I can understand the questions, I can understand that there are judgements," said Le Foll, as AFP reported. "Everyone has their hair done, don't they?"
The amount Hollande pays his personal hairdresser is roughly the same as a government minister's salary, according to The New York Times. The job comes with significant responsibilities: the hairdresser is "committed to secrecy and needs to be available 24/7," France 24 reported.
"He missed the birth of his children," the hairdresser's lawyer Sarah Levy told Le Canard Enchaine, according to France 24. He's been identified only as Olivier B.
The scandal has "the French public bristling over such extravagant spending by a Socialist president," as AFP reported. He faces "persistently low" approval ratings, as the Times reported, and "has been forced to agree to a primary among left-leaning parties, including his own Socialists, to settle on a candidate for president next year — a first for a sitting president."
Hollande's former partner Valérie Trierweiler defended him in a post on Twitter. "Let's be fair: F. Hollande was not aware of the hairdresser's salary," she said. "I can attest to his anger when he learned about it later."
Et soyons juste: F. Hollande n'était pas au courant du salaire du coiffeur. Je peux témoigner de sa colère lorsqu'il l'a su plus tard. — Valerie Trierweiler (@valtrier) July 13, 2016
Meanwhile, French citizens are posting pictures on Twitter of haircuts that they see as more worthy of such a handsome price tag. Here are a few suggestions:
Quand on flambe l'argent du contribuable on s'attend à un minimum de résultat. #CoiffeurGate pic.twitter.com/lxY7vZLezq — Patrizio Cantello (@TheOwLisWatchin) July 13, 2016
Les photos privées qui justifient le salaire du coiffeur de #Hollande sont enfin dévoilées #CoiffeurGate pic.twitter.com/6BgkpdJkkq — Sarkoziste #NS2017 (@Sarkoziste) July 13, 2016
Pour la moitié du salaire proposé je veux bien m'occuper de la coiffure de François Hollande. #CoiffeurGate pic.twitter.com/GsDmHJ8Ao6 — Rashmaninoff (@RasheedDaci) July 13, 2016
Hollande isn't the first politician to face scrutiny for the price of his personal grooming. The New York Times had this roundup of recent U.S. scandals:On Sunday morning, 4-year-old Codrick McCall Jr. accidentally shot and killed himself after finding a loaded gun under a bed at the home of a temporary guardian in a northern Houston suburb. He was staying with the caregiver while his parents were under investigation by Child Protective Services.
"He may have picked up the wrong weapon thinking that it was a toy," said an uncle of the children. "But this weapon was not a toy and it was a real gun and he actually pointed it at my other nephew and fired it."
On Monday, a 5-year-old boy shot his 6-year-old brother in the stomach. Authorities reported that the children were playing with an unsecured gun in a bedroom while the mother was home. Relatives said the boys loved to play cops and robbers, but noted that the real weapons were usually locked away.
A tragic series of shooting accidents involving children around Houston has prompted law enforcement officials to implore firearm owners and parents to limit their access. In the past four days, two young children have died and another was wounded in three separate gun incidents in the area.
Read more
A tragic series of shooting accidents involving children around Houston has prompted law enforcement officials to implore firearm owners and parents to limit their access. In the past four days, two young children have died and another was wounded in three separate gun incidents in the area.
On Monday, a 5-year-old boy shot his 6-year-old brother in the stomach. Authorities reported that the children were playing with an unsecured gun in a bedroom while the mother was home. Relatives said the boys loved to play cops and robbers, but noted that the real weapons were usually locked away.
"He may have picked up the wrong weapon thinking that it was a toy," said an uncle of the children. "But this weapon was not a toy and it was a real gun and he actually pointed it at my other nephew and fired it."
The injured boy remains in critical condition.
On Sunday morning, 4-year-old Codrick McCall Jr. accidentally shot and killed himself after finding a loaded gun under a bed at the home of a temporary guardian in a northern Houston suburb. He was staying with the caregiver while his parents were under investigation by Child Protective Services.
"My son was being cared for by a temporary guardian," his father said. "I had just dropped him off at that woman's house the night before he died."
Related: Unsafe Access to Guns a Leading Cause of Death Among Children and Teens
That shooting came just two days after another Houston boy found a gun in a purse and fatally shot himself in the neck while his mother was in another room. He was just 3 years old.
Investigations into both of the fatal shootings are ongoing, police said. Though Texas is known for being gun-friendly, firearm owners can be held criminally liable if a minor obtains a gun that was stored negligently.
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia held a press conference on Monday to promote gun safety and stress the use of gun locks. A common type of lock is a metal cable that blocks the gun's chamber and prevents it from discharging a round, and Garcia noted that they can be obtained for free from the sheriff's department.
"I beg of you, help us to keep from having to respond to tragedy that can be prevented," he said. "Help us by asking each and every person who may have a firearm at home — whether you have a young child in your home or not — to practice all of the common sense safety measures that you've heard about."
Of course, Texas isn't the only place in the US that has seen such shootings. Late last year, a 2-year-old pulled a gun from his mother's purse and killed her in an Idaho Walmart.
A spate of incidents within a week this past January gives an idea of how appallingly routine such incidents can be. A 5-year-old shot his 9-month-old brother dead in Missouri; a 3-year-old died in an apparent accidental shooting in Michigan; and a 2-year-old shot and killed himself in Florida.
Related: Texas bill would shield teachers who kill on campus from prosecution. Read more here.
At least 100 children were killed in unintentional shootings across the United States between December 2012 and December 2013, according to a report on unintentional child gun deaths titled "Innocents Lost." It was co-authored by gun violence prevention organizations Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America (MDAGSA), which was founded following the killing in 2012 of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.
The report, released last June, points out that the number of unintentional deaths is a fraction of the overall number of child gun-related deaths during that time. It also revealed that of the more than 2 million children currently living in homes with unsecured guns, 1.7 million of them live where guns are unlocked and loaded.
"When a child dies or is injured because a gun is left unsecured in the home, it is not a blameless accident," Stephanie Lundy, a spokeswoman for MDAGSA, said at Monday's press conference. "We owe it to our children to be smarter when it comes to responsible gun ownership."
Other studies have echoed similarly disturbing findings on preventable gun deaths. A survey published last year found that some 28,000 children and teenagers died from guns between 2002 and 2012. A study published last year in the journal Pediatrics determined that firearms are the second-highest cause of death for American children, with 453 deaths and more than 7,000 hospitalizations in 2009, the last year for which there is comprehensive federal data.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and issued a report last month that amplifies the findings of the Pediatrics study.
"Millions of Americans have a gun in their homes thinking that it makes their family safer, but every day in our nation, dozens of these families learn just how dangerous and tragic that miscalculation can be," Dan Gross, president of the Brady Center, said in a statement at the time the report was released. "The bottom line is, having a gun in the home dramatically increases the danger that a child will be shot and killed."
Adults in Texas can be held liable for criminal negligence if authorities find they failed to adequately secure a "readily dischargeable firearm," or left it in a place where a child could find it. Authorities cannot arrest relatives of a child who is shot within 7 days of the incident.
Follow Liz Fields on Twitter: @lianzifieldsMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The parents of restless toddler Elise try out a new bedtime routine
Hospital attendances in England for children under 14 with sleep disorders have tripled in 10 years, according to NHS data analysed by BBC Panorama.
Ten times more prescriptions of common sleep medication melatonin have also been written for children and adults under 55 over the same period.
Poor sleep in children has been linked to a greater risk of obesity, lower immunity, and mental health issues.
It is also linked to lack of emotional control and poor school performance.
Are you getting enough sleep?
How to handle older children's sleep problems
Sleep deprivation 'costs UK £40bn a year'
Many aspects of how we live today are thought to interfere with children's sleep:
Blue light emitted by smartphones and tablets is known to reduce the natural production of melatonin, the hormone that makes us feel sleepy
Households where both parents work can be busier in the evenings, pushing bedtimes later
Fizzy drinks high in sugar and caffeine have also made it harder for children to switch off at night
Image caption Ellie Keady has trouble sleeping
Ellie Keady, 13, recently spent the night under observation at Sheffield Children's Hospital's sleep service, which has seen a tenfold increase in referrals over the past decade.
Ellie goes to bed at 2100, but usually lies awake until at least 0230.
"Sometimes I'll go to school and I'll have had only two and a half hours' sleep," she says.
Sleep deprivation has affected her education. She is often off sick due to exhaustion and viral infections.
"If you sneeze in her room, Ellie will catch the flu," says her mother, Joanne.
Ellie has suffered sleep problems since she broke her foot in 2011.
She was unable to walk for months and started to put on weight.
She recently lost 2st 7lb (16kg) in six months on a strict diet and exercise regime, but has found dieting a challenge.
Research suggests a strong link between sleep deprivation in teenagers and weight gain.
Poor sleep is thought to upset the balance of the hormones that tell our brains we are full or hungry, making it harder to control appetite.
When tired, we are more likely to crave foods high in sugar and fat.
When a nurse at Sheffield Children's Hospital explained this link to Ellie, it made sense.
"If I've had a bad night, the diet is hard to stick to," Ellie says.
"I don't want chicken, I don't want vegetables, I just want a packet of crisps.
"I never knew that was from being tired."
Overnight investigation showed no medical explanation for Ellie's sleep problem.
The staff suspect she may just need a better sleep routine: she has a smartphone, two tablets and a television in her bedroom, and uses them just before bed.
Staying off her devices an hour before bedtime might help both her sleep and her weight loss.
The Children's Sleep Charity has found 92% of the families using their specialist clinics had solved their child's sleep problems within six months by changing their bedtime routine.
The charity says sleep problems are costing the NHS unnecessary millions in needless GP and paediatrician appointments and prescriptions.
Image caption Dr Hill warns that sleep problems are putting a strain on the NHS
"We know there's a cost burden to the NHS here and now from childhood sleep difficulties," says Dr Catherine Hill, associate professor at the University of Southampton and consultant at Southampton Children's Hospital.
"If we continue to ignore emerging research evidence about the importance of sleep to health, we're potentially storing up problems for the NHS in future.
"We desperately need to get children's sleep on the public health agenda.
"We've done it with nutrition: people are starting to understand the perils of sugar, the dangers of childhood obesity.
"We now need to wake up to the importance of sleep."
Figures show the number of prescriptions in England for melatonin rose to nearly 600,000 in 2015.
Melatonin is licensed as a treatment only for people over 55, but it is commonly prescribed to younger people, even though it has not officially been licensed for that purpose.
Graphics produced by Will Dahlgreen.Here at Distilled, we've often taken a keen interest in startups and how they have evolved overtime. One that we and many of the SEOs in our community have utilized is StumbleUpon, a free social media services site that's purpose is to help users discover new sites.
History of StumbleUpon
We've created this infographic to illustrate some of the highlights of StumbleUpon's success story.
Embed this infographic:
<a href="https://www.distilled.net/blog/history-of-stumbleupon-infographic" target="_blank"><img alt="social" src="https://www.distilled.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/stumbleupon-infographic2.jpg" /></a>
History
StumbleUpon was founded in November 2001 by Garrett Camp, Geoff Smith, and two other friends. They came up with 5 or 6 ideas for different products before settling upon StumbleUpon. In an interview with the BBC, Garrett Camp mentioned that when the site reached half a million registered users did he feel that the site became more of a career.
The site caught the interest of angel investors, where it landed $1.2 million in funding and then in 2005, $1.5 million in seed funding.
In 2006, Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith moved to San Francisco and launched StumbleUpon Video
In 2007, StumbleThru launched, allowing stumbling content on specific sites like YouTube and Flickr
In May 2007, StumbleUpon was bought by eBay for $75 million (5.5 years after its initial founding)
In 2008, traffic dropped by around 70% in comparison to the previous year (according to ComScore)
In 2009, it launches su.pr, bringing in the toolbar and allowing users to stumble directly from the site
A couple of months later, StumbleUpon raises Series A funding (rumored to be at $29 million), which is folded into buying back the company from eBay. Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith buy back the company (along with various investors) for a rumored $25 million
Late in 2009, StumbleUpon introduces the "New" StumbleUpon, which allows stumbling without signing up
In 2010, Marc Leibowitz leaves Google and joins StumbleUpon as the VP of Business Development and Marketing
In 2011, StumbleUpon raises $17 million in Series B funding along with reports of the site generating 800 recommendations a month
The site reports 20 million users and 1 billion stumbles a month
On October 24, 2011, StumbleUpon made changes to the site by deleting their user-generated content, HTML blogging, standalone blog posts, and ability to photoblog. All their previous blog posts converted from HTML to plain text and all photos were deleted. This was done to focus their efforts on their recommendation engine rather than expand to include blogging platforms.
How StumbleUpon Works
The general premise is that the Web has gotten so massive, that it is difficult to find relevant content without searching through pages and pages of results via search engines. StumbleUpon works by first having users download a toolbar and having users personify themselves by selecting topics and interests that pertain to them. Using a combination of the user's input and machine learning from the site's algorithm, the site then determines the type of content that the user would be interested in. To make it potentially easier, think of it as the Pandora of the Web's content.
Users then click on a "stumble" icon on the toolbar to access a completely new, "random" site. The initial "random" site that is generated is one that the site's algorithm believes reflects the user's interests. Users then vote on the site with a "thumbs up" if they like it or a "thumbs down" if they don't. Users can also befriend other users on the site. In general, the more the user uses the site, the more data the algorithm has and thus, the smarter the algorithm gets. Overtime, it can act as a personal search engine that is especially tailored to the individual.
The algorithm behind StumbleUpon uses three data points to determine the type of new sites that users "stumble" across. The first is based off of the interests that users have identified as relevant to them. The second is based off of the sites that have been deemed as "thumbs up" and "thumbs down," which helps the algorithm identify other users who have exhibited similar voting behavior. The third is based off of the types of individuals that users have befriended on the site.
Conclusion
It's clear through StumbleUpon's history and the history of many other startups that building a following and creating a successful business can take time and go through seemingly endless trials and tribulations - Should the startup provide more tools or focus on improving the singular product? To sell or not to sell? And even can this be a career? What's exciting for us at Distilled is watching the emergence of so many talented individuals continue to disrupt old methodologies of conducting business and revolutionize the digital world. We continuously look forward to seeing what the future will bring.
*edit* Regarding the numbers raised, we received them directly from StumbleUpon. Because seed/angel funding is not counted as an official VC raise, the official numbers for StumbleUpon are $1.5M and $17M, adding up to $18.5M. The supposed $29M that they received to buy back the company has not been officially confirmed.Video here:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------UPDATE 11/14/16- WE DID IT GUYS!!! OMG WE ARE IN THE BOOK!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!! I AM SO HAPPY!!!UPDATE- 9/7/2016: OMG GUYS! 130 FAVS AFTER ONE DAY??? You guys are amazing!! Thank you so much!! I really appreciate it!! You have no idea! Thank you for all the kind words!! Even people on tumblr! Their tags are all too kind! Thank you everyone! I am forever grateful!-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------After 2 months... and over 45 hours... HE IS FINALLY COMPLETE!!Yes, if you noticed, I hadn't uploaded in a while xD That is because I was working on this bad boy!!There is a charity artbook going on for Undertale!! www.gamersforgood.com/ Some of you might have seen my journal entry a few months ago when I asked opinions! Well, I decided to go with Papyrus! I loved his boss battle so much! The surprise of the blue attack was one of the most memorable moments for me. I tried my best capturing the moment here. I got a lot of Inspiration from League of Legends splash art,'s Ahri fan splash art (and tutorial), and an Undertale fanart I am not sure where it is ;w;Even if this doesn't get in the book, I am so friggin proud. The battles I fought with this picture... omlDON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE LIGHTING!! EVERYTHING IS FRIGGIN BLUE!! THE BONES, THE UNDERGROUND, THE SOUL AHHHHSo I tried countering it with warm lights from the town x.x Since ya know... there isn't a sun.I pulled out everything in my arsenal, including things I have never done, or just attempted once! I did perspective, messed up perspective and had to do it again, then it turned out I didn't even need it as much as I did! Ahhhhhhh it goes on! I took a long break after the perspective part (like 2 weeks). I was gonna quit, but everyone was getting excited, so I pushed through! I thought I wasn't going to make it in time for entry but here we are!!Thank you everyone who came to my streams and joined this journey!Wallpaper version here:Tumblr:Please enable Javascript to watch this video
KINLOCH, MO (KTVI) - The former acting mayor of Kinloch says she's been the victim of an assault. Theda Wilson claims police arrested and physically assaulted her after she called to report a burglary in her apartment complex.
Theda Wilson says she called Kinloch police Thursday night to report a possible burglary at an abandoned property next to her own.
"In the back of my apartment I called 9-1-1 thinking they were going to help," Wilson said.
That's when the tables turned. When officers arrived, Wilson thought police would check out the vacant building for a possible suspicious person. To her surprise, officers said they were going to take her into custody. That's when Wilson asked police to read her rights. Police were recorded on camera refusing to read Wilson her rights.
Wilson says she doesn't know why she was being arrested so she resisted arrest. The Kinloch officer called for back up. Two Bel-Ridge officers arrived. Wilson claims the Kinloch officer and the two Bel-ridge officers used excessive force.
Wilson alleges officers bruised her face and arms.
One eyewitness who did not want to be identified gave this account: "The three officers wrestled her to the ground. That did not need to happen."
Wilson left the scene by ambulance and was transported to an area hospital for injuries.
Wilson went to the Kinloch Police Department for answers. Wilson and our news crew were told the incident is under investigation. She then headed to the Bel-Ridge Police Department to file a police report. The captain welcomed Wilson and our cameras into his office.
"Well, they are not supposed to beat anybody. I'm told that they attempted to place you in handcuffs and you resisted. They got you in handcuffs, you were placed in a car, and a far as they were concerned, they thought it was done," said Captain Dan Clyne, Bel-Ridge Police Department.
Police did arrest Wilson. Kinloch police released Wilson at the hospital under her own recognizance. Both Bel-Ridge and Kinloch police say the incident remains under investigation.Previous Next
The two bodies were each held by four of the Academy’s soldiers. With a shout and a very practiced motion, the bodies were heaved up and onto freshly wiped granite slabs. One was Phlegm. The other was dressed as a stitched, complete with our uniform.
The doctors and scholars of Westmore were already collecting around, many wearing their coats and aprons, masks covering the lower halves of their face, goggles over their eyes. Black, elbow-length gloves were pulled over freshly washed hands. The room was open-air, a shelter for wagons, very possibly a drier point for coal to be offloaded, but canvas cloths had been tied down and sealed it off, with sandbags up to the four foot mark, providing some insulation and walls. The floor was packed soil, and was caked with old blood, shit, and other detritus. Kits off to the side had all of the material needed for stitched, while toolbox-like constructions were in one corner, providing other tools for more conventional medical care.
“Out of the way,” a man told me, as he wheeled a cart over to the foot of the table. He had more than enough room. He was just bullying me, indicating that I was not supposed to be here, in a way that meant he didn’t have to say it outright.
I hopped up onto a stack of sandbags in the corner. I offered Mary a hand in climbing up next to me. Totally unnecessary, but I had to be gentlemanly. Gordon, Lillian, and Shipman stood at the other side of the enclosure, pulling back into the corner a bit, where they were clear of the normal footpaths.
“No children in the room,” one of the scholars said, getting in Mary’s way. Black coat, black apron, black gloves, a pin at his collar marking his rank, Field Surgeon. He was surrounded by grays and whites, some with pins, some without.
“Ahem,” Lillian said. She took a quarter-second too long to say something, reaching for the badge in her pocket.
“Out!” the man said, raising his voice, more at the fact that I hadn’t budged. Gordon and Mary were taking my cue. I pointed at Lillian.
Lillian spoke up, “I’d like to-”
“John, Troy, see that the children go,” the Surgeon said, turning his back. It was what I would have done. Deflecting and dismissing her, forcing her to appeal to more people, people who were in service to authority, a hard chain to break.
Lillian looked at me for help. I stayed quiet, watching.
Sure enough, two of the doctors who hadn’t yet washed up approached, ready to usher us out.
“Sir,” Shipman said, her voice stronger than Lillian’s had been. She grabbed Lillian’s wrist, pulling Lillian’s hand from the pocket. Lillian was holding the badge. “We’d like to stay. Pursuant to the Brigadier’s orders.”
The surgeon turned to look back at the badge. He made a face, then raised his chin. “Sir?”
We turned, and we could see that the Brigadier was standing in the street with a few other men.
“They can watch. Have them bring me the write-up when you’re done,” Brigadier Tylor said. Then he was gone, looking after other business.
The surgeon’s face was hidden by the mask and goggles, but I entertained myself by imagining that it looked like he was sucking on a lemon while he had his balls in a vise.
Probably wasn’t the case, but it was funny to imagine.
Mary and Shipman hurried to get to a vantage point where they wouldn’t be in the way. A tough job, considering how packed the space already was.
“Troy, would you take the notes?” the surgeon asked. Troy, still wearing the apron and coat, but not scrubbed in, picked up a pen and paper. John hurried to get to the sink and wash up. I presumed it was a constant competition to get recognition from the surgeon.
Another doctor took scissors to the clothing of the men, cutting away what they couldn’t open on their own. The men were soon left naked on the table.
Phlegm had a broad stomach, the sort where a strong man also ate too much. The muscle was there, underlying it, but it was insulated enough that the lines werent’ readily apparent. Thick neck, strangely spaced facial features, and odd earlobes, with messy hair. He was covered in deep, recognizable scars.
“Subject appears to be stitched, standard ‘Y’ cut. The work looks as if it was done only hours ago. Trepanning method of lobotomy, holes still present, with skin flaps covering. This was a fast job.”
“We killed him earlier today,” I commented. “They needed a decoy.”
“If I want commentary, I will ask for it,” the surgeon said.
I raised my hands in the gesture for surrender.
“The word ‘Phlegmatic’ is tattooed along the first subject’s collarbone,” the surgeon said, prodding the flesh. “Bone structure stands out as differing from the norm. Fused collarbone, ribcage has flat affect across the front and back, with broader sternum and fused spaces between ribs. Vat-grown. Older scars suggest the changes are the result of grafts and prior work. Layered, different types of scars. The previous work was done over a long period of time.”
“John, White, see to the staples.”
Two others at the slab got pincer tools and began removing the staples.
The surgeon bent down, examining Phlegm’s face. “Changes are of a type expected from nineteen-ought attempts to modify the living code, rewriting the fabric of a grown individual. The grafts, to speculate, were part of efforts to repair the damage done with the system-wide changes. Subject had limited vision, with occlusion of the ocular cavity, sinus cavities, mouth -enlarged tongue- and-”
He pried Phlegm’s mouth open.
“-throat.”
“Intentional,” Lillian said.
“Beg pardon?” the surgeon asked.
“I’d bet you dollars to pennies it’s intentional, and it can be controlled. He used weaponized gases, I think, before he died. The blockages would have been a casualty of the changes to his facial structure, and they were modified to serve a purpose.”
“If true, that will be verified at a later point,” the surgeon said. “No more commentary from the gallery, please.”
“I’ve seen work by students who were trained by Phlegmatic’s creator, very similar. Efficient lungs, improved circulatory system, every orifice can be closed,” Lillian said. “He’d be made to hold his breath underwater for twenty minutes. Or in a cloud of noxious gas for twenty minutes.”
Was she like this around her classmates? I wondered how many of them wanted to throttle her.
“Thank you for that observation,” the surgeon said. “I’m sure we’ll see for ourselves when the time comes.”
“You should pay attention to the ears and eyes,” Lillian said. “Most of the work would have been there. The eyes would need protection, which means there’s some interesting work-”
The surgeon cleared his throat.
“There’s some interesting work done there, with eyes made immune to most airborne issues, or the eyes were sealed and he used another sense. Probably the ears.”
I was willing to bet that if the Brigadier hadn’t given the okay, the Surgeon would have grabbed Lillian and literally thrown her out of the enclosure himself, even knowing he’d have to scrub down all over again.
“What an insightful set of observations,” the surgeon said, sarcastically. “Do you have anything more to say, or may I continue with the investigation?”
“Oh, I’m done for now,” Lillian said, smiling, as if she had no idea he was upset. “I’ll say more as things come up.”
“I’ll thank you not to,” the surgeon said, somewhat under his breath. “Before we were interrupted, I was moving on to the ears.”
Which was probably true, I imagined. It had to rankle. I noted that Shipman was murmuring something to Lillian, who was smiling.
“Ear canal and normal ear structures are present, with little modification. The area surrounding, however, suggests a latticework of tympanic membranes, of varying size,” the surgeon said. “Barring another situation of heavy occlusion, he would have possessed exceptional hearing ability, both in terms of sensitivity and range. Moving on…”
The surgeon moved away from the head. On to the torso.
“The body is probably booby-trapped,” I commented, idly.
The surgeon reacted like he was going to lash out and say or do something, but then the words sank in. He remained frozen where he was, scalpel hovering over Phlegm’s chest.
I shrugged, very casually explaining, “He was already dead. They made him into a stitched to bait us into thinking we’d caught one of their assassins. He’s resistant to many gases and poisons.”
“Ooh! Of course!” Lillian said. “He’d have bladders in his body, for holding reserve, or for buoyancy control, if he’s aquatic at all. Which is probably. Any one of the bladders could be pumped full and sealed. Would be.”
The surgeon stared down at the body, scalpel still in hand.
“Just so you know,” Lillian said, smiling wider than before. She met my eyes.
“Sorry to interrupt,” I told the surgeon and Lillian both.
Lillian, I was realized, was having a great deal of fun.
She and
|
was actual midnight oil, really. I could see who was awake because lights were on, and our people had kept track of where we’d seen them go, when & where they’d left the main building to venture into houses and other buildings in the city below. Some of those buildings had fireplaces burning or lights on. We’d taken the oil, firewood and candles where possible, so they would have had to throw books or pieces of broken furniture into the fireplaces.
I was standing in a room with a view, a balcony framed in glass. Ashton was with me, and Professor Foss had a seat which positioned him to see everything that was unfolding. His hands had been placed into buckets filled with a creamy bone white material.
The Infante stood near the Professor.
It was all about the pressure, leaning on them, making them work for even creature comforts. It was summer and the nights were short, but darkness had a primal power. Making them go the extra mile to stave off the dark had its merits. They were in enemy territory – a city under siege.
Making them work to find places to sleep was another point of pressure. The main building didn’t have so many. We’d planned to divide and isolate them by group, our forces consolidated in a few points. We would have targeted the aristocrats and the Nobles by separate measures. As a consequence, there had always been an expectation that we would send some to the boy’s dorm and others to the guest building, where beds awaited them.
It would also have meant that things like the gossamer creature would have been tricky to use without risking harm to one of the other groups.
There were a lot of things that would have been convenient about things going according to plan, there.
Our primary targets, though, were the top-ranked professors, nobles, and aristocrats present. Our hope had been to delay them, on the premise of Ferres wanting to discuss the impact of her immortality procedure, then to blow up the bridges.
It would have been twenty people at most gathered in the largest building, with empty houses and buildings at the foot of Hackthorn below. Isolating, disorienting, with a lot of dark corners and hallways for a relatively small group to keep an eye on.
Instead, there were more than a thousand guests in that building, alongside some of ours. We couldn’t attack effectively without risking hurting our own, and we had to temper our approach on the attrition front for much the same reason. If we lost their loyalty now, then they might share information.
A thousand individuals needed to sleep. Counters and surgical tables in the labs were only so comfortable. Benches and tables in the main hall and the broader sets of stairs overlooking that area had much the same issue, and the added issue of being less private. Clothing from luggage cases could be draped over the hard surfaces, but it was meager at best, and not everyone had access to their personal things.
Add the parasites and other creatures we’d released as we went, the light dusting of irritants and gas I’d released when we’d made our escape, and it made for uneasy rest.
They were venturing out to where there were beds. No doubt the more levelheaded among them had noted the danger inherent in that. But we’d known we were fighting an enemy that was proud, above all else.
All along the perimeter wall, I watched the little orange lights appear, then multiply.
“I rather like this part,” Ashton said, beside me. The little orange lights glittered in his eyes.
“Me too, little man, me too.”
The larger of the orange lights were braziers. The smaller were the heads of the arrows. Little time was wasted in ensuring that the arrows were fired promptly. Targets had already been decided in advance.
The first volley was in the air by the time the people in the main building managed to sound any kind of alarm. They used horns, and the bass drone of the collected instruments filled the air.
Buildings had been treated to resist fire, and our removal of the stacks of firewood and the like meant there was a little less in the way of combustible targets. But there were bales of hay for the feed of horses, stacks of crates and barrels, arrows sailed into buildings and found curtains, floorboards, and pieces of furniture. Even with the wood being treated, there were places arrows could sink in and burn away with enough intensity that they would eventually start burning.
The flaming arrows weren’t solely targeted at the buildings they’d chosen to sleep in, but at the buildings that had the infrastructure for stitched servants to recharge, and at the outdoor buildings where warbeasts and other animals were being stabled.
The flames were starting to spread. People were fleeing now, and some were releasing the animals from the stables. There was an effort to get the stitched out of the burning building, hampered by the agitated stitched themselves.
“We should have set fire to the tall building down there,” Ashton said.
“The steeple?”
“Yeah,” Ashton said.
“We considered it, if I’m remembering right. Given how your head works, I’m thinking your reasons are different from the rest of us.”
“It would be more symmetrical,” Ashton said. “And it would flow better. As it is now, it’s like a sentence that starts, pauses in the middle, and starts again.”
He used his hand, gesturing, to sort of illustrate what he meant.
“I can’t tell if you’re a genius or if it’s pure coincidence, but flow was my line of thinking too,” I said. “More to do with the flow of people, creating the right balance of chaos.”
“Call it genius then,” Ashton said.
One of the buildings blew up. The initial flare of the explosion illuminated the scattered figures on the street. It was the middle of the night, they’d been stirred from their beds, there were freed horses and warbeasts here and there, and stitched had been released from one building, agitated from the fire. In a strange city at the dead of night, even the ones with their wits about them didn’t necessarily know which way to run.
“More explosions would be nice too,” Ashton said.
“Agreed,” I said. “Looks like the voltaic system that houses stitched just blew up.”
“Maybe,” Ashton said.
A new flash of light appeared at the girl’s dormitory. A very bright point of white that sailed skyward. It detonated in the sky, so bright it left a spark on my field of vision. The brilliant, flickering flash quickly died out as the projectile sailed toward the ground.
The smoke and the deep shadows made it hard to track what was going on, but I saw Miss Muffet’s spider make its appearance. Other experiments were venturing into the fray, more recognizable for the fact that they were very focused on what they were doing, and the enemy was more jumbled, trying to organize, forming into ranks or hurrying toward safer territory. Fires lower to the ground helped cast long shadows for creatures that already had long limbs. The poison apple, Miss Muffet’s spider, the giant, the nightmare that didn’t burn, the crimson bull…
“Jessie and Lil have done their part,” I said. “Let’s walk.”
Ashton grabbed Professor Foss’ arm, striving to haul him to his feet. I would have helped, but my hands remained bound.
“Stand up,” Ashton ordered.
The Professor remained in his seat, not cooperating.
“Ashton.”
Ashton turned his head. He turned it away as another distant explosion occurred. He sighed, as if he was very bothered he hadn’t seen. He looked back in my direction.
“Do you have a knife?” I asked him.
That got me a nod.
I stuck out a foot, sticking Professor Foss in the upper thigh with the toe of my shoe. “You can stick it there, and it won’t do too much harm.”
The Professor stood in the same moment Ashton drew the knife.
He stood there like that, glaring at me, then at Ashton, as if he could somehow maintain the veneer that he had some ability to resist. I saw the eye contact break and his posture slip a fraction, as Ashton worked his magic or the Professor’s ability to lie to himself faltered.
“Come on,” Ashton said. He tugged on the Professor’s arm. I followed alongside, as we headed into the room, through it, and into the hallway. Students were standing guard.
Probably more for me than for the Professor.
“Please come with us,” Ashton ordered them. “Hold on to the professor for me while you’re at it, please.”
We made our way out of the building, and onto the perimeter wall. We didn’t bring lights with us. The fires were the focus, as were the gunshots, now, the warbeasts on both sides, and the soldiers fighting on the ground. We had them running, we weren’t really pressing them, and we weren’t committing a terribly large amount of our forces. We wanted to test them and to strain their resources.
But I kept an eye on the shadows, as best as I could. While we acted in the dark, it was very possible that a clever Noble or Professor might try to do the same.
“Talk to me about Fray,” I said.
“Haven’t seen her in years,” the Professor said.
“You’re aware that if that’s true, you’re really not that useful to us?” I asked.
“Then I’m not useful to you,” he said. “Are you going to throw me off the wall?”
There was something about the way he’d said that, that made me think he was too confident.
“Do you really want to tempt me?” I asked. “Ashton here doesn’t give a damn, and I’m in restraints for a reason. I’m sure a smart man like you has noticed.”
“I give a bit of a damn,” Ashton said. His pale face changed as he squinted at me in the dark, arching his neck back to get a better look at my hands as I gestured. He added, “I’d like to drop him from the wall into a place where there’s some light.”
“Some light, huh?”
“I want to see the stains and splatters he makes. Oh! Or we could cut his knees and elbows and drop him onto a roof. We’ll make him crawl like that, and see the smears and stains he makes as he goes. It’ll be so nice to look at.”
“Head games,” the Professor said.
“I said I was a genius earlier, but I’m not,” Ashton said. “I’m a vehicle for pheromone discharges. I have a scaffolded brain with a low H.S.-like-value, high mimickry and high liquidity. I think someone like you might know what that means.”
“I have some ideas,” the Professor said, sounding very tired.
“I like the pretty patterns and colors, Professor,” Ashton said. “And I’m not very adaptable in late stage growth, and I’m well past early stage, so you can do the math. Eventually I won’t adapt at all, and I’ll turn inwards. I’ll be stuck in an endless loop. But for now I’m not, and I’m staying comfortable and doing what makes me happy. And making you into interesting patterns would make me happy.”
“I’m not a vat grown shelf-head, and I honestly wouldn’t mind,” I said.
“These students you two have escorting me might disagree.”
“We were told to follow their orders. If the two of them disagree, we follow Ashton over Sylvester.”
“Uh huh,” the Professor said. The sound came out guttural, as much a groan as words.
“Fray,” I reminded him.
“You’re pretending there’s another answer.”
“I’m pretending that you’re acting like you’re untouchable when you really shouldn’t be that confident.”
“Shouldn’t I be?” he asked.
Professor Foss was older, his hair grown in white, curled at the edges in a mimicry of the wigs of old, which had been powdered to keep the bugs out. He looked haggard, worn out by just the afternoon and evening in our company.
But there was something beyond that. Even being on edge, with one escape and recapture, even with all the stressors and the need to focus and keep control of his faculties while Ashton worked on him, he was still fighting.
I couldn’t remember much of him, but I could draw on context and I could read him. Being a Headmaster necessitated being a politician, as well as a Professor. He struck me as the kind of politician who obstructed, and I knew that he hadn’t volunteered much on Fray, despite our suspicion of his involvement with her.
He was delaying and obstructing now. The rhetorical questions, the way he steeled himself.
He would break, and I suspected he knew he would break, but he was determined to stall as much as possible.
“Lady whatshername,” I said. “The one you gave into Fray’s care.”
“Claire,” Ashton supplied.
“Lady Claire. She helped Fray and you backed her, you let Fray slip under the radar, even at the expense of the Academy. You played your part, Professor. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but Lady Claire is here. She’s over there in that building.”
“She was,” Ashton said. “She was over there in that building.”
Our walk along the perimeter wall had brought us to a point that was very close to where the wall met the slope of the main building. The doors and path down the cliffside to the harbor were all very near. Students had clustered in the shadows here. Mary was among them.
They were using ropes to lower barrels down the face of the wall.
“She-” Professor Foss started. He stopped.
“She?” I asked.
He set his jaw. He hadn’t meant to speak. Ashton’s influence.
My focus shifted. I wanted to pay attention to the nearby shadows. It wasn’t good that I had to remain bound, but I was concerned that each hit from the Infante would be worse than the last, and I wasn’t positive that the Lambs being nearby would be a guarantee.
How long before I forgot them, or before I needed two Lambs with me at all times?
“She was pretty,” Ashton said.
“Was she?” I asked. I wanted to fill the void, to keep up the patter. Ashton had softened the wall, and now we needed to hammer at it.
“She looked nice. Very asymmetrical,” Ashton said. “But in a good way. Clothes and hair asymmetrical. I think I’d like to… what’s it called? When you’re cooking meat and you cut it down the middle and open it up?”
“Butterflying,” Mary said, her voice soft.
“I’d like to butterfly the pretty Lady Claire,” Ashton said. “Or it would be better if someone else could, and I could watch.”
“I could,” Mary and I said at the same time.
“Stop,” the Professor said.
I stopped. We all waited.
“I know full well what you’re doing,” the man said. “I know. Let’s not play games.”
“Let’s cut to the chase, Professor,” I said. “Let’s talk properly. We know you will eventually.”
“And if I don’t, you’ll weaken my resistances, break down my willpower, and make me unable to keep the vivid imagery of one of the people I love most in the world being brutalized from my mind?”
“Not brutalized,” Ashton said. “We could be gentle about it. She could even be asleep, so she didn’t move too much while we carved bits out.”
Even in the dark, I could see the tension in the Professor’s neck.
“I’ve been in touch with Genevieve Fray,” he said. “I don’t have much to say. She’s not very active, she hasn’t been moving much, in part because there aren’t many places to go.”
“No idea what she’s planning, then?” I asked.
The Professor stared at me for a long moment. “Whatever she’s doing, it’s near Radham, and if she’s wrapping it up, she’s intent on doing it where she got her start. I thought at first that she was planning on doing what you seem to be doing here, getting her pieces arranged, being more patient about it, but I’m less sure about that as time goes on.”
I glanced at Mary. “Radham was one of our planned stops, if we get out of here okay.”
“Who’s in the admin building?” she asked.
“Students, soldiers. They’ll toot a horn if there’s trouble. But nobody’s going to attack the main building,” I said.
Mary didn’t respond immediately.
“Ninety percent sure,” I said. “We left a clear path to there when we decided not to burn the spire-”
“Steeple,” Ashton corrected.
“-And they’ll think it’s a trap. I’m… eighty-five percent sure.”
Mary didn’t look impressed.
“What are you doing here, Sy?” she asked.
“I thought we’d stand guard while you work,” I said.
“You, the least combat capable member of the Lambs, with your hands tied behind your back, no less?” she asked, her tone wry. “And Ashton, the second least combat capable Lamb?”
Ashton and I voiced very different protests at the same time.
“I’ve gotten better,” I said, when there was a moment. “It’s predicated on opportunism, ambush, and debilitating the enemy, but still.”
“And I’m not the worst or second worst, even if I’m slow,” Ashton said. “I’m good with guns. Abby isn’t good at anything.”
“Weapons-wise,” I said.
“Yeah,” Ashton said.
Mary looked between us. Something about her looked far gentler and less… difficult, than I’d seen in a long time.
It worried me, more than anything. That Mary would let the hardness go any. I wasn’t wholly sure what had predicated it.
The ending being in sight, perhaps. Or an ending. Mine being one such possibility.
“Keep us safe, then,” she said, still with that wry tone. Sarcasm without the bite.
“I’ll try,” Ashton said, matching the wry tone with earnestness.
Mary grabbed the rope, then slid down it, over the other side of the wall.
I could only barely make out the pale blob that was Helen. The two of them disappeared down the cliff, Helen so close to Mary that it looked like they’d get in each other’s way, get caught up in each other and drop off the cliff face to the rocks below.
Here and there, students in dark clothes were working with ropes, to lower down barrels and cases.
“Where does this go?” the Professor asked.
“We break you,” I said.
“Me specifically, or…”
“You, collectively.”
He nodded, as if there was no surprise in that.
“You break us,” he said. “You could have poisoned the vast majority of us at the outset, if you had a mind to. You could have made the gas you filled the dining hall with into something that killed. You didn’t.”
“Some of ours in the enemy ranks,” I said.
“There were roads available to you that you didn’t take. Now here we are. I can see much of what’s ahead, but not all of it.”
“Your peers will get hungry,” I said. “You’ll eat some of the warbeasts. You’ll make what you can and use chemicals and experiments to come after us. But we’ve left you all with very little, the numbers favor us, really, even if your strength is disproportionately higher on the face of things. You’ll get desperate.”
On the one side of the wall, the enemy was retreating into the main building. The lowest ranked students, doctors, aristocrats and experiments had taken up roost there, in hopes of some comfort or refuge, and they’d been denied it. If we couldn’t divide them up, we’d force them to cram in together in the main building. Maybe it would drive friction.
On the other side of the wall, I couldn’t see it, but Mary, Helen, and the team that had crawled down were carting off barrels and containers. They would float them out to set points and they would release the chemicals, hopefully without exposing themselves to the stuff.
“The Academy and the Crown are proud, above all else. You put a lot of stock in your ability to hold your heads high. So the first stage of this? We make you lower your heads.”
“All the better to chop at them with the headsman’s axe?” the Professor said, with the tone of someone who didn’t think that was a real possibility. “To humiliate them?”
I was silent, watching the shadows. Was that someone I saw, or a thick cloud of smoke?
“Or to collar them?” the Professor asked.
It was a person. A figure.
The noble I’d seen before, who’d worn the red jacket. He wasn’t wearing the jacket now – only a black silk shirt and pants tucked into boots. He was watching the walltop.
“There are two types of control, you know,” the Professor said, behind me. “The first is to rise up, so that when you act, you need only to reach down. The effort is minimal, the cost of acting small compared to the impact earned.”
It was eerie that he said that as I looked at a Noble. What had the man’s name been? Carling?
“The other, the path I took at Kensford, in dealing with Genevieve Fray, was to bring the others down. To allow ruin to befall other Academies while I kept the footing of Dame Cicely’s intact. We were quick to develop countermeasures, to free key individuals from the leash. Genevieve Fray promised, and it came to pass.”
Carling paused, and in that pause, I wondered if he’d made eye contact with me. I couldn’t see well enough in the dark to tell.
Ashton, beside me, was looking in the same direction. He didn’t seem too concerned, but the things that concerned him were a little different than the norm.
“Are you lowering others to your level, Lambs, or are you raising yourselves up?” the Professor asked.
Carling turned, and he strode into the smoke and darkness. If he was making a play, it wouldn’t be immediate.
Carling, the pale Lady Gloria, Professor Gossamer. There were others. The smarter enemies that were watching and acting decisively rather than milling about. They were coordinating, and I felt as though they were keeping pace with us so far. The rest- not so much. If anything, I felt like the minor struggles, the disorganization and the silly little things like aristocrats finding common beds to sleep in in the city itself were gambits.
“Remains to be seen,” I said. “A lot depends on what your side ends up doing here. But I think it’s key to note something.”
I was glad I’d come, so I could see the enemy, almost look them in the eyes.
The gossamer thing would drink the water we’d polluted, unless it was somehow able to take commands extensive enough to guide it away from water that might be poisoned, somewhere further down the coast, where it still had anchors. It would attack once or twice more, and then it would drink, and it would die.
They’re going to make a play within a few hours, before their side is too weak from hunger. It wasn’t an idea I had that was wholly based in logic or anything specific I’d noted. But instinct suggested it was right. It made the most sense, and it was the most inconvenient thing they could do. It would coincide with the next, last attack from the Gossamer thing, before the thing had a chance to be poisoned or counteracted. It would be decisive, one way or the other.
“It’s key to note something?” the Professor asked.
“Half of the Lambs are broken, dead, or dying,” I said. “So if we bring you all down to our level, it’s not going to be pretty.”
“It’s not a pretty thing either, to raise yourself up to a better position, if you’re starting from a point marked by the dead, dying, and broken,” he said.
“I’m going to guess you’re not one for prayer,” I said. “Being loyal to the Crown and all.”
“More than some,” he said. “The school I run used to be a religious one, before the title changed.”
My voice was hard, and I was very cognizant of the Infante in the corner of my vision, intently staring through the gloom. “Well, maybe say some words, then. Because that ugliness, whichever way the plan goes, is going to include you, your Claire, and everything else you hold dear.”
Previous NextElizabeth Warren, direct to camera. | elizabethwarren.com Gillibrand won't stand in Elizabeth Warren's way for a Banking Committee seat
One of the more intriguing post-election sub-plots in Washington centers on what exactly the Democratic leadership will do with its newest star, the firebrand consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren.
Warren's backers desperately want her to get a seat on the Senate Banking Committee, a prospect that already concerns financial industry executives on Wall Street, who bankrolled her unsuccessful opponent, Republican Scott Brown.
Story Continued Below
Some reports have even speculated that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand might trump Warren for one of the two Democratic spots coming open on the committee, by virtue of her (relative) seniority.
Wall Street would undoubtedly prefer Gillibrand, an evolving friend of the hometown financial service sector, who raised more money from the industry than any Senate candidate except Brown, and only slightly less than House Speaker John Boehner.
But a Gillibrand spokesman just told me that the senator is not seeking a seat on the committee. So that scenario, in which Warren is effectively blocked by Gillibrand, isn't going to happen.
It would have been highly unusual in any case for Gillibrand to join her colleague, senior senator Chuck Schumer, on the committee, since senators usually spread their state's influence by sitting on separate committees.
Schumer and Gillibrand have something of an upstate-downstate division of labor, with Gillibrand sitting on the Agriculture Committee, along with Armed Services, Environment and Public Works, and Aging.Secrets haunt the still-classified Operation Ivy Bells, a daring Cold War wiretapping operation conducted 400 feet underwater.
It's the summer of 1972 and the U.S. is in the middle of pulling off the most daring, covert, and dangerous operation of the Cold War. Only a few months before, the signing of SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty) limited the number of nuclear missiles of the world's two largest superpowers. Yet even with this well-publicized US/Soviet détente in place, a submerged American submarine rests mere miles from the Russian coastline.
At the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk, the U.S. nuclear submarine Halibut silently listens to the secret conversations of the Soviet Union. With the Kremlin completely unaware, Navy divers emerge from a hidden compartment (referred to as the "Bat Cave") and walk along the bottom of the sea in complete darkness, wiretapping the Soviet's underwater communications line.
America wiretapped this particular Soviet communications cable for maybe a decade or more—and many details remain classified. It was the U.S.'s most ambitious wiretapping operation, until this point, in its entire history. This was Operation Ivy Bells.
Shipyard model of the USS Halibut (SSGN-587), Nov. 18, 1957. U.S. Navy / Darryl L. Baker
Battle Plans and Mistresses
Down below the sea surface, the intel is flooding in. With the divers' taps in place, American communication techs onboard the Halibut gather a wide range of intelligence, from operational tactics to Soviet commanders' conversations with their mistresses. But up on the sea surface, a storm is brewing.
As the angry sea rocks the sub, the still-working divers are trapped outside the vessel in the murky cold water. Then, with a loud snap, the steel anchor lines break free. The Halibut drifts upwards, in danger of exposing itself to the enemy.
"If (they) had gotten caught, [they] had every reason to belief that [the Soviets] would have blown [them] away," says Sherry Sontag, who co-wrote the 1998 book Blind Man's Bluff.
Quickly, Captain John McNish makes a rather unconventional decision: to flood the sub. In a matter of seconds, the Halibut plops back down into the sea bottom's sandy muck. The divers scramble back into their decompression chamber (used toprevent the "bends") and an international crisis is averted—at least temporarily.
Days later and after the storm subsides, the Halibut finally emerges from its watery depths. The mission is a resounding success, and the sub is returning home with tapes of recorded Soviet Union voices discussing the secrets of a superpower. As W. Craig Reed wrote in his book Red November, it was like the U.S. placing "a glass against the Soviet Union's wall to hear their every word."
USS Halibut, 1962. Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum
What Lies Beneath
This sub mission was one of several that made up the still-classified Operation Ivy Bells. It's not exactly a secret that the U.S. and USSR launched a silent intelligence war, one that lasted for decades and likely continues to this day, even after the fall of the Soviet Union. What made Operation Ivy Bells so unprecedented is the literal depths to which the U.S. government would go to spy on its Cold War rival.
According to Sontag's book, it was Captain James Bradley who first considered the possibility of an underwater wiretapping operation. A World War II and Vietnam War vet who had commanded ships in the heat of the battle, Bradley knew how to operate in close proximity to the enemy. In 1966, he became the undersea warfare director in the Office of Naval Intelligence, where he came up with the idea that forever shifted the Cold War in America's favor.
In 1968, Bradley devised and led a mission that sent the Halibut into the Pacific in search of the Soviet sub K-129, lost due to an internal explosion during a routine patrol. The Soviets' searched for months with little success, but they were missing an invaluable ally that aided the American quest: "the fish."
Built by Westinghouse Electric at an estimated cost of $5 million each, this was a two-ton underwater camera mounted inside a mini-sub, deployed while remaining tethered to the Halibut. The fish hovered just above the ocean floor taking pictures. "It was kinda like a sophisticated vacuum cleaner for your pool," Reed told Popular Mechanics.
While the covert mission to dredge up K-129 called Project Azorian was only a partial success, it proved the fish could capture images even in the dark waters of the ocean floor. But the Halibut and the fish's next mission would be much more complicated—and dangerous.
Bradley believed an unencrypted telephone line connected Petropavlovsk's submarine base (near the tip of Kamchatka peninsula) to Russia's mainland, likely running under the Sea of Okhotsk. Soviet cryptographers were notoriously backlogged and military officers needed fast communication between the Kremlin and Russia's most important naval base. So, Bradley theorized, the Soviet's solution was to deposit a communications line so deep underwater and close to Russia's shoreline that no one could access it.
Or so they thought.
USS Halibut pushing its nuclear engines. U.S. Navy/Gary Flynn
The Challenges Ahead—and Below
Three obstacles stood in Bradley's way. First, the search area needed to be significantly narrowed to have any chance of finding the cables in 611,200 square miles of water. According to legend, the solution came to Bradley one morning in his Pentagon office. Daydreaming about his boyhood spent on the Mississippi River, Bradley remembered that there were signs near the shorelines warning boaters not to anchor due to utility lines at the bottom of the river. He realized that if there were location signs like this in America, there surely would be in Russia as well.
He was absolutely right. When the Halibut moved into the Sea of Okhotsk, they scanned the Siberian coast and found warning signs dotting its northernmost half, telling fisherman to avoid particular areas.
"The Soviets weren't trying to hide (the cables)," says Sontag, "They had no idea we could get that close...that we could send divers walking on the bottom that deep...or that we had the technology to tap it. No one had conceived anything like this before."
Within days, the Navy had found what they'd been looking for. Next, they needed to figure out how divers were going to go and stay that deep underwater for the several hours needed to complete the wiretapping. The answer was helium. Since the late 1950s, Navy Captain George F. Bond had been developing new methods, techniques, and gases that would allow divers to go deeper and stay submerged for longer. While his infamous Sealab project was shut down after the death of a diver, Bond proved that certain gas mixes could work.
This U.S. Navy diver chiseling free deck plating from the sunken USS Monitor is an example of saturation diving, 2001. U.S. Navy/Eric Lippmann
We land mammals breathe in a cocktail of gases every day that is around 80 percent nitrogen and 20 percent oxygen, with a few other garnishes thrown in. When these gasses are compressed by water pressure, it causes nitrogen to build up in the blood. This can be an extremely dangerous condition for humans that can result in nitrogen narcosis or decompression sickness, a fatal embolism if the diver does not decompress properly while ascending. So instead, Ivy Bells substituted nitrogen for helium. Helium has a lower molecular weight than nitrogen and leaves human tissue more rapidly, making it perfect for a diving technique known as saturation diving.
With the search completed and the human element solved, the last complication involved the mechanics of the tap itself. To avoid shorting out the cable (and alarming the Soviets), the divers couldn't just open it up. Instead, the wiretap had to work through induction. The divers would need to place the tap by wrapping a connector around the comm line and then feed it into a three-foot-long reel-to-reel tape recorder.
"We were using technology that is so far advanced from the civilian community that the public doesn't know that capability even exists."
The big technological problem wasn't pulling the signal out from the cable but separating the channels so someone could understand it. Running through that one cable was perhaps up to a dozen different lines, all with Soviet voices chattering away. As Reeds puts it, it was a "gargled cacophony" and nearly impossible to gather any real intelligence. For this reason, the first mission failed. "It was trial and error," says Reed, "When they first got the signals in, it was a mess."
But as the mission moved forward, the communication technicians jerry-rigged equipment that separated signals and drew out particular voices. Exactly what and how they did it remains a mystery as parts of Ivy Bells remains classified.
"These guys were the original makers... they were making it up as they went along," says Sontag regarding the operation's communication technicians. "No one else was doing underwater cable tapping. This was all brand new."
President Jimmy Carter and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev sign SALT II treaty, June 18, 1979.
40 Years a Secret
Now retired, David LeJeune was a Navy saturation diver who participated in several later missions. Although he was unable to answer many questions, he says that the information that he and his fellow divers uncovered led to the successful completion of the SALT II talks, which was eventually signed in 1979 and restricted each country's nuclear delivery systems.
LeJeune also says the tech and gear they were using was cutting edge. "We were using technology that is so far advanced from the civilian community that the public doesn't know that capability even exists."
For a decade, the U.S. wiretapped this comm line at the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk. The Halibut and other subs would venture into the Sea of Okhotsk a couple of times a year, picking up the tap and replacing it with a new and often more advanced one. It was an intelligence gold mine, consistently providing the U.S. with invaluable information.
"Finding this information turned out to be the thing that let the Cold War end."
"We didn't know... how much we were frightening (the Soviets)... until we listened to these tapes," says Sontag, "Very quickly, we pulled back from the brink. And this had a lot to do with it.... I think finding this information turned out to be the thing that let the Cold War end."
But in 1980, a former NSA employee named Ronald Peltonwalked into the Soviet Embassy in Washington D.C., and for $35,000, divulged the inner workings of Ivy Bells. With that, the operation abruptly ended—or so it was claimed.
Over three decades later, this type of wiretapping is thought to be largely obsolete. Thanks to the digital age, there are far more efficient, easier, and less risky ways to spy on someone's comms. However, these types of underwater cables still exist and are of great importance. As the New York Times reported in 2015, there are continued fears that these cables could be cut, effectively halting communications across the globe.
But, even though this type of surveillance may be old fashioned, Reed thinks it's possibly still happening today. "Submarines absolutely still have the capability to do these kind of missions and there are personnel that are still trained on how to do these missions," says Reed. "Whether or not those missions are still underway, that would be considered classified."Mikhail Gorbachev accuses United States of drawing Russia into new Cold War
Updated
The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has accused the United States of drawing Russia into a new Cold War and said he feared hostilities could escalate into armed conflict.
The United States "has already drawn us into a new Cold War, trying openly to achieve its main idea of triumphalism," Mr Gorbachev said in an interview with the Interfax news agency.
"Where will that lead all of us? A Cold War is already being waged openly. What's next?" asked the 83-year-old former Soviet president, who during his time in power eased relations with the West but is vilified in Russia for allowing the breakup of the USSR.
"Unfortunately I cannot say for sure that a Cold War won't lead to a 'hot' one. I fear they could take the risk," Mr Gorbachev said, apparently referring to the United States.
Mr Gorbachev
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genres and weird experiences didn’t help the system’s chances at reaching a true mainstream audience. These days broadband adapters and high resolution graphics aren’t features or even worth noting; they’ve become part of the baseline experience in modern consoles. There's no need for your memory stick to have buttons and a screen when every system comes with a hard drive.
The Dreamcast turned your home into a beautiful arcade
Still, the Dreamcast was a heavenly system for those of us craving new experiences. Other systems before and after had their share of weird peripherals — sewing accessories, anyone? — but the Dreamcast offered so many games that were improved by the addition of new hardware.
The Dreamcast turned your home into a beautiful arcade with light gun games, music games, fishing games and great fighting games complete with hardware that made each title feel like an event. It was a system that allowed you to invite your friends to play and share each different experience; the system felt novel and fluid in a way that was rare at the time, and has become almost forgotten in conversations about classic hardware.
I’m not surprised the Dreamcast wasn’t a bigger hit, the target market for many of these games and peripherals was relatively small, but the system represented a high water mark for those of us willing to invest in and enjoy new experiences. There has never been a system like it, and there likely will never be again.A kindergarten student with a toy gun in Tennessee has been lumped together with a high schooler who allegedly assaulted a classmate, a fifth-grader who was accused of writing a “hit list” of potential victims and another high schooler who brought a loaded gun clip to school – and all have been expelled.
According to the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the kindergartner was among eight students expelled after he broke school rules with a toy weapon.
“We take all these incidents very seriously,” said V.L. Stonecipher, a school official. “Our code of conduct clearly spells out unacceptable behavior and the consequences.”
The offending toy weapon violated the school’s zero-tolerance rules and resulted in a mandatory year-long suspension, the report said.
The report did not reveal the name of the Andersonville Elementary School kindergarten student, who brought a toy gun in his backpack on a Thursday, and was expelled on Friday.
“There’s no tolerance for kids with weapons of any kind,” school spokeswoman Karen Bridgeman told the newspaper.
Other expulsions were triggered by a written threat to shoot a school principal, a written “hit list,” a belt buckle with a pair of brass knuckles, a loaded gun clip, a student carrying a drug, and an alleged assault on a classmate, the report said.
“Expelling a kindergarten student for a toy gun is insane,” wrote one participant in the newspaper’s forum page. “No toy gun of today hardly even resembles a real one.”
“We live in a sad time as far as violence in schools is concerned,” said another. “Expelling a kindergarten age child for a toy gun takes the rag off the bush though.”
The issue got the attention of Terry Frank, whose radio broadcasts are heard across the region.
“Until every parent either homeschools, demands vouchers, or places their children in private schools, you’re going to continue to see this kind of utter foolishness and insanity,” she wrote.
“As this young kindergartner was being expelled, my own little third grader was carrying his wooden rifle replica to his class project as part of his re-enactment of Daniel Boone,” she continued. “Had he appeared at one of our bureaucratic institutions, he would have needed to convert Daniel Boone’s gun to ploughshares.”
“Let a kid bring a harmless piece of plastic and it’s on!!” wrote a contributor on Frank’s comment page.
As WND recently reported, the Young Conservatives of Texas branch at the Houston-area Lone Star College-Tomball were censored and threatened with campus-wide de-recognition for passing out a humorous pamphlet with gun jokes at a campus fair.
The dispute is being addressed by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, which has written college officials reminding them of the college’s constitutional obligation to respect the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and to acknowledge the flyer’s contents are protected speech.
“Distributing a joke-filled top-ten list at a student activities fair is a creative way for a student group to educate its peers about itself,” said Greg Lukianoff, the president of FIRE.
The case developed at the school’s recent “club rush” when the Young Conservatives started handing out their list of “Top Ten Gun Safety Tips.”
The tongue-in-cheek recommendations included:
Always keep your gun pointed in a safe direction, such as at a hippy or a communist.
No matter how responsible he seems, never give your gun to a monkey.
Don’t load your gun unless you are ready to shoot something or are just feeling generally angry.
If your gun misfires, never look down the barrel to inspect it.
Never use your gun to pistol whip someone. That could mar the finish.
No matter how excited you are about buying your first gun, do not run around yelling “I have a gun! I have a gun!”
The flyer then invited students to an informational meeting the following week.
WND previously reported several other cases, including a shirt with a gun image banished from a school campus, a student who faced discipline for having a pen that carried the logo of a gun company, a student suspended for advocating for gun rights, and a student suspended for a sketch of a gun.Making a giant Jaffa Cake is hard
After seeing a recipe online for making a giant Jaffa cake, I decided to try it out. I procured the ingredients as listed, and set to work. I only had one cake tin, so decided to make the “Jaffa” layer the night before so that it would cool and I could reuse the tin for the cake. This stage actually went fairly smoothly, making a surprisingly good Jaffa.
The next day, with the help of some class-mates, we moved on to making the full cake. We mixed up the ingredients, and added to the oven. It ended up taking about two times as long as it should have to bake as both of the ovens in my halls are only semi-functional, despite numerous requests for them to be fixed. Once the cake was finally done it was about 10:30pm and I was getting bored of the whole endeavor. And so, I made my first mistake. I put the jaffa on the still-warm cake.
I then added the still-warm chocolate ganache.
Due to the cake still being warm, it thinned and flowed a bit more than I would have liked. Still, I added my orange zest garnish, and began to congratulate myself on a job well done.
Then, the problems began. I don’t have photographs of this stage of the process as we all panicked a bit. The jaffa layer broke in two, and one side started to drift off. A class-mate cupped his hands around it and tried to hold it on while we figured out what to do. Then, it broke some more. Soon, it was in a myriad of small pieces and beginning to slide off of the cake everywhere.
Capacity of the plate reached, it then flowed on to the counters. We scooped it up by hand as best we could.
At this point we decided that it was simply to be a chocolate orange cake, and put it in the fridge in shame. Then began the clean-up.
We managed to scrape most of the chocolate/jaffa mess in to a bowl.
We were unsure what to do with it at this point. We tried putting it in the sink, but the jaffa had begun to re-set and so it wouldn’t wash away. It was decided that the toilet would be the most appropriate receptacle for it.
This did remove the bulk of the material, but shortly became another regrettable decision of the night. It had not occurred to us that the cold toilet would cause the ganache to set. I have never had to clean melted chocolate out of a toilet before, and I hope that I never have to do so again.
I’ve decided I’m going to have another attempt at making the cake some time, although I’ll do it when I have enough free time to wait for the cake to cool!By Kevin Lessmiller and Adam Klasfeld, Courthouse News Service
(CN) — The Second Circuit ruled Monday that Ecuadoreans cannot collect a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron for rainforest damage, finding that the judgment was the result of bribery and fraud.
The ruling is another setback for rainforest residents who have struggled for 23 years for compensation for what they called an "Amazon Chernobyl."
In 1993, indigenous and farmer residents of the Ecuadorean rainforest sued Chevron's predecessor Texaco in New York, alleging that the company left behind an environmental and public health disaster for the 30,000 residents of Amazon. Chevron's first step after acquiring Texaco was convincing the New York courts to relocate the lawsuit to the Ecuadorean city of Lago Agrio, where the drilling occurred.
An Ecuadorian judge awarded the plaintiffs $18 billion in February 2011 for environmental damage caused by Texaco during its operation of an oil consortium in the rainforest from 1972 to 1990.
Ecuador's highest court upheld the verdict three years later, but reduced the judgment to about $9.5 billion.
Chevron promised to abide by the Ecuadorean judgment to win the transfer of the case, but it later insisted that this obligation was void because of fraud.
Returning to New York, Chevron accused lawyers for the Ecuadoreans — particularly, a human-rights lawyer named Steven Donziger — of attempting to "shake-down" the company for billions by pressuring them to pay an illegitimate judgment.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan agreed and ruled in March 2014 that Ecuador's judgment had been "procured by corrupt means," such as bribery.
Kaplan devoted two separate subsections of a 500-page decision to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa's election and "influence" on the Lago Agrio litigation. Those sections described how Correa pushed for the prosecution of Chevron lawyers, offered to call a judge, and launched a public relations campaign attacking Chevron and its allies to help the country's citizens win in court.
The Second Circuit heard arguments in the case last year. On Monday, the New York City-based appeals court unanimously upheld Kaplan's ruling.
"There is no authority suggesting that a party ignorant of its attorney's fraudulent actions may enforce a fraudulently procured judgment," Judge Amalya Kearse wrote for a three-judge panel. "Even innocent clients may not benefit from the fraud of their attorney."
Kearse said the case record "reveals a parade of corrupt actions" by the Amazon residents' attorneys, including coercion, fraud, and bribery, culminating in the promise to [the Ecuadorian judge] of $500,000 from a judgment in favor" of the residents.
The Second Circuit said in its 127-page ruling that the massive judgment against Chevron "is clearly traceable to the [residents'] legal team's corrupt conduct."
Karen Hinton, U.S. spokesperson for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs, said they are "are shocked by this decision."
"The Ecuadorians' attorneys are reviewing it carefully and will be exploring all options for further appeal. As disappointed as we are, this ruling will not deter the Ecuadorians, their lawyers and their supporters from aggressively seeking justice in Canada and in other countries where litigation is underway to seize Chevron assets," Hinton said. "With those assets, the Ecuadorians will be able to undo some of the damages Chevron left behind -- damage that has ruined the pristine rainforest and taken the lives of men, women and children who depend on the rainforest for the basic necessities of life. It is a sad day for the U.S. justice system."
Donziger's attorney Deepak Gupta called the Second Circuit ruling "unprecedented in American law."
"Never before has a U.S. court allowed someone who lost a case in another country to come to the U.S. to attack a foreign court's damages award," Gupta said. "The decision hands well-heeled corporations a template for avoiding legal accountability anywhere in the world. And it throws the entire international judgment-enforcement framework out the window. We will be exploring all available options for further review."
To Learn More:
Ecuador Court Fines Chevron $9 Billion in Rain Forest Pollution Case (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
Chevron May Face Biggest Fine Ever as 16-Year-Old Case Nears Judgment (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)President Trump did not rule out the possibility of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the 2016 campaign after one of his foreign policy advisers suggested the idea, according to a person who was present during the exchange.
"He didn't say yes and he didn't say no," the official, who was in the room during the meeting where the idea was floated, told CNN.
The idea of meeting Putin was proposed by George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to Trump's campaign. Unsealed documents revealed this week that Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about his contacts with a professor linked to the Russian government.
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After Papadopoulos proposed the idea at the March 2016 meeting, it was Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report Ex-Trump aide: Can’t imagine Mueller not giving House a ‘roadmap’ to impeachment Rosenstein: My time at DOJ is 'coming to an end' MORE, who was the chair of Trump's national security team and an Alabama senator at the time, who rejected it, according to CNN.
In court documents, Papadopoulos said that he told Trump campaign officials during that meeting that "he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and President Putin."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the president did not recount all the details of the March 2016 meeting, but dismissed its significance.
"Again, it was a brief meeting that took place quite some time ago. It was the one time that group ever met," Sanders told CNN on Monday.
"What I can say is that I think that Papadopoulos is an example of, actually, somebody doing the wrong thing while the president's campaign did the right thing," she told the network on Tuesday.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is currently investigating Russia's efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, as well as any possible ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
Both Trump and his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE, met with various world leaders in New York in September 2016 during the United Nations General Assembly.
Other presidential candidates have, in the past, held meetings with foreign leaders. For example, Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE (R-Ariz.) met Colombia's president in 2008, while he was the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee.Vera Videnovich
Elizabeth Alice Crum
I smiled when I heard Led Zeppelin's "Moby Dick" blast through the speakers while I watched nautically inspired crochet work come down the runway at this year's School of the Art Institute spring student fashion show, the Walk. The choice of music seemed a little over-the-top for what, at first glance, was a subdued color palette with conservative shapes—until I noticed that the designer's work included heavier elements weighing down its fine handworked details. On my annual trek to the Walk I'm always looking for work that includes some time-consuming, hand-constructed fabrics. For many students, the show's one last flourish of uninhibited, self-inspired creativity before they begin making work for others.
When I contacted the designer, Elizabeth Alice Crum, to get a closer look at her creations, she explained that they were inspired by Herman Melville's Moby-Dick: more specifically, the theme of chance, how the narrative is woven and broken, how tension is created, and where fate takes you. She started translating those ideas at the beginning of the semester with the help of an "idea" book (pictured below) full of nautical images, pictures of Gregory Peck (who played Captain Ahab in John Huston's 1956 movie based on the novel), and handwritten text; she's not much of a sketcher or illustrator, she explained to me, but prefers to work out her ideas organically, with material. Her colors, inspired by a photo of nautical ropes, range from mossy sea foam to a rusty white.
For this show, she collaborated with former SAIC student Annie Guitteau, who crocheted lightweight mohair around heavy, thick spiraling ropes and filled spaces with shifting shades of loosely constructed handwork. Crum's creations, from vests to jackets to handbags, use materials she's collected from traveling the globe, including aging lace and repurposed carpet fabrics. Industrial rope gives them some heft.
Now finished at SAIC, Crum is working on several commissioned works before heading to the Royal School of Needlework in Surrey, UK, in January. Along with the other SAIC seniors, she'll be entering pieces in the Elle magazine competition "Fashion | Next" in New York; the winners will be featured in an upcoming issue. Other work by Crum, mostly from her junior-year collection, is on display at Su_7, a pop-up store named after the school's seventh-floor fashion department in the Sullivan Center, where you can "browse, buy, and commission" student work.
Su_7, on the first floor of Block 37, 108 N. State, runs from 11 AM to 5 PM daily through Saturday, May 19.
Vera Videnovich
Elizabeth Alice Crum's bags made from upcycled carpets, industrial ropes, and mohair
Vera Videnovich
Knotted and embroidered textiles by Elizabeth Alice Crum
Vera Videnovich
Detail: mohair crocheted around industrial rope
Vera Videnovich
Left: photo of nautical ropes that inspired Elizabeth Alice Crum's senior work (on right)
Vera Videnovich
Elizabeth Anne Crum's inspiration book for her senior collection, inspired by Moby-DickThe Kennesaw State Football program has never been an average startup program and the majority of its success is largely due to the work of one man.
The No. 21 Owls (9-1, 4-0 Big South) will play No. 22 Momouth in a de facto conference championship game at Fifth Third Bank Stadium. In just three brief seasons of live play, Brian Bohannon has taken KSU from literally nothing to a national contender.
Since taking the job as first-ever head coach of the Owls in the summer of 2013, Bohannon has never had a losing season and has been nationally ranked multiple times. His latest recruiting class was ranked by one outlet as the 10th best in the nation in the Football Championship Subdivision.
2017 Kennesaw State Football Signing Day — Full Video Kennesaw State football head coach Brian Bohannon announced the Owls’ 2017 incoming class Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017 on National Signing Day. Sixteen future Owls were introduced, including three mid-year transfers that joined the program in January. Full Recap: http://bit.ly/2jwOEq0 Subscribe NOW to Kennesaw State Athletics: http://bit.ly/2dAhP57 | The official YouTube channel for the Kennesaw State Owls features interviews, press conferences, highlights and much more!
Most of the time, a successful football program is far from a problem, but when an FCS school’s team impresses too much on the field, so called “greener pastures” often come-a-callin’. Football programs with more money, flashier facilities and larger exposure are forever in need of the next big hire to replace the coach they just fired or who left them high and dry.
It’s getting awfully hard to keep Brian Bohannon’s upside a secret and his name was one of the first to be batted around when the Georgia Southern job came open mid-season. It may be the first serious discussion of a more established program having interest in the father of Kennesaw State Football, but it certainly won’t be the last.
An opening at Georgia Southern, or any option offense loving institution, should make Owls fans uneasy. A product of the Paul Johnson coaching tree, Bohannon has shown that he not only has a grasp on the triple option, but he has been an incredible CEO over KSU’s program.
Paul Johnson, now at Georgia Tech, won a pair of national titles at Georgia Southern in 1999 and 2000 and did so with Brian Bohannon on staff. Another Johnson protégé, Jeff Monken, had some success in Statesboro also, but left for Army after four seasons. Since then, the Eagles have had their share of ups and downs, and are noticeably hungry for a return of the good ole days.
Unfortunately for KSU fans and athletic administrators, Bohannon would be a perfect fit for a return to Statesboro. The question is whether he’s ready to give up his baby in Cobb County for a little more cash and an FBS schedule.
Bohannon shrugged off any questions about the opening at Georgia Southern when asked this week, but didn’t go so far as a denial.
Brandon Hebert on Twitter There isn’t a more natural fit in college football than Brian Bohannon going to Georgia Southern this off season IMO. Much to the dismay of all my KSU friends.
When he took the KSU job, Bohannon made it seem as if he’d found a long-term home in Cobb County. “It’s been 16 years since I had a job interview,” he said in his initial press conference when first hired. ” I don’t interview for a job unless I want it. I want to be here for the long haul.”
Vaughn Williams, who hired Bohannon in 2013, left Kennesaw for Boston College over the summer, and KSU’s new director of athletics is Milton Overton. He was named to the position on Halloween, but has a good opportunity to make a big splash early on by doing all he can to keep a good thing going.
Bohannon’s 2013 contract has him scheduled for a $5,000 raise in 2018, bringing his total yearly salary up to $260,000 for the year. Currently schedule to top out at $275,000 through the 2020 season, while Tyson Summers made $530,000 plus bonuses before being fired at Georgia Southern. Money isn’t everything, but it’s something and even a nominal increase in pay for Brian Bohannon and his staff could go a long way to keeping him at KSU.
[Related Story: Kennesaw State proves its not just any ‘startup’ program]
It’s a good time for Kennesaw State Athletics to step up and do everything within their power to keep Brian Bohannon on board, maintaining the stability and success KSU’s young football program has seen to this point.Most people have recognized the Volvo logo’s resemblance to the male gender symbol, but is that intentional?
The root word “Volvere” is Latin for “to roll.” When conjugated in first person, the verb becomes “volvo,” meaning “I roll.” This reflected both a personal connection and suggestion of automobile movement.
The Volvo name was a joint decision between SKF management and the company’s founders. They wanted an easy-to-pronounce name that could be spoken and written around the world with minimal chances of misspelling.
Swedish auto manufacturer AB Volvo first began in 1926, after founders Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson began manufacturing automobiles within parent company Svenska Kullagerfabriken (SKF)–a company which produced bearings for the auto industry and became functioned as Volvo’s financial backer.
What Does the Volvo Emblem Represent?
The male gender icon originated in ancient Rome, used as the astrological symbol for Mars (probably his sword and shield). During the Renaissance, it became synonymous with the male gender (the symbol for Venus being the female gender). However, alchemists used these icons for something else.
Volvo’s logo is actually the ancient chemical symbol for iron. The company’s founders wanted a strong image for their vehicles. Gabrielsson and Larson were inspired by their time spent working for a Swedish steel company. The country had already developed a reputation for steel production, as proven during WWI.
Known as the “Iron Mark,” it reflects the strength and heritage of the Swedish company. It represents the automaker’s strength, safety, and durability. The silver color represents perfection and refinement while the blue color (often used for the text portion) depicts wisdom and reliability.
Combined with the automaker’s name, Volvo’s badge represents “rolling strength.” This perfectly-fitting combination has been used on most vehicles since the very first one in April, 1927.
Apart from a slight redesign in 2014 (putting the Volvo name inside the circle instead of over it), it’s doubtful you’ll see the Volvo name or logo change much in the future. That’s because Ford’s purchase of the Volvo Car Corp in 1999 to Ford involved one stipulation: the Volvo name and logo had to continue being used. Thus, the brand identity was put into a holding company co-owned by Volvo and Ford.
Enjoy learning about the Volvo emblem? Check out the rest of our “Behind the Badge” series to learn about other auto brands!
More Badge Mysteries Solved: The reason why the Alfa Romeo logo depicts a giant snake eating a man whole
Sources: ABC News, Logo Design Love, Volvo Club UKThe boss of Formula One’s British Grand Prix has revealed he will tomorrow recommend that the owners of Silverstone, the track which hosts the race, seek new investment to secure its future.
It follows the recent revelation by Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper that the future of the British GP is in jeopardy as it lacks sufficient investment.
Silverstone, the track which hosts the race, is struggling after losing rental income from selling a lease on 280 acres of land two years ago to clear is debts. Silverstone’s plight has led to it paying the hosting fee for the British GP in arrears meaning that a letter of credit from its bankers is necessary for the race to go ahead. However, there is a danger that the bank will put the brakes on the letter of credit due to the widening difference between the increase in ticket sales every year and the 5% annual rise in the race hosting fee which now stands at a estimated $24 million.
Yesterday F1’s chief executive Bernie Ecclestone told Forbes “I don’t know if the race is going to continue next year” but Silverstone’s managing director Patrick Allen has a solution. He said to the Telegraph that “what you really need for all parties is, in my opinion, is somebody who wants to buy a trophy asset and is willing to put a large amount of equity in.”
It isn’t just talk as Mr Allen says he will make the recommendation to sell at tomorrow’s Annual General Meeting of Silverstone’s owners the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC), a group of 850 members including superstar drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
“There’s an AGM very shortly and I think the board are aware of the need for a capital injection. I can put my proposals forward, whether they support them or have a different view or have a different solution would be up to the board,” says Mr Allen.
It wouldn’t be the first time the BRDC has tried to distance itself from Silverstone. Built on the site of a former airfield, Silverstone hosted the first race of the F1 championship in 1950. Two years later the BRDC took over the lease of the track from Britain’s Royal Automobile Club.
In 2000 it changed hands again when the management of Silverstone was snapped up by New York-listed advertising agency Interpublic. However, Interpublic made huge losses on it and walked away three years early in April 2004. Mr Ecclestone negotiated a deal for the BRDC to regain control of the circuit and receive tens of millions of Dollars in settlement from Interpublic. It soon burned through the money as it was spent on the clubhouse for the members.
Apart from this windfall, the BRDC has not had much money to play with as the British GP does not throw off a great deal of cash. The escalator in the race contract is around half of that of its rivals and Silverstone also keeps half of F1’s corporate hospitality takings for the British GP whereas other venues rarely receive any of it. Despite this, the race is still in financial trouble as it lacks government funding.
State subsidies usually cover the running costs of an F1 race so Silverstone instead has to use the proceeds from ticket sales. This puts it on the back foot and organisers have been forced to increase ticket prices to compensate for the hosting fee escalation. Last year the British GP’s three-day pass was higher than that of any other race at $260. Ticket prices can’t continually increase otherwise attendance will decrease and ticket numbers can’t continually rise as capacity is capped. However, the race hosting fee will continue to accelerate so the BRDC seems to be fighting a losing battle.
Over the past few years it has embarked on an innovative solution to reduce this risk. It began in 2009 when the BRDC members gave the directors permission to sell a long-term lease on the circuit and surrounding land. The club then engaged accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to contact potential investors and it entered into exclusive talks with a preferred bidder.
The talks fell through and in May 2012 the BRDC announced it had opened discussions with other parties. They finally came to fruition in September 2013 when the BRDC announced that British property group MEPC had paid $48 million for a 999-year lease on 280 acres of land surrounding the circuit.
When the sale of the land was announced the BRDC also said that it had agreed terms to sell the track and race organisation business, Silverstone Circuits Ltd, along with a separate lease of its 467 acres of track-related land. The deal was reportedly a management buyout but it came to nothing and in May last year the BRDC put the brakes on the plan to dispose of the track.
Mr Allen says there are good reasons why the talks collapsed. “What happened with the management buyout is that they tried to bring more debt into it and the balance sheet can’t stand any more debt. And the reason frankly it has not been saleable is because it has not been in a decent enough shape to sell. My job has been to fix the trading element and show people we can make money out of this circuit instead of wasting money. Then if, and it’s a big if, the club decided that we still want to separate risk from the club at least they would have a circuit that was transacting positively and therefore has a value.”
Mr Allen says that he has adopted “an airline model of pricing where we start with some attractive low prices and when we have sold X% of our capacity that will move up and as you move towards the day it becomes ever more expensive.” The proof that this has succeeded is that ticket sales are currently 163% up on 2014. “This time last year we had sold 9,000 tickets and we have sold over 25,000 now,” he says. Mr Ecclestone is famously tough to impress but it has even caught his eye. “This guy is working bloody hard and well to get things done properly,” he says.
“My job here is to look after the trading element and the trading side of things has turned around dramatically from where we were 11 months ago when I came in here,” says Mr Allen. He believes that although it needs a cash injection it is now an attractive investment opportunity. It still requires the BRDC’s consent to sell. “The club would have to sanction any sale whether that was to a private individual or to another business.” Mr Allen adds that it would be a win-win.
“I think the attraction of the separation of ownership from selling a lease to the circuit to a wealthy individual or individuals who have the sort of capital to deliver a bigger vision is that everybody wins. The BRDC would be secured, Bernie would be secure, the Grand Prix would be secured, the staff would be secured then they have got real momentum behind building the Silverstone brand into what it should be which is a global brand that has a value beyond what it is currently.”
Mr Ecclestone says the other benefit is that it would replace the BRDC with a single owner which could make investment decisions rather than having to put them to a vote of club members. “If you got rid of the BRDC Silverstone could do what they wanted to do without asking their dad every time. It would be helpful. The minute you are trying to run anything where you haven’t got anyone who can make the decisions and has to ask their grandmother, their father, their uncle, before they can do it, you can’t do anything.” Mr Allen concurs.
“The problem as ever is really more of a governance problem rather than an investment problem because the BRDC is a club. In essence you have got hundreds of bosses which is never easy to manage. I think the speed of decision-making is critical. There has to be a mandate to carry out certain courses of action and that is easy to do when you have just got the management making that decision not a membership.” Nevertheless, he believes that his proposal to secure new investment stands a good chance of getting the green light.
“The members supported the last three attempts to sell it and the only reason they didn’t go ahead is that the people who looked at the trading element said that actually the numbers don’t stack up. So I would say the mandate is arguably already there.” Time will tell whether the BRDC agrees.Vahram Muratyan is a French graphic artist who lived half a season between Paris and New York, the inspiration for this collection of minimalist and colorful illustrations representing the comparisons and clichés of these two great world capitals.
Vahram Muratyan has worked for high profile clients and collaborates weekly with La ville est belle column in M, the magazine created by Le Monde in France, all while developing personal projects like this.
Muratyan has released a book, published by Penguin, with illustrations originally published in his blog Paris vs New York: a tally of two cities which brings together all these lovely graphic works.
Paris vs New York | @parisvsnyc | Paris vs New York on Facebook
Buy the book in Amazon | Buy the postcard box (100 postcards) in Amazon | Buy other products in Society60 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
Republicans, with the help of the media, have spent the last month painting the Clinton Foundation as a criminal – even evil – organization the serves no purpose other than to benefit the Clinton family.
“It is now clear that the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in political history,” Donald Trump recently said. “What they were doing during Crooked Hillary’s time as Secretary of State was wrong then, and it is wrong now. It must be shut down immediately.”
This isn’t just shameless political posturing by Trump, but it’s a flat out lie.
A report published on Thursday by Charity Navigator gives the Clinton Foundation some of the highest possible ratings on both the charity’s finances and its transparency. They give the foundation four out of four stars and a score of 94.75 out of a possible 100.
Charity Navigator’s data also showed that nearly 90 percent of the foundation’s expenses go toward funding their charitable programs, like providing access to life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs for millions of people around the globe or helping provide children in the United States healthy food options at school.
The few remaining expenses go toward administrative and fundraising costs, not the Clintons’ personal bank accounts, as many on the right, including Trump, have suggested.
Charity Navigator isn’t the only independent group that gives the Clinton Foundation high marks.
Another charity watchdog group, Charity Watch, also gives the organization an A-rating. It should be noted that Charity Watch doesn’t even give the Red Cross that high of a score.
The latest controversy surrounding this important organization is nothing but a desperate attempt by Republicans to find something – anything – that will help their party defeat Hillary Clinton in November.
Not only is the Clinton Foundation highly regarded, but it is doing critical work that benefits millions of people all across the globe.
Republican efforts to put a stop to this work aren’t just shameful; they are based on complete fabrications.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:Sometimes, it makes sense to quit a creative project, but other times, that’s not an option. Maybe you need to turn in your thesis to complete your degree program, or finish a client project to maintain your professional reputation, or put up your portfolio so you can apply for jobs. You want to cut your losses and move on—maybe even pretend it never happened.
But in reality, you can’t move forward professionally until you get out of your head and into action.
If you find yourself feeling like a victim to a creative project, follow these steps to empower yourself. I’ve seen them work with time coaching clients around the world, and I believe they can help you break the inertia and see real progress—starting now.
Take ownership, and stop the blame game
When you feel like the victim of your circumstances, you spend copious amounts of time blaming everything and everyone around you. Although it may feel good to vent about your stupid computer or annoying degree requirements, this attitude won’t get you anywhere.
Instead, you need to go back to the point at which you did make a choice such as when you signed up for the masters program, took on the client project, or decided to pursue an artistic career. Then accept the fact that whatever project you need to finish now is a natural consequence of your decisions, not some unreasonable burden placed upon you. (Except for a few instances of extreme familial pressure, almost everyone can trace back their current situation to some point at which they did make an autonomous choice.) After you’ve come to terms with the fact that you are responsible for where you find yourself now, you can stop brooding and replace the thought, “Woe is me!” with the question, “What can I do to move forward?”
Acknowledge avoidance and focus on moving forward
Once you’ve shifted your mindset from that of a victim to that of a self-determining individual, you need to do something about your actions. People operating in the victim mode have a tendency to fill their schedules with everything but what they say is most important. This avoidance through busyness allows them to
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nor will it be a historical one. I'm not interested in what current TH9's or TH10's did at these lower-leveled town halls, I'm more concerned with what the lower-leveled town halls are doing right now.
So, in order to qualify for placement on these lists, you just have to be a current TH3, TH4, TH5, TH6, TH7, or TH8.
I will be keeping track of various stats for each town hall level, and usually ranking anywhere up to ten players in each category. I may remove categories if I don't get enough applicants, or reduce the number of people in the list. I may also add categories, if something garners a bit of interest.
Before anybody asks, I didn't include TH3/TH4/TH5/TH6/TH7 Gold Grab categories because I assume once somebody hits max, they just move up. If people are actually staying past max, and continuing to accumulate gold, then I'll probably add the category to honor them. I didn't do the Heroic Heist categories, because TH6's and below can't even use Dark Elixer. However, if there's a lot of TH6 and unders with decent Heroic Heists, I'll probably add them, too.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- CUPS
THE HIGHEST TROPHY COUNT ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH8:
THE HIGHEST TROPHY COUNT ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH7:
THE HIGHEST TROPHY COUNT ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH6:
THE HIGHEST TROPHY COUNT ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH5:
THE HIGHEST TROPHY COUNT ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH4:
THE HIGHEST TROPHY COUNT ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH3:
--------------------------------------------------------------------- GOLD
THE HIGHEST GOLD GRAB ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH8:
--------------------------------------------------------------------- DARK
THE HIGHEST HEROIC HEIST ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH8:
THE HIGHEST HEROIC HEIST ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH7:
--------------------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL
THE HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH8:
THE HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH7:
THE HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH6:
THE HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH5:
THE HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH4:
THE HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED BY A CURRENT TH3:
If you'd like to submit yourself, or a friend, please include the name [written out if there's special symbols involved], clan name [written out if there's special symbols involved], and the number that's relevant to whatever category you fit in. Remember, I'm usually only going to list the top ten people in any given category, and sometimes not even that.
The first few days will be tough, since it's starting from scratch, but once we get the lists going, it'll be pretty easy.He was front-and-center in his Bellaire HS Cardinals jersey on a nationally televised telethon for Hurricane Harvey relief last month, and now actor-musician Dennis Quaid is poised to become a hometown hero with a high-profile fundraiser to help the Bellaire Brave Fund.
Quaid is behind and will perform with his band at a free, family-friendly “Bellaire Block Party” that is set for 1-5 p.m. Oct. 21 on the Great Lawn at Bellaire Town Square, 7008 S. Rice Ave., with the Big “Al” Bettis Band as the opening act.
The actor will first tour locations from his childhood, including Maple Street where he grew up (his home long ago torn down), Horn ES and field, and will make a stop at the Nature Discovery Center’s annual Pumpkin Patch before heading to Town Square to perform with Dennis Quaid and the Sharks. He formed the group in 2000 and tours actively, performing rock and roll, country and soul music.
Materials from Quaid’s office described his “desire to give back to the community where he was raised” and said he’s “coming home to give the Bellaire community a break from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey and to help raise the spirits of our community.”
“His path led him on a road to Hollywood greatness, but the community where his journey began has remained close to his heart,” the statement continued. “In remembering his roots, Mr. Quaid’s concert will help our city on the journey to rise above the floodwaters of Harvey and celebrate the spirit of community and resilience for which we are known.”
The Bellaire Brave Fund was established to assist the city’s first responders and employees throughout departments including Public Works, administration; Parks, Recreation and Facilities, and the library who responded to Bellaire’s unprecedented flood emergency nonstop for five days and longer while their own families and homes were experiencing devastating losses. It’s estimated that about one-fifth of city employees were impacted.
The block party is being coordinated with Quaid by the Patrons for Bellaire Parks, the city of Bellaire and the Bellaire Business Association.
Those interested in underwriting or offering in-kind donations for the event are urged to visit www.bellaireparks.org or to contact [email protected] to learn of opportunities.
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MoreA proposed bill could make it harder for couples to get a divorce in Oklahoma.
If a couple is filing for divorce, there are a couple of reasons they can list on the paperwork of why they are requesting a divorce, including adultery and habitual drunkenness to name a few.
HB 1277 tackles the “incompatibility” option. Under the proposed bill, a divorce will not be granted under that option if the couple has kids under the age of 18, has been married for 10 years or if one spouse objects.
House Rep. Travis Dunlap introduced the bill. He said he believes the change could help reduce the divorce rate in Oklahoma.
“Do we really want to allow this as a state- or do we want to ensure that children have the best possible means to flourish,” said Dunlap.
However, divorce lawyers said the bill could cause major problems in the courtroom.
“I can’t imagine if 1277 passes and these no-fault divorces become fault divorces. What should be a two-day trial in Tulsa becomes a four-day trial,” said Matt Ingham.
Dunlap said he is open to suggestions. To contact him, click here.
The bill will be heard Feb. 6.Economic punditry tends to fall broadly into glass-half-full or half-empty categories. Then there are those who see a cracked glass, teetering on the edge of a table just moments from a shattering fall. Enter Peter Schiff, the permabear president of brokerage Euro Pacific Capital and coauthor of last year's Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse. Schiff spent the past decade urging brokerage clients to jump ship from the American economy ahead of what he views as inevitable pain caused by a toxic cocktail of lax monetary policy, wayward spending, and tougher competition from all corners of the globe.
Even with some pain already felt as America's economy stumbles, Schiff saw nothing but downside in a recent chat with U.S. News. You'll want to buckle up for some characteristically apocalyptic talk from one of the gloomiest market watchers around. Excerpts:
Say something positive about the U.S. economy.
There's nothing good to say about our situation. The policies both the Fed and government are pursuing are making the situation worse. We've been getting a free ride on the global gravy train. Other countries are starting to reclaim their resources and goods, so as Americans are priced out of various markets, the rest of the world is going to enjoy the consumption of goods Americans had previously purchased. This is a natural consequence of this phony economy. If America had maintained a viable economy and continued to produce goods instead of merely consuming them, and if we had saved money instead of borrowing, our standard of living could rise with everybody else's. Instead, we gutted our manufacturing, let our infrastructure decay, and encouraged our citizens to borrow with reckless abandon. So what are you doing about it?
I'm getting my clients' money outside of the United States as fast as they can send it to me. I've been recommending that to my clients for close to 10 years. You've got to own resources and energy. I was saying oil was going to $200 a barrel in 2002. I've been buying gold, silver, industrial metals, and all kinds of stocks. My main theme is the global economy will survive and the U.S. economy is a disaster. Everything is about how you benefit from the increased purchasing power and rising standard of living in the rest of the world. OK, where are the best non-U.S. markets this year?
I still like Singapore, Hong Kong. Asian markets are the place to be. I like resource markets like Scandinavia. I'm spreading my chips around the world. I'm just avoiding the United States. What are your best or worst calls through this downturn?
I've been bearish on bonds. U.S. bonds have lost a lot of real value but not nominal value. I still think that's going to be proven to be correct. While the housing bubble was inflating, I was telling people to rent. I was telling people to get out of tech stocks in 1998 and 1999. They kept rising, but then they collapsed, and I turned out to be right. The reality is I don't think I've been wrong on anything. Most people disagree with that sort of pessimism. If you're staying in the United States, how do you invest?
If you want to be in U.S markets, you avoid anything connected with the American economy. You avoid retailers, the home builders, the financials—anything having to do with consumers buying something or paying back the money they borrowed. If you want to invest in U.S. markets, stick with exporters and resource companies. I've been saying that for five or six years; I haven't gotten anything wrong. We shorted subprime mortgages. I have clients that made 10 times their money. We've never sold an oil stock. We've never sold a gold stock. Why don't you think soaring oil, grains, or commodities prices are the next bubble?
These prices do not constitute bubbles. They simply constitute the repricing of goods to reflect the diminished value of our money. The way you can tell there's not a bubble is that these markets are clearing. People are buying food and eating it. They're buying gasoline and using it. Speculators aren't buying gasoline and warehousing it in big facilities because they think the price is going to go up. At the same time, we've increased the supply of money dramatically, and the Fed is increasing it even faster now to deal with the bursting of the housing bubble. The only thing that can happen is for prices of commodities to rise to reflect the equilibrium of a greater supply of money. It's not even that oil prices are going up. Oil prices are staying the same. What's happening is the value of money is diminishing, so we need more units of currency to buy the same amount of oil or wheat or corn or whatever.
How about some predictions?
• I think the stock market is headed lower. Gold is going to be $1,200 to $1,500 by the end of the year. That puts the Dow at a less-than-10-to-1 price ratio to gold. Right now, it's about 13 to 1. That's another 30 percent drop in the real value of stocks by the end of the year if you price them in gold. The Dow was worth 43 ounces of gold in 2000. It'll get to 10 by the end of the year and continue to fall from there. • Oil prices had a pretty big run and might not make more headway by the end of the year. But we could see $150 to $200 next year. I don't think oil will hit $250 because there will be enough destruction of demand in the United States to keep it from doubling. The big problem for us is if the Chinese substantially allow their currency to rise. It could increase at least fivefold against the dollar over the span of a year or two. That reduces the price of oil by 80 percent for 1.3 billion Chinese. Consumption would go through the roof, and that will drive prices through the roof for us.
• At a minimum, the dollar will lose another 40 to 50 percent of its value. I'm confident that by next year we'll see more aggressive movements to abandon the dollar by the [Persian] Gulf region and by the Asian bloc. That's where the stuff really hits the fan.
You're a Ron Paul adviser. He's out of contention, so who wins the election, and what happens then?
The Obama presidency will be like the Jimmy Carter presidency on steroids. I'm pretty sure it's Obama because the economy will be so bad into the election that as damaged a candidate as the guy is, I don't think a Republican could beat him. I think Ron Paul could've had a slim chance because he was different enough. So how bad do you think this economy will get?
The other problem we'll have during those years is civil [unrest]. There will be a big increase in crime. People are going to be hungry. People are going to be cold. There's a sense of entitlement in this country, and when a lot of people used to having things suddenly don't, everybody looks for someone to blame. Really?
We're going through a very rough period in our history. In many ways, it's going to be worse than the Depression.The highlights of the interview:
Life after the White House
Since leaving office in January, Mr. Obama has more time on his hands. He gets to wake up later, spend more time with his family and take control of his day, something he says he couldn’t do as president. But the things that are important to him have not changed.
“I still care about making sure that the United States and the world is a place where kids get a decent education. Where people who are willing to work hard are able to find a job that pays a living wage. That we’re conserving the amazing resources of our planet so that future generations can enjoy the beauty of this place. Like we did.”
Now that he no longer has the authority that came with being president, Mr. Obama said he relies on persuasion rather than legislation.
“A lot of the things that still motivate me and move me continue to this day,” he added.
Addressing Trump, obliquely
While neither man mentioned Mr. Trump directly, they discussed the role of social media in leadership, a conversation that brought to mind Mr. Trump’s blunt, unvarnished posts on Twitter.
Mr. Obama warned against the irresponsible use of social media by people in positions of power and expressed his concern about a future in which facts were discarded.
“One of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities. They can be cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases.” “The question has to do with how do we harness this technology in a way that allows a multiplicity of voices, allows a diversity of views, but doesn’t lead to a Balkanization of society and allows ways of finding common ground.”
Mr. Obama also mentioned that he had developed a thick skin during his presidency. Mr. Trump, in contrast, has been criticized since the 2016 campaign as thin-skinned and unable to rise above provocation.
Passing the baton
During the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, many people — including Prince Harry — wondered what Mr. Obama was thinking as he sat in the crowd, showing little emotion.
“The first thing that went through my mind was sitting across from Michelle, how thankful I was that she had been my partner through that whole process,” he said in a reflective tone.An Israeli army video appears to show a tunnel that Israel says was to be used by Gaza militants to launch attacks. (Reuters)
It was a Monday in October 2013 when residents of a kibbutz called Ein Hashlosha just east of the Gaza border heard strange sounds.
It may have been difficult to pinpoint the source. The sounds weren’t coming from above ground — but beneath it. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soon discovered that the sounds signaled an “extremely advanced and well prepared” tunnel.
Not only was the burrow remarkable in depth and length — 1.5 miles long and 66 feet underground — it was equipped with electricity and contained enough cookies, yogurt and other provisions to last its occupants several months. Israeli forces estimated that Hamas had dumped $10 million and 800 tons of concrete into the two-year project.
Such “terror tunnels,” the Israeli military said in a statement Friday, are “complex and advanced.” And their use, Israel said, is “to carry out attacks such as abductions of Israeli civilians and soldiers alike; infiltrations into Israeli communities, mass murders and hostage-taking scenarios.”
Describing this emerging “tunnel war,” a Palestinian militia document obtained by the news Web site al-Monitor said the objective of the underground network was “to surprise the enemy and strike it a deadly blow that doesn’t allow a chance for survival or escape or allow him a chance to confront and defend itself.”
On Saturday, in what The Washington Post called an “audacious attack,” Hamas fighters wearing Israeli army uniforms slipped from central Gaza into Israel through a tunnel and attacked an Israeli army patrol, killing two soldiers. In a second attempt Saturday to enter Israel through their tunnels, The Post reported, the Israeli military discovered Hamas operatives carrying handcuffs and tranquilizers in an apparent attempt to kidnap soldiers; the militants were killed. Also Saturday, a militant climbed out of a concealed tunnel in southern Gaza and started firing at soldiers.
Then early Monday, a spokesman for the Israeli military said two “terrorist squads” had infiltrated Israel through a tunnel from northern Gaza. Israeli aircraft hit one group; the second fired an antitank missile at an army vehicle before 10 of the operatives were killed by return fire. And now, as the full extent of the Hamas tunnel network becomes clear, the IDF says dismantling the burrows is a seminal priority.
A video released Monday by the Israel Defense Forces purportedly shows Hamas militants taken down by the Israeli military after entering the land through tunnels. (Israel Defense Forces)
“We’ve expanded the forces on the ground in order to accomplish that mission,” said Capt. Eytan Buchman, an Israeli military spokesman. “All of Gaza is an underground city, and the amount of infrastructure Hamas built up over the years is immense. There are tunnels, extended bunkers, weapons storage facilities, even within urban areas.”
Analysts said the tunnels are a major prong of Hamas’s military strategy against Israel. The IDF has sussed out 36 of what it calls “terror tunnels,” but there are probably more. While the Gaza Strip remains mired in poverty — the 2011 per capita income was $1,165 — Hamas is thought to have sunk more than $1 million into the excavation and maintenance of every tunnel. “Much to the misfortune of the people of Gaza, Hamas has invested far more resources in ‘underground Gaza’ than in ‘upper Gaza,'” wrote al-Monitor’s Shlomi Eldar. “The ‘change and reform’ that Hamas offered its voters was invested in its tunnels at the expense of the people of Gaza.”
If the tunnels are a result of Hamas’s 2006 election, the group got down to business almost immediately. In June of that year, Hamas used a tunnel to capture Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. That day, according to Haaretz, militants crossed underneath the Gaza border and attacked Shalit’s guard tower at 5:13 a.m. Within six minutes, the attackers had secreted Shalit back across the border in a tunnel — and he wasn’t returned to Israel for five years.
PHOTOS: Inside the smuggling tunnels of Gaza
1 of 22 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Inside the smuggling tunnels of Gaza View Photos Hamas allegedly infiltrated Israel through an extensive system of tunnels. Here’s a look at the tunnels of Gaza, which have been used for years to smuggle goods — and people — across the border. Caption Hamas allegedly infiltrated Israel through an extensive system of tunnels. Here’s a look at the tunnels of Gaza, which have been used for years to smuggle goods — and people — across the border. March 27, 2014 The entrance to a tunnel exposed by the Israeli military is seen on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border. The Israeli defense forces announced that they exposed the tunnel on March 21, 2014. Amir Cohen/Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
In the years since, Hamas’s tunnels have come to possibly rival those used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. Communist guerrilla fighters were said to have constructed thousands of miles of tunnels in the region around Saigon, then the capital of South Vietnam.
But Hamas’s tunnels materialized in a different context. One reason they were built, Eldar wrote in a separate article, was to keep soldiers occupied during a period of relative peace. “What do you do with thousands of motivated, armed men with the urge to fight?” he said. “You come up with some operational occupation. Digging an underground tunnel.”
One tunnel digger, who says workers stay underground for long periods, explained how they’re constructed. “The drilling is done via a mechanical device, not an electric one, to avoid making noise,” he told al-Monitor. “It uses a [pedal-powered] chain, similar to a bicycle chain. [The chain] moves metal pieces that dig through the dirt. During the digging, the digger lies on his back and pedals with his feet.” The tunnels are high enough to walk through standing up and are reinforced by concrete.
The tunnels take a human toll, according to an unusually detailed article by James Verini in the August issue of National Geographic, which describes this incident:
It was about 9 p.m., and the brothers were on a night shift doing maintenance on the tunnel, which, like many of its kind — and there are hundreds stretching between Gaza and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula — was lethally shoddy in its construction. Nearly a hundred feet below Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, Samir was working close to the entrance, while Yussef and two co-workers, Kareem and Khamis, were near the middle of the tunnel. They were trying to wedge a piece of plywood into the wall to shore it up when it began collapsing. Kareem pulled Khamis out of the way, as Yussef leaped in the other direction. For a moment the surge of soil and rocks stopped, and seeing that his friends were safe, Yussef yelled out to them, ‘Alhamdulillah! — Thank Allah!’ Then the tunnel gave way again, and Yussef disappeared.
There are three types of tunnel, experts say. The first are economic: hundreds of tunnels burrowing into Egypt, which allowed Hamas to funnel in resources, guns and rockets until the Egyptians sealed off many of them.
Another set of tunnels reportedly services the Hamas high command. “Every single leader of Hamas, from its lowest ranking bureaucrats to its most senior leaders, is intimately familiar with the route to the security tunnel assigned to him and his family,” al-Monitor reported. “The most senior leadership has its own specific tunnel.”
The last kind is allegedly driving the Israeli invasion: tunnels that can carry Hamas militants under the Gaza border and into Israel.Yob jailed over threat to blow up PSNI officer BelfastTelegraph.co.uk A man who told a police officer he would “blow (her) to pieces” has been jailed at the city’s Magistrates Court. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/yob-jailed-over-threat-to-blow-up-psni-officer-28768625.html
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A man who told a police officer he would “blow (her) to pieces” has been jailed at the city’s Magistrates Court.
Ashley Charles Gillen (25), from Cornshell Fields, Londonderry, admitted the charge, which had occurred on February 18.
The court was told that Gillen approached an officer in the city centre and took her hat.
He was warned about his behaviour but became aggressive and began shouting at officers.
He refused to give his details and then told a female officer: “I am going to blow you up; I am going to blow you to pieces.”
In Strand Road police station Gillen kicked a custody officer and then urinated in his cell.
When interviewed, he admitted kicking the custody officer stating: “Of course I kicked him; he was pure ignorant.”
Defence barrister Eoghan Devlin said that when Gillen drank alcohol he did “stupid things”.
District Judge Barney McElholm said that Gillen had made “extremely offensive and threatening remarks” and added that he had no idea how to behave in public, before sentencing him to five months in prison.
Belfast TelegraphA Starbucks employee prepares a drink for a customer in their store on Sao Paulo's Alameda Santos June 11, 2008. REUTERS/Rickey Rogers
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Coffee chain Starbucks Corp, which for years raised prices without any customer pushback, said on Thursday that it is cutting prices for the first time on some drinks while boosting prices on others.
The company, which announced in April that it would join other restaurant operators in fine-tuning pricing amid weak consumer demand, will cut the price of popular beverages like small coffees and lattes by 5 to 10 cents in every market, spokeswoman Valerie O’Neil said.
Prices for large, complex drinks such as frappuccinos and macchiatos could go up by as much as 25 cents in some markets, but on average prices will increase between 10 and 15 cents, O’Neil said, without naming specific markets.
The changes are effective in some markets on Thursday and will be rolled out to the remainder of the United States in coming months.
Starbucks pricing varies from market to market.
Starbucks expanded rapidly during the housing boom and has been closing stores, cutting costs and introducing discounts to offset falling traffic.
At the same time, hamburger chain McDonald’s Corp has begun focusing on coffee drinks as part of a wider beverage expansion.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the Make in India Week at NSCI, Worli, a flagship event designed to impart greater momentum to the initiative to boost the manufacturing sector in the country.
The Make in India Week is aimed at showcasing to the world the achievements of the nation in the manufacturing sector and promote India as a preferred manufacturing destination.
Over the course of the week, it will offer access, insights and opportunities to connect and collaborate with India and global industry leaders, academicians, central and state administrations, the release added.
Highlights
7 pm: This century is Asia’s century. My advice is to make India your centre if you want this century to be your century, says PM Modi.
7 pm: Some friendly advice to industries from PM Modi: Don’t wait, don’t relax. There are immense opportunities in India: PM Modi
6.55 pm: India is blessed with 3 Ds: Demand, Demography and Democracy. We have added a fourth one- Deregulation, says Modi.
Live: #MakeInIndia aims at a cleaner and greener progress, says PM Modi https://t.co/NRaFnLOx8K pic.twitter.com/YqMJ0DuzHm — Hindustan Times (@htTweets) February 13, 2016
6.55 pm: We have made our systems cleaner, simpler, proactive and business friendly: PM Modi
There is no time for incremental changes. We are looking at a quantum jump, in a cleaner and greener way: PM Modi pic.twitter.com/TOKCG3SGe1 — Hindustan Times (@htTweets) February 13, 2016
6.50 pm: We are keen to scale up investments in next generation infra: Roads, railways, digital networks, clean energy: PM Modi
In 2014-15 India contributed 12.5% to global growth, 68% higher than its share of world economy: Modi #MakeInIndia pic.twitter.com/tUU5HQYu2c — Hindustan Times (@htTweets) February 13, 2016
6.45 pm: India’s highest ever generation of electricity was recorded in 2015: PM Modi
6.42 pm: Our FDI inflow has grown by 48% since the day my government came into office: PM Modi
6.40 pm: Make in India week is the largest multi-cultural event held in India. Make in India has captured the imagination of investors, businessmen and politicians, says PM Narendra Modi.
6.30 pm: Time India awards announced. Winners:
Best in class manufacturing: Tata Steel
Innovator of the year: Hero MotoCorp
Young innovators of the year: Yogesh and Rajesh Agarwal of Ajanta Pharma
6.25 pm: Make in India has strong link to manufacturing, for which, Finland and India both have ideas and innovation: Juha Sipila
Being among business people makes me feel at home here: Finland PM Juha Sipilä #MakeInIndia pic.twitter.com/IqO3qwbE5Q — Hindustan Times (@htTweets) February 13, 2016
6.20 pm: Renewable energy is the call of the future. India needs it, Finland needs it, the world needs it: Finland prime minister Juha Sipilä
6.10 pm: Sweden wants to be a part in the transformation of the Indian economy, says Swedish PM Stefan Lofven.
6 pm: A plethora of performances showcasing the cultures of various states on display at the Make in India event.
5.55 pm: India shall no longer be known as a country of red tape, but as a country of red carpet, says Nirmala Sitharaman.
Our manufacturing policy seeks to increase the contribution of manufacturing to India's GDP: Nirmala Sitharaman https://t.co/NRaFnLOx8K — Hindustan Times (@htTweets) February 13, 2016
5.48 pm: Cisco executive chairman John Chambers says India better positioned than all its counterparts.
India will jump ahead of its counterparts in terms of leadership, innovation: John Chambers, exec chairman Cisco pic.twitter.com/WjHGoNchIk — Hindustan Times (@htTweets) February 13, 2016
5.42 pm: Have decided to turn Mumbai into an international financial services centre: Maharashtra CM Fadnavis.
Maharashtra accounts for highest amount of FDI in the country. No investor has to run from pillar to post: Fadnavis pic.twitter.com/3jpnfhYyY4 — Hindustan Times (@htTweets) February 13, 2016
5.40 pm: Maharashtra is the powerhouse of India, contributing to GDP, exports and FDI inflows, says Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Government delegations from 49 countries and business delegations from 68 countries are slated to attend the event.
On his arrival at the airport on Saturday, Prime Minister was received by Maharashtra Governor CV Rao and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Earlier on Saturday, Modi also inaugrated the Make in India centre at the Bandra Kurla complex in Mumbai.
First Published: Feb 13, 2016 17:35 ISTPretty Little Liars might be ending its television run in 2017 — but its virtual life is just beginning.
Episode, the company behind Demi Lovato’s mobile game, announced the release of a new Pretty Little Liars game on Wednesday, calling it “a choice-driven story where the user can pick various paths throughout, which impact the story’s progression.”
In the game, your character is a new student at Rosewood High School, and Alison DiLaurentis takes you under her wing, bringing you to Spencer’s barn on the infamous night of Ali’s disappearance (she’s wearing the yellow tank top and everything!). As in Demi Lovato: Path to Fame and Episode’s Mean Girls: Senior Year game, the choices you make affect the course of the action. All of the show’s familiar faces are present — Emily Fields, Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, and Aria Montgomery — and in one of your first actions, you have to choose whether to side with Ali… or with the girls. Choose wisely.
“Pretty Little Liars is one of the most memorable shows of this generation,” said Michael Dawson, Episode’s head of studio, in a release. “It made perfect sense for Pretty Little Liars to come to Episode, and we’re thrilled to give people a unique way to explore the mysteries of Rosewood.”
Pretty Little Liars joins a spate of other celebrity and pop culture-focused mobile apps that have sprung up in recent years, from Kim Kardashian: Hollywood (2014) to Nicki Minaj: The Empire, released just last week.
The game is available on the App Store and Google Play now.TORONTO — Forcing would-be Canadians to pledge allegiance to the Queen before they can become citizens is discriminatory and a violation of their constitutional rights, three permanent residents are set to argue in court on Friday.
All maintain they oppose the oath on religious or conscientious grounds, saying pledging allegiance to Canada should be sufficient.
The Citizenship Act requires applicants for citizenship to swear or affirm they will be “faithful and bear true allegiance to Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, her heirs and successors.”
The oath requirement “effectively bars” the applicants from enjoying citizenship rights such as voting or obtaining a Canadian passport given their constitutionally protected beliefs, their application to Ontario Superior Court states.
People born in Canada or abroad to Canadian parents are automatically citizens and don’t have to take any such oath.
“All of the applicants would willingly take an oath to observe the laws of Canada and fulfil their duties as Canadian citizens.”
One of the applicants, Michael McAteer, 79, a retired journalist who immigrated almost 50 years ago, says his father was persecuted in Ireland for supporting Irish independence.
Taking an oath of allegiance to a hereditary monarch who lives abroad would violate my conscience, be a betrayal of my republican heritage, and impede my activities in support of ending the monarchy in Canada
“Taking an oath of allegiance to a hereditary monarch who lives abroad would violate my conscience, be a betrayal of my republican heritage, and impede my activities in support of ending the monarchy in Canada,” McAteer says in his affidavit.
For its part, the federal government argues that taking an oath to the Queen has been around since Confederation as a condition of “acquiring membership in the Canadian polity.”
“The swearing of an oath to Canada’s head of state has been a constant regardless of other legislative changes that have been made over time in the process for becoming a naturalized Canadian,” the government states in its factum.
The government also insists the three are in Canada voluntarily, and their political and religious views enjoy constitutional protections.
That they cannot have the “convenience” of a Canadian passport or the right to vote is a small price to pay for adhering to their principles, the government argues.
“It is not constitutionally inconsistent that the applicants who find Canada’s foundational democratic political structure to be ’repugnant,’ at least in parts, are not accorded the right to vote within that political system,” the government says.
“The inability to enjoy the benefits of citizenship — to hold a Canadian passport and to vote — are amongst the costs reasonably borne by individuals whose personal beliefs run counter to Canada’s foundational heritage.”
The case initially arose in 1991, when Toronto-based civil-rights lawyer Charles Roach challenged the oath requirement in Federal Court and lost.
Over Ottawa’s objections, Roach successfully reprised the case in Superior Court in 2005. He died last fall and the case is now proceeding with McAteer and two others, Simone Topey, and Dror Bar-Natan as applicants and Peter Rosenthal as their lawyer.
Topey, who was born in Jamaica in 1966 and came to Canada in 1978, says swearing allegiance to the Queen — whom Rastafarians regard as the “head of Babylon” — would violate her deeply-held beliefs.
Bar-Natan, 47, an Israeli math professor who came to Canada in 2002, maintains the Queen is a symbol of entrenched privilege and taking an oath to her would be “repulsive.”
“It’s not that I believe in total egalitarianism,” Bar-Natan said in an interview.
“On the other hand, having royalty is a bit much.”In October 2015 we reported on the tragic case of Jay Cheshire, a 17-year-old boy from Southampton who took his own life after being falsely accused of rape, a case reported by every major news organisation in the UK other than the BBC (and Guardian). On Friday 29th July, reports of the suicide of Jay’s mother Karin made the headlines, with some newspapers running multiple articles about the case over the weekend.
Jay’s tragic death and the disgraceful refusal of the BBC to carry out its obligation to report the story to licence fee payers inspired a number of articles on this blog. These included a full investigation of all media reported false rape claims resulting in the victim’s suicide. This study showed the BBC (and Guardian) were the only outlets to have never reported or acknowledged the existence of a single such case in their entire histories.
At HEqual we assumed that this latest death would at least finally force the BBC to end its censorship of such major news stories. The Cheshire case was clearly highly notable last year and these latest developments eliminate even the slightest possible excuse for ignoring the story.
Amazingly, there’s still absolutely no trace of the story on any BBC website, tv programme or social media account, not even a retweet of a story by a different outlet. Unfortunately for the BBC, licence fee payers have actually noticed their complete lack of ethics this time around. Our nine month old article about their bias in ignoring the case received some 20,000 views in just 24 hours, hit the top 50 submission on Reddit and was even listed by Google news for a while. The expose now dominates regular Google searches for the subject and the public’s intrigue at the BBC’s misandry has now reached such a level whereby Google now instantly auto-suggests “BBC” after typing “Jay Cheshire”.
Last time around, we produced a list of ten trivial stories that BBC South had chosen to report in preference to Jay’s case. These included the capture of an escaped bird and the unveiling of a spoon statue. Regrettably, we’re forced to do the same thing again this time around. All the following were reported between Friday and Sunday by BBC South in preference to the Cheshire case:
Unlike the BBC, we try to be fair in our reporting, and in the hundreds of comments written over the weekend, some have suggested that perhaps the BBC simply has
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some of the many entrepreneurs in the audience.
There were plenty more amazing speakers at Techonomy Bio and I urge you to browse through our site to watch their videos or read the transcripts and articles. Not being experts may have been what enabled us to take a new angle on the topic. We created an event to help us learn something for ourselves, and it turned out to be useful for many. So next year we're already planning a longer, more ambitious Techonomy Bio in Silicon Valley, probably in April or May 2015.
Original article published on Techonomy.com.We are sisters from a working-class family: Our dad works in construction, and our mom is a licensed practical nurse with a GED. We are equally bookish and academically inclined, but we represent opposite ends of the educational spectrum.
Briallen has a Ph.D. from Princeton University and is a lecturer in the English department at Yale University. Johanna is a high-school graduate working full time at a bakery for slightly above minimum wage.
Recently, after reading Thomas B. Edsall's piece on "The Reproduction of Privilege" in The New York Times, we got into a lively and sometimes painful conversation about why academically qualified, working-class Americans might choose not to go to college, and about how the system sometimes fails them even when they do manage to go.
Edsall argues that college is no longer the force for class mobility that it used to be, and he laments that working-class students are less and less likely to pursue a B.A. We agree with a lot of what he says, but we believe he fails to fully explain why people like us might consciously choose not to get B.A.'s, and why we sometimes pay a high price when we do.
For both of us, decisions about education have been limited and complicated by our class status.
Briallen worked in child care and food service for a while after high school, went to community college, and was accepted to a selective four-year college but was not offered enough financial aid to go. She finally graduated from a local college with the help of Pell Grants and a lot of debt. She can't imagine her life without higher education, but as a non-tenure-track academic in a tough job market, she has limited job security, and she owes more than $800 a month in student-loan payments. Her student debt makes it impossible for her to save money or start a family anytime soon, and she is entering her mid-30s.
Johanna is 20. She was an honor student at her Jesuit prep school and was considered to be obvious "college material" by her teachers, but she graduated after the 2008 crash and couldn't count on getting a job after college that would enable her to make student-loan payments. She got into many good institutions, including a nationally ranked private research university (which gave her a $25,000-a-year merit scholarship), a nationally ranked liberal-arts college (which nearly matched that offer), and the flagship public university in her state. But she would still have needed to take out between $50,000 to $100,000 in loans to go to any of them.
Johanna was wary of graduating with substantial debt and no family safety net, so she took a year off to work and save money and try applying to college again. Her financial-aid offers the next year were no better. She ended up taking classes at the local satellite campus of a state university while living at home and working long hours at a salon to pay her own way.
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But after a couple of quarters she discovered that, because of the poor academic advising she had received, none of the introductory courses she had taken were actually required for her degree. Her AP credits from high school should have qualified her to start as a sophomore, but she was mistakenly placed in freshman-level courses.
After learning that she'd spent almost all of her hard-earned savings on classes she was not even required to take, Johanna lost her faith in the wisdom of investing in higher education. She left school and is now working full time for $13,000 a year. She's proudly debt-free and self-supporting, and in her limited free time she is pursuing reading, writing, and the free or cheap cultural and educational opportunities available to her.
Johanna hasn't ruled out college someday, but even community college would require money, time, and faith in the system that she doesn't yet have. Too many of her college-educated friends are living off of family and food stamps. She's determined to seek success and self-worth outside of the enormously expensive educational institutions that too often disregard the significant personal sacrifices students make to attend them.
We both agree that there are almost insurmountable obstacles to higher education for people like us, but we disagree about whether college is a good or defensible option in those circumstances.
Briallen's life as a teacher and scholar would have been impossible without her expensive education, and she can't help believing in its worth. For five years she participated in outreach programs at Princeton and Yale, trying to help get underrepresented students into college and graduate school.
And even as she sells her books and clothes to make her student-loan payments, she still periodically tries to talk Johanna into going back to college. She believes higher education is valuable beyond the price, and she hopes it will even prove a good investment someday, if the economy improves.
Meanwhile Johanna believes that since the cost of college has become potentially ruinous for many qualified students, the choice not to go ought to be respected, and even encouraged, not lamented.
And she resists the pressure to define her life by college or its absence. As she says: "We all know that a B.A. can qualify you for an enormous number of valuable jobs that may otherwise be unavailable to you. However, it is not only a B.A. that can qualify you for a meaningful life. Thanks to the stigma, it actually took me more than a year to realize that I was not a 'college dropout.' I was a 19-year-old, I was a salon receptionist, I was frugal, I was changing careers, I was a piano player, I was a little sister, and a daughter, and reader—I was so many things, yet the only label that stuck to me was 'college dropout.' You hear it said so often, you forget to question it. So a person didn't go to college. Well. What did they do instead?"
Although we both continue to struggle with the stressful economic implications of our different education levels, we are proud of each other and of our very different choices. We just wish we'd been given the opportunity to make them more freely.Occupy Wall Street livestreamers Tim Pool, Luke Rudkowski, and Jeoff Shively, along with two other friends, were driving back to their apartment around midnight on Satuirday, after a long day covering the anti-NATO protests in Chicago when they were suddenly surrounded by twelve police cars and told to come out with their hands raised.
“Get your hands up! Hands! Fuckin’ hands!” the officers yelled at them.
The police never explained why the men were being detained but handcuffed and interrogated them, searched their car, repeatedly slammed one of their computer hard drives against the car floor, and attempted to delete their footage of the incident before it could be archived at Ustream.
According to Firedoglake, Pool tweeted a couple of hours later that “the police were still following them on the police scanner around 2 am. They allegedly wanted the targeted journalists to announce where they were staying for the night so they could raid where the journalists were staying.”
A few hours after that, however, Pool posted at Facebook, “We are at a safe place.”
Firedoglake also recounts a similar incident involving other livestreamers and concludes, “In each of these instances, the police did not inform those detained why they were being detained. The police stopped them to find criminal activity that they could then use against the journalists to make arrests. And so far they have not been able to find any justification for arresting any of these people, but they have been able to briefly frighten and infuriate these journalists and also to impound a vehicle.”
This video was uploaded by We Are Change to YouTube on May 20, 2012.Full Disclosure mailing list archives
several issues in SQLite (+ catching up on several other bugs)
SQLite is probably the most popular embedded database in use today; it is also known for being very well-tested and robust. Because of its versatility, SQLite sometimes finds use as the mechanism behind SQL-style query APIs that are exposed between privileged execution contexts and less-trusted code. One example of this is the WebDB / WebSQL mechanism available in some browsers; in this setting, vulnerabilities in the SQLite parser can open up the platform to attacks. Anyway, long story short, I recently reported around 22 bugs in the query parser, including the use of uninitialized memory when parsing collation sequences: https://www.sqlite.org/src/info/eddc05e7bb31fae7...and bad free(): https://www.sqlite.org/src/info/02e3c88fbf6abdcf...and a stack buffer overflow: http://www.sqlite.org/src/info/c494171f77dc2e5e Since all the fixes are already public and the issues are fixed in 3.8.9, but there's no upstream advisory, I figured I'd drop a note here; if you're relying on SQLite in a way mentioned earlier on, you may want to upgrade. There are no CVEs assigned for any of the above. The aforementioned three bugs aside, the remaining 19 issues are probably less interesting. They depend on "privileged" commands (e.g., ATTACH), only have DoS potential, or corrupt nominally boring areas of memory (say, http://www.sqlite.org/src/info/0cdf502885ea7e58). Some of them may matter for escalating SQL injection to RCE. If you are curious, you can check out docs/vuln_samples/sqlite_* shipping with afl-fuzz for a complete set. All of the above bugs were found with http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/ after spending around 30 minutes to set up the job. Peace out, /mz... PS. Here's another, unrelated bug that may not have had a CVEs. It affects browser <video> handling (H.264): https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/commit/e8714f6f93d1a32f4e4655209960afcf4c185214 PPS. I haven't posted about this before, but here are three recently-fixed issues affect PNG, JXR, and TIFF handling in MSIE, leaking values from browser memory: http://lcamtuf.blogspot.com/2015/03/another-round-of-image-bugs-png-and.html http://lcamtuf.blogspot.com/2015/02/bi-level-tiffs-and-tale-of-unexpectedly.html PPPS. Since we're on the topic of catching up, I would strongly advise against using jxrlib, a Microsoft-developed open source library for parsing JXR / HDP / WDP files (JPEG XR), a new image format supported in Internet Explorer and Adobe Flash. It appears to have many exploitable memory corruption errors that are discoverable with AFL. I pinged them in December, but the maintainers weren't very responsive. The bugs do not affect MSIE, since the OSS implementation appears to be completely separate (huh). That said, they will affect ImageMagick and similar programs if they are built with jxrlib support compiled in. Since the library has fairly minimal install base, this note is about as much effort as I think it warrants. /mz _______________________________________________ Sent through the Full Disclosure mailing list https://nmap.org/mailman/listinfo/fulldisclosure Web Archives & RSS: http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/
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Current thread:Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Brain training games do not improve overall brain power, a scientific study launched by the BBC suggests. The largest ever investigation followed 11,430 people over six weeks to see what effect, if any, playing brain training computer games would have. While players got progressively better at the games, the gains were not transferable, Nature journal reports. Players gained nothing in terms of general reasoning, memory, planning or visuospatial abilities, experts found. But they say more work is needed to see if workouts for the mind can help keep the brain "fit" as it ages. More research will tell us if these games have any effect on cognition as we age
Rebecca Wood of the Alzheimer's Research Trust Leading game maker Nintendo said their Dr Kawashima brain training games did not claim to be scientifically proven to improve cognitive function. In a statement it said the games require users to perform a number of "fun challenges incorporating simple arithmetic, memorization and reading". "In this way it is like a workout for the brain and the challenges in the game can help stimulate the player's brain," it said. Put to the test All of the study volunteers were viewers of the BBC One science programme Bang Goes The Theory. The games tested were designed by scientists from the Medical Research Council and the Alzheimer's Society. FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
More from BBC World Service To test the games, participants were asked to do brain training "workouts" for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week for a minimum of six weeks. All were randomly assigned to one of three brain training groups. For a third of the volunteers, the sessions were designed to train their reasoning powers, planning and problem-solving skills. The second group played games designed to train short-term memory, attention, mathematical abilities and visuospatial skills. The remaining third were given web-browsing tasks that didn't target any specific cognitive skills. Tests before and after the training showed none of the interventions boosted people's ability to do everyday thinking tasks, although they did get better at playing the individual games and the specific cognitive tasks these involved. Dr Adrian Owen, a neuroscientist at the Medical Research Council, said: "The results are clear. "Statistically, there are no significant differences between the improvements seen in participants who played our brain training games, and those who just went on the internet for the same length of time." Clive Ballard of the Alzheimer's Society said: "This evidence could change the way we look at brain training games and shows staying active by taking a walk for example is a better use of our time." Rebecca Wood of the Alzheimer's Research Trust said: "This suggests that 'brain training' does not improve people's cognitive ability. "More research will tell us if these games have any effect on cognition as we age." Can You Train Your Brain?- A Bang Goes the Theory Special is on BBC One, Wed 21 April, 2100 BST and afterwards on iPlayer.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionExplosive reports over the weekend from the Washington Post and the New York Times indicate that the CIA is now prepared to clearly state what Hillary Clinton’s campaign and her allies have long maintained — that emails stolen from her campaign chair John Podesta and provided to WikiLeaks were hacked in order to help make Donald Trump president of the United States. In a “closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill last week,” intelligence officials told senators that “it was now ‘quite clear’ that electing Trump was Russia’s goal.”
Evidence that Russia was behind the hacks has been mounting for some time, but the question of what exactly the Russian government is trying to accomplish has been the subject of more dispute.
The CIA’s analysis, according to the Times and Post summaries of the CIA’s reasoning, is that the Russians appear to have also hacked computer systems belonging to the Republican Party. But whereas the Democrats’ emails found their way to WikiLeaks, Republican emails stayed under wraps.
If these reports are correct, it would be powerful evidence that the Russians weren’t just trying to sow general chaos — they were specifically trying to make Donald Trump, rather than Hillary Clinton, the next president of the United States.
The FBI, however, appears to disagree with the CIA’s assessment of Russian motives and told lawmakers as much during its briefings. The scope of the FBI/CIA disagreement is incredibly narrow, but the gap has taken on outsize significance in American politics and media due to the partisan implications of the CIA’s assessment and to lingering bitterness over FBI Director James Comey’s role in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. President-elect Donald Trump, meanwhile, is aggressively attacking the CIA’s findings — and the agency as a whole — even while he continues to largely decline to receive official US government intelligence briefings and seems to be attempting to install a Russia-friendly oil executive with no government experience as secretary of state.
What happened, exactly?
Back on March 19, Podesta received what’s known as a “phishing” email — basically an attempt to trick a person into a clicking on a bogus link and entering their password there. Podesta correctly identified the email as suspicious-looking and tried to consult with his IT staff about the best way to handle it, but the instructions seem to have gotten garbled, and the hackers ended up securing access to his email account.
They didn’t do anything with this access immediately, but starting in early October WikiLeaks began releasing batches of Podesta’s old emails and continued with a steady drip of new emails throughout the fall campaign.
In keeping with WikiLeaks’ recent practices, the document dump was completely random and not focused on any particular revelations of real or alleged wrongdoing. The portentously named “Podesta Emails” included Podesta’s risotto recipe, an announcement from a friend of mine about the birth of his baby daughter, a performance review of my wife at a job she has several years ago, and tons of other private, personal communications with no relationship to Hillary Clinton or the American government.
On October 7, a formal statement from the US Intelligence Community concluded that Russia had been conducting hacking activity designed to interfere in the US presidential election.
“These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process,” the statement read. “We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”
The statement was, however, focused on the hack of Democratic National Committee emails that came out earlier in the summer and that led to the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The Clinton campaign, however, maintained that the same conclusion should apply to the hacked Podesta emails and repeatedly accused the Trump campaign of relying on Russian assistance and the media of operating as essentially unwitting dupes of a Russo-Trumpian plot.
These allegations existed as essentially part of the background noise of the campaign until James Comey’s late-October letter telling Congress that Anthony Weiner’s laptop contained emails that might be relevant to the investigation into Clinton’s email server.
Comey had a large, measurable impact on the race. Harder to say with Russia/Wikileaks because it was drip-drip-drip. https://t.co/LgJkfYpZCk https://t.co/9FYMNz763b — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) December 11, 2016
Comey’s October surprise threw Democrats into a panic (rightly so, as subsequent events would prove) and prompted efforts to essentially turn Trump’s Russia connections into a counter-surprise. That included loud demands that the FBI update the public on various investigations into Trump’s ties to Russian figures (the FBI said it didn’t find anything), a half-baked Slate story positing the existence of a secret server communicating with a Russian bank, a David Corn article alleging a five-year plan by Russian intelligence to recruit Trump as an operative, and what essentially amounted to a flood of complaints about FBI hypocrisy in handling the Russia story gingerly while going all in on Clinton’s server.
This weekend’s leaks about the dueling CIA/FBI congressional briefings move the ball forward — in particular by clearly placing the Podesta emails alongside the DNC hack — but don’t fundamentally alter the dynamic. What is profoundly different, however, is that Trump has already won the election, which somewhat alters the calculus of Russia hawks in the GOP congressional conference.
Does this mean Russia “hacked the election”?
That's not a technical term, obviously, but headlines like “Russia hacked U.S. presidential election for Trump, says CIA” seem designed to induce confusion.
Russian hacking prowess has led at various times to fears that Russia might hack actual voting machines or vote tallies, thus altering the results. There is no evidence that this happened, the election system is actually quite robust, the results in key swing states are in line with broad national demographic trends, and the Michigan recount turned up no evidence of fraud.
What's more, it's worth saying that the Podesta hack did not demonstrate any particularly impressive technical skills. He appears to have fallen victim to a fairly basic phishing attack. It's alarming to think of history as turning on something as trivial as user error on the part of an important party official, but there's no evidence of election hacking or some kind of team of Russian super–cyber spies.
What the Russians did was steal Podesta’s emails and give them to WikiLeaks.
Did Russian hackers swing the election?
Since we can't rerun the 2016 election in a laboratory introducing many small differences in an experimental setting, it's challenging to know with any certainty what did and did not move votes. What's more, the election was so close in the three crucial swing states that essentially anything could have been the difference maker. It does seem, however, that Clinton was hurt very badly by late-breaking revelations from the FBI that it had uncovered new emails related to the investigation into her private email server — emails that later turned out to be irrelevant or duplicates.
That's an entirely different saga from the question of Podesta's purloined emails. But it relates in two ways.
One, it's clear that many voters — encouraged by sloppy or confused reporting — thought the two email stories were one thing. Thus, the steady drip of reporting on emails that had been stolen from Clinton felt to many like new developments in an investigation into Clinton's server. So being the victim of a crime ended up making her look like the perpetrator of one in a confused media environment.
The Podesta emails also provided the basis for a lot of negative stories about Clinton in left-wing media outlets. That the emails appeared on WikiLeaks, which has historically been understood in the United States as a kind of far-left muckraking operation aimed at exposing abuses by the US national security apparatus, meant that WikiLeaks-based reporting on Clinton played rather differently than a huge document dump on a conservative-branded website would have.
Many of the emails also served to essentially re-inflame various intraparty controversies that had flared up during the primary campaign. We saw the text of the paid speeches Bernie Sanders frequently criticized Clinton for giving, in a post-election environment in which holding Clinton’s feet to the fire would be a top priority.
Both of these factors fairly clearly hurt Clinton, but an intense post-election divide among left-of-center Americans leads to a kind of pseudo-disagreement over whether it makes sense to say she lost “because” of the attacks. The issue, in essence, is that supporters of Sanders’s primary campaign prefer to emphasize accounts of the election that cast Clinton and her team as villains who bungled things (Putin didn’t prevent her from campaigning in Wisconsin, for example), while Clinton’s supporters prefer to emphasize accounts that cast her and her team as heroic victims. This is not, however, really a factual dispute over what happened.
One could charitably describe it as a disagreement over whether you should characterize the “cause” of an important event in terms of the deepest or most superficial causal elements — in which case, I would recommend Laurie Paul’s Causation: A User’s Guide as essential reading on the metaphysics of causation.
Donald Trump went to war with the CIA
The Trump transition team initially responded to the reporting on the CIA’s findings with a terse three-sentence statement:
These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and “Make America Great Again.”
While CIA assessment of Iraq’s WMD capacity was indeed erroneous, the CIA did not say that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. As a December 2014 RAND Corporation analysis concluded, the CIA’s assessments “contained several qualifiers that were dropped,” and “as the draft [National Intelligence Estimate] went up the intelligence chain of command, the conclusions were treated increasingly definitively” by George W. Bush’s political appointees.
What’s more, it’s unlikely the people working on Russia and/or cybersecurity issues at the CIA in 2016 are actually the same people who were working on Iraq and/or WMD issues.
Last but by no means least, the election occurred relatively recently and the Electoral College margin was not even remotely close to the biggest in history.
On Twitter, Trump then attempted to cast doubt on the idea that Russians were behind the hacks at all and rather bizarrely asserted that nobody had brought this up during the election. (Trump himself called on Russian hackers to dig up more Clinton emails at one point.)
Unless you catch "hackers" in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn't this brought up before election? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
Also over the weekend, rumors swirled that Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson would be tapped to serve as Trump’s secretary of state. Tillerson is widely regarded as smart, knowledgeable about the world, capable, and friendly to Russia.
Since Election Day, of course, competing factions of left-of-center America have been engaged in an interpretive battle about the election. Sanders supporters are drawn toward accounts of the election that either support the conclusion that the Democratic Party needs to drastically alter its ideology or that, at a minimum, emphasize the idea that Clinton and her team are bad and/or stupid people. Supporters of Clinton, by contrast, are drawn toward accounts of the election that paint her as a profoundly good and heroic figure victimized by dark forces.
Выбор Тиллерсона - сенсация. Это бизнесмен, по определению прагматик, да еще и с большим опытом работы с Россией. Трамп продолжает удивлять. — Алексей Пушков (@Alexey_Pushkov) December 10, 2016
Alexey Pushkov, chair of the Russian Duma’s foreign affairs committee, for example, hailed Tillerson as a “sensational” pick and said that Trump “continues to amaze.”
The CIA/FBI dispute is incredibly narrow
Trump’s strident denials that Russia had anything to do with the hacks turn the issue into a partisan fight. And when faced with a partisan fight, the natural instinct of many traditional political reporters is to try to engage in even-handed reporting. In this case, the fact that the FBI disagrees with the CIA’s assessment offers a factual basis for trying to slot the story into a basic partisan frame. On the one hand, Democrats and the CIA say Russia hacked Podesta’s email to try to help Trump win. On the other hand, Trump and the FBI say that’s not the case.
It’s important to understand, however, that the FBI’s dispute with the CIA is actually extremely narrow and does not in any way bolster Trump’s efforts to cast doubt on Russian culpability.
Instead, according to Ellen Nakashima and Adam Entous, the disagreement centers on assessment of Russian motives:
“The FBI briefers think in terms of criminal standards — can we prove this in court,” one of the officials said. “The CIA briefers weigh the preponderance of intelligence and then make judgment calls to help policymakers make informed decisions. High confidence for them means ‘we’re pretty damn sure.’ It doesn’t mean they can prove it in court.” The FBI is not sold on the idea that Russia had a particular aim in its meddling. “There’s no question that [the Russians’] efforts went one way, but it’s not clear that they have a specific goal or mix of related goals,” said one U.S. official.
The disagreement, in other words, is over whether the Russians intervened to help the more pro-Russian candidate in an American election because he was pro-Russian or whether they were just screwing around and happened to have helped Trump as a result. The CIA seems to be making a fairly commonsense inference, albeit a kind of politically explosive one. The FBI, by contrast, is sticking to what’s actually knowable but also to a conclusion that’s easier to live with for Trump supporters who don’t like the idea of their candidate receiving explicit foreign assistance.
Some Republicans are standing up to Trump on Russia
Trump is an unconventional Republican in many ways, but his political standing rests on the solid support of the traditional Republican Party. In turn, on domestic policy he has appointed a Cabinet full of very conventional conservative Republicans who support a conventional conservative agenda of deregulation, tax cuts, and reducing spending on health care, education, and social assistance.
In exchange, he has received fairly lockstep support from congressional Republicans on crucial issues like the massive financial conflicts of interest in which he’s currently enmeshed. GOP majorities are currently blocking any legislation to curb Trump’s conflicts of interest or any investigations into possible corruption.
So far, the GOP congressional leadership has taken the same view of Russia’s intervention in the election. In a statement, Speaker Paul Ryan called foreign intervention in American elections “unacceptable” but refused to discuss intelligence briefings or call for any kind of hearing or investigation.
But a Russia-friendly foreign policy is a bridge too far for some Republican Party senators. Lindsey Graham and John McCain, two of the senate’s leading hawks, joined up with Democrats Chuck Schumer and Jack Reed to urge an investigation that will “examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyber-attacks.” They’ve been joined by several other hawkish senate Republicans and, to an extent, now by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has to follow his caucus’s lead.
Being a "friend of Vladimir" is not an attribute I am hoping for from a #SecretaryOfState - MR — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 11, 2016
Marco Rubio, meanwhile, tweeted what appeared to be a shot at Tillerson.
Part of the subtext here is that congressional Republicans appear uncertain of how committed Trump is to a Russia-friendly foreign policy. During the 2016 campaign he said nice things about Putin personally, expressed a Russia-friendly view of the situation in Syria, changed the GOP platform to be less supportive of the Ukrainian government, and on a couple of points appeared to call the American commitment to NATO into question. But there were also points in the 2016 campaign when Trump called for higher taxes on the rich, only to embrace GOP orthodoxy when the chips were on the table.
Trump’s pick to serve as secretary of defense, retired Gen. James Mattis, has a very un-Trump-like view of Russia, as do most of the top admirals and generals in the current military. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, by contrast, is an ardent Russophile and a much more serious student of world affairs than his boss.
GOP Russia hawks may be hoping that by pushing Trump a little, they can persuade him to get orthodox on Russia just as he did on taxes. It’s entirely possible that Trump’s pro-Russian leanings came about largely by accident and do not reflect much more than gut instinct and affection for Flynn. Flynn is deeply disliked by much of the intelligence community and the top military brass and is fairly likely to be ineffectual as national security adviser. Perhaps he’ll be discarded as a liability soon enough (look at Chris Christie’s fall from grace) and Trump will implement an orthodox GOP foreign policy, just as he did on domestic policy. Then everyone can continue with the basic deal whereby Republicans run policy as usual while Trump does a populist shtick on Twitter.
That said, there are some real ideological affinities between Putin’s Russia and the new, Trump-esque populist movements that have arisen on the European right. Abandoning the burdensome task of defending Eastern Europe from Russian aggression in favor of collaborating with Russia on a broad anti-Islamic front in a clash of civilizations is a real policy idea that Trump may sincerely believe in. If so, Republicans will have to ask themselves whether that’s something they’re willing to swallow in exchange for a free hand in domestic policy.Romilly Saumarez-Smith’s miniature artworks are made from detritus found by mudlarks and metal detectorists that she has snapped up on eBay – and they have the seal of approval of Edmund de Waal
The discarded scraps of ancient lives, found by metal detectorists and sold for tiny sums on eBay have been transformed by jeweller Romilly Saumarez-Smith into miniature works of art.
The modest treasures include a button that dropped off a garment 1,000 years ago, a thimble almost worn through with use, rings with gaping empty mounts instead of their original precious gems, an Anglo-Saxon stud with just a gleaming trace left of its gilding, and medieval dress pins shed into the Thames by some poor ferry passenger who must have arrived on the far bank a little dishevelled.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gold Caddis Earrings 2012: Tudor bronze buttons; 18 carat gold. Photograph: Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
All the finds have been mounted for an exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, which opens on 5 December and runs until April 2016. A button has been transformed into a tiny forest of golden trees, and a mournful bronze stag (probably a piece of harness decoration) has sprouted a new silver antler to replace one that broke off centuries ago. A thimble has acquired a jaunty topknot of silver curls, and another, squashed almost flat, a chaplet of uncut diamonds.
Thames treasures: mudlarking finds from the foreshore – 3D pictures and audio Read more
Almost all of the pieces can be worn, but with care – some of the Roman bronze pins are still as sharp as daggers.
They have been borrowed back from friends and collectors for the exhibition and have only been shown once before in the studio of an admirer, the author and ceramics artist Edmund de Waal.
Saumarez-Smith is careful not to alter the original objects, which remain as corroded and blackened as they were found. Many are stitched into their new settings with cobwebs of real gold thread, or held in golden mounts with fresh water pearls, garnets and uncut diamonds.
Before she turned to jewellery making, Saumarez-Smith was a book binder – though the first time she bought archaeological finds on eBay it was actually for stocking-filler presents for her two sons. She was astonished at how cheap they were, and how carefully the finders wrapped them before sending them, and found herself as excited as any child at Christmas as each little parcel was opened.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gertrudes Jewel, 2013: Two medieval gilded mounts; a Roman bronze turban nail; an Anglo-Saxon bronze polyhedral nail; oval garnet; oxidised silver. Photograph: Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
She makes her jewellery with borrowed hands. Illness has robbed her of the use of her own hands, but the pieces are made in the tiny workshop at her home by Lucie Gledhill, Anna Wales and Laura Ngyou, after she has spent weeks or months staring at each battered scrap of history, until she can envisage its future.
The finds are the evidence of modest lives which metal detectorists turn up constantly, in ploughed fields or on river banks: many people have bucketloads of them at home, and call the coins worn beyond recognition “grots”. Real treasure finds – including precious metal and bronze hoards – must be reported by law. But hundreds of thousands of objects with little commercial value but great historic interest have been recorded under the voluntary Portable Antiquities scheme operated by the British Museum, who are helping map vanished settlements, forts, roads and paths across the country.
“They’re so beautiful,” Saumarez-Smith says fondly – of the humble scraps of metal, not her own creations. “There must be such stories in them, but we just can’t read them. I think of myself as giving them new life after they’ve spent so long hidden under the earth, and sending them back out into the world.”Underscoring the potential public health threats widespread agricultural practices pose, bacteria resistant to a class of last-resort antibiotics known as carbapenems has for the first time been found on a U.S. pig farm.
The findings were published Monday in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology, and come just months after another antibiotic used as a last resort—colistin—was found in a pig in the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CREs), which are carried by a mobile piece of independent DNA called a plasmid, present an urgent public heath threat.
"It's a surprise that they would show up in livestock," said corresponding author, Thomas Wittum, professor and chair of Veterinary Preventive Medicine at Ohio State University.
An accompanying press statement notes that "[c]arbapenems are a subset of β-lactam antibiotics. Β-lactam antibiotics which are not carbapenems are legal for use on farms in the U.S."
For the study, researchers took environmental and fecal samples during four visits over a five-month period from a 1,500-sow, farrow-to-finish pig farm which "followed typical U.S. production practices." Piglets in the farrowing area are given a dose of Ceftiofur—a β-lactam antibiotic—with males given a second dose.
The researchers said they were surprised at finding the few samples of the resistant gene, as it's a closed barn—no new animals had been introduced for five decades. So how did it get there? "We don't know," Wittum told HealthDay News.
Wittum added that the researchers found "no evidence the pigs carried the gene into the [human] food supply."
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The authors conclude:
The implication of our finding is that there is a real risk that CRE may disseminate in food animal populations and eventually contaminate fresh retail meat products. Food-borne transmission may then produce a reservoir of mobile carbapenemase genes in the enteric flora of consumers.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said the findings were troubling.
"The last terrible shoe may have just dropped when it comes to drug-resistant infections," said Dr. David Wallinga, senior health officer at NRDC.
"This is just one more warning that doctors may soon have nothing left in their toolkit to save patients when these bugs strike. Our overuse of antibiotics in livestock is creating reservoirs for the spread of resistance—and this study strongly suggests resistance to carbapenems is no exception. To save our miracle drugs, we have got to stop
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the early 1980s and 20001. These individuals, also known as Generation Y,2 are commonly stereotyped as a demanding, overly optimistic, self-obsessed and tech-savvy generation.3
Estimates for the number of Millennials in the UK vary, though a 2007 report by Dublin-based Research and Markets estimated almost 10 million, representing about 16% of the total population and almost 20% of the adult population.4
Clearly it is crucial to understand the behavioural traits of this demographic, because by studying their traits, characteristics and preferences, we can start to learn the trends and patterns that tell us how they like to travel and the impact they have on the public transport industry.
Transport industry professionals will naturally be keen to discover the preferred mode of transportation among Millennials, as finding out whether Gen Y are leaning toward public transport or the private car is clearly of paramount importance.
In the US, we have already seen that public transport is winning the battle with the private car;5 but is there a similar pattern here in the UK? Let’s find out.
How Generation Y get from A to B
In good news for the public transport industry, evidence shows a decline in the number of Millennials driving private cars. A report by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology notes fewer young people are driving; meaning “car miles per person will gradually fall off as ‘generation Y’ reach middle age and replace the current generation of highly car-dependent users.”6
Increasingly it appears that Millennials are the most willing demographic to take alternative modes of transportation. However, while it would be tempting to reason this trend is caused by a conscious desire to make ‘greener’ transport and lifestyle choices, there is little evidence to that effect. Instead, it appears this trend is caused by a number of influential external factors.
Influencing factors
Residence
Millennials are increasingly moving away from rural towns and villages in favour of urban areas, with London overwhelmingly the destination of choice, as this CityLab article notes: “A full third of all British 20-somethings [who relocated] made their way to London (by comparison, Manchester and Birmingham drew in 3% each among the same group)”.7
The Office of National Statistics offers the following graph to illustrate this point.
Therefore, attraction to city life partly explains the decline of car use for this cohort, simply because alternative transport options are less costly (taking into account insurance, fuel, congestion charges and vehicle taxes), and avoid experiences such as sitting in traffic jams or searching for parking spaces.
Economics
The traditional argument is that higher income enables people to accommodate the costs associated with driving and owning a car. Therefore, with Millennials earning less than their parents’ generations (baby boomers), they are less able to purchase a car. A detailed study by research firm TNS noted this supports this view: “rising costs appear likely to depress demand to buy cars among city dwellers of all ages, with Generation Y particularly under pressure.”8
In the UK, the various economic hardships facing “generation rent” are well publicised, while a recent study found young people were “unlikely to attain wealth of parents’ generation”, as the economic gap between older members of the population and younger people grows increasingly unequal.9,10,11
Economic necessity therefore appears to be pushing Millennials towards public transport, as well as modes such as walking and cycling. As the TNS study noted: "On increasingly crowded roads (especially in urban areas) consumers are finding it harder to justify car journeys, when cheaper, healthier and more sustainable options like public transport, walking and cycling are seen as becoming more convenient.”
Lifestyle and Values
Despite stereotypes to the contrary, research increasingly suggests that young people are not as materialistic as previous generations – with one crucial exception: their smartphones and mobile devices like laptops and tablets.
Indeed, younger generations value smartphones more than private cars.12 So what does this mean for the public transport sector? We may well see “the future of transport [based on] ‘mobility as service”, according to one detailed Guardian article.13 This means passengers will “increasingly use their smartphones to check ultra-detailed travel news” and book their journeys via online booking portals or apps.14
In fact, as we posited in one of our blogs, it seems likely that our transport networks “will increasingly function through the mass movement of information, rather than vehicles”.15
But how do Millennials feel about taking public transport? We found an answer to that too…
Zipcar’s annual “Millennial Survey” suggests Millennials have different lifestyles from previous generations,16 with 45% having made a conscious effort to reduce how much they drive in favour of other modes of transportation.
It is also interesting to note that Millennials’ transport habits and preferences are having a positive impact; numerous studies show that commuting by public transport makes you happy, while other studies suggest Generation Y – despite the low income, high debt and negative stereotypes – is in fact one of the happiest generations.17,18
Is this a coincidence? Perhaps not. As Jason Torrance, policy director at sustainable transport group Sustrans, says: “We’re at a stage now in history where people, especially young people, want to have the choice whether to drive or not to drive […] the appetite is there for alternatives to the car.”
What does this mean for transport?
With some 10 million Millennials in the UK it is tempting to conclude that there are 10 million reasons for city planners and transport industry professionals to pay close heed to the travel and transport preferences, traits and trends of this tech-savvy generation. Indeed, paying close attention can help inform business and operating strategies, as we attempt to predict what the future holds for Gen Y, and how to act in order to retain their ridership – and even strive to increase it.
As we have seen, the value placed by Millennials on their smartphones and digital devices will likely require the transport industry to provide high quality technology that can be used – and can attract – Gen Y passengers. This may take the form of on-bus Wi-Fi or passenger information relayed via mobile applications.
As the Economist Intelligence Unit noted in a detailed study on passenger transformation: “Transportation is a sector straining to keep pace with rapid population growth and shifting mobility patterns […] by linking mobile devices to [public] transportation, you can create a much smarter transport system that works…from the bottom up, enabling users to get more effective transport where they need it and save money, too.”19
Other technology, such as real-time tracking and information and mobile ticketing will also be vital in retaining Millennial passengers.
As was noted during a recent debate on technology and sustainable urban transport: “Too often we lead with the technology or data and look for problems to solve. Where [technology] works best is [when] cities are spending time understanding the anthropology of communities and then formulating responses” to the characteristics and trends displayed by different groups of people.20
In other words, understanding exactly what Gen Y passengers want will be key to informing decisions when it comes to investing in the right technology.
5 billion bus and coach journeys are made in the UK each year. Does the key to maintaining these numbers and continuing to increase ridership lie within the travel patterns of Millennials? We certainly think so; what do you think?
References
“Millennials” Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials WALLOP, H., “Gen Z, Gen Y, baby boomers – a guide to the generations” Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/11002767/Gen-Z-Gen-Y-baby-boomers-a-guide-to-the-generations.html CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC, T., “Are millennials as bad as we think?” Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/jan/24/millennials-generation-gap “Generation Y Market Report Assessment” Research and Markets http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c59318 BRETT, D., “Want to know your riders? Meet Millennials” Trapeze Group http://www.trapezegroup.com/blog-entry/want-to-know-your-riders-meet-millennials HOBBS, A. and HARRISS, L., “Peak car use in Britain” Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/transport/POST-briefing-on-peak-car.pdf FLORIDA, R., “Expensive London is still the UK’s top destination for young people” CityLab http://www.citylab.com/work/2014/02/expensive-london-still-uks-top-destination-young-people/8287/ ELLEN, B., “Generation Rent: Ignored, insecure – and on the rise” Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/02/generation-rent-ignored-insecure-on-the-rise “Are the wheels coming off for Generation Y?” TNS http://www.tnsglobal.com/sites/default/files/whitepaper/TNSUK_Auto2013Nov22.pdf WALKER, P., “Young people ‘unlikely to attain wealth of parents’ generation’ – Study” Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/12/young-people-unlikely-to-attain-wealth-of-parents-generation-study PEREIRA, E., “Wealth Inequality Between Young and Old Generations Reaches Record High” Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/evapereira/2011/11/08/wealth-inequality-between-young-and-old-generations-reaches-record-high/ 2011 RAYNER, A., “The end of motoring” Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/sep/25/end-of-motoring MOSS, S., “End of the car age: how cities are outgrowing the automobile” http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/28/end-of-the-car-age-how-cities-outgrew-the-automobile EVERSON, P. “Mobile Passenger Information: Apps or Mobile Web?” Trapeze UK http://www.trapezegroup.co.uk/article/apps-vs-responsive-mobile-websites “What happened to our world of tomorrow?” Trapeze UK http://www.trapezegroup.co.uk/blog/article/what-happened-to-our-world-of-tomorrow 2015 “Millennial is a state of mind – Zipcar 2015 Millennial Survey Results” Zipcar http://www.slideshare.net/Zipcar_PR/zipcar2015-millennialmind-slideshare JOHNSTON, I., “Taking public transport instead of driving to work makes people happier, study suggests” Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/taking-public-transport-instead-of-driving-to-work-makes-people-happier-study-suggests-9732535.html SANGHANI, R., “Whisper it – ‘selfish’ millennials are actually the happiest generation” Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11012814/Happiness-survey-millennials-are-the-most-joyous-generation.html “How mobile is transforming passenger transportation: clearing the way for more liveable cities” Economist Intelligence Unit http://www.economistinsights.com/sites/default/files/HowMobileisTransformingTransportation.pdf LABRECQUE, S., “10 things we learned about technology and sustainable urban transport” Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/dec/05/sustainable-transport-urban-technology-debate-city-cleanThe latest resurrection project from The Library of America, which reissues beautiful hardcover editions of its own particular take on the canon of American literature, ranging from the traditional to the idiosyncratic, is Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s (LoA, 1477 pages, $90.00). This two-volume box set was compiled and edited by Sarah Weinman, former Crimewave reviewer for the National Post, and current critic, editor, and publishing industry news editor. I asked her a few questions in the midst of her book tour, which has stopped in Toronto, Brookline, Washington D.C., and Maryland so far, and will be moving through several other cities in the next few weeks.
What was the research process like for these volumes? How did they come together?
Women Crime Writers was prepared in close collaboration with the Library of America’s publisher, Max Rudin, and editor-in-chief, Geoffrey O’Brien. We met several times and each had lists of authors and books to whittle down to the final eight, though with that in mind, at least half of the books/authors we had near-immediate consensus on, particularly In a Lonely Place, Laura, and The Blank Wall. (We also knew Charlotte Armstrong and Margaret Millar would be included but read a few other books of theirs before deciding on Mischief and Beast in View). In a couple of instances there were books I had not read – The Horizontal Man was one I knew of, but hadn’t yet gotten around to reading, and Fool’s Gold was difficult to find so it took a while to get a hold of – and then, oddly enough, we decided on the Highsmith last. But having Highsmith in this set presented a nice bit of continuity with the LoA’s earlier 2-volume set of crime novels they brought out in the late 1990s.
In a Lonely Place, by Dorothy B. Hughes, was something of a revelatory find for me. The line of psychological serial killer novels—Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, Thomas Harris’s first couple of Hannibal Lecter books, James Ellroy’s Killer on the Road—they all clearly owe something to the Hughes take on serial killing in this book, which also precisely zeroes in on the killer’s anxieties around women. And it was published in 1947, long before any of the books I mentioned. What led you to select this book, and can you tell us anything more about Hughes?
I adore In a Lonely Place, and arguably it is my favorite crime novel of all time (though the more I say that the less I feel like arguing the point…) It totally bowled me over when I first read it in 2004 (the first time I wrote about the novel was not long after) and each time I’ve reread it, roughly once a year, I find something new to marvel at. But going back to that initial read, I too had never realized the serial killer narrative essentially started with that book, decades before the phrase “serial killer” was even invented. And I wanted to know how Hughes could get us into the mind of a psychopath, make us understand his mindset and be fascinated by it, but also clue the reader in on what was *really* going on around him, and how the women – notably his love interest, Laurel Gray, and the detective’s wife, Sylvia Nicolai – are the real heroes of this story.
Hughes was a fascinating, complex figure. A college graduate who worked as a journalist in New York before winning the Yale Younger Poet Prize (and publishing poems and short stories in The New Yorker!) she married and had children and moved to Albuquerque and Los Angeles, where she found her voice in suspense fiction. Between 1940 and 1947 she published eleven suspense novels, and several others – Dread Journey, Ride the Pink Horse, The Fallen Sparrow – are very, very good. Her output slowed and then she took an 11-year hiatus to concentrate on her children, grandchildren, and caring for an elderly parent, though she still published short stories and reviewed crime fiction for the LA Times and other newspapers. Her last novel, The Expendable Man, is another masterpiece. And after that she never published another novel.
She was amazing with suspense narratives. You really feel the terror that her characters feel, as the atmosphere and mood are so hazy as to be covered in smoke. And when I’m done with my travels I’ll likely read Lonely Place again just to fall in love with its scary magic again.
Did these books have a major influence on the genre, even if the names of some of the authors have been neglected? Do you see directly stylistic and content influences on their more well-known male contemporaries, and later writers?
Absolutely. It’s why I reached out to a number of great contemporary crime writers to write appreciations of the books for the companion website. I really feel Laura Lippman is our modern-day Margaret Millar, much more for the style and the narratives (though people did know Millar’s husband, Ross Macdonald, more, similar to the proportional recognition David Simon garners.) When I read Megan Abbott’s debut novel Die A Little I remarked it reminded me a lot of Dorothy B. Hughes, and so of course anything Abbott writes about her and In a Lonely Place is something people would be interested in. Gillian Flynn cites Highsmith as a key influence, and it’s certainly there in Gone Girl and her earlier books.
Sometimes it got spooky, as when I asked Duane Swierczynski, based on reading his newest novel Canary, to write about Fool’s Gold. He hadn’t heard of Dolores Hitchens, as I expected, but I thought there was a resemblance between both books. When Duane sent in his essay the first thing he noted was how reminiscent the earlier book was of his own. There are all sorts of calls and responses across the generations, influences that aren’t necessarily conscious but are there if you know where to look and what you might find.
As to male contemporaries, Chandler was a great admirer of Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. He could be cranky about his peers but when he told his British editor he thought she was the “top suspense writer of them all” I know he meant it, especially as he adapted another novel of hers, The Innocent Mrs. Duff, for film (it was never made.) Dorothy B. Hughes was influenced by Eric Ambler and he in turn became an admirer of her work.
Patricia Highsmith, some days, is my favourite writer. I hadn’t read The Blunderer before your collection appeared—why did you select this particular book?
The Blunderer is a key transition novel for Highsmith. It was her second crime novel — her third, after Strangers on a Train and The Price of Salt — and the seeds of what became The Talented Mr. Ripley and other psychological novels (Deep Water, The Cry of the Owl, etc.) are all there in The Blunderer. It’s a great battle of wits of two deeply disturbed men, a depiction of police brutality, and an observation of marriage at its murderous worst. And that ending is a real surprising stunner.
The set has been out for a few weeks and you’ve been on your book tour for a few days now. Can you describe the response? Any surprises in terms of the purchasing audiences, or among the people who’ve shown up to your readings?
I didn’t know what to expect with a book tour – still pretty tickled to say the phrase, let alone be on one –but so far the response has been wonderful. Enthusiastic crowds large and small, great questions, a lot of excitement that Women Crime Writers is out there and exists. I’m thrilled to be the ambassador for this entire generation of women and I hope the set is a launching point, the start of a conversation, not the finish. I want readers to catch up on the backlists of these eight women, and then discover even more overlooked, underappreciated, needlessly neglected female crime novelists who had so much to say in their time, and still do so today.
* * *
Sarah Weinman is the founder of the National Post’s Crimewave column, which is now helmed by Naben Ruthnum.Our exclusive 'All in with Justice League' series continues with a closer look at the fastest man alive: Barry Allen aka the Flash. And in case you missed it, check out our first two installments about the Justice League and Aquaman.
Now, if all you know about the Scarlet Speedster so far is that he's a little...fast, Ezra Miller is here to walk (not run) you through how his take on the big screen hero can't be missed.
The Flash is arguably the biggest fanboy out there, and his child-like wonder paired with his time-bending abilities will be an amazing contrast to the rest of the seasoned members of the league. Justice League lands in theaters on November 17.
“I’m putting together a team. People with special abilities.” #JusticeLeague pic.twitter.com/QS5dbPgBDp — Justice League Movie (@justiceleaguewb) April 24, 2017
Stay tuned to att.com/justiceleague for all your exclusive, Justice League needs. Go all in with AT&T.
And catch up on some of the Flash's greatest adventures here.
“I'm in."
–Flash
Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Raymond Fisher, Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller star in the action adventure “Justice League.”
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
“Justice League” was directed by Zack Snyder from a screenplay by Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon, story by Terrio & Snyder. Based on characters from DC Entertainment; Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Jon Berg and Geoff Johns produced the film, with Jim Rowe, Wesley Coller, Curtis Kanemoto, Chris Terrio and Ben Affleck serving as executive producers.
Opening beginning on November 17 in 3D and 2D in select theaters and IMAX, “Justice League” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.By: By Stephanie Pappas, Senior Writer
Published: 01/28/2014 07:02 PM EST on LiveScience
Almost the world over, women are having fewer children than ever before. But new research suggests fertility rates can — and perhaps will — bounce back.
The reason is an oft-overlooked correlation in fertility research that suggests people who come from large families tend to have large families of their own. Over time, these people may come to dominate the population, reversing the trend of having only one or two children, researchers report today (Jan. 28) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Predicting the future of fertility is tough, said lead researcher Martin Kolk, a doctoral student in demography at Stockholm University.
"What we do know," Kolk told LiveScience, "is that ignoring this role of fertility correlations across the generations, that is probably wrong." [Crowded Planet: 7 (Billion) Population Milestones]
Fewer babies
Approximately 11 billion people will walk the planet by 2100, a population likely to tax Earth's water supply, waste-management and food resources. Nevertheless, the trend of declining fertility has its own set of problems: With more older people needing medical care and fewer younger people working to support the aging population, governments struggle to pay for their citizens' needs.
This population contraction has led to baby boosterism in some countries. In Japan, women have a fertility rate of 1.39 — the number of children expected per woman in childbearing years, according to 2010 data from the World Bank. There, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised reforms to make child care cheaper and to promote flexible work hours for women. France, the country with the second-highest fertility rate (2.03 in 2011) in Europe behind Ireland, has fought to keep birthrates high with government grants to mothers and paid maternity leave, among other policies.
The United States had a fertility rate of 1.88 in 2012, below the replacement rate of 2.1, meaning more people are dying than are being born, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Immigration keeps the population growing slightly.) Fertility is dropping even in less-developed countries. The only exception to the global trend is in sub-Saharan Africa, where birthrates are still high.
Another baby boom?
Before the advent of reliable contraception and relaxed social roles for women, pretty much everyone had lots of children. For the last two generations or so, children have been a choice, and families can grow according to their preferences. (Economics explain some, but not all, of people's family size choices, research finds.) [The History and Future of Birth Control: 12 Tales]
As a result, a new correlation has emerged: People from small families tend to have only a few kids, and people from large families tend have large broods. Kolk and his colleagues wanted to know what effect this correlation would have on the fertility rate in the long term.
The researchers built a mathematical model much like the ones used by biologists to study evolution over time. First, they set up the model so that children inherited either high or low fertility preferences from their parents. The environment was set up so that people could generally achieve their choices.
The result of this model showed, within three generations, a group of people who preferred to have lots of children and did so and a group of people who preferred to have few children and did so. Because those who preferred to have lots of kids passed on their preferences to more people than those who preferred to have a few, big families dominated and the population began to grow.
This model could be accurate if the cultural change that produced small families is a one-time thing, Kolk said. But it's also possible that cultural change is continuous. New leisure activities, new career opportunities and increasing diversity of choice could lead to more and more people choosing fewer children, even if their parents had many kids.
Predicting fertility's future
To model that possibility, the researchers altered their first model to include random "mutations" — the possibility that some kids would buck their parents' preferences. They found that in this model, there was a similar initial drop in fertility, but with only a small rebound compared with the first scenario.
It's impossible to say which of the two scenarios will occur, Kolk said. And the model doesn't take into account factors like the planet reaching its carrying capacity, after which populations have to stop growing. Still, he said, the idea that fertility will stay low forever is not a given. The process of recovery is slow in the models, taking five to six generations, but it could occur.
"Maybe in some ways, it's good to reassure people that think that childbearing would become very, very low," Kolk said. "If childbearing would became very low, like in Germany or Japan, maybe something like we described could increase fertility, even though it could take a long time."
Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.
Copyright 2014 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ]]>Story highlights The bill is aimed at people who lie about military honors then try to profit from the lie
An earlier version was struck down as a violation of the First Amendment
This version keys on the element of trying to make money from the deception
A similar bill is moving through the Senate
The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday overwhelmingly passed a new version of the Stolen Valor Act, a bill aimed at people who lie about receiving military medals and then attempt to profit from the deception.
The first version of the Stolen Valor Act was struck down by the Supreme Court as a violation of the First Amendment
The bill focuses not on people who lie about having medals they didn't earn, but on any profits they make from lying about the medals, which is essentially criminal fraud.
Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nevada) sponsored the new bill. His office issued a release saying the bill passed by a vote of 410-3.
Heck said in a floor speech this week that the bill would survive judicial review because it resolves the "constitutional issues by clearly defining that the objective of the law is to target and punish those who misrepresent the alleged service with the intent of profiting personally or financially."
The bill targets those who falsely claim to have earned certain major military decorations, including the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, Air Force Cross, Silver Star, Purple Heart or a medal signifying you served in combat.
A similar bill is moving through the Senate, but has not reached a floor vote yet.Today I found out how to make a cheap analog pressure sensor. Tired of paying exorbitant amounts for a simple analog pressure sensor? Well here is an easy smeasy way to make an incredibly cheap analog pressure sensor. This pressure sensor won’t be terribly accurate in terms of measuring precise weight or things of this nature, though it can be calibrated somewhat and if you choose to coat it in something like Plasti Dip some of the variables such as humidity and the like can be minimized. However, what this analog pressure sensor is best for is for creating things like bumper sensors that can read variable levels of pressure and various other touch / pressure sensor applications.
Materials:
Any static dissipative foam (If you’ve ever ordered any IC chips, you probably have some lying around. IC’s are often set in this foam for shipping.) or if you don’t have any, you can pick it up from a variety of places, such as this
Wire
(optional) Plasti Dip Rubber Coating
Instructions
Step 1:
Cut the foam to the size you like. You can cut it quite small and still get a good range of resistance levels. The foam in this picture is cut to less than half an inch square and about 1/4 inch thick; once completed these two each produce a range of around 2.6K Ohms down to 400 Ohms when squished completely.
Step 2:
Poke two wires into the foam. Make sure the wires aren’t touching and there is a bit of a gap between the two so that when squished they won’t touch. To make sure the wires don’t come out while in use, I poked the wire all the way through and bent them at the ends.
Step 3 (optional):
At this point your new analog pressure sensor is all ready to use. However, I like to put a nice covering on it to protect it from wear and tear and a little electrical insulation might be needed depending on what you are going to use this for.
My preferred method of covering the sensor is to use Plasti Dip or equivalent liquid plastic coating. If using Plasti Dip, dip once slowly and hang the sensor to dry. Wait 20 minutes and do this again. That should give a nice thick coat on the sensor. The Plasti Dip will stiffen the sensor quite a bit, so don’t put too much on if you want it to stay extra squishy. In this case, one coat is probably enough. Play with it to get it to your liking for your particular usage.
Alternatively, you can just wrap it in electrical tape or equivalent, but I’ve found that tends to not hold up well over the long haul. It also carries the potential bad side effect of the adhesive on the tape causing the foam to not be able to re-expand over time and thus ruin the pressure sensor. Plasti Dip doesn’t seem to have this problem in the sensors I’ve made.
I’ve also tried using a little bit of visqueen cut and wrapped over the pressure sensor and sealed around it. This worked pretty well. And of course, you could just not put any covering on it at all if you aren’t worried about electric shock in the usage you are using these for.
That’s it. At this point, test it on your multimeter, if you have one. You should see a nice range of resistance depending on how hard you are pressing or not. If necessary, you may want to hook up a resistor with this depending on your usage.
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:
Source:The San Francisco 49ers probably are not going to overhaul their defensive scheme to accommodate newly added tackle Glenn Dorsey.
Initial reports suggest Dorsey will help fill the void created by nose tackle Isaac Sopoaga's departure to the Philadelphia Eagles. In that case, Dorsey would also provide insurance at defensive end in the 49ers' 3-4 scheme.
That could be the end of the story. But Dorsey's addition to an evolving line rotation invites a closer look at where the 49ers are headed on defense. It can serve as a launching point for a discussion I've been wanting to have for some time.
Does the signing of Glenn Dorsey signal a scheme change in San Francisco? Jake Roth/USA TODAY Sports
First, some background on why I think the 49ers have some decisions to make as they seek to sustain their recent success under coordinator Vic Fangio.
General manager Trent Baalke hinted at the subject when suggesting during the NFL scouting combine that the 49ers used a smaller rotation along their line for philosophical reasons, not depth reasons. In my view, the comments sounded like something a GM would say if he thought the defensive coordinator should be using a larger rotation.
Fangio has been known to favor veteran players. That is typical for coordinators running complex 3-4 schemes. Those schemes often function best with veteran players. Veteran players carry higher price tags. Higher price tags force tough personnel decisions as teams manage salary caps that aren't growing all that much from year to year.
That is where the 49ers are at right now. They knew they would have to let certain defensive veterans leave in free agency. Dashon Goldson was one of them. There has also been talk recently about how a scheme change could help the 49ers take better advantage of cheaper labor.
In some ways, the strength of the 49ers' front has allowed them to get by with a smaller rotation along the line. Last season proved they can't take for granted such an arrangement in the future.
A deeper, younger rotation on the line could be part of an evolution unless the 49ers are willing to make the tough choices associated with their current approach. The choices for 3-4 teams can include paying top dollar for a nose tackle and outside linebackers. Demand and prices for players best suited to the 3-4 has risen has more teams have adopted that scheme in recent seasons (perhaps to stay ahead of the curve, New England's Bill Belichick has gone away from the 3-4 over the past couple seasons).
Teams running 4-3 schemes still need to pay for pass-rushers, including at defensive tackle if they're fortunate enough to find one worthy of the investment. They can generally get by paying less for linebackers.
The 49ers are paying big money to defensive end Justin Smith through the 2013 season. They have invested heavily in inside linebackers NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis. They committed to Bowman for the long term after deciding he could provide value to them even if San Francisco went away from its current scheme. The idea was that Bowman and Willis would remain among the very best players on the defense regardless. They would be worth the money no matter what.
Again, I don't think the 49ers are suddenly going to unveil a 4-3 base defense. But they do have flexibility with their personnel. They could be headed in that direction. As Matt Williamson of Scouts Inc. noted when I reached out to him Wednesday, Smith was a 4-3 defensive end coming out of college. Ray McDonald was seen as an up-the-field lineman. The fact that Smith and McDonald have flourished in a 3-4 reflects well on them and on defensive line coach Jim Tomsula. There's precedent for Dorsey to make a transition, too.
On the other hand, Dorsey appears ideally suited for a 4-3 defense. That was the word on him as the fifth pick of the 2008 draft and that remained the word on him heading into free agency. And the 49ers do have the personnel to become more of a 4-3 team on defense should they choose to head in that direction.
"I could see McDonald as a three-technique type and maybe Dorsey as one-technique," Williamson said. "Ahmad Brooks could project as a 'SAM' linebacker pretty easily and Bowman would be great as the 'WILL'. Justin Smith could be a strong-side end, Aldon Smith could play the weak side. They do have the personnel."
To this point, San Francisco's defense under Fangio has relied upon a smaller number of players logging a higher number of snaps. San Francisco wore down on defense late last season, a factor in the team falling just short of a Super Bowl victory.
The 49ers are only getting started on implementing their offseason plan. Dorsey's arrival may or may not mean much in the bigger picture. But the comments Baalke made at the combine have lingered in my mind. They sounded significant. The subject will come up again as the 49ers navigate the draft and minicamps.
Back in 2001, the Indianapolis Colts loaded up on offensive players to support young quarterback Peyton Manning. As a result, they released veteran defensive players, putting the coordinator in a tough position. Fangio was that coordinator. Bill Polian, the GM back then, thought a simpler defensive scheme would help the team get more from a young defense. The head coach, Jim Mora, refused Polian's demand that he fire Fangio. Polian fired Mora and Fangio in response.
The 2013 49ers are not the Colts of a decade ago. Not even close. They have plenty of talent on offense and defense. They still have a very effective veteran core on defense. Their quarterback remains under contract on the cheap for another season at least, providing flexibility. Fangio just helped the 49ers get to the Super Bowl. Now is not the time to scrap what has gotten the 49ers to this point. But there are some tradeoffs to consider, at least, and the 49ers are well aware of them. I wonder to what degree the team will alter its defense with sustainability in mind.stegt flæsk med persillesovs og kartofler, thick fried slices of pork served with boiled potatoes and parsley sauce. Food and Agriculture Minister Dan Jørgensen launched an initiative in September to find Denmark’s national dish. After more than 63,000 votes, the clear winner among 24 initial candidates was, thick fried slices of pork served with boiled potatoes and parsley sauce.
Just under 28,000 Danes expressed their love for stegt flæsk, earning it 44 percent of the vote and the right to be called Denmark’s national dish.
|
nicknamed him "G.I. Joe."
The text messages also provided insight into how Gliniewicz became panic stricken when a new village administrator demanded an accounting of the Explorer Post's finances and property.
For example, in June 2015, Gliniewicz sent a text to "Individual #1" saying he used "the exploder (sic) account" for a $624.70 flight. CNN later learned that "Individual #1" was his wife.
Last year, Melodie Gliniewicz's attorneys issued a news release stating that Gliniewicz had been depositing his own money into the Explorer Post bank account. "Melodie respectfully requests that the community, law enforcement, pension board and press refrain from rushing to, or misplacing, judgment," the release said.
Also, Joe Gliniewicz messaged an "Individual #2" last year. CNN later learned that individual is Donald Gliniewicz, who also joined the Army. The son has not responded to a request for comment.
In June 2015, one text to his son pointed to unidentified expenses of $1,600 and $777.
Joe Gliniewicz: "You are borrowing from that 'other' account, when you get back youll have to start dumping money into that account or you will be visiting me in JAIL!! The 1600 and the 777 all came from there...."
In the text messages, Joe Gliniewicz became increasingly desperate to his son. At the same time, he was thinking of applying to become a police chief in a nearby community.
JUST WATCHED 'Hero Cop' staged his own suicide Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH 'Hero Cop' staged his own suicide 02:36
Gliniewicz: "I'm sticking my neck out there with loaning you over $2377.00 to fix your truck specifically and only to help accommodate your summer leave, trip to OK."
He continued to his son: "So if called on the carpet i can say, 'we give our explorers and advisors loans from time to time if it is needed, and this is proof it is being pa(i)d back'(.) you get (where) I'm (coming) from? This village administrater (sic) hates me and the explorer program. This situation right here would give her the means to CRUCIFY ME (if) it were discovered. Compound this with "if" i was selected for chief of antioch (Illinois), i would be leaving here and would have to turn this account over to someone else...."
In recent months, authorities have said they have been looking at two people besides Joe Gliniewicz in connection with the use of funds from the Explorer Post. They haven't identified the third person.Aldi Spending $1.6B To Upgrade Stores To Be More Whole Foods-Esque
Millennials are already apparently flocking to Aldi over Whole Foods’ new, hipper version of its typical stores in favor of lower price points, but now these customers won’t have to forego the more expensive chain’s aesthetic: Aldi plans to spend $1.6 billion to revamp the layout of its stores in order to compete with chains like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Sprouts.
Aldi on Wednesday announced [PDF] the upgrade plan for its 1,300 stores over the next three years.
So far, about 300 locations have already been revamped with sleeker refrigerators doors and windows that bring in more natural light. Other improvements include widening the first aisle, expanding the front of the store, and raising ceilings.
With the upgrades, the chain says it will be able to add more products to its lineup, including expanding its organic produce section, fresh meat offerings, and alcohol departments.
“The new ALDI store look delivers on its customers’ desire for a modern and convenient shopping experience with a focus on fresh items, including more robust produce, dairy and bakery sections,” the company said.
Business Insider reports that the new stores shares several similar features with Whole Foods’ new 365 stores, with their softer, natural light, and wider aisles.
For example, both stores feature refrigerator-lined perimeters and minimal signage. Additionally, the middle of the stores house the store’s produce, and neither chain offers a deli, but instead prepackaged cheeses and meats.
The remodel places Aldi in a position to potentially whisk away customers from Whole Foods and corporate cousin Trader Joe’s.
In fact, by the time the remodels are complete in 2020, Aldi tells Bloomberg that it expects to increase the number of shoppers from 40 million to 60 million each month.
It won’t just be the company’s stores that are getting a facelift. Aldi notes in a statement that it will also improve products, removing added MSG, certified synthetic colors and partially hydrogenated oils from all Aldi exclusive brand foods.
In addition to revamping its current stores, Aldi said on Wednesday that it plans to continue moving forward with an accelerated growth plan of opening 650 new stores. By the end of 2018, the company expects to operate 2,000 stores in the U.S.
As part of these plans, the company has opened dozens of stores in California, pitting it directly against competitor Whole Foods, Bloomberg notes.In the next 20 years, the number of elderly drivers (persons 70 & over) is predicted to triple in the United States. As age increases, older drivers generally become more conservative on the road. Many mature drivers modify their driving habits (for instance to avoid busy highways or night-time driving) to match their declining capabilities. However, statistics show that older drivers are more likely than younger ones to be involved in multi-vehicle crashes, particularly at intersections.
Research on age-related driving concerns has shown that at around the age of 65 drivers face an increased risk of being involved in a vehicle crash. After the age of 75, the risk of driver fatality increases sharply, because older drivers are more vulnerable to both crash-related injury and death. Three behavioral factors, in particular, may contribute to these statistics: poor judgment in making left-hand turns; drifting within the traffic lane, and decreased the ability to change behavior in response to an unexpected or rapidly changing situation.
Concern about the increased number of older drivers and their potentially decreased driving abilities is growing, especially among younger drivers. Statistics, based on all people injured or killed in traffic crashes, indicate that older drivers are at a disproportionate risk for becoming involved in fatal crashes. An NHTSA study of 1995 FARS (Fatal Accident Reporting System) data reports that senior citizens accounted for:
5% of all people injured in traffic crashes
13% of all traffic fatalities
13% of all vehicle occupant fatalities
18% of all pedestrian fatalities
In a 1997 NHTSA study, older people made up 9 percent of the population but accounted for 14 percent of all traffic fatalities and 17 percent of all pedestrian fatalities. NHTSA’s “Traffic Safety Facts 1997: Older Population” (DOT HS 808 769) reports that:
In 1997, more than 24 million people in the United States were over 70 years of age.
Representing 9 percent of the population in 1997, the 70-and-older age group grew 2.1 times faster from 1987 to 1997 than the total population.
In 1986 older drivers were 7 percent of licensed drivers; in 1996 they were 19 percent of licensed drivers.
Of traffic fatalities involving older drivers, 82 percent happened in the daytime, 71 percent occurred on weekdays, and 75 percent involved a second vehicle.
When a crash involved an older driver and a younger driver, the older driver was 3 times as likely as the younger driver to be the one struck. Moreover, 28 percent of crash-involved older drivers were turning left when they were struck– 7 times more often than younger drivers were struck while making left turns.
Older drivers involved in fatal crashes and fatally injured older pedestrians claimed the lowest proportion of intoxication–defined as a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10 grams per deciliter or higher.
While only 55 percent of adult vehicle occupants (ages 18 to 69) involved in fatal crashes were using restraints at the time of the crash, 70 percent of fatal- crash-involved older occupants were using restraints.
“On the basis of estimated annual travel, the fatality rate for drivers 85 and over is nine times as high as the rate for drivers 25 through 69 years old.”
Statistics show that in two-vehicle fatal crashes involving an older and a younger driver, it is 3.1 times as likely that the vehicle driven by the older person will be struck. In 27% of these two-vehicle fatal crashes, the older driver was turning left. Drivers over 65, along with new teenage drivers, have the highest accident rates per miles driven. Another NHTSA study found that on the basis of estimated annual travel, the fatality rate for drivers 85 and over is nine times as high as the rate for drivers 25 through 69 years old.
Lawrence Nitz, a political scientist from the University of Hawaii, conducted a three-year study of Hawaiian traffic records and found that drivers over 75 were far more likely than other motorists to be cited for certain offenses, including failing to yield to pedestrians, backing up unsafely and failing to stop at a flashing red light.
What is being done to address the problem?
Mandatory driving tests – California, which requires retesting for anyone involved in a fatal crash or three or more crashes in one year, requires drivers over 70 to retest if they are involved in two or more crashes in one year. Proposals in several other states to toughen licensing requirements for older drivers have been thwarted by senior-citizen lobbying groups (AARP & others), who say age-based measures are discriminatory. They claim that a person’s chronological age is not an accurate predictor of driving ability. The lobbyists argue that if seniors are forced to take mandatory road tests in the absence of an incident, other age groups should be required to take them as well.
Deficit reporting laws – Pennsylvania is one state that has a physician’s reporting law, requiring physicians to report disabilities that may affect driving ability. Some physicians, however, are reluctant to jeopardize their relationship with a patient by making such a referral. Most other states do not require physicians to report psycho-motor, visual, and cognitive deficiencies that may affect driving to licensing agencies.
What else can be done?
Deficit screening – Screening could be given to all drivers for whom age-related decline is suspected and whose performance is viewed as a safety concern for themselves and other motorists. In addition, health professionals and others who work with older populations could administer the tests. Screening could become a part of the regular process of license renewal. By reducing testing time, drivers could be quickly screened and identified either as capable or as in need of further testing.
Crash statistics – DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and insurance company records can help identify high-risk older drivers. In addition to crash counts, the details of the crash (roadway condition, time of day, location, fault) are important. Some crash patterns (e.g., the driver stopped in the middle of the roadway) may be better predictors of future crashes than others. Given that many older drivers involved in crashes have never had a crash before and may not have another one during the following year, crash records will identify only a few high-risk older drivers. However, crash statistics may be an important part of a comprehensive program to identify high-risk older drivers.
What can you do?
You may wonder about older friends and family members’ performance on the road. You want to support their continued mobility but on the other hand, you worry about their driving abilities. Unfortunately, we don’t all retain the ability to drive a car throughout our lifetime. Physical disabilities, mental illness, medications, loss of vision, or frailty can end anyone’s driving career prematurely. Before you bring up the subject, keep in mind that the thought of losing a driver’s license is very disturbing to most older people. Americans rely upon their cars to get to work, go to the doctor, go shopping, and visit their friends and relatives. The elderly equate losing their driving privileges with being dependent, feeling trapped, perhaps losing choice, control, and spontaneity in life. Discussing driving skill with an older person requires great diplomacy.
AgeQuest, a specialty firm addressing the training needs of professionals in the field of aging, older adults, and family caregivers, suggests in its publication “Supporting the Mature Driver” that the decline of skills necessary for safe driving sometimes occurs suddenly or subtly. Signs may include a pattern of close calls, violations or collisions, increasing difficulty in noticing pedestrians, signs, objects, or other vehicles; an observable decline in physical abilities; or a rapid onset of fatigue from driving.
Older drivers need to be aware that medications can significantly impair their driving by making them drowsy or distracted. Physicians and pharmacists should be consulted before starting new medications, to see if the drug can affect the ability to drive. Since side effects are often worse for the first few days of a new medication, people should avoid driving until they know exactly how a new drug affects them. If any medication causes sleepiness or disorientation, someone else should do the driving.
Eyes change with age. They lose the ability to focus quickly. Peripheral vision narrows and the retina becomes less sensitive to light. Physical activity is needed to keep a person strong and flexible for those quick reactions needed while driving. To be a safe driver, paying attention to road conditions and your own body changes is essential. A person’s chronological age is not an absolute predictor of driving ability, but its impact should not be denied. Ultimately, however, what counts on the road is performance.Baskets feels like a comedy that’s easy to pigeonhole. Try to resist that urge. Yes, it stars Zach Galifianakis, master of the vacant annoyed stare on Between Two Ferns, as yet another irascible jerk. Yes, it bears a lot of the hallmarks of its FX sister show Louie, from its co-creator (Louis C.K.) to its refusal to shoot for easy or even occasional laughs. But while Baskets is an acidic, sometimes depressing watch, it’s much better than that sounds—an incisive, absurd, darkly heartfelt show set not on the stage but in America’s dreary urban sprawl.
Chip Baskets (Galifianakis) is a self-important prig, an aspiring clown who sees himself as an artiste, and who never misses an opportunity to tell people he was educated at clown college in Paris, although his education was stymied by the fact that he can’t speak French. He returns, broke, to his hometown of Bakersfield, California, with a beautiful French wife (who married him for the green card and otherwise ignores him), and moves into a motel, where his only career prospects come via the local rodeo. Chip is a pretentious jerk, sour to everyone around him, but Galifianakis mines tragic moments of grace from his bitter existence.
The great, sad joke of Baskets is Chip’s devotion to the classical art of clowning, a tradition neither respected nor understood by his tutting mother (Louie Anderson), his superficial wife (Sabina Sciubba), or his sarcastic twin brother (also played by Galifianakis). Chip executes melancholy set-pieces in the arena while wearing white face-paint and an oversized suit straight out of commedia dell’arte, then gets mowed down by a charging bull to cheers from the crowd. His pretentious arrogance can be tough to watch, but there’s an absurd passion to his quest to become a great clown, lending him the sympathy Baskets needs to work.Facebook has established itself as a must-have for advertisers, at least when it comes to brand pages. But even though Facebook is a social networking giant, it still needs to convince brands why they should advertise there. Here are some interesting statistics from Facebook brands should be paying attention to.
1. More than 1 billion monthly active users (as of December 2012).
2. 618 million daily active users on average in December 2012.
3. 680 million monthly active users who used Facebook mobile products as of December 31, 2012.
4. Facebook is working with every one of the Ad Age Global 100 advertisers.
5. U.S. desktop users spend an average of around 6 hours every month on Facebook; mobile users spent an average of 11 hours. (ComScore, January 2013)
6. 23 percent of all time spent on apps in the U.S. is on Facebook – 3 percent on Instagram – which means over a quarter of time spent on apps in the U.S. is with Facebook.
7. 2.5 billion content shares a day on Facebook.
8. 2.7 billion likes a day on Facebook.
9. Oscars: This year, buzz about the Academy Awards reached an all-time high on Facebook, with 66.5 million Oscar-related interactions on Facebook
10. Super Bowl: Last year’s Super Bowl was the most talked-about sporting event of the year on Facebook and the second most-mentioned event of 2012, just behind November’s presidential election.
Image via ShutterstockAs Texas officials release violent arrest video
Death of Sandra Bland being “treated like a murder investigation”
By Evan Blake
22 July 2015
Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said Monday that the death of Sandra Bland was being "treated like a murder investigation," amid a string of revelations casting doubt on police claims that Bland’s death was a suicide. Bland, an outspoken opponent of police violence, was found hanged in her jail cell only three days after her July 10 arrest following a supposedly routine traffic stop.
“It is very much too early to make any kind of determination that this was a suicide or a murder because the investigations are not complete,” Mathis said.
Mathis conceded that Bland had little reason to commit suicide, saying “There are too many questions that still need to be resolved. Ms. Bland’s family does make valid points that she did have a lot of things going on in her life that were good.”
The initial autopsy report determined that Bland died from asphyxiation, but her family has sought a second autopsy, contending that Bland had no reason to harm herself. Sharon Cooper, one of Bland’s sisters, declared that “Based on the Sandy I knew, this is unfathomable to me.”
Bland’s friend LaVaughn Mosley spoke with her on Friday following her arrest, and told a local news station that “Although she was incarcerated, she was in good spirits. She was looking forward to posting bond Saturday and getting out. So you don’t go from that to hanging yourself.”
On Tuesday, the Texas Department of Public Safety released dash-cam footage of the arrest of Bland. The video shows Bland being verbally harassed, threatened and physically assaulted by state trooper Brian Encinia.
Encinia pulls Bland over for failing to signal while changing lanes, and quickly initiates a confrontation with her. Encinia soon opens her door, aggressively demanding that Bland “Step out of the car,” to which she refuses, rightly asserting, “You do not have the right to do that.”
When Bland says “Don’t touch me, I’m not under arrest,” Encinia aims his Taser at her and screams, “Get out of the car! I will light you up! Get out! Now! Get out of the car!”
The dash-cam footage does not show the subsequent handcuffing and arrest, but bystander footage shows Bland pinned to the ground by another officer who is seen arriving as backup in the dash cam footage. Encinia sees the bystander filming and repeatedly tells them, “you need to leave.”
In both videos, Bland can be heard saying “You just slammed my head into the ground, do you not even care about that? I can’t even hear!”
Last Friday, the Texas Department of Public Safety said that Bland’s arrest “violated the department’s procedures regarding traffic stops and the department’s courtesy policy,” and that Encinio has been put on desk duty during the investigations.
The subsequent death of Bland remains entirely unresolved and highly suspicious. In addition to the ongoing Texas Rangers and FBI investigations, Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee has called for a Justice Department civil rights investigation.
In a news conference Monday evening, the Waller County Sheriff’s Office released surveillance video from a hallway outside Bland’s jail cell. The footage spans a three-hour period before Bland’s death, although her cell and cell door are not actually seen. There is a 90-minute period of inactivity, until a deputy passes the cell and rushes to notify others.
MSNBC filmed the inside of Bland’s prison cell in a special report Tuesday. They showed the pole from which Bland supposedly hung herself, a bathroom partition less than 6 feet off the ground.
Capt. Brian Cantrell, the head of the sheriff’s department criminal investigation division, has declined to describe Bland’s death in detail, but claims that she was found with her feet touching the ground.
Cantrell also acknowledged that guards communicated with Bland via intercom in the hours immediately before her death. This was a violation of state rules regarding the monitoring of inmates, which mandate that guards address prisoners’ concerns in person.
After announcing that Bland’s death will be treated like a murder investigation, Mathis went on to slander Bland and attempted to carry out a character assassination, saying: “Sandra Bland was very combative. It was not a model traffic stop…and it was not a model person that was stopped on a traffic stop.”
He concluded these inflammatory remarks by declaring, “the public can make its own determinations as to the behaviors that are seen in the video.”
Cantrell has already drawn his own conclusions, declaring that Bland’s death “was a tragic incident, not one of criminal intent or a criminal act.”
The history of Waller County’s police, in particular that of Waller County’s sheriff, Glenn Smith, casts additional suspicion on police claims that her death was a suicide. Smith previously served as police chief of Hempstead, the county seat of Waller County. In 2007, he was suspended for two weeks and placed on probation for six months due to a racist incident in which he swore at and manhandled a black suspect during an arrest.
In 2008, Smith was fired due to further allegations of racism after he carried out multiple humiliating strip-searches of black youth. That same year, he was elected as Waller County’s sheriff. In 2012, under Smith’s watch, James Howell, a white prisoner, was found hanging in a cell at the Waller County jail, another alleged suicide similar to Bland’s.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Arsène Wenger is considering a late move into the transfer market to secure a striker before Monday’s deadline, with the Arsenal manager resigned to being without his principal centre-forward, Olivier Giroud, until the new year.
The France international has broken a bone in an ankle and his absence, which is set to be confirmed by a specialist, leaves Arsenal shorn of options up front not least for Wednesday’s Champions League qualifier against Besiktas, and the manager contemplating signing a senior reinforcement.
There is interest in the QPR forward Loïc Rémy, who is available to a top-four club for £8.5m, while deals for Manchester United’s Danny Welbeck and Radamel Falcao of Monaco may now be explored.
Though Welbeck has effectively been made available, it remains to be seen whether United would be willing to sell him to a rival. Falcao’s sights are ultimately set on a return to Madrid, with Real, but he would be open to a loan move to the Emirates for a season even though a temporary switch would still cost Arsenal up to £20m in terms of fees and wages for the Colombia forward. A pursuit of Paris Saint-Germain’s Edinson Cavani feels unlikely given the French club’s reluctance to lose the Uruguayan.
Rémy, in comparison, represents a relatively easy deal to conclude given the existence of the release clause in his contract at Loftus Road, though Wenger has previously been resistant to meeting the Frenchman’s wage demands. The striker, who excelled on loan at Newcastle last season and came close to joining Liverpool this summer, would seek up to £90,000 a week. Regardless of the club’s pursuit of a signing, it seems unlikely that Lukas Podolski will be permitted to leave this summer, disappointing the likes of Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, who had all hoped to secure the World Cup winner.
Giroud will consult a specialist on Wednesday, while the rest of Arsenal’s first-team squad prepare for their second leg against Besiktas with the tie goalless, with the two scans overseen by the club’s medical staff having initially prompted a grim prognosis. The 27-year-old, who had initially been convinced the injury was only minor, is understood to have fractured the base of his tibia after slipping on the ball in the final minute of added-on time having just equalised at Everton last Saturday.
“We came back on Saturday night and he was at home on Sunday,” said Wenger. “He had a medical check and we needed to have further investigation. The first news is not fantastic, but I am not a doctor. So I wait for tomorrow’s complete examination and decision for how long he will be out. I still don’t understand how he did it. He overstretched his ankle, and it was on the ball, not a contact. The problem is I think his tibia.”
While Wenger has Yaya Sanogo restored after hamstring trouble for the game against Besiktas, and the Costa Rica forward Joel Campbell also in the squad, he is expected to retain Alexis Sánchez in a central role against the Turkish side.
The Chilean started in that position at Goodison Park but was replaced at the interval by Giroud having struggled to make an impact. “You do not convict a player on one half of football,” said the manager. “It was not all bad what he did. There was some quality. I just felt that, on the day we needed some more physical presence because I knew we would need more presence in the second half.
“We would have less income, but it would not affect our balance sheet in a dramatic way,” added Wenger, who is also without the suspended Aaron Ramsey. “We can survive without that. But we want to be in the Champions League because we need to play top-level football. To play at the top. “I don’t really think about that. It is just a game we want to win. It is very important, but we have started quite well, with three good games. We want to continue to grow and win our games. We are technically equipped to do it, but we need to defend well together and therefore you need to be ready for the battle.”Teacher in Space Project Logo of the Teacher in Space Project Duration 1984–1990 Goals Spur student interest in mathematics, science, and space exploration Achieved Launched Christa McAuliffe on STS-51-L; killed during launch in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Organizer NASA Related programs Educator Astronaut Project
Teachers in Space, Inc.
The Teacher in Space Project (TISP) was a NASA program announced by Ronald Reagan in 1984 designed to inspire students, honor teachers, and spur interest in mathematics, science, and space exploration. The project would carry teachers into space as Payload Specialists (non-astronaut civilians), who would return to their classrooms to share the experience with their students.
NASA cancelled the program in 1990, following the death of its first participant, Christa McAuliffe, in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (STS-51-L) on January 28, 1986. NASA replaced Teachers in Space in 1998 with the Educator Astronaut Project, which required its participants to become astronaut Mission Specialists. The first Educator Astronauts were selected as part of NASA Astronaut Group 19 in 2004.
Barbara Morgan, who was selected as a Mission Specialist as part of NASA Astronaut Group 17 in 1998, has often been incorrectly referred to as an Educator Astronaut. However, she was selected as a Mission Specialist before the Educator Astronaut Project.[1]
Barbara Morgan and Christa McAuliffe, backup and primary TISP participants for Mission STS-51-L
NASA programs [ edit ]
TISP was announced by President Ronald Reagan on August 27, 1984. Not members of NASA's Astronaut Corps, the teachers would fly as Payload Specialists and return to their classrooms after flight. More than 40,000 applications were mailed to interested teachers while 11,000 teachers sent completed applications to NASA. Each application included a potential lesson that would be taught from space while on the Space Shuttle. The applications were sorted and then sent to the various State Departments of Education, who were then responsible for narrowing down their state applicants to a final set of two each. These applicants were notified of their selections and were gathered together for further selection processes down to ten finalists. These were then trained for a time, and in 1985 NASA selected Christa McAuliffe to be the first teacher in space, with Barbara Morgan as her backup. McAuliffe was a high school social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire.[2] She planned to teach two 15-minute lessons from the Space Shuttle.[3]
McAuliffe died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (STS-51-L) on January 28, 1986.[4][5] After the accident, Reagan spoke on national television and assured the nation that the Teacher in Space program would continue. "We'll continue our quest in space", he said. "There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue."[6] However, NASA decided in 1990 that spaceflight was still too dangerous to risk the lives of civilian teachers, and eliminated the Teacher in Space project. Morgan returned to teaching in Idaho and later became a Mission Specialist on STS-118.
Educator Astronaut Project [ edit ]
Barbara Morgan, Mission Specialist and backup for the Teacher in Space Project, speaks to an audience of students and media during a January 2007 demonstration at Space Center Houston.
In January 1998, NASA replaced the Teacher In Space project with the Educator Astronaut Project. Instead of training teachers for five months as Payload Specialists who would return to the classroom, the Educator Astronaut program required selectees to give up their teaching careers, move to Houston, and become Mission Specialists (full-time NASA astronauts).
The first Educator Astronauts were selected in 2004. The three selected in 2004 were Joseph Acaba, Richard Arnold, and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger. Astronauts Acaba and Arnold flew on mission STS-119 in 2009, and Metcalf-Lindenburger flew aboard mission STS-131 in 2010.
Although many sources incorrectly refer to Barbara Morgan as the first Educator Astronaut, in actuality, Morgan was selected as a Mission Specialist six years before the Educator Astronaut Project was put into place.[7]
Private program [ edit ]
In the early 21st Century, the Teacher in Space project was revived in the private sector. The development of reusable, suborbital launch vehicles by commercial companies makes it possible for nonprofit groups to contemplate sending large numbers of teachers into space. The new Teachers in Space program began in 2005. In March 2005, Teacher in Space candidate Pam Leestma, a second-grade teacher and cousin of Space Shuttle astronaut David Leestma, completed a training flight aboard a MiG-21 operated by X-Rocket, LLC.[8]
Armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, PlanetSpace, Rocketplane Limited, Inc., and XCOR Aerospace pledged flights to the new Teachers in Space project.[9] Advisors to the new Teachers in Space project include SpaceShipOne builder and Ansari X-Prize winner Burt Rutan, X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis, Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and private astronaut and X-Prize sponsor Anousheh Ansari.[10]
The United States Rocket Academy partnered with the SFF in 2006, and worked to draft rules for a "pathfinder" competition to select the first Teachers in Space. The rules were announced at the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup Competition held at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico in October 2007.[11] Applications were accepted until November 4, 2008. On July 20, 2009, Teachers in Space announced its first group of "Pathfinders": astronaut teacher candidates.[12]
On June 11, 2013, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s new Commercial Space Operations degree program, the first of its kind in the world, announced they will sponsor the Teachers in Space summer workshops for the next five years, indicating their intent toward a continuing long term relationship as well as their sharing a vision to "...help students, teachers and organizers collaborate in bringing space education to every level, from K-12 to graduate programs."[13][14]
In 2014, Program director Elizabeth Kennick incorporated the Teachers in Space project as an educational nonprofit in New York, spinning it off from the Space Frontier Foundation.[15] 5 original Pathfinders (James Kuhl, Rachael Manzer, Lanette Oliver, Chantelle Rose, and Michael Schmidt) remain with the program, also Vice President Joe Latrell and several teacher volunteers. Teachers in Space, Inc. has now flown two teacher/student designed experiments to International Space Station (ISS), launched and retrieved several high altitude balloons with data sensors, put teachers through astronaut training experiences including hypobaric chamber and centrifuge, and delivered weeklong professional development workshops for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) teachers in California, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, and Georgia.[16][17]
See also [ edit ]Iran was on the verge of collapse until the U.S. gave it a "lifeline" in the form of the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, President Trump said Thursday.
"Iran has been formally PUT ON NOTICE for firing a ballistic missile," Trump tweeted. "Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!"
Trump was repeating comments made a day earlier by national security advisor Michael Flynn,
Trump also tweeted, "Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion."
Flynn said Wednesday that the "Obama administration failed to respond adequately to Tehran's malign actions" and put Iran "on notice," without elaborating on what actions may be taken.To answer Tom’s question: In my war, Spec Ops was just sound on the horizon
By Peter Lucier
Best Defense Council of the Former Enlisted
We push out a large, 15-man patrol one morning, about eight clicks to a “house” outside a village. It’s open fields the whole way, they see us coming for miles. We BAT and HIIDE all the people in the house and surrounding field. No hits. Our interpreter doesn’t speak good English, so we can’t really figure out what, if anything, is going on. The intel package might have mentioned an IED maker. Who remembers. We RTB (return to base.)
Maybe we stopped on the way back. Some business about a canal. Locals had some heavy earth moving equipment (from where, who the hell knows) but wanted to fuck up the one bridge we could get our big, clunky, heavy, armored vehicles and their unwieldy mine-rollers across. Eventually we just ripped out some of the ignition components so the big machine can’t work. Our bridge is safe, tough luck for the opium farmers.
On post that night I hear a helicopter, rare in butt-fuck nowhere Helmand. COC says they know about it. Next morning they tell us some Special Operations Task Force hit the house, killed everyone except a teenage boy they took prisoner.
Seems like there is always one survivor from those raids. Spec Ops guys are awesome, good people, but in my head I think about the Mongols who encircle their enemies and kill them all until a single living thing is left. The metaphor isn’t right, it isn’t brutality going on here, and it isn’t a fair comparison to the men in the night who do the work we aren’t allowed to do. We are grateful for them anyway. They seem plugged into the real war going on, where things make sense, and maybe there is some semblance of strategy and a bigger picture, instead of aimlessly walking every day, dodging IED’s we never can see implanted, and an “enemy” who never seems to show himself.
I don’t ever remember hearing anything about that raid from locals. No angry family members, or reprisal attacks, like when our unit killed some guys with an A-10 gun run, and the dad of one (or was it two?) of the dead boys came and asked for the bodies back, and someone erected a rock shrine on the berm above the field of reeds on the banks of the Helmand River. Maybe whoever built it was the same person who left us the nice present of an IED on the trail leading to the shrine, maybe not. We found it pretty easily, and blew it in place.
The only evidence I had that the raid even took place was the whirling sound of a helicopter in the dark Afghan night, and the report we got in the morning. For a lance corporal riflemen, the “real” war was always two steps removed. Running out of the PB on QRF for a gunfight that was already over. Cordon and knock operations for an HVT that was already long gone. Locating and blowing IED’s that no one had seen buried in the ground.
It wasn’t until we only had one or two months left we made a hard turn and decided to start trying to train the Afghan Border Police on IED finding procedures, first aid techniques, and the basics of squad movements. Most of them were too fucked up on weed and opium to learn anything, and our terp certainly couldn’t translate some of the finer points of military SOP’s, but it did cut down on the number of patrols we had to do, so that was nice.
I know it isn’t right, and I just couldn’t see the big picture from a lance corporal’s perspective on the ground, but COIN always seemed like a narrative written for newspapers and strategy magazines, bearing little to no resemblance of what was actually happening on a deployment. We sure as hell didn’t resent Spec Ops guys for doing their thing. We weren’t just jealous of their beards and velcro and rolled sleeves and slick looking rifles and gear, we were jealous of their mission, their intel, their perspective. Body counts seemed like a sign that at least someone, somewhere, knew what they were doing, and maybe, even though we couldn’t
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04:01 - Serla: only account
04:01 - Beesa: right..
04:02 - Beesa:
04:02 - Beesa:
04:02 - Serla:?
04:02 - Serla: thats Serla
04:02 - Serla: which is the one
04:02 - Serla: im on right now
04:02 - Serla: the other one is casual account i use to play w/ rl friend
04:02 - Beesa: 04:01 - Serla: this is my
04:01 - Serla: only account
04:02 - Serla: sorry
04:03 - Serla: i shouldnt have lied to you
04:03 - Serla: friend
04:03 - Beesa: what a shitter
04:03 - Serla: im sorry
later on
(to my friend)
[8/17/2013 4:07:37 AM] Alder Beano: im ignoring him
[8/17/2013 4:07:42 AM] Alder Beano: now hes msging me a love poem
[8/17/2013 4:07:43 AM] Alder Beano: 05:06 - Serla: when youre with me beesa
05:06 - Serla: theres no need for a god
05:06 - Serla: no need for an afterlife
05:06 - Serla: no need for anything
05:07 - Serla: we find bliss betwixt ourselves
05:07 - Serla: and everything else is merely a bystander
good poem. i havent ever heard someone use betwixt before in a conversation but i guess now i know how cool that word is to use. makes u sound like a sophistacted romantic yearning for a neo-renaissance
so i just delete him straight after
a few months forward (maybe weeks who knows)
someone adds me on skype
now i had a decent amount of ppl during these days adding me on skype (mainly from dota)
so i thought maybe this is someone i already know
so i add him and ask who it is
this ensues
http://puu.sh/ldziP/49566825c7.png
http://puu.sh/ldzl1/d734a9026e.png
anyway im like thinking to myself "bet that guy is ravindu lol what a tard haha bitcoins scary deepweb shit bet he thinks hes the hacker also known as 4chan famous for using tor and advanced stuff like proxies"
few weeks forward (or maybe days?)
i get msgs by some mutual friend about how he wants to talk to me
ROFL ravindu changed his steam name to
ALDER BEANO MUST DIE
and its an insils avatar from facebook (insil is another girl from nadota that ritsu paid someone in cosmetics to get her facebook)
im like "is this guy messed up or wut"
apparently his message was something like i shud be his friend or my sister gets hurt or some shit
heres a log summary of the convo (many stuff were said but not worth keeping a log of)
Alder Beano Must Die: can u tell beesa
Alder Beano Must Die: something for me
Alder Beano Must Die: yo
Alder Beano Must Die: can u tell beesa
Alder Beano Must Die: something
Alder Beano Must Die: its really important
Alder Beano Must Die: yo
Alder Beano Must Die: please
uNi-: i was afk
uNi-: and yea i can tell him
Alder Beano Must Die: tell him
uNi-: whats that?
Alder Beano Must Die: maya is not safe
20:13 - Beesa: XD
20:18 - uNi-: Alder Beano Must Die: k, tell him his sister going to go to the hospital in the summer
Alder Beano Must Die: and lamberd too
Alder Beano Must Die: say canterbury is ez
20:19 - uNi-: tell me if you want me to stop delivering his msgs
20:19 - Beesa: ya
20:19 - Beesa: just stop
20:19 - uNi-: ok
20:19 - uNi-: ill never mention about him anymore
20:20 - Beesa: yes plz
20:20 - Beesa: hes irrelevant
20:20 - Beesa: and a nobody
alright wow googlemaster_2000 find my brothers and sisters names
but he got it wrong and thinks i live in canterbury (i dont)
at the same time he makes a fake facebook account called madison barton
somehow enters some study groups i was in from my university and msgs like hi im beesa's long lost friend does anyone have his phone number. (+1 group mods u rly did ur job its a closed group questionmark?!)
funnily enough i was on at that time.
that msg got deleted after 2 seconds.. guess why?
coz this little shit had 2 browsers open prolly firefox and chrome or w.e and was online with his real fb account and fake fb account at the same time... my boy ravindu messed up and posted with his real account and deleted in 2 seconds but me being a 7k reflexes fast fingers aficionado managed to click on his account just in time. BUSTED!
anyway soon enough i get msged by a few friends
heres an exerpt
friend: Hey Alder how are you? I got a message from a girl called Madison Barton saying that she was a childhood friend of yours? She's trying to get in contact with you. Do you know her?
me: its a stalker i have
me: fake
me: ignore
me: when did u get it ttho
me: what time
me: On Monday!
friend: haha a stalker? how unfortunate
me: ya
me: ty for telling me tho
me: report teh account for fake plz
friend: ok sure!
now this beautiful girl called madison barton wearing a sexy british flag t-shirt i reverse google imaged her shes some twitter celeb cant remember who it was (poor soul her online pictures being used assuming another identity tbh smh fam)
i also get a msg from my brother telling me some girl called madison barton added my sister on facebook asking if im her brother. LMAO the plot thickens. but my family aint some dumbshits they know better. so they just block and ignore from the start.
1-2 days later.
there is a thread on nadota asking if some phone number is a uk number
it was rly similar to my phone number but with a few mistakes
im like jeez this kid is trying rly hard to get my phone number haha. i have a potato phone that i dont even use except to talk to someone when i really have to its got like 10 contacts in total or something minor like that. who even cares man!
my sister got scared coz of the "put her in hospital" comments but i was like:
"no worries hes just a manlet that poses no threat compared to superior highlander genes that i have been blessed with"
there might be more logs or stuff i remember if i do ill update this
oh ya more coming:
ritsu was like 6.7k or something
he got 7k by getting fed mmr thru
notjones/kaptenrobert (i was in teamspeak with the feeders during this time)
they even got to low prio and had to find new accounts to keep feeding him mmr
later on kikoni also sold him a 6.9k or 7k account that belonged to someone else in the first place
i guess thats how u get on a pro team.
this beautiful soul.
i mean at some point he had to ditch his former alias Oxen and rebrand himself as Ritsu coz thats wat companies who go thru scandals do, they just rebrand themselves. after me and insil exposed him to nadota
i also did my fair share of stalking my stalker, for ammo
and i found some creepy stuff about him and the stuff he does online or at his school
i mean just google the names he has used
scrara had some juicy stuff about it
edit: had to tone down on some of the flames alright long story i guess?!stay tuned for editsback when i used to play on na servers with my friends shoutout to yan jimmy 04 and whoeveri was playing a 5man stack against some ppl i dont know. anywaythis guy called Kawaii Warrior kept all chatting random stuff trying to get attention and added all of us to friends.I didnt add him but some of the others did (smh kikoni how cud u)kept getting 2nd-hand msgs from him tell my friends for me to add him... i didntbut he was quite persistent (he changed his name to mine and used same avatar and then started adding every single person in my friendlist and shit... it got real annoying ppl asking me is this ur smurf who is this?!? many thought it was me and deleted me later from friends, guess he just annoyed them too much... even arteezy thought i was a full autist during these dark times bcoz of this)anyway who caresforward a few monthsi was playing nel or w.e that was called the old dota2 league (oh ya ixdl) and ritsu aka oxen was an admin there. lets just call him by his real name ravindu.im just minding my own business playing some ixdl games and he started to get friendly and added menow im like "ok w.e i guess ill add him cant do any harm right atleast he will stop spamming me invites"a few days go by and he keeps msging mehow are u so good at am?what do u build on morph?blah blah just general game stuff i answer happily but then his msgs get weirder and weirderim like wow this guys got some issuesheres an early exerpt03:53 - Serla: well03:53 - Serla: i think youre nice ^^03:53 - Serla: and theres something called03:53 - Serla: friends at first sight03:54 - Beesa: theres something called03:54 - Beesa: stalking03:54 - Serla: how03:54 - Serla: we pubbed03:54 - Serla: againt each other03:54 - Serla: many times03:55 - Beesa: u wudve had 10k friends by now if u added everyone u pubbed with or against03:55 - Serla: well i mean03:55 - Serla: i dont add everyone03:55 - Serla: i pub with/against03:55 - Serla: but theres something special about you03:55 - Beesa: oh wow03:55 - Serla: its like youre mason, but better03:55 - Beesa: wut03:55 - Serla: not in a dota skill sense, but in a friendship sense03:55 - Serla: youve got all his likeable qualities03:56 - Beesa: like wut03:56 - Beesa: being autistic?03:56 - Serla: but they shine much more than he does03:56 - Serla: =P03:56 - Serla: cant i just be the 10th03:56 - Serla: in that inhouse =d03:56 - Beesa: u stick to ixdl03:56 - Beesa: ill stick to mine03:56 - Serla: i dont play03:56 - Serla: ixdl03:56 - Beesa: u stick to watching ixdl03:56 - Serla: i dont awtch03:56 - Serla: i watch mason03:56 - Serla: thats it03:56 - Beesa: oh wow03:57 - Beesa: why are u obsessed with him so much03:57 - Serla: you wouldnt understand03:57 - Beesa: implying03:58 - Serla: you seem to disregard friendship03:58 - Serla: as something autistic03:58 - Serla: when its actually something thats cherishable03:59 - Beesa: internet friendship tho03:59 - Serla: exatcly03:59 - Serla: its like friendship03:59 - Serla: without the normal strains that everyday life puts on it04:00 - Beesa: whats ur na dota name04:00 - Serla: i just browse04:00 - Serla: im not a poster04:00 - Beesa: lurker + stalker04:00 - Beesa: well thats something04:00 - Serla:?04:00 - Serla: how come04:00 - Serla: youre so mean to me beesa04:00 - Beesa: how come04:00 - Beesa: u make 3 accounts with name beesa04:01 - Beesa: and casually add all my friends04:01 - Serla:?04:01 - Serla: this is my04:01 - Serla: only account04:01 - Beesa: right..04:02 - Beesa: http://dotabuff.com/players/72134214 04:02 - Beesa: http://dotabuff.com/players/98682730 04:02 - Serla:?04:02 - Serla: thats Serla04:02 - Serla: which is the one04:02 - Serla: im on right now04:02 - Serla: the other one is casual account i use to play w/ rl friend04:02 - Beesa: 04:01 - Serla: this is my04:01 - Serla: only account04:02 - Serla: sorry04:03 - Serla: i shouldnt have lied to you04:03 - Serla: friend04:03 - Beesa: what a shitter04:03 - Serla: im sorrylater on(to my friend)[8/17/2013 4:07:37 AM] Alder Beano: im ignoring him[8/17/2013 4:07:42 AM] Alder Beano: now hes msging me a love poem[8/17/2013 4:07:43 AM] Alder Beano: 05:06 - Serla: when youre with me beesa05:06 - Serla: theres no need for a god05:06 - Serla: no need for an afterlife05:06 - Serla: no need for anything05:07 - Serla: we find bliss betwixt ourselves05:07 - Serla: and everything else is merely a bystandergood poem. i havent ever heard someone use betwixt before in a conversation but i guess now i know how cool that word is to use. makes u sound like a sophistacted romantic yearning for a neo-renaissanceso i just delete him straight aftera few months forward (maybe weeks who knows)someone adds me on skypenow i had a decent amount of ppl during these days adding me on skype (mainly from dota)so i thought maybe this is someone i already knowso i add him and ask who it isthis ensuesanyway im like thinking to myself "bet that guy is ravindu lol what a tard haha bitcoins scary deepweb shit bet he thinks hes the hacker also known as 4chan famous for using tor and advanced stuff like proxies"few weeks forward (or maybe days?)i get msgs by some mutual friend about how he wants to talk to meROFL ravindu changed his steam name toALDER BEANO MUST DIEand its an insils avatar from facebook (insil is another girl from nadota that ritsu paid someone in cosmetics to get her facebook)im like "is this guy messed up or wut"apparently his message was something like i shud be his friend or my sister gets hurt or some shitheres a log summary of the convo (many stuff were said but not worth keeping a log of)Alder Beano Must Die: can u tell beesaAlder Beano Must Die: something for meAlder Beano Must Die: yoAlder Beano Must Die: can u tell beesaAlder Beano Must Die: somethingAlder Beano Must Die: its really importantAlder Beano Must Die: yoAlder Beano Must Die: pleaseuNi-: i was afkuNi-: and yea i can tell himAlder Beano Must Die: tell himuNi-: whats that?Alder Beano Must Die: maya is not safe20:13 - Beesa: XD20:18 - uNi-: Alder Beano Must Die: k, tell him his sister going to go to the hospital in the summerAlder Beano Must Die: and lamberd tooAlder Beano Must Die: say canterbury is ez20:19 - uNi-: tell me if you want me to stop delivering his msgs20:19 - Beesa: ya20:19 - Beesa: just stop20:19 - uNi-: ok20:19 - uNi-: ill never mention about him anymore20:20 - Beesa: yes plz20:20 - Beesa: hes irrelevant20:20 - Beesa: and a nobodyalright wow googlemaster_2000 find my brothers and sisters namesbut he got it wrong and thinks i live in canterbury (i dont)at the same time he makes a fake facebook account called madison bartonsomehow enters some study groups i was in from my university and msgs like hi im beesa's long lost friend does anyone have his phone number. (+1 group mods u rly did ur job its a closed group questionmark?!)funnily enough i was on at that time.that msg got deleted after 2 seconds.. guess why?coz this little shit had 2 browsers open prolly firefox and chrome or w.e and was online with his real fb account and fake fb account at the same time... my boy ravindu messed up and posted with his real account and deleted in 2 seconds but me being a 7k reflexes fast fingers aficionado managed to click on his account just in time. BUSTED!anyway soon enough i get msged by a few friendsheres an exerptfriend: Hey Alder how are you? I got a message from a girl called Madison Barton saying that she was a childhood friend of yours? She's trying to get in contact with you. Do you know her?me: its a stalker i haveme: fakeme: ignoreme: when did u get it tthome: what timeme: On Monday!friend: haha a stalker? how unfortunateme: yame: ty for telling me thome: report teh account for fake plzfriend: ok sure!now this beautiful girl called madison barton wearing a sexy british flag t-shirt i reverse google imaged her shes some twitter celeb cant remember who it was (poor soul her online pictures being used assuming another identity tbh smh fam)i also get a msg from my brother telling me some girl called madison barton added my sister on facebook asking if im her brother. LMAO the plot thickens. but my family aint some dumbshits they know better. so they just block and ignore from the start.1-2 days later.there is a thread on nadota asking if some phone number is a uk numberit was rly similar to my phone number but with a few mistakesim like jeez this kid is trying rly hard to get my phone number haha. i have a potato phone that i dont even use except to talk to someone when i really have to its got like 10 contacts in total or something minor like that. who even cares man!my sister got scared coz of the "put her in hospital" comments but i was like:"no worries hes just a manlet that poses no threat compared to superior highlander genes that i have been blessed with"there might be more logs or stuff i remember if i do ill update thisoh ya more coming:ritsu was like 6.7k or somethinghe got 7k by getting fed mmr thrunotjones/kaptenrobert (i was in teamspeak with the feeders during this time)they even got to low prio and had to find new accounts to keep feeding him mmrlater on kikoni also sold him a 6.9k or 7k account that belonged to someone else in the first placei guess thats how u get on a pro team.this beautiful soul.i mean at some point he had to ditch his former alias Oxen and rebrand himself as Ritsu coz thats wat companies who go thru scandals do, they just rebrand themselves. after me and insil exposed him to nadotai also did my fair share of stalking my stalker, for ammoand i found some creepy stuff about him and the stuff he does online or at his schooli mean just google the names he has usedscrara had some juicy stuff about itedit: had to tone down on some of the flames "mmr is a social construct" - tumblrWhy “Pro Studios” Are Dying Off In Droves
I was browsing a Facebook group related to pro studios, and I saw an argument break out that actually seriously absolutely literally blew my mind…literally.
This is a quote from the owner of a “Pro Studio” owner based out of New England.
We’ll call him Richard, because he sounds like a bit of a dick :
“Plug-ins put pro studios out of business. They are the reason why most people think they can do their recordings at home.” -Richard The Dick
This is such a shitty mindset on so many levels, that I had to write an entire article about it. Thanks for the ammo, bro.
I will be using the term “Pro Studio” as a proper noun and in quotation marks for a very specific reason – “Pro Studios” (as this guy is referring) are their own entity.
I don’t want the term to be confused with the real professional studios that are out there dominating today’s world of pro audio. There is a huge difference between a “Pro Studio” and a pro studio.
Let me define what I believe a “Pro Studio” is.
“Pro Studio”: A studio that is owned and operated by a gearslut who thinks a “real studio” is one that invests large sums of money into gear and facilities before he has the clientele to back it up. The owner’s self worth is directly tied to his facilities and gear. Debt is his best friend.
Bottom line: Don’t be a “Pro Studio”. It is not very effective. Read on if you want to know why.
Adapt or Die: The Modern Reality
Good or bad, the internet has changed things in the music industry forever. Talk to anyone in the studio world that has been around for more than 15 years, and they will tell you that things will never go back to the way they were.
You have a simple choice: adapt or die.
This is not something exclusive to the music industry. Just look at how much Uber has devastated the taxi industry, or how much Airbnb and other short-term-rental websites are affecting the $500-billion hotel industry.
Technology has disrupted (and completely destroyed, in some cases) TONS of industries in the past. This is nothing new.
Anyone remember Blockbuster Video? They once had a chance to buy Netflix for $50 million. Now Blockbuster is bankrupt, and Netflix is worth $56 BILLION.
The only people that survive these massive disruptions are the ones that adapt to (and take advantage of) the rapid changes.
So let’s go back and look at our friend Richard’s quote.
Plug-ins put pro studios out of business. They are the reason why most people think they can do their recordings at home.”
This is partially correct. Yes, plugins are putting “Pro Studios” out of business. The change from expensive hardware to cheap software plugins is the reason why people CAN do their recordings at home (not just “think” they can).
In many cases, home studios are to putting out higher quality work than these “Pro Studios” that are stuck in their old ways. Adapt or die.
The Lean Home Studio: Profit First
Which would you rather be?
A.) A lean, mean, profitable home studio machine that makes smart use of your money (buying plugins instead of hardware, wherever it makes sense).
B.) A fat, bloated, struggling “Pro Studio” with tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars worth of pretty gear and facilities, and nothing but debt to show for it.
I’m not sure about you, but I’ll choose plugins over hardware any day of the week if it means I get to do what I love for a living. The old-school “build it and they will come” method is risky, ineffective, and dead.
Disclaimer: If you are a real pro studio with pretty gear and facilities and the income to back it, then I’m not referring to you. Keep doing what you’re doing.
But Wait, There’s More!
Let’s go back to our boy, Richard. He had more to say…
If you all want to know how to get a get an actual good tone…. Stop using plug-ins. Mic a class A amp with a 57 or royer r121, use a great preamp for that mic, use a great hardware compressor, then record into your daw with great converters. If you have to eq like crazy you’ve recorded a bad source….You really can’t skip any steps or cut any corners.” -Richard The Dick
First, let me just give him a virtual bitchslap for implying that you can’t get a good tone using plugins (some of the biggest pros mix in the box now).
Second, let’s break down the cost of what it takes to “get an actual good tone,” according to Richard the Dick.
class A amp – Vox AC30* – $1200
Microphone – Royer r121 – $1300
“Great” preamp for that mic – Chandler Limited TG2 – $2300
A “great” hardware compressor – Tube-Tech CL 1B – $3100
“Great” converters – Apogee Symphony I/O 16×16 – $4000
Grand Total: $11,900
*Note: Vox AC30 amps are technically AB class, but I’m going to assume that our friend Richard doesn’t know this.
Oh is that all it takes for a good tone?
This gearslut mindset is what’s putting “Pro Studio” out of business.
Not plugins.
I promise you that anyone who can create “an actual good tone” using this expensive gear will be able to create a comparable tone in the box for about 3% of the cost.
Instead of being bitter about “plugins putting pro studios out of business,” learn how make better use of your finances so you can lower your operating expenses and compete with all of us bastards running lean home studios.
You don’t need to spend $12,000 to get “an actual good tone” in your mixes.
I know guys that could wipe your ass with their free amp sim tones. I’m not kidding – I actually lurked the internet to find examples of his “Pro Studio” work, and it was exactly what you would expect from someone with this sort of scarcity mindset (It was bad).
I have never met a successful pro (or home) studio owner with a mindset like this…probably because most of those have died off by now.
Free Guide: How To Start And Run A Profitable Home Studio (With Less Than $3,000)
For those of you who are just starting out, or are thinking of starting your home studio, I made a free PDF to go along with this article.
It includes the 5 keys of bootstrapping (self-funding) your home studio. It also includes the specific gear list of what I would buy if I were to start my home studio from scratch today with a $3000 budget.
Click here to get “The Lean Home Studio” PDF sent to your inbox for free.
Downsizing Everything In Your Life (For Profit)
I’ll finish things off with an update about my studio.
I recently moved (aka downsized), which cut my expenses to $1500/mo. This includes all of my operating costs for doing business as well as my personal living expenses (including food).
Despite 2016 being my highest grossing year ever, I’ve managed to cut my expenses to the lowest I’ve had since living in my parent’s basement.
Why make this move?
I simply don’t buy shit my studio doesn’t need, and I don’t spend money that I don’t need to spend. I take emotion out of my business. I don’t confuse “nice to have” gear with “need to have” gear.
Now that my studio is only taking on mixing and mastering projects, a bedroom in a smaller house is all I need for a mixing space (no live room, and no wasted space for unnecessary band lodging).
I even have a roommate now because I’ve latched onto the idea of building wealth for the long haul, and I’m ok with putting off a “high roller” lifestyle today so I can focus on building wealth for tomorrow.
This isn’t just good advice for a lean home studio. This is how any single person in their 20’s should be living. Sacrificing now so you can build for your future (delayed gratification) is something the world seems to have forgotten.
Eventually I’ll start a separate blog for the other things I have going on in my life, but those ventures really have nothing to do with the studio, so I keep it off of here.
So what about you, personally. Yes, you.
What is your opinion of plugins putting “Pro Studios” out of business?
Do you think you should keep expenses low and “bootstrap” your studio?
Do you think you should take loans for your studio so you can expand quickly?
Do you buy a lot of gear?
How much did you spend getting your studio started?
Do you think I’m the dick here?
Let me know in the comments! I read and reply to pretty much everything.Even with four immunity wins under his belt, a strong enough relationship that he was able to earn an idol in the form of the season’s mysterious Legacy Advantage, and a clear dedication to providing his fellow castaways with fish and other forms of nourishment, Ken McNickle walked away from the Final Tribal Council of Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X without earning a single vote.
Needless to say, it was a disappointing outcome for Ken, who competed on Survivor in order to provide a better life for his daughter. And while the Ken who graced the red carpet after the Survivor finale was able to crack jokes and wax poetic about his outlook on life, the man was visibly unhappy with the end result — especially with the notion that winner Adam Klein was responsible for convincing Ken to vote out his closest ally, David.
With that said, here’s Ken to clear the air on how he feels he played the game, why he believes there was more strategy to his actions than many people believe, how he arrived at the decision to vote out David, the biggest reason why he’s disappointed he didn’t win the money, and more.
Wigler: How are you, Ken? You’ve been better?
Ken: Nothing some whiskey and a good woman can’t fix, you know?
Wigler: It’s a tough Tribal Council for you, getting through it with no votes at the end. How tough was that night?
Ken: “****.” Is that a good way to describe how I felt? You probably can’t print that. Maybe you can put four asterisks in there.
Wigler: Consider it done.
Ken: But I have my family here. My brother’s here. My sister, two of my best friends, a good woman, and some whiskey waiting for me afterwards. So it’s one of those things you put into perspective. I may have just lost something big, but one of my favorite songs and one of my favorite lines: “I would rather be working for a paycheck than waiting to win the lottery.” And that’s it, man. I came from nothing. I’ve never really had anything, and anything I’ve ever had, I’ve earned. Yeah, it would have been great to walk away with this check. And honestly, the sad thing is, every dollar I have that doesn’t go to my daughter goes to helping the homeless. It goes to the volunteer work and the nonprofit I’m developing and have been working on for the last year and a half. I honestly feel bad because I’m thinking, how many more guys aren’t going to have shoes? How many guys aren’t going to have sleeping bags? I’m thinking of all the things I would have done with the money, and thinking about where it’s going to go now instead. That’s hard.
Wigler: I would love to hear your philosophy on Survivor and your approach to the game. It was often described in terms of honor and loyalty and staying true to who stays true to you…
Ken: But also busting your ass and fighting, you know? Paul, I had no problem sending him home. David at the beginning of the game was nervous, and I worked my ass off to make sure he felt secure and confident. Same thing with CeCe. Talking to Jess and getting her to come over to our side instead of theirs. I busted my ass for that. I worked a lot. They didn’t show as much of that as I would have liked. People are like: “Oh, he’s catching fish and he’s nice to people!” It was a great edit and the producers are absolutely amazing, and I feel honored to be on the show. But I wish some more of my strategic moves had been on there. I had people coming up after, members of our jury onstage, who said: “I had no idea you were behind Paul going home. I had no idea it was you and Dave working Lucy. I had no idea you were faking a shoulder injury.” I turned my shirt into a sling at one point and I was walking around moaning and groaning because I hear Taylor and Jay the day before talking about me and Chris as the two biggest physical threats, and how we need to go. So the next day when I come back home from the challenge, I have my arm in a makeshift sling, and I walked past them literally moaning: “Ugh, I’m going to go take a nap in the hammock.” No more than 15 minutes later, I hear Taylor saying: “Chris is a beast, but Ken? That dude’s all busted up. He’s not a problem.” And who beat Taylor on the night he went home? And who won three of the last five challenges? But, you know, I grew up in a small town in the middle of Kansas where you’re taught to be humble and you’re taught to be soft-spoken about things. You’re not taught to stand on top of a mountain and go: “Look at me! I want points on my resumé!”
Wigler: Did that drive you nuts? The resumé talk?
Ken: Absolutely! Absolutely. (Long pause and intense stare.) ABSOLUTELY. (Laughs.) Are you kidding me? Hell yes. And that’s the ego saying: “Everybody look at me! I want validation!” It’s not what I was doing. But I knew pre-merge I had to bust my ass to make sure I went over with an alliance and not be in the minority. I knew once I got over there I had to fly under the radar for a little while, because as someone at 6’2″ and 200 pounds, charismatic when I need to be, and an articulate guy, I knew I’d be a huge threat. The first day, the Millennials and Michelle were talking: “I have to get him out.” So what did I do? I flew under the radar for a little while and I was perceived differently. Now that they’ve watched the season and they’ve seen what was actually happening behind the scenes, they’ve talked to me: “Had I known, tonight would have been different.”
Wigler: You and David had such a compelling relationship…
Ken: Who, this guy? (Pointing at David, who is doing an interview right next to us.) I f—ing love him. I genuinely love the guy. I do life coach work and I do massage therapy. Yes, I do modeling, but I don’t consider myself a model. My wellness work is what drives me, and my nonprofit. I work with people all the time who feel inadequate and as though they’re lacking something. It creates a lack of self respect and appreciation for themselves. I see the beauty in people. I look at someone like him and I want him to see the same thing that I see. Seeing that, I wanted to build him up, not just for the sake of our game if he continues to move forward with me, but also just because he’s a good human being. I hope and I pray that Dave realizes who he really is. He’s not that shy and inadequate and nervous and twitchy kid. He’s a beast. He’s a healthy human being with a heart of gold who’s going to make some woman really, really happy, because all of the cavemen running around who can’t talk about their emotions? That might be cool when you’re in your 20s, but when you get into your 30s, women are like: “I’m tired of the idiots. Get me the nice guy.” David is the epitome of a nice guy.
Wigler: Talk me through the choice to get rid of David, then. It’s a huge decision.
Ken: Wait, don’t you mean Adam convincing me to vote Dave out? That’s how it really went down, right?
Wigler: Okay, well tell me your side of it! How did it go down from your perspective? Was it a late call to vote out David, or had you known for some time that you would eventually have to vote him out?
Ken: I knew that. The thing I struggled with, especially the closer we got, was that I was going to have to do that. But it’s like life. In business, you can cut everybody’s throats and work your way to the top and have nothing but a bloody trail of bodies behind you, or you can bust your ass and be a good person and know that maybe every once in a while you’re going to have to make a difficult decision
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logic of the gift. Plants, like so many other deconstructive memes, are "resistant to idealization" (13).
Marder's signature methodological move (and its discontents) can perhaps be unpacked from this single sentence: "Plant thinking must perform a delicate balancing act of avoiding both crass empiricism and metaphysical excess -- but to do so, we ought to turn for guidance to the Derridean notion of iterability" (116). To paraphrase (and without wondering too much about the "must" and the "ought"), plants are singular, unique forms of life, strongly resistant to philosophical thematization. To demonstrate that, however, we turn to a familiar theme from recent continental thinking -- a concept that, on the face of it at least, has very little to do with plants or plant life (though a great deal to do with weak thought's well-known allergy toward "totalization").
So, in addition to the "vegetal différance" and "plants' proto-writing" (112) associated with Derrida, we're told that plant thinking "bears a close resemblance to the 'thousand plateaus'" (84) of Deleuze and Guattari. At the same time, plant thinking is "formally reminiscent of Heidegger's conclusions apropos of Dasein" (95), with "the vegetal mode of ec-static existence, past throwness, commencing with the literal throw of the seed, and future projection, bespeaking the plant's growth or non-conscious intentionality" (117): "To recap: vegetal indifference is ontological, though perhaps not ontic" (134). We're to understand "vegetal singularities, like the Spinozan potentia" (183) while simultaneously recalling that "vegetal existence belongs to the realm of the [Levinasian] 'otherwise than being'" (152). Not to mention that "the seed's singular plurality, on which Jean-Luc Nancy elaborates his own thinking of community, thus further specifies the sense of'vegetal democracy'" (89).
In short, while it seems true enough (to recall the work of Butler and Brown with which we began) that "the post-metaphysical task of de-idealization finds an ally in the oppressed life of plants" (126), a rehearsal of those post-metaphysical tasks ends up devouring the specificity of plant life in Marder's work. Which is maybe forgivable in a work of philosophy, but his encyclopedic methodology tends to obscure a deeper, more sustained exploration of the unique roles of vegetable life within the recent continental philosophy that is his primary concern. For example Derrida's Glas, an incredibly complicated work deeply invested in the question of plant life, is treated by Marder in a paragraph here and there, as are Deleuze and Guattari's rhizomatics, as well Heidegger's strategic elision of "the plant-character of plant life" in his infamous 1929-30 seminars (where the stone is said to be worldless, the animal poor in world, and man world-building: what happened to the plant?).[3]
Given Marder's sense that "the emancipation of the flower will not come to pass without plant-thinking piercing through layer after layer of the idealist repression weighing upon it" (148), plant thinking here seems more concerned with combating a totalizing human form of "idealist repression" than anything else. Or at least the concerns of vegetal life "itself" come to look suspiciously like the concerns of the contemporary continental philosophy proseminar. Perhaps we would do well to recall, in this context, the words of well-known plant lovers Gene and Dean Ween: "Don't believe the florist when he tells you that the roses are free."[4]
But as I said, Marder is quite successful at making the case for the philosophical abjection of vegetal life in the West, so you would think that this extension of animal ethics discussions to plant life would be warmly welcomed within Animal Studies. And while I certainly hope that it will be, Marder's work has already raised eyebrows in that community. For example Gary Francione, the co-editor of Columbia's "Critical Perspectives on Animals" series (in which this book appears) is having none of it. In a pre-publication debate with Marder, Francione insists that "There is... not one shred of evidence about which I am aware that plants suffer or have any intentional states," so they have no "interests" and are not entitled to ethical recognition or any form of "subjectivity." Perhaps more contentiously, Francione adds:
I should note in the 30 years I have been doing this work [in Animal Studies], when I discuss this issue with people who are not vegans, the conversation almost invariably turns to a sudden solicitude for the 'interests' of the vegetables on our plates. We both know that the primary audience for your book will not be vegans who want to ponder whether they are under-inclusive ethically, but those who claim that we should skip over the interests of the cow and worry about whether the carrot had a tough harvesting season. If... this enterprise is really about putting cows and corn in the same group, then it would most certainly be an attempt to undermine veganism.[5]
Cary Wolfe's Before the Law ends with a similarly dismissive sense of skepticism about plants' claims to the hard-fought ethical gains of animal studies. He calls such sentiments a "cop out" and a "refusal to take seriously the differences between different forms of life -- sunflowers versus bonobos."[6] And I would note that both Francione and Wolfe are incredibly kind compared to the vitriolic fare to be found in the comment lines under the newspaper blog posts that Marder has authored on "plant intelligence."[7]
So it does seem that there is a contentious and presumably productive debate brewing here concerning plant and animal life, and a transversal discussion about ethics and vegetarianism. I should note in closing that, given the critiques Marder had to deal with before publication, he here has surprisingly little to say about the ethics of eating or otherwise killing the plant subjectivity that he's worked so hard to put on the ethical map -- other than to say that "plant-thinking does not oppose the use of fruit, roots, and leaves for human nourishment" (184) and his advising that we "eat like a plant!" (184). Which means what, you ask -- Dirt for lunch, again?
In answering, Marder returns once more to familiar nostrums from the seminar room:
Eating like a plant does not entail consuming only inorganic materials but welcoming the other, forming a rhizome with it, and turning oneself into the passage for the other without violating or dominating it, without endeavoring to swallow up its very otherness in one's corporeal and psychic interiority... We welcome the vegetal other when we avow its otherness, its irreducibility to a source of food or profit; we enter into a rhizomatic relation with it when we eat locally grown fruit and vegetables. (184-85)
I understand why many humans prefer buying green beans from the farmer's market to purchasing a can of wax beans from Wal-Mart, but I'm not sure why it makes any difference to the "vegetal other". Likewise, I can't see how the intentions or feelings of the human consumer (whether our "psychic interiority" trends toward totalizing or welcoming when we eat) can make much difference to the things that we're eating?
In the end, though, we owe Marder (along with a series of recent books in what we might call "critical plant studies," especially Matthew Hall's Plants as Persons and Richard Doyle's fine Darwin's Pharmacy) a great debt for widening the contemporary philosophical discussion of life and ethics, taking it into the plant kingdom. Who knows where these provocations will lead? It may be that in the future the salad bar will no longer offer an unproblematic ethical refuge from the rest of the menu at the steakhouse.We are on the cusp of the most momentous vote in living memory and, regardless of the outcome of Thursday's poll, Scotland and the rest of the UK will never be the same again.
September 18, 2014, is our date with destiny and, when we cast our votes, we will be setting the course of history for this country and beyond.
Since the timing of the referendum was announced, The Herald has not only presented the arguments from both sides, it has also subjected the claims of each to rigorous and impartial analysis. Unlike the legion of Private Frazers who have raised their tremulous voices recently in a chorus of doom, we reject the notion that independence would be a catastrophe for Scotland. Scotland is already a successful country and could come to be so, in time, with independence.
Yes Scotland's campaign, brimming over with optimism, has awakened in Scots a slumbering desire for a country that is better, stronger and fairer. Short of winning independence, that will be the Yes campaign's enduring achievement. But the supporters of independence do not hold the monopoly on caring passionately about Scotland and wanting change to help bring about a more just, equal and prosperous society.
The question is whether that vision is best pursued as part of the UK or outside it. We keenly understand the appeal of independence. Who would not want to believe that, by putting a cross on a ballot paper, Scotland could be set on a sure path to becoming a country where poverty, inequality and unpopular governments are vanquished?
But, amid all the excitement and hope generated by the prospect of wholesale change, it is important to recognise that aspiration, assertion and belief in the benefits of independence are not enough.
Such a huge, irrevocable, decision about Scotland's future must be accompanied by a realistic assessment of the risks and problems associated with it, so as not inadvertently to condemn Scotland, and particularly the poorest members of our society, to a less prosperous and more unstable future. That, surely, is the responsibility of every one of us. Some will choose to opt for independence regardless, and we respect their decision, but it is our view that the case has not been proven beyond reasonable doubt.
The hard truth is that independence carries considerable risks with the promise of uncertain benefits. Instead of taking such a gamble with Scotland's wellbeing, our nation has the chance to seek transformative change by pursuing greater autonomy within the UK.
We do not endorse the status quo, which has fallen drastically out of step with Scotland's needs and aspirations, but stand with the people of Scotland in demanding much-strengthened autonomy; something the main pro-UK parties have a profound responsibility to deliver.
It is time to look at the realities facing Scotland. The UK is a successful political union and one of the most successful democracies in the world. It stands more firmly in the face of global economic crosswinds than smaller nations such as Ireland, which was so badly battered by the recent financial crisis. A Scotland that stays in the UK will continue to enjoy the economic and social benefits, such as the certainty of an ongoing currency union backed by political union. That is what Scotland turns its back on by opting for independence.
This newspaper has been a passionate advocate of Home Rule for Scotland and continues to be so. In 1979, prior to the vote on a Scottish Assembly, the then Glasgow Herald argued robustly for a Yes vote, while in 1997, The Herald did the same in the Scottish Parliament referendum, declaring that "for too long we have had the excuse of blaming all Scotland's ills on others". In 2014, we believe Scotland's journey as part of the UK is far from over.
Devolution has been a success. It has allowed for progressive, innovative, government that seeks distinctively Scottish solutions to Scottish issues, but our confident government and nation are rightly straining against the limitations of that arrangement and are ready to take on more responsibility. Devolution has made it harder for the Scottish Government to "blame all Scotland's ills on others", but has not ended the habit. Greater responsibility for raising the money Scotland spends would make simplistic Scottish Government attacks on the UK much harder. That must be the next step forward.
Polling evidence has suggested that, if greater autonomy for Scotland had been an option on the referendum ballot paper all along, it would probably have won the day. Achieving that goal could satisfy many on both sides of what has been a highly divisive debate. The attractions of greater autonomy for Scotland have largely been lost in this campaign, however, partly because the impressive pro-independence camp has dominated the theme of positive change and partly because the pro-UK campaign has failed to sell the considerable benefits of enhanced devolution.
In Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, Yes Scotland has had two of the UK's most able politicians and the campaign has energised Scottish grassroots politics like nothing else in a generation. It has achieved this with relentless optimism, wreathing itself in hope. The Yes campaign has allowed disparate groups - socialists and business leaders, right-wing advocates of small government and left-wing environmentalists - to project all their hopes onto it, even though many of these are mutually incompatible. It has, in short, sought to cast a Yes vote as a vote of confidence in Scotland.
But in promoting its manifesto for Scottish independence, a Panglossian emphasis on the best-case scenario has at times strained its credibility. On oil revenues, entering a currency union, achieving EU membership promptly and smoothly, securing affordable rates of interest for borrowing on the international markets and its capacity to withstand global economic currents, the case for independence has been built upon a string of ideal outcomes.
Even the other party in this great divorce, the Government at Westminster, would, it is assumed, act at all times during separation negotiations in accordance with the Scottish Government's wishes. The currency union is just one major hurdle.
This approach has inevitably produced a clamour of dissent. A formidable line-up of independent experts, including think tanks, academics, leading oil industry figures and the Governor of the Bank of England, has contested the reliability of these assumptions. Unfortunately, a tactical decision appears to have been made by Yes Scotland to portray most objections as contemptible negativity or the pessimism of the fearties. A sense of realism and healthy scepticism has been derided, especially in the latter stages of the campaign.
Antonio Gramsci, the Italian philosopher and politician, famously advocated pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will. The Yes campaign, understandably, has emphasised the latter but effectively ignored the former.
Meanwhile, Better Together has struggled to find its momentum. It has failed repeatedly to put forward a positive vision of the future. In fairness, however, the pro-UK campaign has one major disadvantage, in having to serve three political masters with three divergent blueprints for the future of Scotland. With no agreed legislative framework to put before the Scottish people, it has found itself in the role of a corporate marketing department without a product to sell.
This has had serious consequences. The erosion of Better Together's lead over the last month betrays a dire lack of cohesion, trust perhaps, among the three main pro-UK parties when it comes to handing over the extensive extra powers that Scots want.
The Liberal Democrats and even the once devo-sceptic Conservatives have demonstrated their readiness to meet voters' aspirations with far-reaching proposals on fiscal devolution but Labour, fearing the diminishing relevance of their 40 Scottish MPs, has shown greater timidity.
It is critically important all three parties, and Labour in particular, show greater ambition and determination to implement a substantial expansion of Scottish Parliament powers. The proposals of the LibDems and Conservatives are a good potential starting point but Labour's simply do not go far enough. A radical reassignment of tax-varying powers and elements of welfare policy are a widespread public expectation in the event of a No vote. What cannot be allowed to emerge is a constitutional settlement for Scotland that panders to that lowest common denominator, put together in a backroom deal at Westminster.
This plan must be made in Scotland, for Scotland, with the full participation of Scottish civic society. Better Together's proposed timetable for change, with legislation being brought forward by January, is desirable, but a superficial exercise in public consultation will only undermine the process. It will be The Herald's mission to harry the pro-UK parties every step of the way, to ensure they deliver the devolution Scotland wants and expects.
To them, we say this: The Herald backs Scotland staying within the UK at this stage. But fudge this process, stitch it up and fail to deliver far-reaching further devolution, and make no mistake: you will be guaranteeing another referendum - one that you will lose, and deserve to lose.
Greater autonomy for Scotland would be best achieved within a federal United Kingdom. A federal structure would create less antagonistic relationships between all the constituent parts of the UK.
A UK constitutional convention should therefore be established, separately from the process of greater Scottish devolution, to consider issues such as the setting up of an English parliament (answering the West Lothian Question), reform of the House of Lords, greater power to the nations and English regions, and renaming the Bank of England.
Why not just circumvent such questions, it might be asked, by voting for independence? A Scotland with much-enhanced autonomy, within a flourishing UK, offers a surer route to meeting Scots' aspirations than do the uncertainties of independence.
Even if a currency union with the rest of the UK were possible - and the three main pro-UK parties have ruled it out - an independent Scotland would, as no less an authority than the Governor of the Bank of England has indicated, have to accept unwanted constraints on borrowing, tax and spending, imposed on it externally and without democratic mandate. How this would allow it to deliver the expectations of many Yes supporters for more generous public spending has not been explained.
The alternative of using the pound outwith a currency union is still less appealing. The Scottish Government would have to build up massive currency reserves to guarantee bank deposits and act as a credible lender of last resort for its indigenous financial services industry.
If Scotland carried through on its threat to walk away from its share of UK debt, it would possibly have to borrow at punitive interest rates. Scotland's reliance on one volatile commodity, North Sea oil, would subject the economy of an independent Scotland to greater uncertainty.
With a much larger and more diverse tax base, the UK Government is in a stronger position to provide economic stability, with Scotland's employment rate holding up rather better since the recession than that of the other nations of the UK.
A great many Scots are understandably attracted by promises that an independent Scotland would be fairer and more equal, but it is political and economic decisions that make a difference to levels of poverty. The SNP position going into this referendum, with a tax-cutting agenda and an uncertain economic plan, offers no clear path to reducing poverty; indeed, if the "best-case scenario" failed, it would be the poorest who suffered the most.
Scotland could go it alone. The question is whether it is in Scotland's best interests to do so at present.
The Herald is the world's oldest national newspaper in the English language. In its 231-year existence, Scotland's status within the Union has evolved significantly.
At the time of The Herald's founding in 1783, Scots were formally represented at Westminster by MPs elected by a paltry number of voters. A century later, the Scottish Office and the post of Secretary for Scotland were created.
The process of change has accelerated since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1997, with Holyrood achieving further powers in the 2012 Scotland Act. The next step would be equally momentous: much greater fiscal devolution and powers of decision-making in areas such as welfare.
Substantive autonomy for Scotland's parliament and government could unify Scotland. Such autonomy is not merely an aspiration: it is a demand.The Falcons have sold personal seat licenses for 54 percent of the club seats in their new stadium, generating $77 million in contracted revenue, a vice president of the firm hired by the team to manage the PSL sales program told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today.
That would mean the Falcons have contracts on approximately 4,050 of the roughly 7,500 club-seat PSLs and that 3,450 club seats remain available.
Michael Drake, vice president of Legends Global Sales, also told the AJC that 65 percent of the most expensive PSLs have been sold. Those are for lower-bowl seats between the 45-yard lines on both sides of the field and are priced at $45,000 apiece. Drake said 94 percent of the $45,000 PSLs along the home sideline have been sold.
Since January, the Falcons have been selling club-seats PSLs at four price points — $45,000, $20,000, $15,000 and $10,000.
Drake said 98 percent of the $10,000 PSLs, located on the mezzanine level, have been sold.
RELATED: Falcons plan more PSL prices, from $500 to $5,500.It looks like America’s military dominance on the world stage is about to face its most serious test in decades, as Russia and China appear ready to physically challenge Obama’s controversial plan to bomb Syria.
Agence France-Presse via Yahoo! News reports three Russian warships crossed Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait Thursday en route to the Eastern Mediterranean near the coast of Syria. Based on a diagram posted by Zero Hedge, Russia now has six vessels in the region versus 13 US ships and two US submarines.
If that’s not enough, Russian news source Telegrafist reported Wednesday that at least one Chinese vessel is en route to the region. However, it appears – at least publicly- China is only there to “observe” the situation, although it’s clearly sending a message for the US to back off.
Piling on to the drama, based on Zero Hedge’s diagram, the UK and France – both US allies, already have a naval presence in the region. The UK has a submarine while France has a ship in the Gulf.
All of this is over an alleged chemical attack by Syrian President Assad’s regime, which has yet to be proven remotely true. Of course, there are likely underlying issues contributing to the crisis, including the US’ ever-present desire to remove the said leader.
Is Obama really willing to risk igniting World War III over this?
Photo credit: Flickr/desomurchu archive galleryAdapted from Trinity Church Wall Street
Trinity Church Wall Street has unveiled the design for a new building at 74 Trinity Place in the Financial District. The multifaceted design reflects nearly two years of engagement with the greater Lower Manhattan community about the new building.
“Our building is a statement of Trinity’s dedication to serving the people of this community, this neighborhood, and the city of New York for a fourth century,” said the Rev. William Lupfer, rector of Trinity Church. “This parish center is a reflection of our core values and commitment to hospitality.”
Designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects as a ministry and community hub for the centuries-old Trinity Church Wall Street, the building will incorporate numerous functions into a single structure that will help meet the present and future priorities of Trinity’s growing, active congregation and provide mission-driven services to the residents of Lower Manhattan.
Featuring open public spaces and multipurpose rooms, the center will connect workers, families, young people and neighbors to Trinity’s faith community, events and programming, and support for those in need.
Located directly behind Trinity Church between Thames Street and Rector Street, 74 Trinity Place will include 26 floors totaling 310,000 square feet. Trinity Church Parish Center will form the base of the building, the first nine floors totaling approximately 150,000 square feet that will house gathering spaces, an education center, a gymnasium, gallery and performance areas, family and youth spaces, and staff offices. Above the nine-story base will be a 160,000-square-foot commercial office tower.
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Contact | Covenant | Facebook | RSS | Subscribe | TwitterA proposal by Queensland to host rugby union’s first state of origin game in next year’s mid-season Super Rugby break is reportedly being considered by NSW.
But the clash would likely be minus Australia’s best players, who would be on international duties during the June Test window.
Administrators are concerned the code is losing momentum at a crucial time during the crowded winter sports schedule, when the provincial competition comes to a month-long halt.
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“All of a sudden we come to a dead stop at a time when rival codes are building to the high point of their seasons,” Queensland Rugby Union boss Richard Barker told News Corp Australia.
“Let’s play a state of origin match at Ballymore. It’s a rugby-owned ground, so rugby would get all the proceeds.”
The Waratahs are open to the concept, but chief executive Andrew Hore expressed a need to liaise with the Australian Rugby Union and Sydney’s Shute Shield clubs.
“We applaud the initiative and we’re certainly open for discussion,” Hore told News Corp.
“An origin game does highlight the fact that the vast majority of professional rugby players in this country come from NSW and Queensland and sometimes it doesn’t hurt to mention that.
“There is no question, too, that we are looking at the June window very carefully.”
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Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson said the concept could have significant benefits for Australian rugby.
“The problem we need to solve in Australia is getting enough rugby,” the New Zealander told Sky Sports Radio on Friday.
“That’s what the administrators are talking about – in that period where Super Rugby takes a break and the international games take over – is finding some really relevant that people will want to watch.
“I’d be definitely one who would look at it.”registered its sharpest fall in four years with the (IIP) contracting 3.2 per cent in November, government data showed on Tuesday. Earlier, Nikkei's Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) had fallen to a 28-month low in December.
Taken together, these key macroeconomic indicators suggest softening industrial growth in the second half of the current financial year. Output is likely to suffer further in the coming months, as the full impact of the Chennai floods plays out.
What is especially worrying in the data is that capital goods, considered a proxy of investment demand, contracted sharply by 24.4 per cent, which suggests no sustained pick-up in investments. The latest numbers come against the backdrop of growing clamour for the central government to deviate from its fiscal consolidation road map in order to boost public investments.
ALSO READ: Monetary policy stance needs review
Separately, the (CPI) rose to 5.61 per cent in December, up from 5.41 per cent in November on the back of rising food prices. Pulses, the prime culprit, rose 46 per cent year-on-year. With rabi sowing as of the first week of January remaining lower than last year, inflation is likely to continue in the same range, though with an upward bias. This reduces the scope for further loosening of monetary policy.
The latest numbers show that the manufacturing sector contracted by 4.4 per cent in November. But, what is especially alarming is that 17 of the 22 sub-sectors contracted in November, up from five in the previous month.
While the consumer durable goods segment grew by 12.5 per cent in November, it was in large part aided by a negative base effect, though there are some signs of demand, especially in urban areas picking up.
Going forward though the base effect is also likely to complicate matters further. According to CARE, given the high base effect, "the manufacturing sector has to clock growth of 14 per cent on a month-on-month basis, i.e., over November to even maintain zero growth in December 2015."
On the inflation front, food inflation edged up to 6.4 per cent in December, from six per cent in November. Core inflation though stayed unchanged at 5.4 per cent for the fifth consecutive month. According to analysts, inflation is likely to edge upwards with the low base effect withering out and with rabi sowing lower than last year's levels. Currently, sowing of wheat and oilseeds has declined 5.9 per cent and 3.8 per cent on-year, respectively, while sowing of pulses has dropped 0.3 per cent.Many Americans have not heard of the commons except in connection with the word “tragedy.” We’ve all heard the famous tragedy of the commons parable. It holds that any shared resource invariably gets over-exploited and ruined. Since the “tragedy meme” appeared in a famous 1968 essay by Garrett Hardin, it has been drummed into the minds of undergraduates in economics, sociology and political science classes. It serves as a secular catechism to propagandize the virtues of private property and so-called free markets.
Thanks to the tragedy smear, most people don’t realize that the commons is in fact a success story – that it is a durable artifact of human history, that it is a way to effectively manage shared resources, and that it lies at the heart of a growing political and cultural movement.
I have been a part of this movement for the past fifteen years, writing books, blogging, organizing conferences, giving talks, writing strategy papers, working with partners and trying to raise money. On this journey, I have discovered that the commons contains vast worlds within worlds, most of which are invisible to the Harvard-trained policy wonks who dominate Washington and the neoliberal economists from the great universities.
The commons is in fact alive and well in countless manifestations. It includes millions of open source software communities that have created Linux and infrastructure that powers the Internet; tens of thousands of Wikipedians who write and edit in more than 150 languages; and scientists and academics who contribute to more than 9,000 open access scholarly journals. The Internet amounts to one of the great hosting infrastructures for the creation of commons.
The commons can be seen in irrigation collectives in Latin America; in farming ejidos in Mexico; and in coastal fisheries off Chile. The commons is alive and well in community forestry systems in Nepal, participatory budgeting systems in Brazil, and stakeholder cooperatives in Canada. The commons is hard at work in seed-sharing communities in India and community gardens in cities around the world. It is powering the “collaborative consumption” that lets people share cars, apartments and tools. The commons lies at the heart of indigenous cultures as well.
You could say that the commons constitutes the great invisible sector of the economy and human society. Or as Illich would have put it, the commons is vernacular culture at work. It’s important to stress that the commons is not a resource. It’s a resource plus a community plus that community’s particular rules and norms for managing the resource. You could say that the commons is a socio-ecological-political-cultural paradigm and worldview.
Let me also stress that the commons movement is not a utopian or ideological project. Nor is it about conventional politics or public policy. The commons is mostly about building working systems for meeting everyday needsoutside of the market and state. It is practically minded and reality-based. It is a grassroots, do-it-yourself, take-charge-of-our-future kind of movement. Commoners are determined to open up new social and political spaces in which people can make their own rules, negotiate their own governance, and craft solutions that are tailored to their local circumstances.
It should be obvious by now why Ivan Illich was passionate about the commons. It embodies so many of his core ethical, ecological and political concerns. It serves as a paradigmatic response – a counterpoint – to the pathologies of modern markets, government, science and large institutions. He understood how the commons could foster a different, more spiritually wholesome pattern of life – and perhaps how it might provoke a new sort of political struggle to achieve it.
You could say that Illich was engaged in a life-long struggle to find a new vocabulary, a new language and logic, that could express how commons work and why they are important. In his great essay, “Silence as a Commons,” Illich explained:
People called commons those parts of the environment for which customary law exacted specific forms of community respect. People called commons that part of the environment which lay beyond their own thresholds and outside of their own possessions, to which, however, they had recognized claims of usage, not to produce commodities but to provide for the subsistence of their households. The customary law which humanized the environment by establishing the commons was usually unwritten. It was unwritten law not only because people did not care to write it down, but because what it protected was a reality much too complex to fit into paragraphs.
Illich approached the commons not as a social scientist or anthropologist, or as a theorist or economist in any strict sense. He spoke as a radical Christian searching for embodiments of the divine in human affairs. He therefore spoke as a real human being – living, breathing, passionate, idiosyncratic, present – and not as an academic mandarin encased in an armor of abstract analysis. He was really more than an analyst. He was a witness…..and that’s precisely why his writings still resonate today – because we remain dangerously entangled and confused by a culture of modernity from which there seems to be no escape.
I think that this was the predicament from which Illich hoped to liberate himself – and us. It is my immodest belief that the commons offers some important pathways to continue Illich’s work. I’d like to review how so many of his ideas are quietly being realized by the contemporary commons movement.
The commons draws its enduring strength from what Illich called the “vernacular domain,” the realm of everyday life in which people create and negotiate their own sense of things – how they learn about the world, how they find meaning and spirituality, how they manage the resources they love and depend upon. You could call the vernacular domain “the street.” As Trent Schroyer puts it in his book, Beyond Western Economics:
The vernacular space is the sensibility and rootedness that emerges from shaping one’s own space within the commons associations of local-regional reciprocity. It is the way in which local life has been conducted throughout most of history and even today in a significant proportion of subsistence- and communitarian-oriented communities. It is also central to those places and spaces where people are struggling to achieve regeneration and social restorations against the forces of economic globalization.
Unfortunately, the great, unacknowledged scandal of our times is the enclosure of such spaces. Modern capitalism and its bureaucracies are determined to decontruct commons and convert them into (putatively) rational, efficient markets. Enclosure is the means by which to convert the collective into the private; the subjective into the objective; and the local and particular into the global and universal. This process represents a profound dispossession of our humanity and of vernacular culture.
In a famous chapter in his book Shadow Works, Illich described how Spain in the late 15th century became the first nation-state to develop a formal grammar – a contrived “mother tongue” – that deliberately attempted to wipe out the diversity of local and regional vernacular languages. Power needed to consolidate and defend itself. Localized diversity represented a lurking if not serious threat to centralized power. The development of a formal dialect of power was the daring solution.
As Illich wrote:
Dependence on formal teaching of the mother tongue is the paradigm for all other dependencies created in an age of commodity-defined existence. The general framework implied here is that every attempt to substitute a universal commodity for a vernacular activity “has led, not to equality, but to a hierarchical modernization of poverty”….Step by step the war against subsistence has defined as commodities what was essential for living communities, and in each case has resulted in new hierarchies and new forms of domination.
Thus the war against subsistence was begun. (Subsistence must be understood not as bare and brutish survival, but as a sustainable life outside of the market order.) Just as the Catholic Church proceeded to monopolize, regiment and institutionalize the realm of the spiritual – insisting that professional priests and church structures are needed to attain salvation – so the state, too, began to see the advantages of colonizing vernacular life. And that, crudely put, is the history of the 19th and 20th Centuries (and continuing today, of course).
The point of enclosure is to undermine our sovereignty as intelligent people capable of self-determination. The point of enclosure is to de-skill us. The point is to take away the infrastructure and tools that we need to emancipate ourselves. The point is to denigrate the vernacular and collective, and to shift attention and allegiances to the contrived mother tongue of Power – a project now directed by what I call the “market/state.”
Enclosure is not an abstraction. It’s the great, unacknowledged scourge of our time. Illich spoke of a profound enclosure in his native land of Dalmatia when the electronic loudspeaker was introduced. “Up to that day,” he said, “all men and women had spoken with more or less equally powerful voices. Henceforth this would change. Henceforth the access to the microphone would determine whose voice shall be magnified. Silence now ceased to be in the commons; it became a resource for which loudspeakers compete. Language itself was transformed thereby from a local commons into a national resource for communication…. Unless you have access to a loudspeaker, you now are silenced.”
The classic paradigm of enclosure is the collusion between the English aristocracy and Parliament in seizing village pastures, forests and farmlands in order to convert them into market resources. Commoners were forced into cities to become beggars, shanty-dwellers and exploited wage-slaves – characters in a Charles Dickens novel.
This is more or less what’s happening today in Africa and parts of Latin America and Asia. International investors and national governments are now buying up farmlands and forests on a massive scale, at discount prices, in collusion with host governments. Traditional communities that have grown and harvested their own food for generations as a matter of custom (ah, but without property deeds!) are being thrown off their lands so that large multinational corporations and investors can take them. The basic goal for national governments to secure a geo-political advantage; to feed their populations at another nation’s expense; or simply to leave the land idle and make a speculative killing.
Today’s globalized markets are driving countless enclosures, privatizing and commoditizing everything with some shred of marketable value:
Biotech companies and universities now own one-fifth of the human genome. While the US Supreme Court recently struck down patents for human genes, biotech companies remain eligible to patent many other lifeforms.
Mathematical algorithms can now be owned if they are embedded in software and supposedly serve a novel commercial function.
McDonald’s claims a trademark in the prefix “Mc,” so that you can’t name your restaurant McSushi or McVegan or your hotel McSleep.
The American music licensing body ASCAP once demanded that hundreds of summer camps for boys and girls pay a blanket “performance license” for singing copyrighted songs around the campfire. These are not exceptional cases, mind you.
A surging nano-technology industry is developing synthetic
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this proposal. After all, this does run counter to several belief systems, as well as introduces a subject that many parents may not feel particularly comfortable discussing with their child.
Then again, social justice jihadis rarely care about anything except their narrative. They don't care if this will present transgenderism as "cool" and thus encourage children to believe they're something they aren't. They don't care if this runs counter to anyone's faith or personal beliefs. All that matters is that the narrative is served.
As for the lack of curricula covering "the wide range of individual uniqueness" in the LGBTQWTFBBQ community (seriously, they keep adding letters and it's starting to get hard to keep up), bear in mind that studies indicate something like three percent of the population identifies as LGBT. Additionally, if we're going to present every possible permutation of "individual uniqueness" for study, then we'll never have time to educate students on anything else. After all, everyone is unique.President Donald Trump. REUTERS: Kevin Lamarque Ten days before Hurricane Harvey descended upon Texas on Friday, wreaking havoc and causing widespread flooding, President Donald Trump signed an executive order revoking a set of regulations that would have made federally funded infrastructure less vulnerable to flooding.
The Obama-era rules, which had not yet gone into effect, would have required the federal government to take into account the risk of flooding and sea-level rise as a result of climate change when constructing new infrastructure and rebuilding after disasters.
Experts are predicting that Harvey — the most powerful storm to hit the US since 2004 — will cost Texas between $30 billion and $100 billion in damage.
And in the coming days, Congress will be called upon to send billions of federal dollars to help with the state's recovery and rebuilding efforts.
But because of Trump's rollback of President Barack Obama's Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, experts across the political spectrum say much of the federal money sent to Texas is likely to be wasted on construction that will insufficiently protect against the next storm.
"We will rebuild things that should not be rebuilt and... in ways that are less safe and secure than they should be," Eli Lehrer, president of the conservative think tank R Street Institute in Washington, told Business Insider.
Shana Udvardy, a climate-preparedness specialist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said it would be a "grave mistake" to rebuild in Texas without taking into consideration the increasing occurrence and severity of major storms. She added that the federal government would lag some 600 towns and cities that have already implemented requirements to build between 1 and 3 feet above the 100-year flood level.
Lehrer called Trump's decision to revoke the standards "the biggest step backwards that has ever been taken in flood-management policy" and said the move would waste taxpayer money, harm the environment, and cost lives.
He and others argue that Trump's decision was a politically motivated attempt to undo Obama's climate-change legacy.
"If the Obama administration had simply described this as a sensible taxpayer-protecting land-use measure, the regulations would still be in effect," Lehrer said.
And some Republican lawmakers have denounced the move.
"This executive order is not fiscally conservative," Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Florida Republican, said in a statement. "It's irresponsible, and it will lead to taxpayer dollars being wasted on projects that may not be built to endure the flooding we are already seeing and know is only going to get worse."
The Obama administration estimated the regulations would increase building costs by 0.25% to 1.25% but save taxpayers significant money in the future. Studies have found that for every $1 spent on disaster mitigation, the government will save $4 on post-disaster aid.
Joel Scata, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Business Insider that the regulations were spurred partly by the enormous costs of the disaster-relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
"This not only would have protected people and property from future flood events, but also was really meant to reduce the amount of disaster aid we spend on recovery," he said.
And while Trump justified the rollback as part of an attempt to streamline and speed up construction projects, Lehrer said the regulations' effect on the construction process would have been largely "subtle and inexpensive" and that an insignificant number of projects would have been abandoned because of increased costs.
Scata also said the rollback would most likely have a disproportionate effect on poor and vulnerable people and communities.
For example, because the Department of Housing and Urban Development will not be obliged to build more-resilient structures, those who live in public housing are likely to suffer the consequences. On top of that, about 5%, or 11,000, of the country's public-housing buildings are in the floodplain, according to a 2015 report from the department's inspector general.The Rutgers Scarlet strawberry doesn't like road trips.
It's designed to be grown - and eaten - in the Garden State.
A new breed of strawberry is the product of years of cross-breeding by the folks at Rutgers' New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. It was designed to be superior to all those berries that were bred to be grown in California then trucked to New Jersey.
California berries are bred to be able to withstand days or even weeks of transit. The Rutgers Scarlet, by contrast, isn't a hardy traveler. It's designed to be eaten as soon as it's picked.
The 10-year project comes to fruition - literally - later this month when test plots at over a dozen Jersey farms will produce the berries. Supplies will be scarce this season, according to Rutgers, but consumers and gardeners will be able to buy their own plants at an August 15 open house at the EARTH Center in South Brunswick.
One of the berry's developers told Rutgers Today that they experimented with countless varieties with a goal of balancing sweetness with acidity.
"If you have something that is only sweet, it can be bland," said Peter Nitzsche, associate professor and agriculture agent for Rutgers Cooperative Extension. "But the combined sweetness and acidity is what really creates that excitement in your tongue."
Kathleen O'Brien may be reached at [email protected], or at (732) 902-4557. Follow her on Twitter @OBrienLedger. Find NJ.com on Facebook.TRENTON — A former Camden firefighter has been charged with stealing $82,488 in state disability pension payments while at the same time earning his black belt in jiu-jitsu and participating in a competitive mixed martial arts tournament, state authorities said today.
In 2009, Shane Streater, 40, of Camden, applied for an accidental disability pension asserting he was disabled after a car struck the fire truck he was riding in 2007, and when his fire truck hit a pothole in 2008, the state Attorney General's Office said.
Streater claimed to have injured his back and neck in the incidents. An independent doctor concluded he had a total and permanent disability, but that it was from a preexisting condition and not work related, authorities said.
In 2010, the state Police and Firemen's Retirement System awarded Streater a less lucrative ordinary disability pension. Ordinary disability pays 40 percent of salary and is taxed, while accidental disability pays two-thirds of salary and is untaxed.
Streater appealed, insisting his disability was work-related and he was entitled to the higher award. During the appeal, however, authorities said they learned Streater was teaching jiu-jitsu two or more times a week at a mixed martial arts academy.
They said they also found a YouTube video of Streater participating in the the highly competitive Grapplers Quest Mixed Martial Arts Tournament in 2010, at which he won a bronze medal. Investigators then determined he had earned his black belt that year. (The video was made private after being posted today to NJ.com.)
The pension board revoked Streater's disability in 2012.
"It's outrageous that this former firefighter was showing off his prowess in mixed martial arts, all the while that he was lying about a disability and collecting benefits from the firemen's pension system," acting state Attorney General John Hoffman said.
Streater was charged Tuesday with theft by deception. If convicted, he faces five to 10 years in prison. Streater was charged by summons and not arrested, authorities said, and the case will be presented to a grand jury for possible indictment.
He did not return a message seeking comment.
Christopher Baxter may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @cbaxter1. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.We now have solid scientific evidence that people are completely unable to determine how soused they are when drinking with a group. A team of social scientists recently completed a study of bar and club hoppers in Cardiff, Wales and discovered that most had incredibly inaccurate notions of their drunkenness and the dangers of drinking. But the researchers also learned something non-obvious and intriguing about how people estimate their levels of inebriation.
In a BMC Public Health paper, the researchers write that they wanted to know "how people judge their drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking whilst they are intoxicated in social drinking environments." So they spent several months going to four different party neighborhoods in Cardiff between 8pm and 3am on Friday and Saturday nights. These neighborhoods had, as the researchers put it, "a high density of premises licensed for the on-site sale and consumption of alcohol." To get a broad sample of bar hoppers, researchers would approach every seventh person they saw and ask them to participate in the survey. The idea was to try to get people who were out with different social groups, because the researchers were interested in how peers influenced people's subjective experience of drunkenness.
Once a Cardiff drinker agreed to participate, the researchers would administer a blood alcohol test to determine their actual level of inebriation. Then they would ask the drinker a series of four questions:
1) How drunk are you right now, on a 1 (totally sober) to 10 (completely drunk) scale? 2) How extreme has your drinking been tonight, on a 1 (not at all) to 10 (completely extreme) scale?” 3) If you drank as much as you have tonight every week, how likely is it that you will damage your health in the next 15 years, on a 1 (definitely will not) to 10 (definitely will) scale? 4) If you drank as much as you have tonight every week how likely is it that you will get cirrhosis of the liver in the next 15 years, on a 1 (definitely will not) to 10 (definitely will) scale?The Guianan cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola rupicola) is a species of cotinga, a passerine bird from South America. It is about 30 centimetres (12 in) in length and weighs about 200 to 220 grams (7.1 to 7.8 oz). It is found in tropical rainforests, near its preferred habitat of rocky outcrops. The female's plumage is brownish / dark smokey grey in colour, and generally less noticeable coloured than the males because of their nesting work in rocky areas. The male's feathers are a bright orange. Both have a heavy body, broad based bill and wear a remarkable half-moon crest on the head. It is one of two species of the genus Rupicola, the other being the Andean cock-of-the-rock. The Guianan cock-of-the-rock lives across the forested region of northeastern South America. Its diet consists mostly of fruit, but sometimes includes small snakes and lizards.
The female Guianan cock-of-the-rock breeds in the early months of the year and, on average, lays her eggs around March. The females choose a mate by flying down to the ground and pecking the male on his rump. The male then turns around and the mating takes place almost immediately. During the height of the mating season, males engage in competitive displays in lek, which is a complex courting behaviour that is done to attract females. Males and females live separately except when the females choose a mate. The mating success varies based on multiple factors, ranging from the plumage exhibited by a male to the composition of the lek itself. There is speculation that the male-to-male competition is an important factor in lek formation and breeding. The main predators of the Guianan cock-of-the-rock are harpy eagles and black-and-white hawk-eagles.
Description [ edit ]
Example of female plumage of the Andean cock-of-the-rock, which has redder feathers than the Guianan
Closeup of crest
The Guianan cock-of-the-rock is a stout-bodied bird with a prominent half-moon crest. It is a sexually dimorphic bird. The male's crest is more pronounced than the female's and is bright orange. The males also have an orange-tipped black tail, black, orange and white wings, a bright orange bill, an orange iris yellowing as it nears its outer edge, and silky-orange filamentous feathers of the inner remiges. Both sexes also have orange legs and skin. The less conspicuous female is dark brownish-grey overall and has a yellow-tipped black bill, a duller orange iris, and a smaller crest. One-year-old juvenile males look similar to an adult female, but has orange speckles over their bodies. After two years, the juvenile males become mostly orange with brown and grey spots. Males attain their definitive plumage at around three years. Juvenile females look almost identical to their adult counterparts. Guianan cocks-of-the-rock have a total length of approximately 30 centimetres (12 in) and a total weight of around 200 to 220 grams (7.1 to 7.8 oz).[2] The two species of cock-of-the-rock are allopatric, and therefore do not meet with one another. The plumage of male Andean is redder and its wings are mostly black, lacking the orange colouration seen on the male Guianan. The female Andean is reddish brown rather than the brownish-gray of the Guianan.[2]
Taxonomy and etymology [ edit ]
The Guanian cock-of-the-rock is one of two species of genus Rupicola. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766 as the type species of its genus. The Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus) is similar in body shape and colouration.[2]
The generic and specific names are derived from the Latin words rupes "rock" or "cliff", and cola "inhabiting", which express its habit of nesting on rock walls.[3]
Range and habitat [ edit ]
As suggested by its name, the Guianan cock-of-the-rock is found in the Guianan Shield, occurring in French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, southern Venezuela, eastern Colombia and northern Amazonian Brazil. Its preferred habitats are humid forests near rocky outcrops. They are normally found at an altitude of 300 to 2,000 metres (980 to 6,560 ft).[2]
The Guianan cock-of-the-rock has distinctive territorial markings. Males usually take dominance of an area on the ground, although sometimes they occupy middle strata in forests. They make their characteristic marking by clearing out debris from the ground, including twigs, leaves, and pellets. This area is called a “court”. Quality of courts are known to have some influence on mate choice. The court quality is determined by the territory density and location to the center of activity in the lek. The reason for the focus on the center of activity in the lek is that successful males tended to own courts in the most densely clustered lek areas.[4] Guianan courts are commonly found in the Guianan Shield, a forested region in northeastern South America.[5]
Behaviour [ edit ]
Diet [ edit ]
The diet of the adult Guianan cock-of-the-rock consists mainly of fruits meaning they are frugivorous. Up to 65 species of fruit have been reported in their diet, primarily from canopy trees or lianas. Three quarters (75%) of the fruit eaten by the Guianan cock-of-the-rock at one study site were either black- or red-coloured fruit.[6] In the British Guiana, Thomas E. Gilliard found papayas growing at the base of a huge rock. On top of the rock were perched females that were nesting. He found that no other papayas were growing in that part of the forest and speculated that the perched females ate papayas in the forest where they are native and dropped the seeds below where they were nesting.[7] Small snakes, lizards, insects and frogs are occasionally found in its diet.[6]
By selectively feeding on nearby fruit trees and then defecating or regurgitating the seeds within the leks, these birds can actively influence the regeneration and succession of the forest habitat where they breed.[8]
Breeding [ edit ]
Guianan cocks-of-the-rock breed early in the year, and the females lay their eggs around March, nesting in rocky areas.[9] During the height of mating season, males gather in leks with multiple males defending a social display arena of much greater area than that of a lone male.[9] The males each have their own area on the forest floor where they make their courts. The size of each court is about 1 metre (3 ft) in diameter, and the next bird is often about 3 metres (10 ft) away.[4] The females and males live separately; only when it is time to mate do females fly over to observe and choose a male. When this occurs, the females tap the males from behind and insemination quickly follows. When females approach a lek, the males stand firmly and present themselves rigidly.[4][10]
Mating success is dependent on a variety of factors that range from the plumage exhibited by a male to the composition of the lek itself. In one study, the female Guianan cocks-of-the-rock displayed sexual selection based off sequential comparisons or threshold standards. The hens engaged in a “pool–comparison” tactic, meaning that females chose males of higher rank in courtship. Males of higher rank were those with more matings received from other females; the lower-ranking single males were ignored. The rankings were determined by where the courts were positioned in the lek: courts that were more centrally placed indicated more successful and higher-ranking males.[4] The females in the study were individually observed to aggregate towards larger, more centrally concentrated leks, demonstrating active female choice.[2]
Nesting [ edit ]
Unlike other species of the family Cotingidae, the Guianan cock-of-the-rock makes its nest on rocky cliff faces and caves rather than in the trees.[5] The female lays one or two eggs in the nest of mud and plant material, which is attached by saliva to a vertical rock. The female takes care of the building and maintenance of the nest, the incubation of the eggs and the parenting. The male does not participate at all. Eggs typically incubate for 27–28 days. The ideal nesting sites for this species are usually located in a cave or vertical rock face with crevices that provide some shelter and protection from the elements. The nests themselves are solid moldings formed from mud and plant material deposited into the crevices. Due to the solid nature of these nests, they typically persist from one breeding season to the next. Females will make repairs to their nests as a breeding season begins.[9]
Mating behaviour [ edit ]
The smaller of the two cocks-of-the-rock, the male Guianan takes the lesser part in breeding. It is polygynous and has nothing to do with nesting once mating is done. The male's energy instead is devoted to very elaborate display rituals that show off its magnificent plumage. These displays take place in communal leks, where 40 or more males may gather to challenge rivals and beckon to the females.[11][12]
The displaying male purposely contrasts itself from the forest, shows its crest and plumage so much that the bill and tail become obscured; almost making it difficult to recognize as a bird, to attract females.[4][10] Within the lek, each female has its own perch on a low branch, while the males own a "court" on the ground below that is cleared of dead leaves by the draughts of each male taking off and landing. The males have a variety of calls and movements, showing off the crest, elongated filaments on the rump, secondary feathers, and the snapping of their bills.[11][12] Males display on branches about 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) from the ground until a female approaches, when the males display and call from individual plots on the ground.[13] Most males copulate with only a few females. However, some are very successful and may copulate with many. Unlike many other bird species, the male does not use resources nor parental care to entice females.[14]
Males often engage in courtship disruption practices. In a study conducted by Pepper W. Trail, the interactions between adult males, females, and yearlings were observed and linked to mate choice and male dispersion patterns within leks. Adult males produced this disruptive behaviour with varying intensity, which depended on the situation. In lower-intensity disruptions, males usually directed their aggression or threats towards neighboring males, in attempts to improve or maintain breeding status and success. The males that were hassled tended to be more successful and often were disrupted with much greater frequency than males with lower mating success. Higher-intensity disruptions were used by less successful males and directed towards females that wandered by. This behaviour is suggested to have the effect of redirecting females towards the hassling male. Yearlings often disrupted courtships of the more mature adults on the basis of practice for future courtships, since the yearlings do not possess any territory within the lek. Female disruption was an uncommon event that had little, if any, effect on the accessibility of a male. Young males of highly promiscuous species such as the Cock-of-the rock often failed to mate in their first year, probably because older, more experienced males will enjoy the majority of matings. In this strong system of sexual selection, the successive breeding of dominant and aggressive males leads to high sex drives and the endurance of polygyny. A theory suggests that the selection of these aggressive males also puts a premium, or value, on female characteristics. Hence, there is a less likely occurrence of female–elicited aggression.[15][16]
Ecological consequences [ edit ]
One possible advantage to lek formation (in Guianan cock-of-the-rock and other species) is severe selection and consequent rapid evolutionary advancement, all of which is possible due to the high expendability of males. Only a few males are needed to fertilize the next generation. The courtship behaviour is similarly theorized to have arisen from differences in division of labour between the two sexes. Females expend their energy on building nests and rearing young, while males spend most of their time and energy of finding mates and caring for their plumage.[17]
Guianan cocks-of-the-rock form large leks, averaging 55 adult males. The males in these display leks were especially vulnerable to attacks and predation by large snakes and other natural predators. In manipulated groups of smaller size, around 6, predation was less likely to occur, due to an inverse relationship between the number and frequency of attacks and the size of leks. Thus, with a smaller frequency of attacks on the smaller group, the Guianan cock-of-the-rock males was less likely to flush or disperse completely as compared to a large group where a false alarm could trigger a complete flush 90% of the time. It was found that these birds have relatively ineffective methods of anti-predation and that social anti-predation and the infrequency of encounters with predators were keeping these lekking males alive.[18]
There is speculation that the simulation of male-male competition is important in lek formation and breeding.[19]
Impact of natural and sexual selection on trait development [ edit ]
The colouration of the males allows them to visibly stand out from the brown forest floor. This bright colouration provides a sexual advantage for the adult males, increasing their likelihood of successfully mating. The result is rapid evolutionary selection within the species for brighter plumage and more conspicuous behaviour patterns in the males. The bright colouration also makes the males more susceptible to predation. Males are more expendable for this reason; only a small number of males are needed within any generation in order to perpetuate the species. While sexual selection leads to bright plumage, natural selection in turn favors defensive colouration in the birds. There is higher fitness in birds monitoring nests whose colouration acts as camouflage-protection from predation.[17]
Conservation [ edit ]
Fairly common in its large range, and with its population stable, the Guianan cock-of-the-rock is considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature to be a Least Concern on its red list of threatened species.[1]
The main predators of the Guianan cock-of-the-rock are harpy eagles, black-and-white hawk-eagles, black hawk-eagles, and slaty-backed forest falcons. Although these are the main predators, two species of owls, crested owls and spectacled owls, are also predators. Felines such as the jaguar, puma, and ocelot can also be predators, along with snakes such as the bird snake, tree boas, boa constrictor, tiger rat snake, and fer-de-lance.[2]
The species is rare in captivity, but breeding has been achieved at a small number of facilities. The world's first successful captive breeding was at Dallas World Aquarium (USA) in 2008.[20]
Predation response [ edit ]
In larger lek groups there is less risk of predation. In a group there are more individuals to alert the group about an approaching predator. All the birds in the groups will be vigilant in looking for a predator because there is an advantage to seeing the predator first. There is also the risk that in a bigger group there will more false alarm signals. The common signal is vocalization, after which the birds will fly up into the trees. It was found the birds did not however give this signal when there was a snake.[2]
References [ edit ]Pain-free Ergonomic Pen
Writing is essentially part of our daily lives and has been for the last, well, bazillion years. Unfortunately, it brings forth pain because of the imperfect form our hands take when holding a pen. There's stiffness, cramping, and much challenge is faced especially for people with chronic conditions such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, etc.
The PenAgain features an ergonomic, Y-shaped design wherein the index finger rests on a cradle that takes advantage of the natural weight of the hand to generate the right amount of pressure needed to apply ink to paper. The crutch-like design steadies the hand and engages the whole arm, which allows the user to relax and guide it, rather than forcefully grip it. Anyway, all this can be read on the product page. Rewrite your future with PenAgain. Follow the link below for more details.
$7.10The government will soon roll out the Aadhaar Pay service which will enable people to make and receive payments using their Aadhaar number and biometrics.
"We are going to start Aadhaar Pay. With this people will not require to carry their phone for payments. They can visit any merchant, share their Aadhaar number and verify themselves using biometrics to pay and receive money," Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Friday.
As of now, 14 banks have come on board for Aadhaar Pay and the service will be launched soon, Prasad told reporters.
"We are in talks with other banks too. The service will be launched very soon," he added.
Further, the minister said, the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app – the common platform for making quick payments using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) – has also been integrated with the Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System on Thursday.
Around 111 crore people in the country have Aadhaar numbers.
"There are 49 crore bank accounts linked to Aadhaar. Every month 2 crore accounts are being seeded with Aadhaar," Prasad said.A woman in Warsaw, Poland, abandoned her car after she jammed it between two walls trying to reverse away from a car park.
Wiola Nowicka’s car wedged in the car park driveway (Picture: CEN)
Wiola Nowicka, 67, attempted to turn around in the car park’s narrow driveway once she noticed the high prices she would have to pay.
Nowicka’s bad sense of judgement resulted in the driveway being blocked for five hours, as her car was wedged between the driveway walls.
‘I didn’t mean to be a nuisance,’ said Nowicka. ‘After a few turns I couldn’t go backwards or forwards any more.’
Engineers were able to get the car out from the tight space, with careful inch by inch precision.
Nowicka isn’t the only driver over 50, to have misjudged at the wheel.
Earlier this year, an 86-year-old Californian woman crashed her car through the Rock N’ Road cycling shop, narrowly missing customers.
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Authorities discovered that the woman had hit the accelerator pedal by mistake, instead of the break.
Lucky no one was hurt in either of the incidents.Facebook is public now. And that means you're going public too. Facebook has to make you share more. It has to make you expose more of yourself. It has to do all those deeply creepy things it's already doing, but more more more. It is going to sell you to advertisers, to shareholders, to anyone it can.
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To be worth the enormous stack of cash it's raising in its IPO, Facebook need to earn a lot more money. And that means bleeding its users privacy even more than it already does. Facebook made a mere $1.21 per user last quarter. Sure. It has a ton of users, but that's a low number, not the kind of thing it's making up on volume. By comparison, Google earned $7.14. Both Google and Facebook are in the business of selling you to advertisers. And Facebook is going to need to get way better at it. And that means doing more things to annoy you, mess with your privacy, and generally be loathsome in all the ways it already is, but more so.
If you watched Facebook's appalling and disturbingly weird Roadshow video—you know, the one where Mark Zuckerberg wears way too much white eyeliner—you understand Facebook's business model. It's all about figuring out what its users like, where they are, and who they are connected to, and then selling that information to advertisers. And if you think some of the things Facebook is doing are already shifty like a gearknob, get ready. Because it's nothing compared to what will happen once shareholders start demanding that it maximize profit.
An aside: I originally wanted to write a post arguing that for moral and ethical reasons, you shouldn't buy Facebook stock, no matter how much money it earns, because doing so is the equivalent of investing in Big Tobacco, or Monsanto, or Dow Chemical, or Exxon. That was slapped aside, and I was basically told to shut my hippie mouth and that I am a dyspeptic old curmudgeon who ought to slink back to whatever stinky all-ages Fugazi show I came from. But in my opinion, there is no large company doing more to erode our valid expectations of privacy, or doing things that take advantage of its users unconscious actions than Facebook.
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In order to keep more advertisers like GM from jumping ship, Facebook is going to have to figure out a way to make its ads work better. And seemingly, at least, what it is finding that works is word of mouth marketing—using friends to advertise to other friends by their actions. (It makes a huge deal about this in its inhuman sphinx-like pitch to investors.)
That means ads are going to have increase in prominence and effectiveness. Facebook has already shown a willingness to do some truly shitty things in its ads—like using your likeness or actions to sell crap to your friends without your knowledge. I mean, maybe you get off on your friends seeing your picture and being told that you liked a certain brand of hemorrhoid creme. (Or maybe you just don't know it's being done.) But that's how it works—you are its pitchman. That's what Facebook sees as valuable. That's where it's going to earn more money per user.
And while you can opt out of that kind of thing today, Facebook has shows an extreme willingness to alter its privacy policies. And moreover, opting out is not the kind of thing unsophisticated users do.
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Then there's frictionless sharing. Facebook is going to have to amp up the tattletaling it does. Despite evidence that social readers are annoying users and readership is collapsing, when Facebook knows what you read, what you listen to—and how what others read and listen to affect your tastes and what you like—that stuff is super valuable to advertisers. It's the kind of thing they are dying to know. After all, if you're reading a lot of stories in Runner's World, you probably are more prone to buy some sneakers.
Given that Facebook tracks you all over the Web, and is increasingly aware of where you are in the real world thanks to its growing mobile presence, it's going to likely use more and more of that knowledge in its ads as well. It has to. So get ready, as you walk past aisle 5 Walgreens, to learn that your dad likes Durex Tropical Flavors. I'm sure you'll enjoy that.
And maybe that's okay. Maybe it's the price we pay for being able to connect with everyone we've ever known, smell their breath and check out the color of their poo, frictionlessly and in real time. For the so-called Facebook generation, I'm sure it all just seems really normal. And of course I'm just a dottering old hypocrite (follow me on Facebook!).
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But I'm pretty sure that we'll look back on the privately held Facebook as the good-old days, when it respected our privacy and didn't go too far into tracking everything we did, everywhere we went. And that makes me kind of sad. And really scared.By Allan Turner, New York Times
Simratpal Singh, a West Point-trained U.S. Army captain who for 10 years served bare-headed and clean-shaven, will be allowed to wear a religiously mandated turban and beard, Assistant Secretary of the Army Debra Wada said.
As a Sikh, Singh, 28, is required to wear a beard and turban. "My two worlds are one again," he told reporters after the Army agreed to his requests.
Wada, though, told Singh, who received a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan, that certain conditions will apply.
While Singh will be allowed to wear a black or camouflage color turban, the headgear must not interfere with the wearing of a properly fitting helmet.
"Your beard," Wada wrote in a letter to Singh released by the Army, "must be rolled and tied to a length not to exceed 2 inches while in garrison and a length not to exceed 1 inch while in the field. Your hair may not fall over your ears or eyebrows or touch the collar of your uniform."
Singh may display his rank on his turban, "provided you remove the rank in circumstances where military headgear is not customarily worn," Wada wrote.
Additionally, Wada advised, Singh's commanders will be required to submit quarterly evaluations on the impact - if any - that the officer's hair and attire has on "unit cohesion and morale, good order and discipline, health and safety and individual and unit readiness."
Singh, an Indian native whose parents immigrated to the U.S. when he was 9, told the New York Daily News that support from his fellow soldiers eased his quest to wear a turban and beard.
"The U.S.," he told the newspaper, "was the only country that gave (my father) political asylum. I was and still am extremely grateful for that, and so I wanted to give back and do military service."
The U.S. is home to approximately 500,000 Sikhs, a monotheistic religion that originated in India's Punjab region in the 15th century.
To Learn More:
Judge Blocks Defense Dept. Gas-Mask Test for Sikh U.S. Army Officer as Discriminatory (by Jeff D. Gorman, Courthouse News Service)
After Serving in the Navy for 12 Years, Sailor Booted for Refusing to Cut her Hair (by Steve Straehley, AllGov)
Army Allows Sikh Doctor to Wear Beard and Turban (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Sikh Police Ask for Development of Bulletproof Turbans (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)An Ossining High School math teacher was charged Friday with raping a 16-year-old female student.
John Azabache, 31, of Port Chester, pled not guilty to two counts of rape in the third degree, a felony, in Ossining Village Court and was released on $50,000 bond. He is due back in court July 23.
Ossining Superintendent of Schools Raymond Sanchez stated in a letter to parents that Azabache, a teacher since 2008, has been administratively reassigned and barred from school grounds pending the outcome of the case.
“We are extremely disturbed by these allegations, as I am sure all of you are, and we are cooperating with law enforcement officials in their investigation of this matter,” Sanchez said.
Azabache was slated to be married Friday but, instead, an order of protection was issued to his fiancé, who reportedly provided some information to police that led to Azabache’s arrest.
For more on this story, pick up a copy of next week’s Northern Westchester ExaminerPreacher concludes first season as #2 new cable drama for 2016
Preacher brought its first season to an end on Sunday and AMC reports the series has solidified itself as a top 10 cable drama and the #2 new cable drama of 2016 (behind FX’s American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson). The season’s 10 episodes average 3 million viewers per episode.
“When we announced plans for a TV adaptation of the iconic comic book ‘Preacher,’ the most consistent reaction – often, even, from existing fans – was, ‘There’s no way to do that story on television.’ Thanks to the vision, passion, smarts and guts of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Sam Catlin and the entire team on this show, we have just concluded a season of television that looks like nothing else I have ever seen on television,” said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios. “Huge thanks and well done to the trio of Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga and Joseph
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, how many young people are still living at home and what proportion of our population are immigrants to Britain (we guess at 25% when it is only 13%, according to official estimates). We are worried about the concentration of wealth, the housing pressures facing young people and immigration levels and this is reflected in us overstating the scale of the issues.
But the survey suggests there are also some issues where we are not as worried as we should be. For example, most countries hugely underestimate how much of their population is overweight or obese. The worst case is Saudi Arabia, where people think only 28% are, when 71% are. Britons think it is 44% when it is actually nearly half as much again – 62% are either overweight or obese.
And in many ways it is not our misperceptions but these realities across different countries that are the most interesting and important aspects of the study. The top 1% in Russia own 70% of the nation’s wealth while the top 1% in New Zealand only own 18%. Two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Half of Italians aged 25 34 still live with their parents, when it is only 4% in Norway. The average age in India is 27; it is 47 in Japan. Only 10% of politicians are women in Brazil, Hungary and Japan, when 44% are in Sweden.
When the reality is so strange and varied, it is no wonder we’re so wrong.
Bobby Duffy is the managing director of the Ipsos Mori Social Research Institute.CLAIMS and counter-claims are flying as British officials and European diplomats squabble over who, exactly, was being unreasonable last night when David Cameron refused to sign up to a new European Union treaty with strict new curbs on taxation and spending within the euro zone.
There are reliable signs of heavy Downing Street briefing over at the Daily Telegraph, where the well-connected Ben Brogan is reporting that it was all the fault of the French, who crammed the text on the summit table so full of impossible demands that the British had no choice but to walk away. He writes:
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The events of the past 12 hours have exposed a truth that many chose to ignore, namely that in its relentless pursuit of its national interest, France's strategic objective has been to drive the UK to the margins – if not out of the EU – and to destroy the City. The French narrative of the crisis is that it is all an Anglo-Saxon creation, and we must be punished for it. The failings of the euro so obvious to us are not recognised by the French. The British view is that packing the treaty proposals full of changes that Britain could never conceivably accept was a ploy to force us into a veto, and so into the departure lounge. Or here's another way of putting from inside the machine: "The French are out to screw us," one source tells me. "Despite all the jollity, the fact is that Sarko doesn't gives a s*** about us. It's all bull***. They have their view that the Anglo-Saxon model is a disaster and was responsible for the crisis."
But was the problem really concrete proposals in the treaty that was on the table last night? As it happens, there are good reasons to worry that the whole plan being cooked up to save the euro may not work, and may cause some agonising clashes between monetary stability and democracy.
For instance, to take a brief tangent, it occurs to me that if the new euro-plus fiscal union adopts its planned restrictions on taxation and spending, you could easily imagine a future general election in which one party's manifesto, full of Keynesian stimulus policies or tax-cuts, is run through a think-tank's calculators and discovered to be euro-incompatible, while a rival party's plan fits the criteria handed down from Brussels. At which point, it will surely be argued, it is pointless to vote for the first party, because the fiscal union will stop them from doing what they promise. That feels politically very dodgy to me.
But back to the summit of last night and today. Was the problem for Mr Cameron really that the French had loaded the table with proposals he could not accept?
The reporting from Brussels is rather different: that Britain was worried about the threat of future European legislation, especially in the field of finance, and wanted "safeguards".
What does that actually mean? The Telegraph's Brussels correspondent Bruno Waterfield was first with the scoop of the actual draft proposal presented by Britain and rejected by the others.
The Financial Times had a good, detailed explanation of the underlying British concerns, explaining:
Mr Cameron insisted that any agreement to tighten fiscal discipline in the 17-member eurozone should not distort the single market covering all 27 member states. He also wants a separate protocol to protect the City of London from excessive EU regulation, including an agreement to let Britain enforce bank capital requirements that are higher than the proposed European maximum. Other demands include an agreement that the new European Banking Authority should remain in London and protection from EU regulation of London-based US financial institutions that do not trade with the rest of Europe. Mr Cameron also wants a written guarantee – making explicit what is already the case – that unanimity should apply to any proposed “user charges” for financial groups, including any variant of the controversial European financial transactions tax.
All useful. But being a bear of limited brain, I found myself still wondering what—taking a step back—really happened last night, in the simplest political terms.
In the nick of time, a well-placed source (a senior official who is broadly neutral towards the British government in this fight) has given me his reading of what happened, and where it all turned sour for Mr Cameron. It rings true to me.
Mr Cameron had two problems, as my source sees it. The first was the nature of his demand, and how it was made. In essence, the British did not ask for an "emergency brake" clause or opt-out for financial regulation.
What they asked for was a protocol imposing decision-making by unanimity on a number of areas of regulation currently decided by majority voting. (If you want to be really technical, the choice is voting by unanimity or the special Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) used in the EU, which is a sort of super-majority system taking into account a certain number of countries and also their populations).
As my source puts it, this amounted to a big winding-back of the clock for many EU leaders, setting a "horrendous precedent" that could unravel the single market. As they see it, common rules for the common market have been adopted (with few exceptions, such as tax) by QMV ever since the Single European Act approved by Margaret Thatcher in 1986.
The much-discussed Financial Transactions Tax issue already requires unanimity and therefore could never be imposed on the City of London without Britain's agreement. What is more, as was pointed out in Brussels with some vehemence, when it comes to financial services there have hardly ever been any cases of Britain being outvoted in the adoption of such legislation.
In simple terms, that means that Britain's request to move to unanimity was taken as a huge ask that had nothing to do with the subject at hand (saving the euro) or was a sign of bad faith (because it is driven by mistrust regarding future legislation). In my source's view, Britain also tabled its request very late in the day, simply sending a whole draft protocol to the European Council legal service the day before the meeting without talking the ideas through with key allies and national capitals.
Then, says my source, came the second crunch moment for Mr Cameron. Once the 27 EU leaders gathered in the summit room, a sense rapidly emerged that a lot of countries did not share Germany's enthusiasm for full-blown treaty change, a process which is slow and fraught with risks (the markets might not wait that long, Ireland might have to hold a referendum, Britain would have to get a vote through the House of Commons and so on).
By a certain point on Thursday night, I am told, a majority of countries were growing interested in a quick and dirty legal fix, suggested by the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy. The fix was dreamed up by lawyers working for Mr Van Rompuy. They said that a legal device, known as "Protocol 12", would allow the 27 leaders of the EU to agree most of the new rules and mechanisms for fiscal union in the euro zone by a simple, unanimous decision among themselves.
Suddenly, Germany looked isolated. Mr Van Rompuy, a former Belgian prime minister elected by EU leaders to chair their summits, decided to see if he could sweeten the deal for the wavering EU leaders, and asked Mr Cameron if he would consider dropping some of his requests. This made sense to some leaders in the room. Mr Cameron's demands were already more than many of his colleagues would tolerate, and Britain had already said publicly it would tailor its demands to the scale of the treaty change on the table. Mr Cameron said he would not lower his ambitions, and that his demands would be the same in the event of Protocol 12 being used, or a full-blown EU treaty.
A hostile view of this is that Mr Cameron overplayed his hand. In this version of events, the British prime minister thought the mood of the room was running towards Protocol 12, and because Protocol 12 is decided by unanimity, he thought he had the whip hand.
Instead, my source tells me, the room turned on Mr Cameron. This, I am told, "was the point at which the Protocol 12 route, which requires unanimity, was effectively closed down and one country after another accepted a new treaty at 17+."
Did Mr Cameron miscalculate? Did he want to end up with a treaty being crafted at almost 26, with Britain on the outside? My source is certain that was not Mr Cameron's goal, and my source is not alone in this thinking.
It is now almost inevitable that separate structures be set up, with Britain on the outside, it seems. Talk in London of preventing the "Eurozone-plus" from using the Court of Justice is also a mistake, I am told. Article 273 of the treaty allows just this.
You can choose to believe this account or not. It comes from a single source, who is well-placed but clearly viewing this from a particular perspective.
Time will tell. But what a mess.CoSign Coin has issued a release explaining the launch of their new Secure Bitcoin Escrow, which uses multi-signature wallets and transactions. The company is looking to reach out to bitcoin related communities in hopes of spreading their secure service.
CoSign Coin
The multi-signature company is an Escrow-based service, and offers protection from thefts, fraud and malice.With the help from a BIP-0016 multi-signature address, funds are never centered in one area of control. The release states:
“CoSign Coin is designed to be as intuitive and user-friendly as possible, especially in the complicated ‘multi-signature’ world. There is no question that this process will get more simple as wallet clients integrate multi-signature features and multi-signature becomes more commonplace. CoSign Coin also attempts to be as transparent as possible, ensuring users are fully aware of what is happening with their funds.”
After the launch of the Secure Bitcoin Escrow, the site has undergone changes to better serve its users. The new features include a Live Chat option and a Classifieds Ads section. Users will now be able to connect with others to buy, sell and trade goods with bitcoin. Additionally, users now have the ability to to connect to the service via a Tor or I2P Hidden Service (.onion &.i2p).
The company’s goal is to bring confident and secure multi-signature transactions for mainstream use. However, the company admits that this process will take some time to perfect. Average users won’t fully understand the concept of the multi-signature Escrow over night.
For added security, CoSign Coin does not store Private Keys on its server. In an unlikely event that the site were to become compromised, funds can not be taken since they will not be visible to hackers.
Importance of Security
Bitcoin wallets and exchanges assume a huge amount of responsibility when dealing with other people’s goods. It is up to those services to assure that a customer can trust them with their bitcoins.
Many services have fallen flat on their faces due to lack of taking necessary security measures. The collapse of bitcoin bank Flexcoin, and the infamous situation with Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, have proven costly to the bitcoin industry.
A user’s bitcoins are not only at stake, but the value of bitcoins themselves can fall if security is taken lightly.
For more bitcoin news, stay tuned to Coinreport.net.
Featured ImageThe Novela is a kind of modernist architectural experiment by October Ueda & Nakagawa Architects in maximizing interior spatial experiences. Abstract forms are not just about the art of the unusual but about carrying people through spaces that are ever-changing in dimension, shape and relative scale.
Patterns on the exterior certainly stand apart from their surroundings but are less about expressing a unique facade and more about reflecting the needs of interior volumes. Glass dividers on the inside also add to the apparent spaciousness of the rooms and a heavy dose of white keeps those spaces open and airy.
There is no doubt that these clients wanted something dynamic, modern and unique but as much as this is a one-of-a-kind work of art it is also a clever architectural design that makes the most of a small building footprint to provide engaging visual connections both within the structure and to the outside world.Gangland armourer who was caught with improvised single-shot handgun, a revolver and hundreds of bullets is jailed for nine years
Thomas Keatley, 28, was arrested as part of an anti-firearm police sting
He owned an archaic revolver and had made a single-shot pistol
Keatley also manufactured ammo and had manuals on guns
An illegal armourer has been jailed for a raft of firearms and drugs offences, including possessing two handguns and hundreds of bullets.
Today at Maidstone Crown Court, Thomas Keatley, 28, of Sussex, was sentenced to nine years and four months after he was found with two handguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, gun-making equipment and a large quantity of cannabis.
Keatley, arrested as part of an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service's anti-gun Trident Gang Crime Command, was sentenced to five years for one count of possession of a prohibited weapon - a Forehand & Wadsworth double action.38 gate loading revolver.
Weaponsmith: Thomas Keatley has been jailed for nine years for a string of firearms and drug offences
He also got three years for one count of attempting to manufacture a prohibited weapon, namely an improvised single shot pistol. These sentences are to run consecutively.
Keatley, who pleaded guilty in June, was also sentenced to one year for one count of manufacturing ammunition and four months for one count of possession of cannabis, which will run concurrently.
On the evening of Friday, June 7, Trident officers, with the assistance of MPS specialist firearms officers and Kent Police, stopped Keatley's vehicle in Dartford, Kent.
He told officers: 'I know why you're here, it's in the glove box.'
They opened it to find a Morrison's carrier bag containing the revolver, manufactured between 1871 and 1890.
Three days later officers searched a garage linked to Keatley in Crawley, Sussex.
Archaic: One of the guns in his possession was a 19th Century Forehand & Wadsworth double action.38 gate loading revolver
During the two-day search of the garage a partially-homemade firearm, a substantial quantity of ammunition and items connected with the manufacturing of firearms were seized.
The haul included a complete, improvised brass-barrel, single-shot pistol with a 'blueprint' on how to make the firearm and hundreds of bullets and cartridge cases.
There was also equipment to make home-made ammo.
Other items seized included a pistol magazine, a rifle clip, four dummy cartridges, two bottles of smokeless propellant for loading into shotgun and handgun cartridges, bullet lubricant and assorted gun care products.
The partially-constructed single shot pistol found in the garage
As well as hundreds of rounds of ammunition, Keatley had gun-making equipment and a large quantity of cannabis
A USB memory stick was also hidden in a block of wood. It contained 18 manuals, taken from the internet, on how to make both handguns and machine guns, as well as ammo.
Bank account enquiries showed Keatley had purchased the majority of the firearms items recovered from the garage, including the reloading tools, online during the latter months of 2012 from stores in both America and the UK.
Detective Inspector Paul Dorey, Trident Gang Crime Command, said: 'This is a significant result for Trident and the MPS together with Sussex and Kent Police.
'The seizure of the firearms, gun-making equipment and bullet cartridges has without doubt prevented lethal weaponry entering the hands of criminal networks operating in London and the Home Counties.
An officer said the seizure has 'without doubt prevented lethal weaponry entering the hands of criminal networks operating in London and the Home Counties'
'On arrest, Keatley looked to hide behind firearm legislation to prevent prosecution. He stated he had purchased the antique revolver from a registered firearm dealer in Kent and as such, it was not a prohibited firearm.
'However when the weight of evidence was compiled against him he had no choice but to change his stance and admit to all firearm charges.
'This operation also demonstrates how Trident, and our police colleagues from around the UK, will work across both county and borough boundaries in order to arrest and place before the courts criminals who are involved in gun crime and gang-related criminal activity.'
Chief Superintendent Paul Morrison, Sussex Police, said: 'This was a significant seizure which can only make the streets of the country safer. It demonstrates how police forces can work together to disrupt serious criminality.The 32 year-old former Birmingham City footballer was left fuming after @jimmyob88 branded him a “disgrace” for losing his title on points last week.
Woodhouse subsequently offered a bounty of £1,000 to anyone who could help him find the Sheffield-based culprit, who branded him a "complete disgrace" and a "laughable joke".
Woodhouse initially replied with some trash-talk of his own before keeping his 18,000 Twitter followers updated during the day as he drove to South Yorkshire to “give him a right pasting”.
“Just on my way to Sheffield to have a little chat with an old friend, get the kettle on”, he wrote.
Woodhouse later tweeted a picture of a street sign said to be the road on which the object of his irritation lived.
“Right Jimbob im here,” he wrote. “Someone tell me what number he lives at or do I have to knock on every door #it’s showtime.”
In a classic case of backtracking, the no doubt terrified Jimmyob88 tried to make amends.
“I am sorry it’s getting a bit out of hand,” he tweeted. “I am in the wrong. I accept that.”
He claimed he thought Woodhouse would take the abuse “as a joke”, calling it a “bit of harmless fun”.
Woodhouse finally admitted defeat and went home.
“Jimmyob88 never came out to play so I’m going,” he tweeted. “Maybe a bit daft what I did today but sometimes enough is enough.”
Woodhouse later appeared to have seen the humour in the situation, tweeting: “Just found out you can block people. Could have let me know earlier, I could have saved 20 quid in petrol.”
Among Woodhouse's supporters was Joey Barton, no stranger to Twitter controversy himself.
“Brilliant mate,” he wrote. “You’re my hero. Wish someone had a hidden camera in his room right now.”
The boxer played 48 times for Birmingham City between 2001 and 2003 but switched to boxing at the age of 26.
He later confessed to having “completely fallen out of love with football” and said boxing had always been his “first love”.
How the spat unfolds
It all starts nastily enough.
<noframe>Twitter: the master - <a href="http://www.twitter.com/woodhousecurtis" target="_blank">@woodhousecurtis</a> Haha u lost u silly mug fight a 10 year old next time if u want to actually win u waste of spunk</noframe>
And continues in the same vein.
<noframe>Twitter: the master - <a href="http://www.twitter.com/woodhousecurtis" target="_blank">@woodhousecurtis</a> retire immediately cant even defend a pathetic little title you are a complete disgrace <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=awfulboxer" target="_blank">#awfulboxer</a></noframe>
The troll persists with the taunting...
<noframe>Twitter: the master - <a href="http://www.twitter.com/woodhousecurtis" target="_blank">@woodhousecurtis</a> what u going to do knock me out like your last opponent ooops</noframe>
...unaware that Woodhouse has a plan.
<noframe>Twitter: curtis woodhouse - <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jimmyob88" target="_blank">@jimmyob88</a> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/kinkwadze" target="_blank">@kinkwadze</a> you will find out soon enough son</noframe>
This is the plan.
<noframe>Twitter: curtis woodhouse - <a href="http://www.twitter.com/kinkwadze" target="_blank">@kinkwadze</a> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jimmyob88" target="_blank">@jimmyob88</a> ill give £1000 to anybody that provides me with address and picture of this man! knock knock!!</noframe>
The backtracking begins as the fear mounts...
<noframe>Twitter: the master - <a href="http://www.twitter.com/woodhousecurtis" target="_blank">@woodhousecurtis</a> chill out pal i was only doing it so you would bite back it was only abit of harmless fun</noframe>
But Woodhouse has retribution on his mind...
<noframe>Twitter: curtis woodhouse - <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jimmyob88" target="_blank">@jimmyob88</a> to late for all that son, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/kinwadze" target="_blank">@kinwadze</a> is picking me up after work and you can explain yourself later</noframe>
And he intends to keep his quarry updated.
<noframe>Twitter: curtis woodhouse - <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jimmyob88" target="_blank">@jimmyob88</a> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wit_xx" target="_blank">@wit_xx</a> to late for all that now jimmy, ive had enough of your mouth, ill be about 50 mins and you can have your say then</noframe>
<noframe>Twitter: curtis woodhouse - sat nav says im 47 minutes away, im getting a hard on!! <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jimmyob88" target="_blank">@jimmyob88</a></noframe>
<noframe>Twitter: curtis woodhouse - when i get on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jimmyob88" target="_blank">@jimmyob88</a> road ill send a picture of the road just to let you all know that im not messing about <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=keyboardwarrior" target="_blank">#keyboardwarrior</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=boxing" target="_blank">#boxing</a></noframe>
The boxer closes in on his target.
<noframe>Twitter: curtis woodhouse - im 17 miles away folks!!! shits just got real for <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jimmyob88" target="_blank">@jimmyob88</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=boxing" target="_blank">#boxing</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=boxingheads" target="_blank">#boxingheads</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=keyboardwarrior" target="_blank">#keyboardwarrior</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=football" target="_blank">#football</a></noframe>
Not far now...
<noframe>Twitter: curtis woodhouse - right Jimbob im here!!!!! someone tell me what number he lives at, or do I have to knock on every door <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=itsshowtime" target="_blank">#itsshowtime</a> <a href="http://t.co/H1qnYnbE6P" target="_blank">http://t.co/H1qnYnbE6P</a></noframe>
Our hapless abuser is quick to apologise...
<noframe>Twitter: the master - <a href="http://www.twitter.com/woodhousecurtis" target="_blank">@woodhousecurtis</a> i am sorry its getting abit out of hand i am in the wrong i accept that</noframe>
He tries every avenue to keep from getting his block knocked off.
<noframe>Twitter: curtis woodhouse - just had a call from somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jimmyob88" target="_blank">@jimmyob88</a> has asked what he can do to make me go away! <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=boxing" target="_blank">#boxing</a></noframe>
Joey Barton (inevitably) weighs in.
<noframe>Twitter: Joseph Barton - I'm not an advocate of violence but what <a href="http://www.twitter.com/woodhousecurtis" target="_blank">@woodhousecurtis</a> has just done is hilarious! Another big mouth left with sh*tty undies...</noframe>
And it all calms down.
<noframe>Twitter: curtis woodhouse - <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jimmyob88" target="_blank">@jimmyob88</a> never came out to play so im going back home! maybe a bit daft what i did today but sometimes enough is enough <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=boxing" target="_blank">#boxing</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=football" target="_blank">#football</a></noframe>
<noframe>Twitter: curtis woodhouse - just found out you can block people!! could of let me know earlier i could have saved 20 quid in petrol! <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=jimmybrownpants" target="_blank">#jimmybrownpants</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=boxing" target="_blank">#boxing</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=football" target="_blank">#football</a></noframe>
Let that be a lesson to all the bullies out there."The Pakistani side gave us information that the onion produce cannot be bartered. This is mainly due to increase in the prices in their own domestic market", said Bashir Ahmad, leading cross LoC trader in Uri.
Onion
At a time when onion prices have been bringing tears in the eyes of people in India, Pakistan has stopped sending onions into J-K through the cross LoC bartering trade points in the state.
The cross LoC trade happens at two points, Poonch and Uri. The traders have been informed by the Pakistani side that due to steady rise in domestic prices in the face of massive demand from India, the other side cant supply the product for sometime.
"The Pakistani side gave us information that the onion produce cannot be bartered. This is mainly due to increase in the prices in their own domestic market", said Bashir Ahmad, leading cross LoC trader in Uri.
According to the traders they had been places orders for onions in bulk due to the soaring price hike in India. "We had placed orders for onions from our partners in PoK but the massive demand made onion prices in Pakistan jump from Rs 22 per kilo to Rs 38 in three days," said Bashir Ahmad.
Around 100 trucks in two days were imported which must be around 1,000 tonnes of onion costing Rs 3 crore. Ban on the import of onions has shocked the traders community.
Although the quantity of the import could not have sufficed the need of local markets in Kashmir however coming at a rate of around Rs 30 it certainly would have easened the burden on the common man's pocket.We’ve released a new ‘problem profile’ on the risks posed by artificial intelligence.
Many experts believe that there is a significant chance we’ll create artificially intelligent machines with abilities surpassing those of humans – superintelligence – sometime during this century. These advances could lead to extremely positive developments, but could also pose risks due to catastrophic accidents or misuse. The people working on this problem aim to maximise the chance of a positive outcome, while reducing the chance of catastrophe.
Work on the risks posed by superintelligent machines seems mostly neglected, with total funding for this research well under $10 million a year.
The main opportunity to deal with the problem is to conduct research in philosophy, computer science and mathematics aimed at keeping an AI’s actions and goals in alignment with human intentions, even if it were much more intelligent than us.
In the profile we cover:
The main reasons for and against thinking that the future risks posed by artificial intelligence are a highly pressing problem to work on.
How to use your career to reduce the risks posed by artificial intelligence.
Read our full profile on the risks posed by artificial intelligence.Buy Photo April 21 2014 - New Memphis Redbirds General Manager Craig Unger addresses members of the media during press conference at AutoZone Park. (Photo: William DeShazer, The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo
It’s official. The United Soccer League is coming to Memphis and will begin play at AutoZone Park in 2019.
Mayor Jim Strickland celebrated the news on his Facebook page, writing, “More details to be ironed out, but we've worked to help make this a reality. It’s just another example of our momentum in the City of Memphis.”
More: Is Memphis on the verge of getting a professional soccer franchise?
CLOSE A promo video for United Soccer League's Nashville franchise, which should begin play in 2018. United Soccer League
The Commercial Appeal reported in August that the Memphis Redbirds were “on the verge” of obtaining a franchise. Jake Edwards, president of the USL, confirmed to the Memphis Business Journal Tuesday that Memphis will, indeed, be getting a team.
"We are excited about the prospects of a third professional sports team in downtown Memphis," said Craig Unger, the Redbirds president and general manager, in a written statement. "Coupled with the continued revitalization of downtown, the time has never been better for investment in the city and its people."
The USL isn’t Major League Soccer, but it’s only one tier down, and two steps up from the semi-pro Memphis City FC team that started last year. Nashville’s USL team will begin play next year. Birmingham and Austin will join Memphis and begin play in 2019.
Other cities with USL teams include St. Louis, Cincinnati, Orlando, Phoenix, Sacramento and Tampa. Cincinnati led the league in attendance in 2017, averaging 21,198 a game. Louisville won the 2017 title Monday night in front of a crowd of 14,456.With a more powerful CPU, the new SmartThings Hub no longer needs cloud computing to handle video- and sensor-monitoring chores. That allowed Samsung to introduce a new "Smart Home Monitor" feature that will give users a continuous video livestream and trigger the system to record video following pre-programmed events. Those include things like the activation of motion sensors, or tripping of smoke, fire and leak detection devices. The Smart Home Monitor features will launch in beta, however.
To control the system and see video feeds, users will get updated iOS or Android apps. They've been redesigned to help you arrange sensors and devices by room, and program actions like turning on lights, unlocking doors and turning off alarms (or combinations of all those things). SmartThings now supports around 200 devices, including Amazon's Echo and its own SleepSense tracker, and has announced new partners including Honeywell, Yale, D-Link, Bose and others. It also supports devices that use the ZigBee and Z-Wave standards. The SmartThings Hub is now available from Samsung and Amazon for $99, with sensors priced from $30 to $55. UK residents can also nab the hub at Currys PC World for £99, or a starter kit including the hub and several sensors for £199.
Check out all the news from Berlin at our IFA 2015 hub.On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” anchor Chris Matthews argued Democrats shouldn’t vote to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination “Because it’s not his turn. It’s Merrick Garland’s turn, and everyone knows it.”
Matthews said, “A president nominates a Supreme Court justice, the Senate deliberates on the nomination. We will not get back to such respect if we let Trump exploit the vacancy [Senate Majority Leader Senator] Mitch McConnell (R-KY) created. We cannot allow these two opportunists to complete what we call in basketball the alley-oop play. … I don’t want to see Donald rTump stuff his nominee through the hoop. Why? Because it’s not his turn. It’s Merrick Garland’s turn, and everyone knows it. Vote nay on Gorsuch, demand the 60 votes, and don’t give them to Trump. It’s not this guy’s turn. It’s not his guy’s turn.”
(h/t Mediaite)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchettThe interplanetary internet now has its first permanent node in space, aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
The new software will make sending data from space less like using the telephone, and more like using the web. In the modern era of the web and information on demand, teams still have to schedule times to send and receive data from space missions.
But the newly installed system aboard the ISS could one day allow data to flow between Earth, spacecraft, and astronauts automatically, creating what is being dubbed the “interplanetary internet”.
Faster transfer
A box boasting a computer and modules for science experiments owned by non-profit BioServe Space Technologies on the ISS was loaded with the necessary software for its new role in late May.
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The payload recently sent down its first science data – images of crystals formed by metal salts in free-fall – using the new programming. Its new capability has already speeded up the transfer of data back to Earth by about four times, says BioServe’s Kevin Gifford. If data is lost during a link, the system automatically transmits lost data later. Until now someone had to schedule a second attempt.
The first deep-space test of the communications protocol took place in November 2008, when computers on Earth and NASA’s Epoxi spacecraft simulated the transmission of data from Mars to Earth.
Information chain
While the Earth-bound internet uses a protocol called TCP/IP to allow distant machines to communicate over cables, the ISS payload uses delay-tolerant networking (DTN), which is being developed to cope with the patchy coverage in space that arises when spacecraft pass behind planets or suffer power outages.
If data passing between computers using TCP/IP goes missing, the two keep communicating until everything has been sent. But in space such to-ing and fro-ing of data is impractical.
DTN circumvents this problem by commanding each node in the network to store information until it can find another node that can receive it. Data is relayed in a chain and should only need to be transmitted once.
Growing network
NASA aims to have the DTN protocol complete and ready for use on future spacecraft by the end of 2011. The ISS will act as a testing platform to perfect the protocol and help iron out any bugs.
The station will get a second interplanetary internet node when the necessary software is uploaded to a second Bioserve payload later this year. The NASA team is also discussing the possibility of adding new nodes to the network in European and Japanese modules on the station.
“This is really an opportunity to demonstrate that these protocols can improve communications in space,” says Adrian Hooke, the DTN team leader at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.
When installed on spacecraft, DTN could alleviate traffic on NASA’s Deep Space Network, a collection of ground-based radio antennas used to communicate with space probes that is in need of refurbishment.
The protocol could also benefit space station operations by automating space weather alerts (see Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe), Hooke says.Ask Jack Burkman why he’s staging an elaborate “re-enactment” of Seth Rich’s last night on earth, and his answer is prestige television.
“FX did a re-enactment of the [O.J.] Simpson murders a few months ago,” Burkman says outside Local 16 on U Street. “The significance of that is that after it came out, it was one of the most fertile periods of the whole O.J. saga. Stations ran with new theories meant to stimulate great thought of the matter.”
Burkman is talking about The People vs. O.J. Simpson, FX’s ten-episode miniseries that dramatized the former NFL star’s trial for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. While the show cleaned up at the Emmy Awards thanks to its detailed production values and ensemble cast, it did little to shake the public’s skepticism of the actual case’s not-guilty verdict.
But to Burkman, that show’s existence is strong enough to validate what he’s doing on a hot Tuesday afternoon. The Washington lawyer and lobbyist has made it his personal mission to figure out who killed Rich, a 27-year-old employee of the Democratic National Committee employee last year. As we talk, Local 16 is acting as a stand-in for Lou’s City Bar in Columbia Heights, where Rich had been into the early hours of July 10 before walking home to Bloomingdale, where he was fatally shot about 4:19 AM. Inside the bar, actors portraying Rich and a bartender are playing out what Burkman and his associates imagine was one of Rich’s final conversations.
“Top me off, will ya, Bill?” fake Seth says.
“Sorry, man. I gotta
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How did you know you were a lesbian? You got thrown out of Girl Scouts and hated Barbie, and never felt comfortable in a dress and heels. But as well-intentioned as we may have been, plenty of lesbians never fit that ideal. Not just trans men but also lesbians like me, who pored over Glamour magazine and loved anything that sparkled. The orientation fit, but my attempts at correct dyke behavior were a miserable failure.
In short, the gender of who we love has always been a separate question from our own gender expression, and our attempt to consolidate gender identity and expression with sexual orientation has led us to a fundamental misunderstanding of the trans experience.
Images in this article are from an exhibition, "GayFace", a collection of works by New York City photographer and artist Ashley Kolodner (pictured above). For more on Kolodner's work see this portfolio on our sister site Advocate.com, and Kolodner's site.
When lesbians ask where the butches have gone, what we’re saying is that we don’t understand trans men. We are stuck on three core beliefs:
For many of us, particularly of an older generation, being out and proud lesbians and feminists has been our life’s journey — and hard won. The communities that we’ve built as a shelter from the storm of a misogynist culture are particularly dear. As one close friend said to me, "I love being a woman so much that I can’t imagine giving that up." And the idea of becoming a man — with all the unearned, unexamined privilege that the idea suggests — is especially incomprehensible; it’s a betrayal of trust.
Others believe that choosing to transition from being butch to being a man shows a lack of courage or imagination, that somehow the person wasn’t brave enough to be a butch woman.
Still others think we’ve failed as a community to create a space in which any woman can dress and act as she pleases. That was my first reaction to those Detroit butches and studs: that the times were so hard that it had made them long for escape. I wondered if, had they been born a generation later, they might have found support in lesbian feminist communities that they were lacking in the rough-and-tumble bar culture that was their only refuge.
But I have since learned that transition is not a betrayal, a lack of courage, or a desire to escape a unwelcoming community. That’s what these Detroit butches and studs taught me. They lived their lives with enormous heart and against all odds. They were the bravest people I knew. They were the survivors, as street-smart and as proud as anyone I’d met in lesbian feminist circles. I simply couldn’t believe they didn’t have the guts or the vision to live fully as who they were.
And so I came to a different understanding. I now believe that all of the battles we fought and the work that we did has created a community where women can be our true selves to a far greater degree, in every aspect of our lives. And in doing that, we’ve made a space where it’s okay to try out different forms of gender expression, from super-femme to androgynous to butch. That has been incredibly freeing for most of us.
But for some, the hard-won space and freedom to try out different forms of gender expression has confirmed what they knew deep down: that fundamentally, they’re not women at all. And they know that because they’ve had the space and the freedom to be butch, and it still wasn’t the right fit.
Most trans men I know came out as lesbians, then claimed a butch identity, and then transitioned. Some of them have realized they never were attracted to women at all and are now gay men — this isn’t as odd as it might sound, if you accept that the lesbian community is the only safe space to explore gender, so it’s where many trans men start their journey.
Maybe that’s why lesbians feel we’ve lost them: because we believed they were ours.
Transgender people are figuring out how to change what is arguably a person’s deepest identity, the one we are most identified with from birth. The challenges, both in terms of navigating one’s own changing body and the outside world, are staggering, even in the most supportive communities. To make such a decision is like jumping off a cliff with little idea what lies below, but knowing that not to make the leap is another type of agony. This courage deserves our respect and our support.
So where have all the butches gone? They’re still around, although some of them go by other names. Some are still proud butches and studs; others, particularly young people, prefer the term "genderqueer," with endless subcategories that underscore that gender identity and expression may intersect with sexual orientation but aren’t subsumed by it. They’ve come to understand that gender-variant people may fall across a wide span of femininity and masculinity, but what they have in common is the experience of falling outside of society’s expectations of their gender.
At the core of this experience is enormous creativity and an analysis of gender as a social construct that got its start in lesbian feminism and gay liberation. All our work isn’t forgotten; it has been built upon by a new generation seeking to be true to themselves, just as we dreamed they would.
***
An activist for social justice for over 25 years, Roey Thorpe has served as the executive director of Basic Rights Oregon, as well as Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon. She is currently the director of strategic projects for the Equality Federation, and lives in Portland, Ore.
Thorpe was elected as a city councilwoman and acting mayor of Ithaca, New York. She was selected as one of Portland's 50 Most Powerful Women in 2004, and has been a recipient of the Ann Shepherd Award, the Fighting Spirit Award, and the HRC Equality Award. Thorpe conducted an oral history project, and has published articles about the history of lesbians in Detroit in the 1930s to the 1960s, as well as personal history and political commentary for a variety of publications.
In her spare time, Thorpe is a serious recreational poker player, always on the lookout for the next big game.
***
Images in this article are from an exhibition, "GayFace", a collection of works by New York City photographer and artist Ashley Kolodner (pictured above). For more on Kolodner's work see this portfolio on our sister site Advocate.com, and Kolodner's site.
Follow SheWired on Twitter.
Like SheWired on Facebook.Disclaimer: I originally wrote this for PC Aficionado on December 14th 2017.
So you have a shiny new virtual reality (VR) system. Now your bank account is tapped out but, you want to get some experiences and games. Good news, there is a ton of free apps and games to test out in VR. With so many out there it is hard to tell which are worth your time. The truth is at the price of “free” nearly all are worth giving a quick look. Even a bad game can be fun in VR. However, here is my recommended list, the ones I feel my fellow VR users should check out and install.
Note: I compiled this list with the Vive in mind as I do not own a Rift. However, most should work on the Rift.
Google Earth VR, Have you ever wanted to feel like superman and fly over cities? That is what Google Earth VR feels like as you fly over toy like 3d cities textured with satellite images. You can go on virtual tours of faraway places or just check to see if there was anything on your roof last time the man in the Google satellite took a picture of it. Anywhere that Google has taken cameras can also be seen as a 360 degree image around you thanks to the recent (September 2017) addition of Street View. In my re-test of Google Earth VR for this article I stood like a giant with my home city sprawling before me. Then I did what any adult who can do does. I went to DisneyLand and could look around some of the 360 degree photos people have uploaded of the park. Google Earth VR is a superb app, you will lose a lot of time exploring. Though not every city has 3D models all have satellite images and street view.
Abe VR, One of the first VR experiences I tried when I got my Vive. Abe VR is a short and creepy tale of Abe, a robot that just wants to be loved. Not recommended for younger players. You will Likely only play Abe VR once but it is worth the install time.
The Lab, Here we come to one of the best free games. Created by Valve themselves. This is a suite of mini games designed to show off the VR. It is the first thing I show people when demoing the Vive. Starting off with Robot repair which shows the sense of scale you experience in VR. Then moving on to Longbow and Slingshot. The Lab shows us the quality we can expect from Valves three upcoming VR mystery titles.
Portal Stories: VR, If you own Portal 2 then you can get Portal Stories: VR free. If you do not own Portal 2, then the VR outing is not for you anyway. Portal Stories: VR is a fan made game though the quality is so high that until recently I thought it was made by Valve. It is a short story and a series of mini-games set in the Portal universe. If Portal Stories: VR well voiced and well designed nature does not appeal, just think how fun it is to watch mates crawling on the floor trying to avoid turrets. Rift support is not mentioned on the Steam store.
Nvidia VR Funhouse, An Nvidia Tech demo collection, but do not let that put you off this free title. Every tech demo shows off a Nvidia technology as a fully playable carnival related mini game. It is a great title to show off VR and the mini games are a lot of fun to play. Nvidia VR Funhouserequires a good CPU and a GTX Nvidia graphics card.
Budget Cuts Demo, This may only be a demo but you will want to play it a few times. Another of the first VR experiences I had. Budget Cuts Demo is also the first VR game that fooled my brain so effectively that I head butted my floor trying to put my head through a portal I made in the game. Rift support is not mentioned.
Anyland, A game/cad tool that has the power to suck an entire night from me. You are given a VR space that you can build in however you like. But it does not end there, you can make animated items, weapons and even a body. From complex guns that shoot force field activating buttons to detailed replicas of cartoon characters I have seen it all in Anyland. Once you have made your creation, you can invite others over to see it, or visit them and be humbled by their raw ability. The developer of Anyland consistently impresses me with his dedication to the game and its community. You can play free forever but there is in game purchases that purely help the developer maintain the servers. It used to be a paid game and I for one do not regret the cost.
For a full review of AnyLand Click here.
Rec Room. One of the social experiences that works so well with VR. I just exited the game after playing for an hour or two. I had intended to play half an hour to re-check it was still of a high quality and got chatting to people. These people were strangers when I first came in but soon it was like we had been friends for years. Playing 3d charades with them was hilarious and had that “one more game” effect that is a sign of a great game. You need an account which may put some off but that mechanic takes some anonymity away from would be trolls. According to Steam Charts Rec Room is nearly always populated, and that is just the steam players, Rec Room supports cross platform play between Vive, Rift and PSVR. Rec Room features too many games to list them all.
Vive Craft, With the right mods Minecraft is an addictive game. Vive Craft allows you to play Minecraft in VR. It adds full motion controller support and a wealth of additional features. The best thing is that unlike Minecraft’s rift only official client Vive Craft has full mod support. if you have a lot of mods installed, you will need a beefy computer to play it smoothly. It really is something else to experience such an old favorite in VR. Note your old 1 by 2 tunnels are now very claustrophobic.
Alteration, VR experiences done well can invoke true emotion in the viewer, Alteration is one such title. Alteration is a short story that unfolds around the viewer of a man who agrees to a scientific experiment without fully reading the small print. I am not ashamed to admit that one part brought a tear to my eye and made me want to fuss my cat. Requites Revive to play.
Lucky’s Tale, An oculus exclusive platformer that shows VR works for more than first person games. The little details that have gone into Lucky’s Tale really make it something unique. When I first played the game, I leant right in to get a closer look at the main character. He turned, looked at me and with a big grin gave me a little wave. You will need Revive to play this title.
Tools
Revive, This surprisingly free software allows you to play nearly all Oculus exclusive content on your vive. Revive integrates so well with SteamVR dashboard it is easy to forget it is third party. You will need to set up a Rift account and install their software first. A small price to pay for access to a whole stores worth of extra content.
OpenVR Advanced Settings Overlay, This free application gives you easy access to a ton of vive secret settings. Allows you to fix floor drift, height, or sound device output all inside your headset. Just like Revive it integrates seamlessly with the SteamVR overlay. It is also good for developers as it will show how many frames are dropped or reprojected (a measure the Vive takes when your PC is struggling to render the game).
Did I miss any? What is your favorite? Let us know in the comments section below.
Like this: Like Loading...Clubs and bars around E Madison were cleared Wednesday night as police searched for possible victims after a bout of gunfire at the Chop Suey nightclub, according to witnesses and SPD radio dispatches.
According to radio reports, police were not able to find a victim reported to be in the club’s bathroom. Police did find a bloody shirt at the scene and a bullet hole in the club’s back door. UPDATE: A reported teenage victim with a gunshot wound to the arm was located at nearby Kaiser Permanente Capitol Hill’s urgent care facility. UPDATE x2: Around 11:45 PM, another victim who said he had been shot near Chop Suey was reported at a medical facility south of Seattle.
Residents and club goers reported hearing multiple shots around 9:45 PM. There were also reported shots nearby a few blocks away on E Madison. Police were setting up crime scenes across the area including inside the club to collect evidence and interview witnesses.
Police say they are investigating gunfire that broke out inside the club and described the victim’s injuries as minor in a conference with media at the scene.
Wednesday night, Chop Suey was scheduled to host California rapper Mozzy. One witness said the performer had just taken the stage when shots rang out.
There has been no reported description of the suspect or suspects in the shooting.
Gang detectives are currently investigating shooting incident at club in 1300 blk E. Madison. Report of several shots fired inside, one victim showed up at urgent care clinic several blocks away with non life-threatening injury to arm. No other victims located. — Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) November 23, 2017
View from Pony. Didn't hear any shots. pic.twitter.com/IdYfoMlozp — Aaron J (@flyguy84) November 23, 2017
Gun violence has spiked in the area this week. Late Tuesday night, a man was shot to death in the Central District near 24th and Spruce. On Sunday, one person was hit in a fight reportedly involving more than 50 people inside a Broadway parking garage that ended with gunfire.
UPDATE 11/24/2017 8:10 AM: SPD has posted its brief on the incident:
Gang Unit detectives are investigating following reports of a shooting inside Chop Suey during a show last night. At approximately 9:45 pm on Wednesday 911 began receiving calls of shots fired inside the club in the 1300 block of East Madison Street. Officers arrived and entered the building, searching for potential victims. The building was secured and no victims were located inside. It appears that two groups of individuals got into a physical fight inside the club and shots were fired, causing most of the show attendees to flee the club. There were reports of additional shots outside the club but officers could not find a scene outside. While investigating, a victim with a non life-threatening gunshot wound to the arm showed up to an urgent care clinic. Approximately 2 hours after the initial call a second victim showed up at Highline Hospital in Burien with a non life-threatening gunshot wound to his arm. Both victims are expected to make a full recovery. Gang Unit detectives processed the scene and interviewed witnesses and both victims. This remains an active and on going investigation.Plans for attacking Muammar Gaddafi apparently go back some 20 years, and even US President Ronald Reagan tried to kill him, deeming him a threat to America power. The latest attacks are in keeping with the larger wave of aggression initiated by the Anglo-American power elite that is on to the next stage of its implementation of the "new world order."
This power elite, based mostly in the one-square mile City of London, is said to seek world domination if it can get it – and sooner rather than later in the face of a growing Internet Reformation.
But there may be another reason for the Libyan attacks that explain their timing. According to a Russia Today news story, for which I was interviewed, Gaddafi was planning to introduce a gold dinar – "a single African currency made from gold, a true sharing of the wealth."
The idea, according to Gaddafi, was that African and Muslim nations would join together to create this new currency and would use it to purchase oil and other resources in exclusion of the dollar and other currencies. RT calls it "an idea that would shift the economic balance of the world."
It was not a democratic perspective in the sense that a country's wealth would revolve around gold and its population. But that's how modern money works. The current dollar reserve system benefits the US. In Gaddafi's case, as he held some 144 tons of gold against a fairly small population, a gold dinar would prove a most powerful currency.
When I was interviewed by RT, I said the following: "If Gaddafi had an intent to try to re-price his oil or whatever else the country was selling on the global market and accept something else as a currency or maybe launch a gold dinar currency, any move such as that would certainly not be welcomed by the power elite today, who are responsible for controlling the world's central banks. … So yes, that would certainly be something that would cause his immediate dismissal and the need for other reasons to be brought forward from moving him from power."
There are many who believe Iraq's Saddam Hussein's overthrow by the US was sealed when he announced Iraqi oil would be traded in euros, not dollars. Sanctions and then a US invasion followed. Coincidence? Hussein's idea would have strengthened the euro, but Gaddafi's idea would have strengthened all of Africa in the opinion of hard-money economists. Gold is the ultimate honest money and the peg against which all other fiat currencies are ultimately devalued.
Pricing oil in something other than the dollar would attack the basis of US power in the world. The dollar is the reserve currency based on a deal made with the Saudis back in 1971 in which the Saudis as the world's largest oil producer agreed to accept only dollars for oil. RT concludes: "A change in this policy its NATO allies literally could not afford to let that happen."
The central banking Ponzi scheme requires an ever-increasing base of demand and the immediate silencing of those who would threaten its existence. Perhaps that is what the hurry is in removing Gaddafi in particular and those who might have been sympathetic to his monetary idea.
You don’t have to play by the rules of the corrupt politicians, manipulative media, and brainwashed peers. When you subscribe to The Daily Bell, you also get a free guide: How to Craft a Two Year Plan to Reclaim 3 Specific Freedoms. This guide will show you exactly how to plan your next two years to build the free life of your dreams. It’s not as hard as you think… Identify. Plan. Execute. Yes, deliver THE DAILY BELL to my inbox!Chapter 078
Grinding Stone
Airships were not held in very high regard among people who cared about such things. The idea of a flying vessel was something that had captivated mankind since time immemorial, of course, but every concrete design for such a vessel had been disappointing. After all, although magic could make a ship fly easily enough, doing so on a long-term basis was very expensive in terms of mana. Moreover, this cost increased massively if one wanted to not just fly, but fly fast and retain a healthy amount of maneuverability in the process, too. This was why very few mages employed magical flight without a pressing reason to do so, even though flight magic wasn't that complicated and many mages were capable of it.
As a result of this fundamental issue, most airships couldn't actually fly around as they pleased, but instead had to follow fixed paths that took them through mana-rich areas that could sustain them in the air. And even so, airship designers still had to ruthlessly keep the vessel's weight down during construction. This made the resulting product relatively fragile and greatly limited the vessel's usefulness. They also tended to be rather expensive to build and maintain, as the materials which went into them tended to be on the pricier side and the design of the vessel itself was something that required a whole team of skilled professionals. It also didn't help that there was no standard airship design available to the public, meaning that most airship construction teams started their projects from scratch and were often the only ones who could truly fix or modify the vessel.
Finally, there was a tiny, yet very important issue of how incredibly lethal an airship crash was compared to, say, the sinking of a sea-going ship. If anything went wrong, it was all too easy for everyone on board to die. There had been a number of high-profile airship accidents over the years, including a rather spectacular one where the Tetran airship Gepid plunged straight into the sea not long after starting its maiden flight. And even if one ignored the possibility of a simple malfunction, there was still the matter of the many flying magical beasts that could easily crash the airship if encountered at an inopportune time.
In light of all that, it was not hard to see why airships weren't in more widespread use. They were not economically viable for private interests and state militaries generally found flying magical creatures to be more effective as an aerial combat force. Despite that, people stubbornly kept trying to make them viable. There was something about a flying vessel that people found irresistibly captivating.
There were considerable differences between regions, however. The states of northern Miasina, for instance, were the leaders when it came to investment into airship research. Due to the vast stretches of desert that surrounded them, the nations of Xlotic saw more potential in airships than Altazian ones. Building roads and railways in the inhospitable interior of northern Miasina was exceptionally difficult, and there were few population centers big enough to justify an expensive teleport platform. A free-flying, economically-viable airship that could traverse the Xlotic desert would be a huge boon to whoever made it.
Pearl of Aranhal, the airship Zorian wanted to steal, definitely hadn't been designed with economic viability in mind. No expenses have been spared in its construction. Although Zorian had not been able to find concrete numbers anywhere, the final price tag was rumored to be positively astronomical. The airship's capabilities, however, were said to be appropriately impressive for something that had so much money sunk into it. It was fast, maneuverable and surprisingly robust for an airship. Most importantly for Zorian, though, it boasted an experimental power core that allowed it to operate independently of ambient mana for long periods of time.
After some discussion with Zach, they decided not to make a move on the airship in this particular restart, however. Half of the restart had already passed and they were already committed on many other fronts. Besides, due to Silverlake's earlier inquiries, people were still paying close attention to them. Zorian still decided to look around a little to get a feel for what they were dealing with.
Unsurprisingly, the airship was under significant protection. Not so much against thieves, since the idea of someone outright stealing the airship was kind of ridiculous, but against spies and saboteurs. The defenses were tight enough to thwart Zorian's casual probing, but he was confident he could get through them in time. It might take several restarts, but it would happen. The bigger problem, in his opinion, was that the Pearl of Aranhal required a crew of ten in order to take off and land, which made the idea of two people stealing it somewhat problematic. He would probably have to wait for Zach to be able to cast the simulacrum spell before they could make the attempt. Another problem, though a comparatively smaller one, was that some small but critical pieces of the airship hadn't been installed, and possibly not even made yet. Zorian was confident he could manufacture and install these components himself, but he would need access to the relevant blueprints first…
'Once upon a time, one of my ambitions was to examine a train to see how its engines work,' Zorian thought to himself nostalgically. 'Now I'm casually planning how to steal and analyze an experimental airship in my free time. Even taking the time loop into account, it's still amazing how far I've come since then. I wonder what my old self would have said to something like that…'
That, of course, was something impossible to answer. He shook his head and focused on more immediate matters. Currently, he was going to meet someone he hadn't spoken to for a very, very long time – Zenomir Olgai, the old language expert he had once sought out to help him figure out what happened to him. Back then, he had been murdered by the invaders not long after talking to him, so he had reflexively avoided the man ever since, suspecting him a spy. However, none of his investigations of Ibasan collaborators and cultists pointed to Zenomir being one of them. Thus, when Zenomir's name popped up while seeking out a translator that could help him with some of the documents he had acquired in Aranhal, he decided to pay him a visit. He even intended to drop some hints about the invasion while he was there, just to see if someone would try to murder him again because of it. Who knew, maybe Zenomir was part of some super-secret section of the invaders that other members didn't normally know about.
As he approached Zenomir's office, though, he suddenly stopped when he felt a familiar presence.
A bunch of cranium rats were lingering in the area, hidden inside the walls. The swarm quickly withdrew their telepathic probe when they noticed his mind was well shielded, but Zorian was practiced enough at mental shielding that even the faintest of mental attacks could not escape his notice.
He frowned. If cranium rats had been loitering around Zenomir's office back when he had visited the man, it was no wonder that Zorian had ended up being a target. That only raised another questions though: why were the cranium rats paying attention to Zenomir? The man was somewhat famous as an incredible polyglot and language expert, but that shouldn't be of much interest to the invaders.
After some thought, he decided to leave the cranium rats alone for now. He knocked on Zenomir's office door and waited.
He waited for nearly fifteen minutes. Apparently he had arrived at a somewhat bad time, since the old teacher was talking to someone already. Another student, Zorian eventually realized. He took a quick peek at the student's mind to make sure he was not connected to the cranium rats and found out that he wasn't. He was just a student that had picked Zenomir as his mentor and was now arguing with him over something. Zorian didn't linger inside his mind long enough to find out what, as he disliked invading other people's privacy with his mental powers unless it was truly necessary.
Eventually the meeting ended and Zenomir called him in. Zorian gracefully accepted the man's offer to sit down and went right to business.
"I'm here because I was told you could help me translate a highly technical document written in Aranhal Ikosian," Zorian told him. "Or at least point me towards someone who is up to the task."
"Ah yes, Aranhal," Zenomir said sagely. "They do speak a particularly distinct form of our tongue, don't they? Can you show me the sample of what you're working with?"
Zorian took out a few pages of technical writing out of his school bag and handed them to the old language expert. He wasn't worried about Zenomir recognizing them as illegally acquired. Unless he was inexplicably connected to Aranhal's airship construction team in addition to his apparent link to invaders, the text should mean little to him.
Zenomir carefully put on a pair of reading glasses and glanced through the papers in silence.
"Lots of unknown technical jargon, I see. Airship construction materials? My, what an interesting topic…" Zenomir mused, before giving Zorian a good-natured smile. "I can see why you were referred my way, though it somewhat saddens me that a student of our fine academy did not think to seek me out right away. At the very least I'd give you my initial opinion free of charge, which is probably more than you got out of whoever sent you here."
Zorian could tell that the man wasn't really angry with him for this oversight, merely giving him a friendly warning that he had failed to take advantage of his academy membership to its fullest extent. Sadly, while Zenomir was both friendly and polite, the events that transpired after Zorian had talked to him the last time around and the cranium rats lurking in the walls had made it impossible for Zorian to really trust him. So he just nodded sagely at Zenomir's reminder and moved on.
"Let me ask you something first," Zenomir began. "Is this document that you want translated an isolated thing or are you planning on collaborating with someone from Aranhal on something?"
"The project I'm working on does involve a fair bit of interaction with Aranhal natives," Zorian reluctantly admitted.
Thankfully, Zenomir seemed to think nothing of Zorian's admission that he was going to interact heavily with people on another continent. Zorian would think this sort of thing would raise some eyebrows, but apparently not.
They spent the next ten minutes discussing what the translation job would entail. Zenomir asked him a couple of questions about the exact nature of this 'project' he was working on, but thankfully he backed off when Zorian told him it was confidential. He confirmed that this sort of translation job was well within his capabilities, though it would take a couple of days and wouldn't be exactly cheap. None of this was a problem for Zorian, though, and he told the old teacher as much before the man raised another idea.
"I'm going to be a little bold here, but perhaps simply hiring a person to translate this document might not be the best course of action," Zenomir said. "I think you should invest some time in learning the language itself. You'd be amazed how many layers of communication you lose by relying on external translation and I guarantee your partners will respect you a lot more if you can communicate with them directly."
"I'm unlikely to interact with people from Aranhal after this project is done, though," Zorian said, frowning. Plus, he was pretty sure there wouldn't be too many respectful exchanges between him and the Aranhal airship construction team, language barriers or no. "That's a lot of wasted effort for one job."
"Learning a language is never a wasted effort, young man," Zenomir lectured him. "It develops your mind and expands your horizons! Besides, it's not as if you're starting completely from scratch. Aranhal Ikosian is different from standard Ikosian, but not unintelligible."
"That's true," Zorian admitted. It was more like a heavily divergent dialect with a lot of words borrowed from the native language spoken by the people before Ikosian conquest. Much like many of the local versions of Ikosian on Altazia, really. "It would still be a lot of work for someone who isn't naturally inclined towards languages like you are, though. No offense, Professor Olgai."
"Hmph. Wait here for a minute," Zenomir said, quickly springing up from his chair without waiting for his answer, and then entered a nearby side-room in his office and closed the door.
He stayed there for over ten minutes. Judging by the quiet sounds emanating from behind the closed door, the man was shifting around boxes and searching through stacks of paper and books in search of something. Zorian sighed. This was taking way longer than he thought it would…
Finally, the old teacher returned to his office, carrying a tall stack of books, folders and loose sheets of paper. He was carrying so much that he had to use his elbows to manipulate the door handle, which he did with the practiced grace of someone who does things like that all the time. He dumped the pile on the table in front of Zorian and pointed at it.
"Tell you what, young man," Zenomir said. "This here is a small selection of dictionaries, translation guides and random notes regarding Aranhal Ikosian that I had in my store room–"
"You just happened to have Aranhal-related stuff in your store room?" Zorian asked incredulously.
"Oh, I have all sorts of things gathering dust in there," said Zenomir dismissively. "Some of the teachers are rarely in their offices, but I pretty much do most of my work here. So it's handy to have most of my resources close by. Anyway, why don't you take this and see how much of that document of yours you can translate yourself using this as a guide. If you impress me with your work, I promise I'll help you translate the rest of your project for free."
Zorian opened his mouth to point out that he'd rather just pay for translation but Zenomir wouldn't hear it.
"Free!" Zenomir repeated. "Do you hate money, young man? Don't be in such a hurry to part with it. I'm not very demanding, don't worry. Just do your best and I'm sure you'll do fine. Who knows, maybe you'll even discover you have a previously undiscovered passion for languages, eh?"
Zorian seriously doubted that, but he could see there was no use in arguing with Zenomir about this. Besides, now that he thought about it a little, it might actually be useful to get some elementary proficiency in Aranhal Ikosian. He might need to interrogate the airship construction crew at some point, and that was going to be really difficult if their language was completely opaque to him. Not even mind reading helped in that case, since people's thoughts were heavily shaped by the language they spoke.
"Very well, I'll give it a try," Zorian relented.
"Excellent!" Zenomir said, beaming at him happily.
"Still, is it really okay for you to just give me all this?" Zorian pointed at the pile in front of him. "Some of this stuff looks… irreplaceable."
"It's fine," said Zenomir, waving him off. "You look like a serious young man. I'm sure you'll return it all in one piece."
Zorian didn't say anything to that. He just stared at the pile of books and paper in front of him, lost in thought, for a few seconds.
"Well," Zenomir suddenly said, clapping his hands. "Is there anything else you wanted to ask? If not–"
"Actually, yes," Zorian said. "Are you a member of the Cult of the Dragon Below?"
Zenomir eyebrows shot up at the question.
"I'm sorry, what?" he asked.
"They officially call themselves the Esoteric Order of the Celestial Dragon," Zorian said. "They are one of the newer religious organizations, one dedicated to the worship of the entity that is commonly thought to reside in the center of the world. They have a rather large presence here in Cyoria. Are you a member of the Order?"
"Ah, I think I have heard something about them once," Zenomir mused, tapping his long white beard with his hand. "But no, I am not a member. Why do you ask?"
"Are you an agent of Ulquaan Ibasa?" Zorian asked, completely ignoring the old teacher's question.
"Now wait just a minute here," Zenomir said, finally getting somewhat angry. "What kind of question is that!?"
Hmm. He was being completely honest. He was not knowingly associated with either the Ibasans of the Cult of the Dragon Below.
With a small sigh, Zorian reached deeper into Zenomir's mind, casually brushing aside the old teacher's rudimentary mental defenses, and modified his short-term memory to erase this conversation out of his mind. The whole process only lasted less than a minute, due to the relatively trivial nature of the memory edit, after which Zorian withdrew from Zenomir's mind.
The old teacher blinked a few times, gradually shrugging off the mental daze that Zorian placed on him so he could work in peace, before giving Zorian a surprised look.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Uh, you kind of dozed off for several seconds there," Zorian said, pretending awkwardness.
"Ah. I guess old age is finally catching up to me," Zenomir said ruefully, shaking his head. "Where were we, again?"
"Actually, I think we're kind of done here," Zorian said. "But first, let me ask you a somewhat strange question. Do you have any idea why someone would want to spy on you?"
"Spy on me?" Zenomir asked incredulously. "Why no, I have no idea why someone would want that. Frankly, I wish more people would be interested in my work. If someone wanted to know more about what I do, why, all they have
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had a kinda catastrophic tech fail. jwaite89 unfortunately not. would have been great, but we've both been busy with other stuff. The other track we've been rehearsing is "Crush", which sounded fucking epic today. Needs a few more run-throughs before it's out in public. Rehearsals were great today...much better than the last two days. Playing "The Vulture" live for the first time ever tomorrow in MK! KimberleyWest me too...might be the lack of sleep though. Seriously though, to follow up on Kevin eating a carrot here's Gareth...eating a carrot. http://yfrog.us/nbsyvz moreBestselling author gives £4,000 to fund for MP who she is believed to have got to know during campaign against phone hacking
JK Rowling has made a surprise intervention in the race to become Labour’s deputy leader by making a donation to the campaign fund of MP Tom Watson.
It is the first time the best-selling creator of Harry Potter has given money to an individual politician. According to Watson’s declaration to the register of members’ interests, he received £4,000 from her in May.
The money will be seen as a boost, and a sprinkling of stardust, on Watson’s bid for the high-profile and influential party role. He is seen as one of the strongest candidates among a crowded field of seven.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tom Watson is the Labour MP for West Bromwich East. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
The pair are believed to have become acquainted during the campaign to uncover phone hacking at the now-defunct News of the World. Both were witnesses at the Leveson inquiry into press intrusion.
According to the entry, which was sent to the registrar last week, Watson received £4,000 from “Joanne Rowling” on 11 May. This is the same name that she used to donate £1m to Labour in 2008, her only other donation to a party or politician.
Rowling told the Leveson inquiry that her personal details were “blagged” by someone on behalf of a newspaper. She also said that her children had been photographed and that a reporter had slipped a note into her then five-year-old son’s schoolbag.
The Silkworm, Rowling’s second crime thriller released last year under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, included references to phone hacking by a journalist.
Watson, the MP for West Bromwich East, was at the forefront of the campaign to uncover hacking at News International newspapers after his own phone was hacked. He memorably questioned Rupert Murdoch about alleged criminal activity by his newspapers in front of a parliamentary committee and wrote a book about it.
Last month, Watson launched a crowdfunding effort to raise £25,000 for his bid to become deputy leader. On Friday it stood at just over £18,800.
Watson’s critics from the right of the party have claimed that he is too close to the Unite union and it’s leader, Len McCluskey. He resigned as deputy chair of the party in July 2013 after the row over the selection of a Labour candidate for Falkirk.
Rowling donated £1m last June to the campaign against Scottish independence after warning that it could be a “historically bad mistake” to leave the UK.
A spokesman for Watson told the Guardian: “Tom’s delighted that JK Rowling has made a generous donation to his deputy leadership campaign. She is obviously a hugely talented and successful author but she is also a tireless campaigner for a range of charities and causes, particularly those that work on behalf of women and children around the world.”
A spokesperson for Rowling declined to comment.Commissioned by -
Happy Sunset:
Worried Sunset:
Sunset Shimmer Custom PlushesCommissioned by -Happy Sunset: Worried Sunset:
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Her eyes and cutiemark were embroidered with a Brother Innovis 750D embroidery machine, Madiera Rayon embroidery thread, and Bernina V6 embroidery software. The eyes were designed and digitised by me. Her pattern was also designed by me. Her hooves contain poly pellets so she can stand well on her own. She is 16 inches to the top of her head. She has flat hooves and 3d sculpted ears. She has wire in her tail and mane to hold their height and shape. Happy Sunset has been double stitched for extra durability.
Please do not ask for the pattern, under no circumstance will I be giving it out.
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More sunny babus. I might need a break after all these XD. I can only make the same pony so much
PLEASE zoom in to check out her details
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Please comment/fav. It means a lot to me. I read every comment and do my best to reply.
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Watch me or check out my journal (and tumblr) to see WIPs of this and other current projects.
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I am currently working on other plushes. Keep an eye out on my page if you are interested in owning any of my future plushes. I would appreciate it if you did not critique my work at this time.-----------------Watch me or check out my journal (and tumblr) to see WIPs of this and other current projects.----------------I am currently working on other plushes. Keep an eye out on my page if you are interested in owning any of my future plushes.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nazegorengcraftsTumblr: www.nazegoreng.tumblr.comTwitter: www.twitter.com/Nazegoreng----------------------- - See page & journal for detailsCommission prices: Nazegoreng's Plush Price List Commission info: Commissions Policy - CLOSED Sunset is made from sunshine, canary and cherry minky.The Education Department had said it intended to consolidate loan servicing, but has now opened the door to an alternate route. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
The Trump administration is signaling a possible shift in its plan to grant the more than $1 trillion federal student loan portfolio to a single loan servicer, according to a Department of Education announcement Tuesday.
In May, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said the department intended to move to a system in which one company, instead of a larger group of contractors, would oversee outstanding federal student loans.
But in outlining its plans for the new system this week, the department said it will create a single data-processing platform to house all student loan information – a project mirroring one set in motion by the Obama administration – and customer account servicing will be handled either by a single contract servicer or by multiple contract servicers.
"Doing what's best for students will always be our No. 1 priority," DeVos said in a statement. "By starting afresh and pursuing a truly modern loan servicing environment, we have a chance to turn what was a good plan into a great one."
DeVos had said the original plan was necessary to reduce costs and streamline a process notoriously difficult to navigate. But critics have blasted the proposal, arguing a single servicer would create a "too big to fail" scenario that would harm borrowers rather than help them.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat whose work led to the founding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – a federal agency that's exposed poor customer service among federal student loan servicers – cheered what she called the department "changing course."
"But it will be important to continue watching the department to evaluate whether its decisions are good for the millions of struggling federal student loan borrowers," Warren said in a statement.
Warren, as part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers that also includes Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., recently introduced a bill aimed at preventing the Education Department from awarding all federal student loans to a single loan servicer.
"Congress should pass our bipartisan legislation to ensure that the department never heads in this direction again," Warren said.
Going forward, the department plans to collect feedback from stakeholders – including members of the servicing industry, financial aid organizations like the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, and borrowers – about what a new servicing system should look like.
In choosing who will provide loan-servicing, department officials plan to consider a variety of factors, including past performance and technical capabilities.
"To improve customer service, we will take the best ideas and capabilities available and put them to work for Americans with student loans," A. Wayne Johnson, the new chief operating officer of the department's Federal Student Aid office, said in a statement.
Johnson founded First Performance Global, a company offering a technology platform for card payments, and also has prior experience in the banking sector. His goal is to bring the federal student loan system up to speed by adopting advanced technology and borrowing ideas from the private sector.
"I hired Dr. Johnson for his extensive private sector expertise, his fresh perspective and his innovative thinking," DeVos said in a statement. "After just a few weeks on the job, Wayne has already identified potential ways to modernize FSA and to leverage new technology that will not only enhance the customer service experience for borrowers but will also protect taxpayers."
Contracts with current student loan servicers expire in 2019, at which point the Education Department will be poised to transition to its new system.
"When FSA customers transition to the new processing and servicing environment in 2019, they will find a customer support system that is as capable as any in the private sector," Johnson said. "The result will be a significantly better experience for students – our customers – and meaningful benefits for the American taxpayer."Few debates get tennis fans as riled up as the general slowing–or homogenization–of surface speeds. While indoor tennis (to take a recent example) is a different animal than it was fifteen or twenty years ago, it’s tough to separate the effect of the court itself from the other changes in the game that have taken place in that time.
Further, the “court effect” itself is multi-dimensional. The surface makes a big difference, as grass will almost always play quicker than a hard court, which will usually play faster than clay. But as we’ve seen with the persistence of Sao Paulo as one of the fastest-playing events on tour, altitude is a major factor, as is weather, which can slow down a normally speedy tournament, as was the case with Hurricane Irene at the 2011 US Open. The choice of balls can influence the speed of play as well.
With all of these factors in play, what we often refer to as “surface speed” is really “court speed” or even “playing environment.” It’s not just the surface. That said, I’ll continue to use the terms interchangeably.
Because of there is only limited data available, if we want to quantify surface differences, we must use a proxy for court speed. What has worked in the past is ace rate–adjusted for the server and returner in each match. On a fast court–a surface that doesn’t grip the ball; or one like grass with a low, less predictable bounce; or at a high altitude; or in particularly hot weather–a player who normally hits 5% of his service points for aces might see that number increase to 8%. (Returners influence ace rate as well. A field with Andy Murray will allow fewer aces than a field with Juan Martin del Potro, so I’ve controlled for that as well.)
Aggregate these server- and returner-adjusted ace rates, and at the very least, we have an approximation of which courts on tour are most ace-friendly. Since most of the characteristics of an ace-friendly court overlap with what we consider to be a fast court, we can use that number as an marker for surface speed.
2013 Court Speed Numbers
For the second year in a row, the high-altitude clay of Sao Paulo was the fastest-playing surface on tour. The altitude also appears to play a role in making Gstaad quicker than the typical clay.
As for the slowing of indoor courts, the evidence is inconclusive. The O2 Arena, site of the World Tour Finals, rated as slower than average in 2011 and 2012, on a level with some of the slowest hard courts on tour. This year, it came out above average, and a three-year weighted average puts the O2 at the exact middle of the ATP court-speed range.
Valencia and the Paris Masters played about as fast as they have in the past, while Marseille remained near the top of the rankings. If there is evidence for a mass slowing of indoor speeds, it comes from some unlikely sources: Both Moscow and San Jose were among the quickest surfaces on tour in 2010 and 2011, but have been right in the middle of the pack for the last two years.
The table below shows the relative ace rate of every tournament for the last four years, along with a weighted averaged of the last three years. The weighted average is the most useful number here, especially for the smaller 28- and 32-player events. The limited extent of a 31-match tournament can amplify the anomalous performance of one player–as you can see from some of the bigger year-to-year movements. But over the course of three years, individual outliers have less impact.
The “Sf” column is each event’s surface: “C” for clay, “H” for hard, and “G” for grass. The numbers are multipliers, so Sao Paulo’s three-year weighted average of 1.58 means that players at that event hit 58% more aces than they would have on a neutral court. Monte Carlo’s 0.67 means 33% less than neutral.
Event Sf 10 A% 11 A% 12 A% 13 A% 3yr Sao Paulo C 1.44 1.08 1.58 1.74 1.58 Marseille H 1.09 1.24 1.41 1.26 1.30 Halle G 1.20 1.39 1.26 1.20 1.25 Wimbledon G 1.36 1.18 1.24 1.25 1.24 Shanghai H 0.96 1.05 1.08 1.37 1.22 Montpellier H 1.28 1.40 1.16 1.21 Brisbane H 1.01 1.20 1.08 1.27 1.19 Tokyo H 1.35 0.98 1.17 1.26 1.18 Gstaad C 0.87 1.13 0.90 1.35 1.16 Winston-Salem H 1.20 1.10 1.18 1.16 Chennai H 0.75 0.77 1.21 1.25 1.16 Valencia H 1.02 1.10 1.12 1.19 1.15 Zagreb H 1.09 1.16 1.20 1.11 1.15 Washington H 0.96 0.93 1.34 1.10 1.15 Vienna H 1.42 1.22 1.01 1.19 1.14 Santiago C 1.23 1.21 0.86 1.29 1.13 Sydney H 1.08 1.14 0.94 1.25 1.13 Atlanta H 0.92 0.82 1.06 1.26 1.12 Eastbourne G 1.07 1.13 0.92 1.22 1.11 Queen's Club G 1.07 1.13 1.09 1.12 1.11 Paris H 1.38 0.97 1.16 1.12 1.11 Cincinnati H 1.09 1.02 1.08 1.13 1.10 s-Hertogenbosch G 1.13 1.08 1.03 1.15 1.10 Auckland H 1.01 1.08 1.06 1.12 1.09 Memphis H 1.08 1.12 0.95 1.09 1.05 Stuttgart C 1.09 1.05 1.04 1.06 1.05 Bogota H 1.09 1.05 Rotterdam H 0.88 1.21 0.83 1.12 1.04 Stockholm H 0.93 0.96 1.15 0.99 1.04 Basel H 0.98 1.05 1.16 0.96 1.04 Bangkok H 1.20 1.12 0.73 1.19 1.03 Australian Open H 0.98 1.10 0.92 1.08 1.03 US Open H 1.14 0.93 1.06 1.04 1.03 San Jose H 1.21 1.23 0.96 0.99 1.02 Moscow H 1.28 1.12 1.01 0.99 1.02 Dubai H 1.13 1.07 1.14 0.92 1.02 Doha H 0.88 1.29 0.90 0.98 1.00 Tour Finals H 1.07 0.93 0.87 1.11 1.00 Beijing H 1.01 1.01 1.06 0.94 0.99 Canada H 0.99 1.02 1.04 0.95 0.99 Madrid C 0.76 0.86 1.19 0.89 0.98 Kitzbuhel C 1.12 0.70 1.12 0.98 Metz H 1.14 0.96 1.07 0.90 0.97 Dusseldorf C 0.92 0.96 Munich C 0.77 0.82 0.91 0.97 0.92 St. Petersburg H 1.02 0.84 0.86 0.99 0.92 Acapulco C 0.88 0.89 1.06 0.84 0.92 Delray Beach H 0.98 1.07 0.92 0.85 0.91 Newport G 1.46 0.72 1.04 0.89 0.91 Kuala Lumpur H 0.96 0.97 0.81 0.94 0.90 Miami H 0.91 0.98 0.86 0.89 0.89 Umag C 0.56 0.74 0.67 1.04 0.87 Hamburg C 1.04 0.85 0.75 0.92 0.85 Buenos Aires C 0.84 0.86 0.93 0.74 0.82 Indian Wells H 0.92 0.90 0.86 0.77 0.82 Roland Garros C 0.82 0.86 0.81 0.78 0.81 Barcelona C 0.73 0.65 0.91 0.78 0.80 Casablanca C 0.82 0.91 0.77 0.75 0.79 Estoril C 0.62 0.73 0.79 0.71 0.74 Houston C 0.85 0.71 0.71 0.77 0.74 Bucharest C 0.61 1.08 0.62 0.68 0.73 Rome C 0.78 0.67 0.64 0.81 0.73 Nice C 0.88 0.84 0.79 0.64 0.72 Bastad C 0.93 0.74 0.86 0.58 0.70 Monte Carlo C 0.63 0.60 0.71 0.67 0.67CERN spokesman Otto Heinkelman confirmed that a neutrino had travelled from Switzerland to Italy at faster than the speed of light, apparently to escape the ennui.
‘It may have been coincidence, but last night the physicists here in Geneva were watching the 1949 film, “The Third Man”, where the character Harry Lime declares, “In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”‘
‘Shortly after that, we fired up the particle accelerator and that neutrino took off like – well, a bat out of hell doesn’t seem to be a sufficient description. It’s probably living La Dolce Vita and nothing we have tried seems able to coax it back.’
wwwizWorkers arrive at the Office of Personnel Management in Washington. (James Lawler Duggan/Reuters)
One of the scariest parts of the massive cybersecurity breaches at the Office of Personnel Management just got worse: The agency now says 5.6 million people's fingerprints were stolen as part of the hacks.
That's more than five times the 1.1 million government officials estimated when the cyberattacks were initially disclosed over the summer. The total number of those believed to be caught up in the breaches, which included the theft of the Social Security numbers and addresses of more than 21 million former and current government employees, remains the same.
OPM and the Department of Defense were reviewing the theft of background investigation records when they identified additional fingerprint data that had been exposed, OPM said in a statement.
Breaches involving biometric data like fingerprints are particularly concerning to privacy experts because of their permanence: Unlike passwords and even Social Security numbers, fingerprints cannot be changed. So those affected by this breach may find themselves grappling with the fallout for years.
“The fact that the number [of fingerprints breached] just increased by a factor of five is pretty mind-boggling,” said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, the chief technologist at the Center for Democracy & Technology. “I’m surprised they didn't have structures in place to determine the number of fingerprints compromised earlier during the investigation.”
Lawmakers, too, were upset about the latest revelation. "OPM keeps getting it wrong," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). " I have zero confidence in OPM’s competence and ability to manage this crisis."
As fingerprints increasingly replace passwords as a day-to-day security measure for unlocking your iPhone or even your home, security experts have grown concerned about how hackers might leverage them.
But federal experts believe the potential for "misuse" of the stolen fingerprints is currently limited, according to OPM, but that could "could change over time as technology evolves." It also said an interagency working group including experts from law enforcement and the intelligence community will review ways that the fingerprint data could be abused and try to develop ways to prevent that from happening.
"If, in the future, new means are developed to misuse the fingerprint data, the government will provide additional information to individuals whose fingerprints may have been stolen in this breach," OPM said.
OPM says it is still in the process of notifying everyone caught up in the breach. But they will be offered free identity theft and fraud protection services, the agency said.
China is widely suspected of being behind the breaches, perhaps as part of move to build a massive database on Americans. But U.S. government officials have so far declined to publicly blame the nation for the cyberattacks. Chinese President Xi Jinping is currently visiting the U.S. and described China as a strong defender of cybersecurity and a victim of hacking itself during a speech in Seattle on Tuesday.
The hacks sparked an outcry on Capitol Hill where lawmakers criticized the government's response and said the agency should have done more to protect the information in the first place. Some called for the firing of OPM director Katherine Archuleta, who eventually resigned in July.
One lawmaker criticized OPM for releasing the new information during the Pope's visit to Washington: "Today's blatant news dump is the clearest sign yet that the administration still acts like the OPM hack is a PR crisis instead of a national security threat," said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) in a statement.
OPM spokesman Sam Schumach said the additional batch of compromised fingerprints wasn't identified until very recently and that the agency spent the past several days analyzing the data.
"Yesterday, we began informing members of Congress, as well as the OPM Inspector General, of these newly identified archived records, and disclosed that this would change the fingerprint number previously reported," he said in an e-mailed statement. The agency was able to confirm the new total population Wednesday morning and subsequently informed the public, Schumach said.Online survey giant Qualtrics has added bitcoin as a rewards option for consumers who respond to surveys and research requests issued by its enterprise clients.
The Utah company, which is valued north of $1bn following a $150m Series B in 2014, boasts more than 700 employees and investors including Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners. The offering was made possible by bitcoin payments processor SnapCard‘s recent integration with digital rewards platform Tango Card.
Consumers who want to access the platform to obtain rewards points must first sign up to the service to begin taking surveys. Once Qualtrics users earn 50 points for their participation, they receive a Tango Card gift code, which can then be redeemed for Amazon and Target gift cards as well as bitcoin.
Qualtrics head of strategy and research Mike Maughan indicated that by offering bitcoin as a rewards option, he believes the company’s clients will be more easily able to reach the increasingly important millennial demographic.
Maughan told CoinDesk:
“Millennials are most familiar with and most likely to be part of the bitcoin movement. A lot of millennials are more on the cutting edge of bitcoin, and those are among the people that are most sought after for their insights right now.”
Maughan went on to explain that Qualtrics saw little downside in adding the digital currency as a rewards option given that consumers have a choice of whether to redeem points for bitcoin.
“It’s not a compulsion,” Maughan said. “If they have any concern about bitcoin, they can then cash out for gift cards.”
With the decision, Qualtrics has become the latest company to offer bitcoin rewards through Tango Card, following last week’s announcement by Microsoft’s search engine product Bing.
Online survey image via ShutterstockAll kings in the current Chakri dynasty of Thailand are often referred to as Rama. The name Rama was adopted from the name of the Hindu God Rama, an avatar of Vishnu.
The use of the name "Rama 'n'th" is in line with Thai practice of giving numbers to the king in the current dynasty. However, the translation was not exact and can give rise to some confusion as to whether this was actually the name adopted by the king on his coronation.
History [ edit ]
While "Rama" was used as a title for all the kings, it was not always taken on as the name. In the present dynasty, the king who called himself Rama was Phra Mongkutklao or King Vajiravudh, who was the sixth to reign. His reigning title was Phra Mongkutklao Chaoyuhua; later in his reign, he preferred to style himself as Phra Ram thi Hok (พระรามที่หก lit. Rama VI). It was presumed that he was influenced by the European practice of numbering the rulers with similar names while he studied in England.
Quite conveniently, it coincided with another practice of the Thai people. Traditionally, the name of the king is sacred and would not normally be said. Instead, people would refer to the king by other words; currently, Nai Luang or Phra Chao Yu Hua. When King Phutthayotfa Chulalok founded the dynasty, he was commonly referred to as Phan Din Ton (แผ่นดินต้น literally 'the First Reign'); and when his son inherited the throne, he was referred to as Phan Din Klang (แผ่นดินกลาง lit. 'the Middle Reign'). That then became awkward when Prince Jessadabodindra (King Nangklao) became the third king, as the obvious referral would then be Phan Din Plai (แผ่นดินปลาย literally 'the Last Reign'), which did not sound very auspicious.
He decided to give the names Phutthayotfa Chulalok and Buddha Loedla Nabhalai, after the names of two Buddha statues, to his two predecessors. He was then posthumously given the name "Nang Klao" by his successor, King Mongkut, who also tried to establish more systematic royal nomenclature. Later historians would refer to King Nang Klao's reign as Ratchakan thi Sam (รัชกาลที่ 3, lit. 'the third reign'). That was becoming more prominently, probably because of Western influences on Thailand during the reigns of Mongkut and his son, Chulalongkorn. Since then, all the reigns of kings in the dynasty are also known unofficially as Ratchakan thi nth ('the nth Reign'); hence, the present King's reign is also known as Ratchakan thi sip ('the tenth reign') and extrapolated back to all the earlier kings of the dynasty.
Since King Vajiravudh called himself Rama VI in English, the name was seemingly equivalent to Thai Ratchakan thi hok. This rough translation is still in use today, but no other king in the dynasty before him used the name "Rama" as such.
However, there have been several kings in the Ayutthaya and Thonburi periods who are best known by the title Ramathibodi ("Overlord Rama"). Ayutthya itself was borrowed from the name of Rama's capital in the Ramayana epic, Ayodhya. Still, most of the names of the earlier kings as given by historians are titles rather than real names. It was not customary to refer to a king by his name during his lifetime, and in many cases, the personal names of the kings are not known.
Even the titles are often doubtful. Each king had his full style and title inscribed on a golden plate, which, however, were all lost when the Ayutthaya Kingdom was destroyed in the sack of the city by the Burmese in 1767.[1]
Chakri Kings of Thailand [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]A screencap from Chris Turney's YouTube video shows the Akademik Shokalskiy trapped in ice on Dec. 26, 2013. (Photo11: YouTube)
A Chinese ice-breaker is expected to arrive Friday to rescue the 74 people stranded aboard an ice-trapped expedition cruise ship in Antarctica, according to the professor organizing the trip.
The Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy has been stuck at sea since Christmas morning, when it was seized by ice on the edge of the continent. The ship contacted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority for assistance, and three ice-breakers that were in the region are now racing through blizzard conditions to reach the vessel.
The Chinese ship Snow Dragon (Xue Long) is expected to reach the ship Friday. In addition, the French vessel Astrolabe and the Australian ship, the Aurora Australis, will arrive soon after, according to Chris Turney, a professor of climate change at the University of New South Wales, Australia, writing on the expedition blog, spiritofmawson.com.
The passengers include 22 crew and 52 tourists, scientists and explorers. The ship, which left New Zealand last month, is on a special research voyage to honor the 100th anniversary of famed Australian explorer Douglas Mawson.
Turney, the expedition leader, has been tweeting and blogging the trip. He posted a video on YouTube on Thursday. Speaking over the howling wind, which gusted up to 40 miles per hour, he assured viewers that all was well. "Everyone is safe, the vessel is perfectly safe. We just can't make a passage forward," he says.
On Christmas Day, he tweeted "We're in the ice like the explorers of old! All are well and spirits are high. Happy Christmas."
The ship, located about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart, Tasmania, has not suffered damage. Morale remains high and passengers have ample provisions, Turney has written.
This item was written by Larry Bleiberg, former travel editor of The Dallas Morning News and Coastal Living magazine.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1c8T2LqWe invite you to D.I.Y. your way through your gift-giving list. We’ve rounded up some of the best crafts and baked goods that Quirk Books has to offer. So if you have special people in your life who appreciate cute and quirky items and edibles, use this guide to create one-of-a-kind presents that will show them just how well you know them and just how much you care.
Projects include:
FOR THE BOOKWORM:
Tiny Books
Cat Book Covers
Lightning Bolt T-Shirt
FOR THE LOVEBIRDS:
Flower Sticks
Vanilla-Bean Meringue Kisses
Pink Champagne Cake
FOR THE KIDS:
Mallow Cones
Whale Onesie
Temporary Tattoos
FOR THE ANIMAL LOVER:
Cat Portraits
Animal Cookies
Dog Gadget Sleeve
FOR THE FOODIE:
Candy Charms
Inside-Out Cookie Dough Truffles
Homemade Vanilla Extract and Vanilla Sugar
FOR THE GEEK:
Solar System Mobile
Mini Homemade Pop Tarts
Bottled Potions
Quirk D.I.Y. is a cozy little community for do-it-yourself adventurers to share stories and ideas and meet new friends. We offer crafting advice for repurposing old books. We put booze in our ice-cream cakes. We promulgate our love of bacon. We give away cool stuff and much, much more. If you want to share your creations or are just looking for more original D.I.Y. projects, join us and our fun friends at Quirk D.I.Y. online.Today is a very special day. It is the second anniversary of the game Five Nights at Freddy’s. I have been in this fandom since the beginning and let me tell you, it has been a crazy ride in these past two years. It all began with The Living Tombstone. I heard his song and loved it but also became curious as to what this game was about. So I went to the wiki, read the phone guy’s messages, and the many theories. Then I watched Markiplier’s let’s play and knew this little indie game would have a special place in my heart. To this day i’m still a fan of his and continue to watch his videos daily all cause of this game. Then the teasers for the second game came and I was so excited to see what was in store. I fell in love with all games after that and have yet to be disappointed. Now fnaf is a franchise with a new game on the way, merchandise, books, and a movie in store and i’m still here. And I know that I will still be here for whatever else is in store for us. Scott Cawthon, even though you’ll never see this I like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this incredible series.
TLDR: Happy 2nd anniversary FNAF! I’ve been here since the beginning and look forward to whatever is in store for us :)Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/6/2014 (1708 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Say cheese, Winnipeg.
The inaugural Flash Photography Festival, which will see local photographers and artists install displays of their work in various venues around the downtown area, is scheduled take place throughout the month of October.
“Seen in cities across Canada, photography festivals have positively impacted their city centres as participating venues often see increased food traffic and revenue,” Downtown Winnipeg BIZ director Stefano Grande said in a statement.
“We’re proud to support the local arts community through this new festival partnership. Downtown Winnipeg continues to serve as the premier destination for culture, arts and entertainment in the city. We’re sure to see even more people in our downtown frequenting local businesses to check out world-class photography during this month long celebration.”In our original review of the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime I did the best I could do given limited testing opportunity with the platform before the NDA lifted on all the reviews. I made the commitment back then to come back with additional findings after I had spent more time with the platform. Today I'm back to make good on that promise.
Two more Eee Pad Transformer Prime samples later and here we are. Next week retailers and etailers should begin shipping the first orders of the Prime out to customers. There were a number of gaps I wasn't happy with in our original review of the Prime, and I've spent the past couple of weeks trying to fill them. Even what I'm presenting today isn't perfect, but when combined with the original review it should paint a more complete picture of the Eee Pad Transformer Prime.
And I've got video, something I had to cut out of the original review due to time constraints:
The WiFi Story
I'm on my third Transformer Prime. The original sample was almost completely broken when it came to wireless connectivity. I had very little range on the integrated WiFi and performance typically hovered around 0.5Mbps, sometimes reaching as high as 2Mbps. ASUS originally claimed that no one else had this issue but it looks like the CNet reviewer also noticed it. That sample went back to ASUS for diagnosis but I don't have the results back from the autopsy yet. A simple guess would be an antenna that wasn't properly connected, although it could just as easily have been something more complicated.
ASUS overnighted me a second Transformer Prime; this one was tested at ASUS in California before making its way out to me. As I published earlier, I had issues with the second sample and any Apple wireless access points (Time Capsule or Airport Extreme). Using a Netgear AP I saw 16Mbps pretty consistently, but I could only get ~32Mbps if the tablet was at the right orientation with respect to the AP. ASUS' HQ eventually conceded that there might have been a problem with the second WiFi antenna on pre-production review samples. Apparently this issue was fixed in the retail lot, but may not have been addressed in what ASUS originally shipped us. Wait—second WiFi antenna?
It turns out that the Eee Pad Transformer Prime features WiFi antenna diversity. We've
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of 2016. When analysing markets, like India, we take many factors into consideration, including dual SIM devices, network technology, device types, and more," said Jamie Steven, COO, Speedtest by Ookla, in a statement."In addition to what the user sees on their mobile application as they take a test in real-time, we apply a rigorous methodology when aggregating the data which uses a variety of internal data sources that control for potential variability in the market," he said."We have taken dual SIM information into consideration and fully stand behind Airtel being named 'India's Fastest Mobile Network'," Steven said."The claim of Airtel that it is India's fastest network is false, misleading and incorrect. The claim is being made by Airtel acting in a mala fide manner in collusion with Ookla LLC, who profess to be experts in the domain space of testing mobile internet speed," stated the letter sent by Reliance Jio to the ASCI, the advertising watchdog on Monday."We are rather amused by the allegations being made against our campaign. We believe that this is a deliberate attempt to malign our brand and misguide customers through a campaign of misinformation, which is something we now come across on a regular basis, in particular, on social media platforms," said Rajiv Mathrani, Chief Brand Officer, Bharti Airtel, in a statement on Tuesday.Newcomer Reliance Jio, which has over 100 million subscribers, has also separately served a legal notice to Ookla for what it has termed as its "flawed" test.Jio told ASCI that Ookla -- which had dubbed Airtel as "Officially The Fastest Network" -- does not have any accreditation from the Indian government."Without prejudice to the above, in any event, the way the award is being projected misleads the public into believing that Airtel has the fastest network today, that is when the advertisements are being aired/published," the letter said.As a pediatric feeding therapist, many kids are on my caseload because they are stuck in the chicken nugget and french fry rut…or will only eat one brand of mac-n-cheese…or appear addicted to the not-so-happy hamburger meal at a popular fast food chain. While this may often include kids with special needs such as autism, more than half my caseload consists of the traditional “picky-eaters” who spiraled down to only eating a few types of foods and now have a feeding disorder. I even had one child who only ate eight different crunchy vegetables, like broccoli and carrots. Given his love for vegetables, it took his parents a long time to decide this might be a problem. The point is: These kids are stuck in food jag, eating a very limited number of foods and strongly refusing all others. It creates havoc not only from a nutritional standpoint, but from a social aspect too. Once their parents realize the kids are stuck, the parents feel trapped as well. It’s incredibly stressful for the entire family, especially when mealtimes occur three times per day and there are only a few options on what their child will eat.
It’s impossible in a short blog post to describe how to proceed in feeding therapy once a child is deep in a food jag. Each child is unique, as is each family. But, in general, I can offer some tips on how to prevent this from happening in many families, again, keeping in mind that each child and each family is truly unique.
Here are my Top Ten suggestions for preventing food jags:
#10: Start Early. Expose baby to as many flavors and safe foods as possible. The recent post for ASHA on Baby Led Weaning: A Developmental Perspective may offer insight into that process.
#9: Rotate, Rotate, Rotate: Foods, that is. Jot down what baby was offered and rotate foods frequently, so that new flavors reappear, regardless if your child liked (or didn’t like) them on the first few encounters. This is true for kids of all ages. It’s about building familiarity. Think about the infamous green bean casserole at Thanksgiving. It’s rare that hesitant eaters will try it, because they often see it only once or twice per year.
#8: Food Left on the Plate is NOT Wasted: Even if it ends up in the compost, the purpose of the food’s presence on a child’s plate is for him to see it, smell it, touch it, hear it crunch under his fork and perhaps, taste it. So if the best he can do is pick it up and chat with you about the properties of green beans, then hurray! That’s never a waste, because he’s learning about a new food.
#7: Offer Small Portions: Present small samples. Underwhelming – that’s exactly the feeling we hope to invoke. Besides, if a tiny sample sparks some interest and your child asks for more peas, well, that’s just music to your ears, right? Present the foods in little ramekins, small ice cube trays or even on tiny tasting spoons used for samples at the ice cream shop.
#6: Highlight Three or Four Ingredients Over Two Weeks: You can expose kids to the same three or four ingredients over the course of two weeks, while making many different recipes. For example, here are nine different ways to use basil, tomatoes and garlic. Remember get the kids involved in the recipe, so they experience the food with all of their senses. Even toddlers can tear basil and release the fragrance, sprinkling it on cheese pizza to add a little green. If they just want to include it as a garnish on the plate beside the pizza, that’s a good start, too!
#5 Focus on Building Relationships with Food. That often doesn’t begin with chewing and swallowing. Garden, grocery stop, visit the farmer’s market, create food science experiments like this fancy way of separating egg whites from the yoke. Sounds corny (pardon the pun!), but making friends with food means getting to know food. I often tell the kids I work with “We are introducing your brain to broccoli. Brain, say hello to broccoli!”
#4 Don’t Wait for a Picky Eating Phase to Pass: Use these strategies now. Keep them up, even through a phase of resistant eating. Learning to be an adventurous eater takes time.
#3 Don’t Food Jag on FAMILY favorites. In our fast paced life, it’s easy to grab the same thing for dinner most evenings. Because of certain preferences, are the same few foods served too often? Ask yourself, are you funneling down to your list of “sure things?” It’s easy to fall into the trap: “Let’s just have pizza again – at least I know everyone will eat that.”
#2 Make Family Dinnertime Less about Dinner and More about Family. Why? Because the more a family focuses on the time together, sharing tidbits of their day and enjoying each other’s company, the sweeter the atmosphere at the table. Seems ironic, given this article is focused is on food, but, the strategies noted above all include time together. That’s what family mealtimes are meant to be: a time to share our day. Becoming an adventurous eater is part of that process over time.
And the #1 strategy for preventing food jags? Seek help early. If mealtimes become stressful or the strategies above seem especially challenging, that’s the time to ask a feeding therapist for help. Feeding therapy is more than just the immediate assessment and treatment of feeding disorders – the long term goal is creating joyful mealtimes for the whole family. The sooner you seek advice, the closer you are to that goal. I hope you’ll visit me at My Munch Bug.com for articles and advice on raising adventurous eaters and solving picky eating issues. Plus, here are just a few of my favorite resources:
Websites & Blogs
Doctor Yum.com
Spectrum Speech and Feeding.com
Picky Tots BlogSpot
Books
Getting to Yum
Fearless Feeding
Nobody Ever Told Me (or My Mother) THAT!
Facebook
Food Smart Kids
Feeding Matters
Feeding Tube Awareness
Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP, treats children birth to teens who have difficulty eating. She is the author of Happy Mealtimes with Happy Kids and the producer of the award-winning kids’ CD Dancing in the Kitchen: Songs that Celebrate the Joy of Food! Melanie’s two-day course on pediatric feeding is offered for ASHA CEUs and includes both her book and CD for each attendee. She can be reached at [email protected] of the free market—including those considered “right-wing” and “conservative”—believe it is wrong to violate property rights. Consequently, they oppose egalitarian measures to steal from the rich and give to the poor. Such “income redistribution” represents naked theft and epitomizes the Founding Fathers’ fears of unfettered democracy. At the same time, champions of laissez faire devote much of their time to criticizing the thousands of distortionary and punitive regulations imposed on businesses. Indeed, Ayn Rand went so far as to write an essay in which she described big business as “America’s persecuted minority.”
In light of these tendencies, it is easy to overlook the fact that a large portion of the welfare state is devoted to the rich. Although couched in altruistic language and billed as serving the public interest, much of the government’s redistribution of wealth is from the hapless taxpayer to the pockets of large corporations. This may seem paradoxical to naïve observers whose political views are shaped largely by political campaigns between Democrats (the ostensible friends of the poor) versus Republicans (the ostensible opponents of welfare). But anyone familiar with political economy can quickly recognize that it makes far more sense for politicians to funnel tax dollars into the hands of powerful (not to mention rich) special interests. Big business learned long ago that the easiest way to handle taxes and regulations is to divert “public” money into its own hands and to influence the regulators to enforce measures that disproportionately burden upstart competitors.
I hope to redress the rhetorical imbalance by outlining the numerous ways rich individuals and big businesses manage to siphon off taxpayer money into their own pockets. To keep the article manageable, I’ll focus mainly on actual subsidies, that is, cases where wealthy rent-seekers literally receive cash flows (directly or indirectly) from the government. Beyond these fairly obvious examples there are dozens of clever ways in which rich and unscrupulous special interests use their political influence to enrich themselves at the expense of the public without actually receiving tax dollars. (These would include licensing restrictions and import quotas.) Because of space constraints, an extensive analysis of these subtler shenanigans will have to wait for a future article.
One of the most blatant examples of corporate welfare is the bloated system of agricultural price supports, which started in the 1920s and was institutionalized during the New Deal. The rationale behind the program is straightforward: Under pure laissez faire, agricultural markets would (allegedly) prove extremely volatile. In good times with high prices farmers would borrow money to expand their operations and plant more crops. But this would soon lead to a glut on the markets, forcing farmers to slash prices and go into foreclosure. This tremendous uncertainty, as well as the wild swings in crop supply, could (allegedly) be rectified if the federal government stepped in to purchase surplus crops when the market’s demand proved insufficient. Such policies would presumably stabilize crop prices and the food supply, providing more rational and orderly markets in agriculture.
As with other forms of government intervention, a pure policy of surplus acquisition would lead to disaster. If farmers were assured that whatever quantities of a crop they grew the government would buy it from them at remunerative prices, they would plant the most cost-effective crops with reckless abandon. (Indeed, at the close of 2000 the Commodity Credit Corporation [CCC], a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, held stockpiles of 97 million bushels of wheat, eight million bushels of corn, and five million bushels of soybeans, according to the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. The CCC spent $133.5 million to purchase over a million metric tons of wheat on a single day in 1999.) To avoid the accumulation of stockpiles and yet maintain price supports for certain crops, the government hit on the absurd notion of paying farmers not to grow the crops in question. It is possible to qualify for such subsidies even if an owner of arable land had never intended to grow the crops in the first place.
From 1995 to 2004 the federal government provided agricultural subsidies of over $143 billion, according to the Environmental Working Group. The recipients of these subsidies are not exactly Dust Bowl migrants from a Steinbeck novel, either. Over $104 billion (72 percent) of the loot during this period went to the top 10 percent of the recipients, which were large farming organizations or cooperatives that each received an average of $33,000 in subsidies every year. To further illustrate the phenomenon, in October 2005 the House Agricultural Committee rejected a proposal by President Bush to place a cap on annual farm subsidies of $250,000 per person.
Another classic example of how the well-to-do fleece the taxpayers is the multiplicity of “joint ventures” between the government and big business. Projects such as sports stadiums, railroads, or even amusement parks are deemed “too big for the private sector.” Besides being silly—after all, any money that the government spends on such projects was taken from the private sector—these pork-barrel expenditures represent a transfer from the poor (and middle class) to the rich.
For example, the fiscal 2006 Transportation/Treasury/Housing and Urban Development (TTHUD) Act contained $350,000 for the Yucaipa Valley Regional Sports Complex (in California) and $100,000 for renovations to the National Orange Show Stadium in San Bernardino. The Act also contained $50,000 for the Capitol Hill Baseball and Softball League. Beyond its support for sports fans, the government also subsidized art lovers and conference attendees (not typically drawn from the downtrodden of society). Citizens Against Government Waste points out that this same Act contained $325,000 each for renovations to the Seattle Aquarium and the Fox Theater, $200,000 for renovations to the Fredonia Hotel and Convention Center in Texas, and $100,000 for D.C.’s Friends of Carter Barron Foundation for the Performing Arts.
These anecdotes, though outrageous, are whimsical when compared with other types of corporate welfare. For example, the federal government provides enormous funding for energy research, which attempts to develop alternative supplies and technologies as well as discover better methods of using existing sources. The Cato Institute estimates that in fiscal year 2003, the Energy Department spent $670 million on such projects. Inasmuch as struggling single mothers are not designing ethanol engines, this largess represents yet more welfare for the rich.
In a similar vein, the government spends billions funding scientific research. In FY2005 the National Institutes for Health alone spent over $24 billion on all awards, and over $20 billion of this consisted in research grants. Large pharmaceutical companies certainly benefit from this convenient assistance.
We close this section with the epitome of a failed government/business partnership, the classic case of Amtrak. In 2005 alone Amtrak lost $1.2 billion, according to the Heritage Foundation, a shortfall made up by the hapless taxpayer. What makes this waste even more despicable is that Amtrak doesn’t even fulfill its ostensible purpose, namely, to provide affordable passenger rail service across the nation. In particular, Amtrak doesn’t offer service to Phoenix, Las Vegas, Columbus, Nashville, Louisville, Dayton, Tulsa, or Colorado Springs, even though each of these cities has over 500,000 residents. And as anyone who has ridden Amtrak knows, it is far from cheap. For example, its cheapest roundtrip fare from New York City to Washington, D.C., is currently $135 before taxes, compared to $69 for a similar ticket on an admittedly slower bus.
Government Contractors
Even government projects that might be deemed legitimate—such as expenditures on military vehicles or renovations to the Statue of Liberty—represent hidden subsidies to the extent that the contracts are awarded corruptly. The economic principles behind the cost overruns are straightforward enough. Unlike the shareholders of a private firm, if government departments are careful to award contracts to the lowest bidder (who can still get the job done), the politicians and bureaucrats don’t pocket the savings, for that would be sheer theft of public funds. On the other hand, by awarding generous contracts, officials stay in the excellent graces of the beneficiaries. This comes in handy when officials retire from government work and look for consulting jobs.
Another source of systematic welfare is the “cost-plus” method of payment. Here, the government doesn’t settle on an actual price for goods or services delivered, but rather agrees to meet the contractor’s expenses plus some markup. Naturally, this type of arrangement puts no incentive on the contractor to watch costs, and hence represents a hidden subsidy.
We should also consider the effect of timing and the different outcomes in private versus government settings. Congress can agree to spend, say, $20 billion on a space station that will take ten years to complete. Five years into the contract the suppliers can complain that they will require an additional $10 billion to finish the project because of “unexpected” expenses. By this point the voters don’t remember the previous expenditures, and it would seem a terrible waste not to finish such a grand project. Thus the government often ends up funding boondoggles that would never have been approved had the actual price tag been known all along.
When it comes to welfare for contractors, no other agency can match the Pentagon, with its classified programs and aura of necessity. Besides the notorious $600 toilet seats uncovered in a 1983 audit, probably all the major purchases of hardware occur at inflated prices. (The difference is, nobody knows how much a B-2 Stealth bomber “should” cost, so its 2001 price tag of $530 million isn’t as shocking.) No outsider can really be sure of the exact amount of the hidden subsidy, or what the corporate beneficiary does to win it, but we can be fairly sure that the recipients do not reside in the inner city.
On this topic we must mention the case of Halliburton, for this is one issue on which the leftist conspiracy theorists make a decent case. Regardless of the motivations for the invasion of Iraq, it cannot be denied that Halliburton benefited greatly from it. According to a report by the Center for Public Integrity (which required six months and 70 Freedom of Information Act requests to assemble the data), Halliburton received over $2.3 billion in reconstruction contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In second place was the engineering and construction firm Bechtel Group, Inc., with just over $1 billion. International American Products, Inc., finished third with a nonetheless-respectable $526 million in contracts. (For those interested in conspiracies, Halliburton and Bechtel contributed roughly $2.38 million and $3.3 million to President Bush, respectively, while International American Products only contributed $2,500.)
The “War on Terror” has been a bonanza for defense and related contractors. According to Robert Higgs, Department of Defense outlays excluding payments to military personnel rose from $217 billion in FY2001 to $366 billion in FY2006. In this same period the number of companies with federal homeland-security contracts grew from nine to a whopping 33,890, a jump so large that it renders typical percentage figures—in this case, a growth of 376,456 percent—rather meaningless.
Small Business Administration
The Small Business Administration (SBA) is another agency with an apparently noble mission that nonetheless acts in reverse-Robin Hood fashion. In 2005 the SBA announced that $79.6 billion in federal contracts were awarded to “small businesses.” However, according to the New York Times, some of this money went to mom-and-pop organizations such as Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Bechtel, and General Dynamics. Indeed, the Christian Science Monitor reports that almost $5 billion of the contracts classified as “small business” were for the 13 largest government contractors.
Beyond winning contracts theoretically intended for small businesses, there is another way big business benefits from the SBA. In a scheme that Doug French (himself a Las Vegas banker) calls “welfare for bankers,” the SBA guarantees loans for qualifying businesses. Banks are then able to pool such loans and sell them in secondary markets. Now in a simple model of perfect competition, the SBA guarantees would benefit only the loan recipients, because they would acquire funding at lower interest rates. But in the real world, savvy banks acquire “PLP status,” meaning they are preferred lenders. This allows them to issue SBA-guaranteed loans without as much paperwork and other hassles as other banks would need to suffer, and so allows these privileged banks to earn a net income from the entire process. To the extent that PLP status represents a hurdle that has nothing to do with merit or business performance, the process is a form of subsidy to certain (rich) bankers.
The Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA or “Ginnie Mae”) is a public corporation in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ginnie Mae boosts the secondary mortgage market by guaranteeing principal and interest payments on mortgage-backed securities. In a typical case, a bank or other institution will acquire dozens of individual mortgages from homebuyers and place them into a single pool, then issue securities to other investors based on the cash flows from the mortgage payments. In the event of unexpected defaults by the homebuyers, Ginnie Mae would step in to guarantee the payments to the secondary investors.
This pledge obviously makes the guaranteed securities more attractive, lowering their promised rate of return. This in turn lowers the mortgage rates faced by the original homebuyers, but also provides liquidity in the secondary mortgage market and no doubt higher commissions for politically savvy middlemen. (As Ginnie Mae’s Wikipedia entry puts it in an unintentionally humorous line, “This arrangement seemingly benefits everyone involved.”) Naturally the loser is, as always, the U.S. taxpayer, who must assume the losses from mortgage loans made at rates that do not reflect the true risks involved. Although in recent years Ginnie Mae has itself earned more in service fees than it paid out on defaults (and thus did not use any public funds), this is only possible because the taxpayers are ultimately liable for the outstanding collection of guaranteed mortgage-backed securities; total potential exposure in 2004 was $453.2 billion.
Other Guarantees and Bailouts
The same analysis applies to other government loan guarantees. For example, suppose the federal government guarantees that it will make good on bonds issued by the Mexican government in the event of a default. Such a pledge undoubtedly showers benefits on both the Mexican government and the (typically wealthy) investors in its bonds, while the source of these benefits is undoubtedly the American taxpayer. This is true even if the Mexican government does not default on its bond payments. After all, if the taxpayers pledged to pay all costs associated with a fire at any of General Motors’ factories, this would certainly be a subsidy to GM, even if no such fire ever occurred. (This is obvious; with the federal guarantee, GM would save the money it otherwise would have spent on fire-insurance premiums.) In a similar fashion, even if the Mexican government doesn’t default, it still benefits from borrowing money at lower interest rates than would otherwise be the case.
Of course, if and when the U.S. government has to make good on these types of pledges, the transactions involve funneling taxpayer dollars to wealthy investors both at home and abroad. Sometimes these subsidies are particularly subtle. For example, during the Mexican “peso crisis” of 1994, the Clinton administration contributed some $20 billion to the international bailout effort by providing loan guarantees and currency swaps. This latter move, executed by the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund, swapped cash flows denominated in dollars with those denominated in pesos. Inasmuch as the dollar flows originated (at least partly) with the government Fund, and also because the whole purpose of the intervention was to engage in currency swaps that the private market considered unprofitable, President Clinton’s decision used U.S. tax dollars to shield the Mexican government from its irresponsible monetary policies. In short, yet another example of welfare for the rich and powerful.
The celebrated fate of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM), a huge hedge fund that had Nobel laureates Myron Scholes and Robert Merton on its board, presents yet another case of corporate welfare. Because its trading strategy took advantage of slight (but theoretically “irrational”) overvaluations of newly issued bonds (versus older “off-the-run” bonds), LTCM was highly leveraged, sometimes with a leverage ratio of over 30. When the Russian government defaulted on its bonds in 1998, this set in motion a chain of events that proved catastrophic to LTCM’s positions. In the course of a few months the amazing success story had lost over $4.6 billion. Citing the potential disruptions to the entire financial community if LTCM itself defaulted, the New York Federal Reserve Bank intervened. Though it technically did not use public money in the bailout, the Fed nonetheless used “moral suasion” (backed perhaps by implicit pressure?) to get LTCM’s major creditors to allow for an orderly liquidation. Supporters of the move claimed that it prevented a financial meltdown, while critics pointed out that the “too big to fail” mentality would only encourage large institutions to take risky positions in the future, and that the ultimate fallback to the government-sponsored rescue allowed LTCM to reject a private-sector bailout effort led by Warren Buffett. (Under Buffett’s plan, the managers of LTCM would have been fired and the shareholders would have fared much worse than they did under the “necessary” Fed-brokered arrangement.)
We cannot leave this section without mentioning the post-9/11 federal bailout of the airlines. The Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act (signed on September 23, 2001) gave $10 billion in loan guarantees, as well as $5 billion in direct “relief,” to the airlines. Now even libertarians may differ on the justification for this bailout. After all, the federal government hampered the ability of the airlines to prevent 9/11 (through gun bans and other interventions) and also forced them to lose business by the mandatory flight ban immediately after the catastrophe. Nonetheless, the entrepreneurs involved in the airline industry certainly did not live up to their task of anticipating the future better than others. In a truly free market the consequences of poor preparation are losses. When the critics ask, “If the free market is so good, why did the government need to take over airline security?” the defender of laissez faire can reply, first, that government was involved in security before 9/11 and, second, that airline executives did not actually face the full pressures of the profit-and-loss test. When their inadequate security measures allowed disaster, they didn’t bear the full brunt of these shortsighted decisions.
Government Deficits and the Federal Reserve?
Though not as clear cut as some of the other examples in this essay, the annual issuance of hundreds of billions of dollars in new government bonds may qualify as welfare for the rich. If one agrees that the federal guarantee of Mexican bonds represents goodies to the wealthy at the expense of the taxpayer, then by consistency one must also condemn massive federal deficits for the same reason. This is because all Treasury bonds are “guaranteed” by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government as a matter of course. This practice allows the Treasury to obtain loans at low rates of interest and undoubtedly showers income on politically connected banks and other financial brokers. As always, the losers are the taxpayers (who must ultimately pay off the Treasury’s debts) and the smaller banks that do not enjoy the privileges of Fed membership.
When it comes to the “moral hazard” of federal relief, the standard illustrations are the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and federal checks to property owners after natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes. By insuring checking deposits (up to $100,000), the FDIC provides an incentive for banks to invest in riskier projects because on the margin the (expected) costs of doing so are reduced. In a similar manner, when the government provides massive relief to owners of beachfront condos and hotels after a hurricane, this encourages more development in disaster-prone regions than would otherwise occur (if the owners had to pay full market insurance premiums). To the extent that owners of banks and beachfront property tend to be above-average income earners, these programs represent yet more examples of subsidies to the rich.
The final example we shall discuss is one of the most blatant and economically unjustified: the Export-Import Bank. It is worth quoting the Bank’s own mission statement in its entirety:
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) is the official export credit agency of the United States. Ex-Im Bank’s mission is to assist in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to international markets.
Ex-Im Bank enables U.S. companies—large and small—to turn export opportunities into real sales that help to maintain and create U.S. jobs and contribute to a stronger national economy.
Ex-Im Bank does not compete with private sector lenders but provides export financing products that fill gaps in trade financing. We assume credit and country risks that the private sector is unable or unwilling to accept. We also help to level the playing field for U.S. exporters by matching the financing that other governments provide to their exporters.
Ex-Im Bank provides working capital guarantees (pre-export financing); export credit insurance; and loan guarantees and direct loans (buyer financing). No transaction is too large or too small. On average, 85% of our transactions directly benefit U.S. small businesses.
With more than 70 years of experience, Ex-Im Bank has supported more than $400 billion of U.S. exports, primarily to developing markets worldwide.
As with most descriptions provided by the agencies themselves, the Ex-Im Bank’s statement seems innocuous enough. Yet Henry Hazlitt, in his wonderful Economics in One Lesson, long ago exploded the myth that subsidizing exports is good for the economy. For example, when the Ex-Im Bank “levels the playing field” by “matching the financing that other governments provide to their exporters,” what does this really mean? It means that the federal government gives money to foreign governments or companies which they then use to purchase products from American exporters. To clearly see what is going on, it would be simpler if the U.S. government first bought the products from domestic producers (using tax dollars, of course) and then handed them over for free to the foreign organizations. Yes, this practice benefits the workers and shareholders of the privileged exporting firms, but these gains are more than offset by the losses to the taxpayers. After all, as Hazlitt pointed out, the country as a whole doesn’t get rich by giving goods away.
Similar to the Ex-Im Bank is foreign aid in general, to the extent that the recipient governments spend the money on U.S. exports. For example, according to the Cato Institute, in FY2003 $3.7 billion in federal money was used to finance weapons purchases for foreign governments.
Free-market enthusiasts often rail against welfare for the poor, and rightly so. However, as both experience and political economy suggest, the welfare state also redistributes wealth into the hands of the rich and politically powerful. To offer a consistent message—as well as attract support among more-egalitarian observers—advocates of laissez faire should condemn the billions of dollars in annual subsidies for the rich.Image caption Vikernes had been due to stand trial in Paris on Thursday
A French court has postponed the trial of a Norwegian neo-Nazi musician after his lawyer requested more time to read documents and prepare his defence.
Kristian "Varg" Vikernes will now face trial in June 2014 on charges of inciting racial hatred and glorifying war crimes.
The Norwegian was accused of planning a terrorist act after his wife, a licensed gun holder, bought weapons.
French authorities later conceded there was no plot and the two were released.
Mr Vikernes holds neo-Nazi views and was one of those sent a copy of the manifesto of his compatriot Anders Breivik, the far-right militant who killed 77 people in attacks in Norway in 2011.
In May 1994 Mr Vikernes received a prison sentence for murdering the guitarist of a rival black metal band and setting fire to churches in Norway.
After his release in 2009 he moved to France with his wife and children.
French authorities placed him under surveillance. On 16 July they arrested the couple in the southern region of Correze after the wife began buying shotguns.
Kristian 'Varg' Vikernes 1991: Founded one-man music project Burzum
1992: Took part in the arson of several churches in Norway
1993: Stabbed to death fellow guitarist Oeystein "Euronymous" Aarseth
1994-2009: Served prison sentence for murder
July 2013: Arrested on "suspicion he was preparing a major terrorist act"
October 2013: Trial for inciting racial hatred and glorifying war crimes postponed until June 2014
Officials later said she had a valid firearms permit and released the pair.
Mr Vikernes has vowed to sue the French authorities for arresting him with "no good reason" and "in the most brutal way possible".
He says officials have not returned his firearms or his ceremonial weaponry, including his swords, spears, and helmets.
Since coming to France, Mr Vikernes has continued releasing music and writing.
He will be tried on incitement charges related to postings on his blog which prosecutors say were "anti-Semitic and xenophobic".
Through his writings he promotes what he calls "Odalism", an ideology based on the idea that White Europeans should re-adopt "native European values".Lying
This is for Shlomo Elfassy
I hate being lied to. Short of violence, it is the worst thing you can do to me. Not because of God, or the Ten Commandments, or any universal moral precepts. The reason that I hate lies is because, like you, I wish to navigate carefully through life, and to do so I must be able to calculate my true position. When you lie to me, you know your position but you have given me false data which obscures mine.
Lying is theft. When you tell me something which I take to be true and as a result I invest my time, or my money, or even my care, you have stolen these things from me because you obtained them with false information.
Lying creates inequality. Since you also do not like being lied to--I have never known anyone who wanted to be deceived-- you have acted as if there were two classes of humans: you, with the right to lie, and everyone else, who must be truthful to you so that you too will not lose your way.
Lying treats people as means to the end you wish to accomplish, and not as ends in themselves.
Lying is one of those rare areas in which the moral rulebook and the legal one overlap each other quite neatly. Fraud is defined as an intentional falsehood on which another relies to his detriment. A fraud is a lie writ large, often in a financial context, where the damage to me is quantifiable in money. Even those lies which the law does not define as fraud tend to fit the same definition: a knowing false utterance which the mark is intended to rely on to his harm, and does. The only differences are of degree, for example, when we cannot assess the loss in money.
The basic tenet that lying is wrong seems to be universal to all cultures, probably because humans are social animals. To live together in a society we must tell the truth to each other about such basic matters as sources of food or of danger. Sissela Bok writes in Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life:
A society, then, whose members were unable to distinguish truthful messages from deceptive ones, would collapse. But even before such a general collapse, individual choice and survival would be imperilled. The search for food and shelter could depend on no expectations from others. A warning that a well was poisoned or a plea for help in an accident would come to be ignored unless independent confirmation could be found.
Since even liars agree that lying is wrong, to the extent that they do not wish to be lied to and to lose their way, there are some remarkable special cases in our society: we justify some lies and are resigned to others. Why does indignation fail in certain cases?
Public and private spheres. Before looking at specific cases, I would like to dispose of the idea that, where lying is concerned, there is an important distinction to be made between public and private life. Some people believe lying is more justified in one area than the other. This can cut either way: we tolerate a politician who lies because he adores, and is rigorously faithful to, his wife of forty years. Or we excuse a friend's marital infidelity because we believe him to be of complete integrity in business relationships.
Ross Perot pointed out, correctly in my view, that where lying is concerned you cannot separate the spheres. He did not want adulterers working for him because "any man who will lie to his wife will lie to me." You can test this assertion by asking yourself: why wouldn't he? Because his wife is a thing to him but I am a person? There is no answer to the question likely to inspire continuing confidence in the individual. Once we know that another violated a relationship of trust and reliance, there is no moral distinction to be drawn based on the "sphere" in which the deed occurred.
Infidelity. Sexual infidelity has become so common in our society that it is increasingly treated as if it were a sociological phenomenon rather than a moral issue: men are more likely to have multiple mates and families during life, women are more likely to have one. As Richard Dawkins teaches us in The Selfish Gene, both approaches can be "evolutionarily successful strategies": investing maximum time in a few offspring gives them a better chance of survival; having as many offspring as possible with multiple mates makes it likely that at least some will survive, though you have invested no time in them. Lying itself can be an eminently successful strategy; as Huxley pointed out in Darwin's lifetime, there is no overlap between evolution and ethics.
Infidelity is of interest for our purposes here because it is involves lying (if we choose to have an open relationship, there is no infidelity, so the phrase itself requires that a lie have occurred). In being unfaithful, I create a situation in which my wife has a false view of reality: she loses her way. She reposes all her trust and love in me based on an understanding that we are exclusive, that all my concern is invested in her, and this understanding is completely false. She is in effect living in a house which may appear solid but has no foundation. I can't imagine a greater fraud than to steal years of someone's life this way. The opportunity costs are tremendous: your spouse had the opportunity to find someone else who was truthful and build a life with him and you robbed her of that.
The existence of sexually transmitted diseases makes
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mobile clinic treating people. One of the nurses with me took a picture. We had to be very careful not to be seen with a camera, as one of the first pieces of legislation at the time of the closures and the keeps was a ban on photography. At a time when the government had done a TV documentary showing the brick houses with running water they had provided for the people in the keeps, you can see what this elderly lady survived in -- four walls of grass without a roof. At the time of the move, only three of the 21 keeps had a source of clean water. Children had to draw water from the nearest river. None of the 21 keeps had toilets. Buckets were used during the night and dumped over the fence in the morning. It would be over three years before these basic necessities would be in place throughout Chiweshe. 48,000 were said to have been moved, but there were almost no young men and few young women in the keeps. Many by this time (including Vice President Joyce Mujuru, who absconded from my wife's class) had crossed the border to join up. Oddly, the same families sent their youth into the Rhodesian forces and police. This was not because they supported Ian Smith, but the practical double effect of having a guaranteed income while knowing their boys would watch out for each other. The bad reputation the African Rifles had for being poor shots may have something to do with this. I would wave to an African-European pair of troops on patrol; the white would salute, while behind his back the African would give me the "Black Power" fist. During 1974 the Rhodesian Minister of Defense announced that the Government would double the number of people in the military and a second battalion of the Rhodesian African Rifles would be raised to augment the Army. In addition, rewards of $300 to $5,000 for information leading to the death or capture of a senior insurgent leader or to the recovery of insurgent weaponry was offered. It should be noted that ZANLA was being supplied with weapons by the People's Republic of China, while the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army, also known as "ZPRA" or "ZIPRA," was armed by the USSR. USMC Major Timothy M. Bairstow discusses Rhodesian military strength in his Master of Military Art and Science Thesis: Border interdiction in counterinsurgency: a look at Algeria, Rhodesia and Iraq. Some of his comments are: Rhodesian security forces were significantly constrained by a lack of materiel and manpower. The Rhodesian air force consisted of only 168 aircraft, of which 77 were helicopters and 25 were ground attack jets. It was manned by only 1,300 personnel. The ground forces, when totaled, equated to less than a division in size. Conventional forces consisted of the Rhodesian Light Infantry Regiment of 1,000 men, the Rhodesian Rifles with 2,800 men, two batteries of artillery, an armored car regiment, and Grey's Scouts (a battalion of horse-mounted infantry). Special Forces, consisting of the Special Air Service and the Selous Scouts, added the equivalent of another battalion...Rhodesian police, known as the British South African (sic) Police (despite being neither British nor South African) also participated in the counterinsurgency campaign...the Rhodesian security forces could mobilize no more than 60,000 men, and only for a short duration. Even worse for the Rhodesians, in 1974, Portugal decided to give up its colonial empire. The knowledge that Mozambique would soon be free caused many Rhodesian blacks to follow what they called "freedom trail" into the guerrilla training camps. In May 1974, construction began on the first border minefield obstacle (Cordon Sanitaire). It was planned to establish an impassable obstacle to prevent all cross-border movement. Of course, there is no way to build such an obstacle. It was so vast that it could not be maintained or patrolled, and very likely all it did was to supply the insurgents with explosives for their own road mines. As in Vietnam, the contested areas and minefields were treated with a defoliant. Instead of the "Agent Orange" used by the Americans, the Rhodesians used HYVAR-X which totally destroyed all vegetation. American veterans are suffering from Agent Orange contamination 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War. I have no knowledge of similar problems in Zimbabwe. The Army Corps of Engineers laid the minefield while the Signal Corps installed and maintained the alarm system. A civilian firm called Agricura was contracted for the defoliation. There were constitutional talks in 1975. Political detainees had initially been released as a sign of good faith but this quickly stopped when it became apparent that neither ZANLA nor ZPRA was observing the negotiated ceasefire. Even worse, the ceasefire and the release of African leaders had the effect of convincing the local population that the guerillas had won a victory. Prime Minister Smith's reluctance to press ahead with any meaningful agreement with the nationalist forces now led to the withdrawal of some 2,000 South African Policemen from Rhodesia. With the arrest and renewed detention of the Reverend Sithole in early March, talks with the Rhodesian government temporarily collapsed. As a result of South African pressure, Sithole was released during April and at the same time Robert Mugabe escaped into neighboring Mozambique. On 17 September 1975, Security Force Headquarters in Harare announced that 651 insurgents had been killed since December 1972. Security Forces lost 73 members. A final round of talks between Prime Minister Ian Smith and ZAPU Joshua Nkomo commenced in December 1975. It was becoming increasingly apparent that ZAPU would soon have to choose between a political settlement and full-scale war. Rhodesia was still on a war footing and the white population refused to believe that the nationalists could in any way pose a real threat to the government.
Continued attacks in 1976 led to a greater call-up of whites to the military and service tours extended from 12 to 18 months. For the first time there was an increase in "white flight" from the country and the morale of the white population began to falter. It became clear that the rebels would have to be attacked in their protected bases across the border. As a result, the Selous Scouts were ordered attack the Nyadzonia training base in Mozambique on 8 August 1976. Later, these cross-border attacks would occur in Zambia, Angola and Botswana ending as a limited interdiction campaign during 1979. Readers who want to know more about the Selous Scouts are encouraged to read Lieutenant Colonel Ron Reid Daly's complete history of the organization entitled Selous Scouts - Top Secret War, Galago, London and Johannesburg, 1982. Daly mentions just about every operation that the Scouts took part in, from their start in 1974 to their final breakup at the end of the war in 1980. He mentions the origin of the "pseudo" operations, the sending of white and black Rhodesian troops behind the lines to act as terrorists. He discusses the African tradition, going back to Shaka Zulu who once sent 500 of his best warriors into a 20,000-man Ndwandwe army camp late at night dressed like the enemy to cause turmoil and confusion. He discusses the lack of PSYOP at the start of the war: The area was clearly intimidated at the least, or subverted at the worst. It was evidently the time, as the British had done in Malaya, to put in a psychological warfare team to re-establish the balance...but then and as the war was to remain until the war was nearly ended there was no such thing. Rhodesians prided themselves on being rugged individualists...not for them that psychology nonsense. He talks about the value of captured documents and although he doesn't use the current term "Disinformation," he does say: Letters in particular were of high practical use to use, for it was a relatively simple matter for the Special Branch to forge letters of introduction which we could use to gain entry into an area. They were also valuable as bait for luring terrorist groups into ambushes, or to spread alarm and despondency by complaining bitterly of the high state of efficiency of the Security Forces.
By late March 1977 the Rhodesian government admitted that the insurgency had developed into a full scale revolutionary onslaught. This was confirmed by the formation of Combined Operations Headquarters (COMOPS). On 3 April the new commander COMOPS, Lieutenant-General Peter Walls announced the start of a fresh "hearts and minds" campaign among the black population. An untitled Rhodesian military document explains: After some two years of operations, what has been known variously as Sensor, Psyac, Psyops, etc., has been formed as an Army Unit. With effect from 01 July 1977 the unit to be known as the 1 POU standing for 1 Psychological Operations Unit. G Branch, Army headquarters has asked 1 POU for proposals regarding embellishments and these are now submitted for comment and approval. Signed: (A.B.C.H. Dalton)
OC 1 POU
10 October 1977 The document continues: The Psychological Operations Unit was established as part of the Corps of Infantry on 1 July 1977 and is headquartered at Old Cranborne Barracks, Salisbury. The main emphases of 1 POU operations against the terrorists structured toward psychological confusion of the enemy with the objective of so undermining his morale that he becomes unwilling to fight and is encouraged to defect from the forces of communism. 1 POU's establishment indicates timely recognition of the fact that conflict in Africa is primarily a battle for men's minds. The Rhodesia Political Department of the British Commonwealth Relations Office wrote a paper entitled "Rhodesia: The Regime's Propaganda Machine and its Operations" dated 16 March, 1966. I have edited the comments for brevity: In May, 1964 (Before Independence) the Rhodesian Government appointed a South African propaganda specialist, Ivor Benson, as a special adviser attached to their Ministry of Information. It was Benson's task to build up an effective propaganda machine: and in it he had the active encouragement and support of P K van der Byl, who had been appointed to the newly-created post of Parliamentary Secretary for Information in March, 1964. Specific measures included the following: The Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation, a statutory body, was subjected to close Government control. In December, 1964 there was instituted a regular weekly radio commentary (prepared by the Ministry of Information) which by the technique of selective and slanted reporting attempted to build up a black picture of the independent African states to the north, combined with an image of Rhodesia, South Africa and the adjacent Portuguese territories as havens of good government and fair play. At the end of 1964 Rhodesia Television, an independent commercial concern, was taken over by the Government. Faced with a daily national press that was unsympathetic to them, Rhodesian Front politicians consistently endeavoured to discredit it. In addition, both the Rhodesian Front and the Ministry endeavoured to promote the establishment of a right wing periodical. One virulent fortnightly ("Newsfront") lasted a few months and then collapsed. The new Rhodesian government apparently carefully monitored radio and television broadcasts. Dennis Hoines was a producer and director with Rhodesia Television, producing the evening news and a current affairs program called The Tenth Hour. It was a live program dedicated to freely discussing all sides of any question. The last program ever broadcast ran on 27 January 1969 and was entitled, "Rhodesians, who are we, where are we going? Where should we be going?" There were six panelists representing both the "Right" and "Left" political parties. On the fateful night of the final program the show was running late and the managing Director called the studio and basically said that it was going well and to let the panelists continue to speak. The free discussion continued for another 40 minutes. The following day, all Hell broke loose. Dennis told me: I was called into a meeting convened by the company secretary and some "gentlemen" in black suits and white shirts that I was not introduced to! They wanted to know what the "agenda" was behind the program. I explained the concept of "ventilating" issues. They grilled me on my political beliefs as well as other issues. The following day I was no longer the producer of current affairs. Our program's host was also banned from appearing on Rhodesia TV as well as on radio. I was assigned to "light entertainment" but after a few months resigned. My 12 year career in broadcasting was over. It is interesting in hindsight to view the Rhodesian conflict. I held the view then, as I do now, that Rhodesia had a great opportunity to create a country that would have been the perfect model of racial harmony in Africa. When I first entered Rhodesia there was a tremendous amount of goodwill between blacks and whites. And I suppose it is an oversimplification to say, that had the country been left alone without outside interference it may well have stood a chance. It is a pity that a man with a limited vision like Harold Wilson was in power in the UK at the time. He had the power to pull the rug from under the Chinese and Russians, give Rhodesia limited independence with a pathway to eventual majority rule. The proposed 1961 constitution guaranteed this. Initially accepted by Joshua Nkomo at the Victoria Falls conference, it was subsequently rejected by him. This, in my view, was the gravest mistake in Rhodesian politics. It was the catalyst that divided both black and white and set the scene for the ensuing disaster. The country has been largely destroyed because of this folly. Daly tells of meeting Major Tony Datton (Sic), a businessman with a marketing background who was considered too radical by both the Army and the Special Branch. He says that one high-ranking person called the Major a Communist. Later, everyone wanted to jump on the PSYOP bandwagon, but it was a case of too little and too late. The new team was short of money and manpower. Daly offered some of his African troops to look over the propaganda and make sure that it was culturally correct for the African reader. Some of Reid's comments about the meeting are: Belatedly, a psyac team, a psychological warfare team came into being, but it was hamstrung by an official policy totally out of step with the true state of things, and it achieved very little. With the work he put in, he deserved more success than he actually achieved, but with the niggardly resources dolled out to him, the results were not really surprising. Whenever he had a new brainwave, he would hop in his car and drive to Inkomo where I would lay on a mixed team of "Tame" terrorists and Selous Scout soldiers who would, with an extremely critical eye, soon sort the wheat from the chaff. I want to mention the standard because it was a masterpiece of psychological warfare, using various symbols that all had a strong and positive meaning to Africans. They had no interest in the silks and colors of the usual regimental flag, so a lot of time and study was put into getting the standard just right. It was an attempt to meld the two races fighting side-by-side. The pike was an old and honored European weapon, the silver Osprey for speed and courage, the horns of a bull for strength held in place by elephant hide both denoted strength to the Africans. A zebra skin would represent the black and white races and beneath the words "Pamwe Chete." Two wildebeest tails hung from the tips of the bull horns, traditionally used by witch doctors to banish evil spirits. Daly tells of bringing his standard out in front of bewildered generals who apparently were not pleased with what appeared to be a very unmilitary regimental standard. The troops then sang a Shona funeral song, selected to honor the brave fighters who should have been killed on many dangerous missions: Come all you soldiers of the Selousi...Selous Scouts;
We search for the men who rebel against our country;
We live in the bush;
We live like homeless ones;
We seek the enemy;
Who wish to destroy our country...Rhodesia. In general, however, psychological operations in Rhodesia proved a failure. They were aimed at convincing the blacks to support the white regime instead of attempting to change white racial views as a prelude to any such support. Meanwhile, the insurgents were thought to have about 5,216 troops within Rhodesia. The year 1977 ended in a spectacular way for the insurgent forces with a bold although unsuccessful attack on Grand Reef Air Base on 18 December. Prime Minister Smith finally recognized the need for a political settlement rather than armed victory, but he tried to deal with more reasonable Black Nationalist figures. Since the nationalists now followed the way of the gun, the Reverend Sithole had lost all effective control over both ZANU and ZANLA, as well as any backing he might have had from members of the Frontline states. Bishop Muzorewa had also been left without any external support.
Prime Minister Smith called for internal talks on 3 January 1978. The Patriotic Front sought desperately to stop Smith's projected settlement with moderate black leaders. The threat of losing the international initiative led to attempts by both Nkomo and Mugabe to solidify their power. On 15 February an eight point agreement was reached as a basis for a majority rule government. The British were skeptical, the Americans condemned the talks and they were rejected by the Patriotic Front. However, Smith had reached an agreement with the moderate leaders, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole. A Transitional Government would rule the country until majority rule was instituted on 31 December 1978. A full scale safe return program, including an amnesty offer, was announced on 20 January to be repeated on 2 May. Both proved futile gestures. The insurgents kept fighting and in 1979 Rhodesia placed nearly 90% of the nation under full martial law. Call-ups for whites were extended to all men aged between 50 and 59, each of whom had to serve 42 days of the year. It was like the last days of WWII when Hitler called up children and old men to defend Germany. Meanwhile, on 12 February, a Rhodesia Viscount was brought down by SA-7 missile resulting in the death of 59 people on board. When the final results of the election were announced on 24 April Bishop Muzorewa's United African National Council had taken 67% of the total vote, the Reverend Sithole's ZANU 16.5% and Chief Chirau's ZUPO, 6%. An astounding 64.45% of the voting population had cast their votes. At one minute past midnight on 1 June, the Republic of Rhodesia ceased to exist as the new Zimbabwe-Rhodesia Constitution came into effect, to last a total of 195 days. THE PEOPLE WANT PEACE The Rhodesian Government printed a number of leaflets as a part of a "consolidation" campaign to unite the people behind the new black government. One such product depicts Bishop Muzorewa and the title: THE PEOPLE WANT PEACE The story of how the Rhodesian government got behind and supported Bishop Muzorewa is told in part by Henrik Ellert in: War - History of Guerrilla warfare & counter-insurgency in Rhodesia 1960-1980, Mambo Press, 1989. He says in regard to what Americans would call "Black operations": By April 1978 it was apparent that neither Sithole nor Muzorewa stood any chance of mustering guerrilla support... After some weeks Macguinness [Commander of the Rhodesian Special Branch] produced a top-secret plan code-named Operation Favour. In it he outlined his ideas for the creation of frozen areas, which would be cleared of regular security forces, so that groups of Selous Scouts posing as guerrillas could be substituted. These fake guerrillas would convince villagers that they were ZANLA forces who had heeded the cease-fire call issued by the Internal Settlement partners and Bishop Muzorewa in particular. Special Branch officers attached to the Operation Favour're-elect the Bishop' campaign went on a spending spree unprecedented in the long history of the British South Africa Police. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were paid out in cash for the purchase of vehicles and services. The 1st Psychological Operations Unit, under Major Tony Dalton, spearheaded a publicity campaign and recommended an advertising budget that provided a bonanza for the lucky PR agency retained to promote Bishop Muzorewa and the United African National Council. For several months, until the elections, Muzorewa's portrait and party slogans were everywhere and, to the Rhodesians, it seemed successful... When the results came through on Sunday 3 March 1980, it was clear that ZANU-PF was in the lead. The Bishop was shocked and puzzled and so, indeed, were most of the White community in Rhodesia. There is no definite evidence of these contingency plans... But some Special Branch officers were privy to an incredible plan apparently masterminded by some senior SB officers and 1st Psychological Operations men. This was said to have involved the forging of a duplicate set of ballot papers, suitably marked to reflect a majority win in favor of the United African National Council. [After the loss of the election] Members of the Operation Favour team quietly shrank away, slipping into the mainstream of normal duties. The Auxiliaries were disarmed and demobilized. In some instances, liaison officers and small groups of Auxiliaries went to South Africa. Any cash left in the Operation Favour operational 'kitty' was apportioned out and paid to the Auxiliaries in the form of a final bonsella or gratuity payment. Members of the Scouts and the RLI, which were immediately disbanded, were allocated payments from funds in the Operation Favour coffers. Golden handshakes varied from $2,000 per man increasing with rank held. In a final summing up of Operation Favour, a SB officer who had been involved in the beginning commented wistfully that the expenditure of nearly $10 million had perfected the ultimate 'PSYOP' job. Not on the Africans but on the Rhodesians themselves. A second Rhodesian government leaflet depicts two photographs of crops. In the top photograph farmers stand by an abundant field and the text is, "The prosperity peace brings - a good harvest." The second photo shows a farmer by a barren field and the text, "War brings famine - no food for the people." In small print at the bottom of each leaflet is the comment "inserted on behalf of the Government." This implies that the propaganda might have been placed into envelopes and mailed. These "inserted" leaflets are larger than usual at about 8 x 10-inches in size with English-language text on the front and Shona text on the back. A third Rhodesian Government poster simply shows a stylized dove of peace and once again bears the title "THE PEOPLE WANT PEACE" and the tag line "That is what the people want." The text tells the people that the government is willing to negotiate to bring blacks into a position of authority and asks them to do everything possible to end the war. As before, the front of the leaflet is in English and the back is in Shona. Another government leaflet is printed partially in a bright orange to make it more visible in the countryside. The title is "COME HOME - YOUR LAND AWAITS YOU." The leaflet has a long propaganda message asking the natives in the bush to return to their farms and homes. It tells them of all the benefits that await them and has a questionnaire asking for their name, age, previous occupation and interests. Some of the message is: My brothers and sisters, come home. We need you. Zimbabwe needs you. Come home and help us build a great and peaceful nation. A land for us and our children And the children of our children. I speak to you as a man of God. I give you my solemn word of honor that you will be greeted in peace and joy. Come home my fellow men and women of Zimbabwe. Come home to peace. Bishop Abel Muzorewa
Prime Minister Unfortunately, peace was not to be. The Chinese and Soviets that had assisted and funded the guerrilla groups and some of the insurgent leaders disavowed this compromise and demanded a complete and total victory. Bishop Muzorewa was not "black enough" or radical enough for them. As a result, the guerrilla war continued after his election.
The insurgents continued to infiltrate the new nation even though that was supposed to end with the peace agreement. By 6 January 1980 their number rose to 15,730 insurgents. Days later this number rose to about 22,000. With both sides becoming increasingly exhausted by the war, both physically and financially, the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia government agreed to a peace conference in London, which eventually led to a cease-fire and elections. These elections were not well controlled and observed and to the shock of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia's whites and many of its blacks, the Marxist Robert Mugabe was elected Prime Minister on 4 March and his party won 57 of the 80 black seats in Parliament. It was a rout. When John Meiring, a member of Ian Smith's Psychological Operations Unit, heard the news, one compatriot wrote: His ass fell on the ground with a thud that could be heard round the room. I mean, I knew there'd be guys who'd vote for Mugabe but not f---ing 90 percent of the black electorate! I went straight to the bar and had a double.
American Captain Joe Smith was also dumbfounded. He told me: Months had passed since our first wide open "majority rule" election and the Western World refused to recognize that election despite the fact that international observers had declared that election to be fair and open to all. I voted for Muzorewa in April of 1979. Six months later there was still no international recognition. This was the only real experiment in democracy on the African continent and the way the rest of the world demurred just brings tears of rage and frustration to my eyes. It was President Jimmy Carter and his United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young who bullied the British and others not to recognize this election. All of us in Rhodesia were crazy with frustration. We had done it all right. We were on-sides with the concept of majority rule. But never on-sides with the notion of a self declared Marxist taking over. Since before 1976 Robert Mugabe had insisted he was in favor of a one-party Marxist state. Carter and Young wanted Mugabe to win from the start, but he had boycotted our April 1979 election and said: "I will take Zimbabwe through the barrel of a gun!" But Carter had a solution. Hold a second election and bully Mugabe into running for office. Twenty-eight years later, Carter's "Man in Harare" still rules. Yeah, I'm still white hot angry about it. On 18 April 1980, Zimbabwe became independent with Robert Mugabe, a self-avowed Marxist as its premier. Like the Americans in Vietnam, Rhodesia had never lost a single battle. But, like the Americans, that fact was irrelevant. The Rhodesians lost the war. One of Mugabe's first acts was to order the immediate disbanding of the Selous Scouts; Mugabe also threatened to bring its members to trial as war criminals. During the transition period under British protection, most of the unit's members left Zimbabwe.
This poster illustrates the belated efforts made by the Rhodesian authorities to unite African and European opinion against the terrorist threat. Two soldiers - one black, the other white - are shown standing against a plain, mustard-colored backdrop. Above and behind them are two Alouette helicopters, from the nearest of which more soldiers are deploying. The slogan "Shoulder to Shoulder" appears bottom right.
Another poster made by the Rhodesian authorities to unite African and European opinion against the terrorist threat. Two soldiers - one black, the other white - are shown on patrol together. Rhodesian PSYOP
Rhodesian Psychological Operations were designed to create dissension, disorganization, low morale, subversion, sabotage, and defection within insurgent military forces. For the civilian population, PSYOP objectives were to gain, preserve, and strengthen civilian support for the government, both internally and externally. PSYOP involved the planned use of communications through words, symbols and actions to influence the behavior of selected target audiences in order to promote the achievement of national objectives.
The Illustrated History of South Africa, Reader's Digest Press, Cape Town, 3ed. 1992, gives examples of some of these communication campaigns: The Rhodesian propaganda war started in the early 1970s. Books, cartoons, jokes, radio and TV programs extolling the invincibility of the white army and deriding the terrorists were part of daily life. Africans were saturated with blood-curdling leaflets and films warning them of the horrors that would be-visited on them by "communists, Marxist-Leninists and criminal terrorists." The Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) broadcast program in English and Shona detailing the barbarisms committed by terrorists, offering rewards for reporting their presence and protection by the Rhodesian army. Ironically, the only people who listened to these broadcasts were whites. The African people listened to Radio Mozambique and the Voice of Zimbabwe - one of the most popular programs was the regular talk show by Mugabe. As a Patriotic Front supporter said after the election: "Every kid had Mugabe fever. Everybody could see that Comrade Mugabe was talking sense." A well-known black RBC broadcaster, Ben Musoni, later remembered: "...the whole country was behind the freedom fighters." We mention cartoons above. Dennis Hoines told me about a pro-Rhodesia cartoon he prepared as a copywriter/creative director for the public relations agency de Villiers and Schoenfeldt. He was briefed by the Department of Information to create an advertising campaign to boost the morale of the Rhodesian people and stop them from leaving the country. It was an impossible task. He told me that he came up with numerous campaigns: Given the success British humor had in maintaining moral during WWII, we decided to opt for the same strategy. Rhodesia was famous for their Ridgeback Dogs. We invented a cartoon character who was your typical beer swilling, barbecuing, sports-loving Rhodesian bloke in a floppy bush hat and called him "Ridgeback." His wife was "Backchat." The Minister of defense was "Fightback." His Aussie friend was "Outback" and his returning Rhodesian buddy was "Welcomeback." Topics ranged from comparing the Vietnam War and Northern Ireland with the conflict in Rhodesia to cold miserable UK weather with sunny Rhodesia, sports, the lack of whisky, the shortage of petrol and Rhodesian ingenuity in surviving sanctions. We also created humorous two-minute TV commercials called the "Ridgeback Report." Concurrent with this was a campaign to create "goodwill amongst white and black." The concept was "You don't have to love your neighbor, just understand him." Print advertising showed two babies, moments old. The headline was: "One of these boys will grow up to be a boy." The copy explained the indignity of an adult black male still being called a garden boy, cook boy, etc. Another commercial depicted a mixed race group of boys and girls in the water having fun. Once again, the title and voice over: "You don't have to love your neighbor, just understand him." As the war deepened and tourism declined we created a leaflet that was sent to travel agents in South Africa the main source of tourism. The front cover carried the words: "The Rhodesian tourist industry is in ruins." Inside it read: "...and in waterfalls, lakes, rivers, dams, game parks, golf, fishing..." and of course showed stunning pictures of tourist destinations. None of this material was ever published. The in-fighting at the Department of Information was such that they could never make a decision. The situation then, in 1975 and 1976 was such that everyone was scared of upsetting those "at the top." The British Commonwealth Relations Office paper adds: Before independence, Rhodesian propaganda was, both internally and externally, devoted primarily to the presentation of Rhodesia's case for independence. Rhodesia was depicted as a haven of responsible government where every person, regardless of race, had a fair deal and where not only the Europeans but the majority of Africans supported the Government and its policies. The few recalcitrant thugs who opposed them were the puppets of international Communism. Since independence, the propaganda barrage has been directed, with ever increasing viciousness, on the British Government in general and the British Prime Minister in particular...For over three years the philosophy has been assiduously developed that Rhodesians must stand together and that anyone who opposes the Government is to all intents and purposes a traitor to his country. It is combined with an animosity towards Wilson and the British Government that is reflected in the "I hate Wilson" window stickers recently distributed in Rhodesia. The propaganda campaign has also set out to discredit the BBC, depicting it as a propaganda organ exploited by the British Government without any regard for objectivity or respect for the facts. The Rhodesian government printed a number of propaganda foreign air letters with text in English, German, French and Spanish. It is believed that they issued freely at local post offices for their citizens to send to friends and relatives all over the world to explain the case for Rhodesian independence. The propaganda message also re-enforced the pro-independence feeling of some Rhodesian Whites and even motivated new white settlers. The 1966 British Commonwealth Relations Office document adds: Apart from normal information pamphlets about Rhodesia, some special material was produced, primarily for consumption overseas (and particularly in Britain). For example, specially printed air-letters were distributed to householders in European areas throughout Rhodesia, which they could post to friends and contacts abroad. They would generally contain a printed propaganda message, and leave space for the sender to add some personal greetings. One issue in mid-1965, extolling the delights of (European) life in Rhodesia, formed part of an immigration drive. Researcher Lee Richards has found several preprinted Rhodesian propaganda air letters in the British Archives. One is unaddressed, the second to a member of the British House of Commons. Each bears a long propaganda message on the inside. The message is far too long to print here but the opening paragraphs of two of the messages are: One of the accusations you have no doubt heard about Rhodesia is that it is a "police state." I hope that you take this with a pinch of salt. Please remember that it is an accusation which, because it is based on impressions rather than a set of rules, is easy to make against almost any country. People can interpret it in many different ways and often do, depending on the country involved... It seems that though people in Britain have been preoccupied with economic considerations, they have not taken into account the effects on themselves of their government's policy of sanctions against Rhodesia. Strange, isn't it, when the two are so closely related? I often wonder if people in Britain realize just how much sanctions are costing their country. Few seem to have any idea, either of the extent of the bill or of its impact on their economy. Yet sanctions have many aspects, and all of them are expensive... German researcher Wolfgang Baldus discovered a 29 April 1976 propaganda air letter with the pre-printed message: No doubt you are worried about the situation in Rhodesia, particularly in view of all the sensation headlines and horrific articles which appear in the press. The psychological war being waged against Rhodesia through many of the news media of the world has escalated to such proportions of misrepresentation that many observers outside this country find it difficult to separate fact from fiction... In the written letter to Oswego, New York, the Rhodesian writer states that his life is fairly peaceful except that he had to do regular stints of 15-day police duties patrolling a desolate piece of land called "the hot area." Another air letter used in 1966 has the opening paragraph: What is particularly heartening these days is to see so many letters of support from overseas. It is a great pity, though, that even those who are sympathetic should be uninformed about our affairs. Where the African is concerned, particularly, people seem to know very little of what is being done. And yet, we are doing so much...
It seems that though people… This Unused propaganda air letter mentions sanctions and the British dealings with Zambia. Some of the text is: It seems that though people in Britain have been preoccupied with economic considerations, they have not taken into account the effect on themselves of their government's policies of sanctions against Rhodesia. Strange, isn't it, when the two are so closely related. I often wonder if people in Britain realize just how much sanctions are costing their country… What is more interesting is the official Rhodesian printed page that came with the letter to explain its use and why it was needed.
The propaganda product above seems to be a marriage of an air letter and a pamphlet. The Rhodesians have printed a 4-page booklet citing the merits of their case for independence on an air letter preprinted "Air Mail" and "Second Class Air Mail" and all the sender had to do was place a stamp and address on the publication and put it into a mailbox. The item above was sent to the Secretary of the Phoenix Works in Stalybridge, Cheshire, England. The long printed message states that other African countries have been granted their independence and questions why Britain has refused the same right to Rhodesia. Another interesting air letter contains a propaganda message encouraging people to immigrate to Rhodesia. It says in part: Have you thought about coming to live in Rhodesia? We think you'd love it here... Then there's the space. Space for everyone... Oh, and on the subject of security in Rhodesia. Don't believe too many of the stories you hear about us in the papers and on television. Most of it is just sensationalism and biased reporting. Actually, Rhodesia is one of the quietest and safest places you could live in the world today... The air letter came with a printed note for the buyer that said in part: SPEND SIXPENCE FOR YOUR COUNTRY This letter is to tell you how, for as little as six pence, you can do a great deal for your country…You must know people like yourself overseas who would love the life we lead here…You can help to get them here by spending sixpence on a stamp and sending the enclosed air letter to them…. We have already mentioned that in February 1966, the Rhodesian government expanded its efforts in the United States by opening an Information Office in Washington DC. After both the United Nations and the U.S. government placed sanctions on Rhodesia, the Rhodesian Information Office continued to operate with support from front groups including "The Friends of Rhodesia" and the "American Rhodesian Association." There was also pro-Rhodesia mail sent from inside the United
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We're involved in a lot of competitions. We've got Europe, the FA Cup and the Premier League.
"We are going to try to go into those games looking to win every single one of them. The aim is top four or anything higher. We've done a lot of work on the training field and organisation.
"Everyone knows their roles and their jobs. We've also the hunger to defend and try to keep the ball out the net. That's the main thing really."
Clyne is one of seven signings made by Rodgers this summer and the 24-year-old feels another, striker Christian Benteke, can play an influential part.
He scored his first goal for the club to settle the contest with Championship winners Bournemouth and there are high hopes for the Belgian on Merseyside.
Clyne added: "He dominates in the air and you can see in training how powerful and strong he is. He's a real target for us physically.
Christian Benteke celebrates after scoring for Liverpool against Bournemouth
"He's a good finisher as well and his qualities are holding the ball up and bringing other players into play.
"That's lovely for myself as well because I like to join in with the attacks and put crosses into the box for him to score with his head."
Liverpool's start is better than Arsenal's, who lost their opening fixture at home to West Ham then won 2-1 at Crystal Palace last weekend.
Clyne is relishing the chance to take them on in London on Monday and feels stopping home player Alexis Sanchez will be crucial if Rodgers' team are to take anything from the match.
Clyne has pinpointed Alexis Sanchez as the man Liverpool need to stop at Arsenal on Monday
He said: "You look at all his movements, how he picks up the ball and receives it and how he takes on players and whether he comes inside or outside.
"He's a great player and he works hard so we're going to have to do a good job in stopping him."Complaints have been laid about the hate speech of an Iranian diplomat and Auckland accountant:
Official complaints have been laid over comments made by Iranian diplomats at an Auckland mosque event, which include calling Israel a “cancer” and calling the Holocaust a “conspiracy”.
The Israel Institute of New Zealand has laid a complaint to the Human Rights Commission and Foreign Minister Winston Peters after video surfaced online of the speech.
Israel Institute of New Zealand director Professor Paul Moon says New Zealand cannot allow the incident to go unchallenged.
Mr Moon said at the event diplomats from Iran used “very strong language” and were “talking about Jewish conspiracies, describing Israel as a cancer that needs to be removed, denying the holocaust”.
He said the event began with Iranian diplomat Hormoz Ghahremani talking about terrorism in the Middle East, and his speech then turned to “accusations that there was some sort of Zionist conspiracy behind what was going on, that somehow the Jews were responsible for terrorism in the Middle East”.
Mr Moon said another speaker, Sayed Taghi Derhami, called Israel a “cancerous tumour” and said it has to be “surgically removed” and Iranian cleric Sheik Shafie denied the Holocaust.
A video of the speeches, which were made in June at a mosque in Pakuranga, was posted online by the Islamic Ahlulbayt Foundation of New Zealand but it has since been removed.New York pop-punk heroes State Champs are teaming up with AP to bring you a full stream of their sophomore album, Around The World And Back, which you can listen to below. The record comes out October 16 via Pure Noise Records. (Purchase it here.)
You can catch the band on tour in the U.S. this fall. (See dates below the stream.)
State Champs dates:
10/17 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall*
10/18 – New York, [email protected] Webster Hall*
10/20 – Worcester, MA @ The Palladium*
10/21 – Toronto, ON @ The Danforth Music Hall%
10/22 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre*
10/23 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore*
10/24 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre*
10/25 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue*
10/27 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre*
10/28 – Murray, UT @ Murray Theater*
10/30 – Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory Concert House*
10/31 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox at the Market*
11/02 – San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom*
11/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern*
11/05 – Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues*
11/06 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory*
11/07 – San Diego, CA @ Soma*
11/08 – Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee*
11/10 – San Antonio, TX @ Alamo City Music Hall*
11/11 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues*
11/12 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues*
11/13 – Columbia, MO @ The Blue Note*
11/14 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant*
11/16 – Nashville, TN @ Cannery Ballroom*
11/18 – Tampa, FL @ The Ritz Ybor*
11/19 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution*
11/20 – Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues*
11/21 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade*
11/23 – Charlotte, NC @ Amos' SouthEnd
11/24 – Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live!*
11/25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory*
11/27 – Sayreville, NY @ Starland Ballroom*
^ = w/ Knuckle Puck & Roam
* = w/ The Wonder Years, Motion City Soundtrack, You Blew It!
% = w/ The Wonder Years, You Blew It!A Vancouver Island mother whose baby is hospitalized with whooping cough says her sick daughter is proof that children who are not vaccinated can harm others.
Annie Mae Braiden says her 10-week-old girl, Isabelle, has been in the pediatric intensive care unit for more than a month after contracting the disease and needed to be on a ventilator for weeks.
Annie Mae Braiden and her daughter Isabelle are shown in a photo from Braiden's Facebook page, during Isabelle's treatment for whooping cough at Victoria General Hospital. (Annie Mae Braiden/Facebook)
"What you do with your kids is your choice, but do not tell me that not vaccinating your kids isn't hurting anyone but your own kids," Braiden wrote in a Facebook post that had been shared nearly 21,000 times by Tuesday.
"Isabelle is proof that it harms the other little babes who aren't old enough to get their vaccines yet."
Braiden told her story and posted photos of the tiny girl with tubes taped to her face in an emotional Facebook entry on Friday. She expects her child could be hospitalized for another two months.
'Please vaccinate your kids'
Braiden, who declined an interview, said in her post that Isabelle was on a ventilator for three weeks. The girl has had to learn to eat again, and has endured withdrawals from morphine and sedatives, she wrote.
On one occasion, the mother watched a nurse pick up Isabelle and run down a hall to the intensive care unit because it appeared the girl might die, she wrote.
"We were hours away from losing her," Braiden wrote.
"Please vaccinate your kids, it's not fair that my little girl is in the [hospital] coughing and not being able to breathe from a disease that shouldn't be around in this day [and] age."
Jeff Bishop, a pediatrician who is treating Isabelle at Victoria General Hospital, says whooping cough is incredibly infectious and spreads easily through contact with anyone who is inadequately vaccinated.
Bishop says he has noticed over the last year that the hospital has treated more children with whooping cough than usual and says there have been some deaths during the past five years.
He says immunization can be an emotional topic for parents but extensive research shows the benefits of vaccinations far outweighs the risks.
In B.C., the vaccine for whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is provided free to infants and children, as well as some adults. The recommended schedule for vaccination begins at two months old.Last week, a tweet from T-Mobile revealed that the carrier would release the Microsoft Lumia 640 on July 16th. But the phone might turn out to be available well before that date. A picture shows that the T-Mobile branded version of the handset is now available from discount retailer Walmart. One particular New York based store (this one is located in Rochester) is selling the phone for $99.76. That is lower than the $129.99 that pre-paid carrier Cricket is asking for the model The Microsoft Lumia 640 comes equipped with a 5-inch, 720 x 1280 resolution screen. That combination produces a pixel density of 294ppi. Under the hood is the Snapdragon 400 SoC, which contains a quad-core 1.2GHz CPU and the Adreno 305 GPU. 1GB of RAM is aboard with 8GB of native storage. For those needing additional memory, there is a 128GB capacity microSD slot available. An 8MP camera adorns the back of the unit while a.9MP front-facing camera is ready to handle selfies. A 2500mAh battery keeps the lights on, and Windows Phone 8.1 is pre-installed.This particular Walmart had received two Lumia 640 units, both of which sold out quickly. This bodes well for sales of the handset once it is officially launched by T-Mobile.source: WMPoweruserWASHINGTON — The Air Force is investigating the failure of its classified computer network at Creech Air Force Base, a key nerve center for worldwide drone and targeted killing operations, BuzzFeed News has learned. The network, which crashed in early September, has not been completely rebuilt, according to US government contracting records.
Military officials would not say whether the critical failure was due to internal technical issues, a cyberattack, or something else. “The investigation into the issue is ongoing,” said Maj. Malinda Singleton, an Air Force spokesperson, declining to comment further.
The computer network that crashed at Creech is called SIPRnet, a parallel, classified version of the internet that can transmit secret-level intelligence, targets, electronic intercepts, and video. Its outage impacted “critical services,” according to federal contracting records at fbo.gov.
Creech, in Nevada, is considered the heart of the US’s “targeted killing” program. From there, Air Force pilots operate the armed “remotely piloted aircraft” — drones — via satellite links over Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and elsewhere, and fire missiles at alleged al-Qaeda or ISIS figures. The Predators and Reapers, known as MQ1's and MQ9's, are also used for surveillance and intelligence gathering.
Within weeks of the network crash at Creech, there were a series of airstrikes that went terribly wrong. Those incidents, which resulted in scores of deaths in Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia, are still under review and investigation. But “if there are any issues on a SIPR network, it would not disrupt flight operations” of Predator and Reaper drones, said Air Force spokesperson Singleton.
On Sept. 17, just one week after the computer disaster, 62 Syrian soldiers positioned at a base, were accidentally killed by US airstrikes in the middle of a ceasefire. The case is under investigation, a CENTCOM official told BuzzFeed News. There has been no official explanation for the targeting snafu though the US expressed its regrets quickly after the incident.
In Afghanistan, 15 civilians were reportedly killed in a US drone strike on Sept. 28, according to the United Nations. A Pentagon official said the incident is under review.
Also on Sep. 28, in Somalia, 22 Somali soldiers were reportedly killed in US drone strikes. Somali authorities say none of them were al-Qaeda and it was a case of "misdirection." That incident, a separate Pentagon official told BuzzFeed News, is also being reviewed.
BuzzFeed News learned of the network crash from a contracting notice posted by the US government posted in early October, which says: "On 9 September 2016, the SIPRNet system currently in operation at Creech AFB failed and critical services were impacted. The services were somewhat restored with the use of multiple less powerful devices,” according the notice, and “there is currently no other backup system.”
The same day the SIPRnet system crashed, the Air Force quietly announced elsewhere that Creech would be subject to a surprise cybersecurity inspection starting in October. Among other things, it warned personnel to be wary of phishing attacks and extra careful in securing their login credentials.
A separate internet system, called JWICS, handles top-secret information — military officials would not say if JWICS operations at Creech were also affected.Like many of the women I spoke to, Angie Firmalino, 45, says that her doctor recommended Essure. Shortly after her 2009 procedure, which she says was excruciating, the Tannersville, N.Y., woman began having constant bleeding and pain. She developed joint problems that she attributes to an autoimmune response and had to have surgery to remove the coils. The operation left fragments behind and resulted in a hysterectomy. She’s still dealing with chronic pain, muscle weakness and blood circulation problems, which she also thinks are autoimmune related.
In 2011, Firmalino decided to start a group on Facebook to share her experiences with female friends. Then, strangers started requesting to join and “telling their horror stories, some worse than mine,” she says. Soon the Essure Problems group had hundreds, then thousands of women. They wrote graphic descriptions of their pain and blood loss, fatigue and weight gain; they posted pictures of their thinning hair and bloated bellies that could be mistaken for marking the weeks of pregnancy. And they shared the stranger symptoms: joint pain, sudden muscle weakness, skin rashes. “That’s when the talk started about what is this device made out of?” Firmalino says. “Then we discovered there’s nickel in the device. None of us knew.”
The handful of women administering the group began researching the device and submitting requests for federal records. One of the details that disturbed them was that the Conceptus vice president who presented the application to the Center for Devices’ OB/GYN devices advisory panel, Cindy Domecus, had been an industry representative on that same panel from 1995 to 2001. In 2002, when Domecus appeared before the panel on behalf of Essure, four of the panel’s nine voting members, including the chairman, were people she had served with. (Domecus declined to comment for this article.) When I asked the FDA about Domecus’s tenure on the panel, it noted that industry representatives cannot vote. However, Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research, which scrutinizes industry influence in health care, believes sitting on the panel gives industry members advantages by allowing them to build relationships and gain “a better understanding of how to influence the vote.”
Another concern for the women involved the nickel. The 2002 package label listed nickel allergy as a “contraindication” (meaning the device should not be used for patients with that condition) and included a directive that physicians screen patients for the allergy. The women learned, however, that in 2011 the FDA granted a Conceptus request that the contraindication be downgraded to a “warning,” which doesn’t require physicians to screen patients. (The current labeling includes a nickel warning. The FDA told me it used a warning rather than a contraindication because it “concluded that the data did not meet the threshold of known hazard.”)
Yet another issue the Essure Problems administrators believe got short shrift was removal of the device. A Conceptus representative testified at the 2002 hearing that taking it out would require cornual resection — removing the area where the fallopian tubes meet the uterus. But doctors have since found that’s “not easy,” says Myron Luthringer, a Syracuse, N.Y., OB/GYN who says he has removed hundreds of the devices. He explains that the coils are fragile and break apart, that the tissue in that area is difficult to repair and that PET fibers have often embedded in the surrounding tissue. For those reasons, he says, he tends to perform a hysterectomy, removing the uterus and cervix, as well as the fallopian tubes. Other physicians do as well. “We really advocate that the right procedure is hysterectomy,” says Paul MacKoul, an OB/GYN at the Center for Innovative Gyn Care in Rockville. But hysterectomy — and cornual resection, for that matter — require the very element many women who chose Essure were trying to avoid: surgery with anesthesia. “Anything that’s designed to be permanent is very difficult to take out,” notes MacKoul’s partner and fellow OB/GYN, Natalya Danilyants.For all the shifts in American television culture since the birth of the medium—from the way we make and consume news, to advertisements and the shows themselves—many folks raised by the boob tube likely share a common experience: scoff-laughing at anti-pot PSAs.
From trippy animations in the 1960s that tried to speak to the era's hep cats by labeling weed "the hoola-hoop of the jet generation," to this 2007 spot featuring a sadly judgmental dog, hokey ads trying to scare or shame teens away from the demon weed have been an eternal TV trope. Often relying on stilted scripts, logical fallacies, or blatant lies, these ads follow in a pre-TV tradition of anti-pot propaganda films as well. This unending wave of PSAs has basically become a sub-genre of ironic humor. You can waste an entire day perusing compilations of these relics.
Anti-pot PSAs didn't emerge through a slow process of social change, but in a rapid eruption of self-serving bigotry divorced from science or fact. The force of that paranoid thrust dulled over the years, but it was still a vital part of the DNA of most historic PSAs—and their humor. But in a mixed blessing to society (and a curse to comedy), paranoid anti-marijuana PSAs may be on their way out in favor of a new, more sober breed of ads made for the era of legalization.
No one's entirely sure when weed, which likely originated in Central Asia thousands of years
ago, made its way to the United States. Although the early colonies notoriously promoted hemp production in the 17th century, there's no evidence the intoxicating strain of the plant was ever grown. It seems most likely that cannabis came north in tiny spurts and sputters with immigrants from or folks who'd visited the Caribbean and several Central and South American countries, where it was brought over by Indian workers as part of their pre-existing culture. Colonizers also transported it here to inebriate enslaved Africans.
For centuries, the low-level presence of pot in ports and insular communities was a non-issue. It was used in 19th-century US patent medicines without concern, and at least one mid-century medical periodical described the effects of cannabis resin fairly accurately and bluntly as leading to "inebriation… of the most cheerful kind, causing the person to sing and dance, to eat food with great relish, and to seek aphrodisiac enjoyment," with no big side effects.
Things started to change around 1910 with the Mexican Revolution—a messy affair that would lead to decades of sporadic violence, forcing periodic and substantial waves of refugees into the American Southwest. As with today's refugees from the Middle East, these victims of war and instability were greeted with fear and quickly associated with violence and social disruption—especially toward the dawn of the Great Depression, which naturally called for a racial scapegoat.
Law officers and locals began to credit violent crimes to Mexicans' use of weed, which came north with them, painting it as a substance granting users great strength and sending them into murderous rages. Of course, these stories seem laughable. (Some historians note that we don't know exactly what these immigrants could have been mixing their weed with—but, also, come on.) By this time, marijuana was also firmly associated with port town underworlds and the (literally) dark subculture of jazz, taking on a broad sheen as an agent of general moral decay.
In 1914, the Texan town of El Paso passed the first laws against the sale or possession of marijuana, which had, prior to its Mexican association, been known simply as cannabis in much of the US. Numerous other cities and states—including Mexico itself—followed suit over the next couple of decades. Dark tales of the dank herb flowed from the border into a few early films, like the 1924 western Notch Number One in which a man turned into a murderer after smoking weed, or the 1932 romantic crime flick Jewel Robbery, in which a robber used pot to dupe his victims in a jewel heist.
But as Richard Stringer and Scott R. Maggard of Old Dominion University wrote in a paper last year on the media's effects on American attitudes toward weed throughout history, "Prior to 1936, concern over marijuana was mainly concentrated in a select few cities… Even Harry Anslinger, the Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and 'the world expert' on drugs, regarded it as a nuisance, unworthy of his organization's time."
That year, though, Anslinger suddenly glommed onto weed, likely just because he needed a new drug scare to keep funding for his agency alive. Whether because he knew nothing and believed the hyped-up local stories, or because he was a shrewd and self-serving G-man, Anslinger perpetuated and expanded tales of weed directly causing violent crimes and the notion that bad (read: colored) people were pushing it on good (read: white) citizens. According to Stringer, this led Anslinger to not only author or push for articles spouting these views in papers like the New York Times, but to help in the production of what were arguably the earliest anti-pot PSAs.
In 1936 and 1937, Anslinger had a hand in the production or dissemination anti-pot propaganda films like Assassin of Youth, Marihuana, and most famously, Reefer Madness, the latter of which ridiculously presented weed as a substance that could turn a young girl into a reckless harlot and, in just one puff, trigger actions that could leave scores dead. This media blitz coincided with the push to pass the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which was the first national effective pot ban.
As Stringer points out, the depictions in those films represented most US citizens' first introduction to weed, fueling the idea that it could steal away young people's' innocence. Egged on by Anslinger's blunt rejection of science in favor of scare tactics, dire warnings about the imminent physical risks of weed kept coming: The Devil's Harvest (1942) sold audiences on the tagline "a fifth column sowing destruction in the youth of America," while the poster for 1949's She Shoulda Said "No"! advertised "pain & anguish… hopped-up harlots… psychotic dope fiends."
As white upper-middle-class baby boomers got into weed in the 1960s, the racially biased reputation of the drug faded, as folks largely became aware that the anti-weed films of the past point had been spouting some utter bullshit. (As Stringer put it to me in conversation, after someone's tried pot, they "would not believe that marijuana will cause someone to kill their family with an ax.") So the ads shifted toward a groovier feel, admitting that weed itself wasn't a deadly substance—but still took every opportunity to try to convince kids that pot could fuck over their lives, pushing the risk of bad experiences while using the drug as well as potential dependency, while advancing the narrative of weed as a "gateway drug." This copasetic and understanding—yet fallacious and menacing—push was what led to Sonny Bono explaining the dangers of a little toke to the era's youths in a 32-minute 1968 feature.
This strain of gentler, albeit still hyperbolic, PSA got a massive boost with Richard Nixon's war on drugs in the 1970s, and after a brief lull under Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, the PSAs persisted for the rest of the century. From the late 80s into the 90s, coalitions of anti-drug advocacy groups, willing advertising firms, and media companies annually pumped out hundreds of millions of dollars worth of PSAs that largely built on the faux-hipness and specious arguments that folks like Bono spewed decades earlier. In 1998, the federal government consolidated these efforts into a central program, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (which targeted other substances as well), with hundreds of millions of dollars in its war chest.
In the early 2000s, researchers finally got around to testing how effective these fear-mongering ads really were at reducing teen drug use—and the results were not inspiring. The federally backed campaigns were not only largely unsuccessful, but they could actually lead teens to believe that drugs were more prevalent than they actually were, thereby increasing the desire to see what using them was actually like.
The feds tried to shift their tone around 2005, focusing on bids like the Above the Influence campaign to stress the value of overcoming peer pressure and building an independent identity—but as the aforementioned 2007 ad with the talking dog suggested, strains of the paranoid exaggerations of the 1930s still shone through. These ads often played on the fear of social stigma—of one's status being forever diminished by weed—and painted pot as oddly potent implicitly as psychedelic. The ads got better practical results than what preceded them, but a combination of insufficient impact and changing federal priorities caused the government to ax the program in 2012, while its collaborators slowed their efforts as well.
The rapid escalation of legalization efforts and the concurrent mainstreaming of the drug have simultaneously been eroding the social patience for the scare tactics of the past. Case in point: The Colorado Department of Public Health tried to launch a Don't Be a Lab Rat campaign to convince teens that smoking pot would damage their young brains in 2014—two years after recreational legalization. The campaign bombed hard and faded fast. The following year saw the state adopting a value- and drama-free campaign, Good to Know, focusing on basic facts of real value for sensible and informed usage.
Stringer predicts that "increases in legalization are going to lead to more media attention about the responsible use of marijuana" in the near future—but the ill-informed and fear-based moralistic ads of the past are unlikely to vanish completely. In 2014, there was an anti-medical marijuana campaign in Florida with ads echoing the paranoid tones of the 1930s, including a poster suggesting edibles could become a widespread tool for date rape. Folks who were nursed on a steady drip of Reefer Madness–style moral paranoia are still in positions of power, too: Most notably, there's Attorney General Jeff Sessions's hatred of marijuana as a moral evil, as well as his vigor for a new drug war.
Regardless, in the future we're likely to see fewer PSAs shaming people for general pot usage and trumping up its inherent risks. Instead, Stringer suggests that "we can expect media attention and PSAs regarding marijuana to more closely resemble alcohol PSAs." Granted, PSAs about alcohol still often resort to social shaming tactics and focus on physical risks; but pot PSAs following in that vein will be a far cry from old messages of moral decay and character flaws in the "dope fiend."
In Reefer Madness, Dr. Alfred Carroll (Josef Forte), a high school principal whose supposedly informative meeting with local parents frames the film, conjures visions of "A young boy… under the influence of [marijuana]… who killed his entire family with an ax." Compare that with Colorado's Good to Know campaign, which at its most fearful intones things like: "Brain development is not complete until age 25. For the best chance to reach their full potential, youth should not use retail marijuana." The horror, the horror—or, not quite.
Follow Mark Hay on Twitter.On yesterday's show Josh in Long Island was having a normal conversation with Mike Francesa about Tony Romo and the NFL. Then, he did the unthinkable. Josh in Long Island asked Mike Francesa for his thoughts on the New York Rangers game against the Ducks. The WFAN czar was not interested, and swatted the question away like he was Henrik Lundqvist. It was maybe the greatest exchange between host and caller in sports radio history.
Josh: "Can I get your take on the Rangers-Ducks game tonight?"
Francesa: "No. No you can't. Because no one cares."
That was a great prank call, trying to get a hockey opinion from Mike Francesa like that. Hopefully the next wave of Francesa prank calls are legitimate questions about sports he doesn't care about, like hockey, soccer, or Australian Rules football.
For what it's worth, the Ducks beat the Rangers 2-1.Sarah Tew/CNET
Industry analysts and journalists have been been quick to make judgments on the wearable market. Some have called it a fad, while others have claimed it's already dead. Not so fast.
A new report issued Thursday by International Data Corporation (IDC) will hopefully put an end to those claims. The research firm found shipments of smartwatches and fitness trackers reached a new all-time high of 33.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, which represents growth of 16.9% year over year. Shipments for the entire year grew 25% to 102.4 million devices.
IDC
"Like any technology market, the wearables market is changing," said Ramon Llamas, research manager for IDC's wearables team, in a press release issued by the company. "Basic wearables started out as single-purpose devices tracking footsteps and are morphing into multi-purpose wearable devices, fusing together multiple health and fitness capabilities and smartphone notifications. It's enough to blur the lines against most smart wearables, to the point where first generation smartwatches are no better than most fitness trackers."
IDC
Fitbit led the way with a market share of 22% on shipments of 22.5 million units. The health and wellness company sold more devices in 2016 than Apple, Garmin and Samsung combined. The closest competition came from Xiaomi. The Chinese company continues to find success with its more affordable trackers, although that success is still limited to its home country of China. Xiaomi's market share in 2016 was 15.4%, ahead of industry heavyweights like Apple (10.5%), Garmin (5.9%) and Samsung (4.3%).Waiting to Pay for Hulu? Wait a While Longer.
A public service announcement for those of you eager to start paying for Hulu: Be patient. You’re going to have to keep waiting.
Last month, the Los Angeles Times said Hulu was set to roll out a subscription service “as soon as May 24.” That’s next Monday. But people familiar with the company say there’s no way a Hulu Plus will be up and running by then.
When will the long-discussed premium service be ready? I don’t know. I’m still not entirely convinced that the joint venture–owned by News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox, Disney’s (DIS) ABC and GE’s (GE) NBC–has completely settled on terms of the plan, though I think they’ve agreed on the broad strokes: $10 a month for access to a deeper catalog of broadcast shows and to the service on devices like Apple’s (AAPL) iPad. (Regular Hulu, which is on a pace to generate $200 million in advertising this year, remains free).
And even if Hulu and all of its partners are seeing eye-to-eye–not a given–getting the rights from various programming partners to sell their shows could be a slog.
The upside: Your patience will be rewarded, Hulu subscribers of the future. One person familiar with the company’s plans tells me the new service will be “revolutionary.” Popular claim these days. Let’s see if it holds up.
Speaking of patience–a great Jimmy Kimmel bit about last week’s infuriating epsiode of “Lost”:Earth's earliest primates have taken a step up in the world, now that researchers have gotten a good look at their ankles.
A new study has found that Purgatorius, a small mammal that lived on a diet of fruit and insects, was a tree dweller. Paleontologists made the discovery by analyzing 65-million-year-old ankle bones collected from sites in northeastern Montana.
Purgatorius, part of an extinct group of primates called plesiadapiforms, first appears in the fossil record shortly after the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. Some researchers have speculated over the years that primitive plesiadapiforms were terrestrial, and that primates moved into the tree canopy later. These ideas can still be found in some textbooks today.
"The textbook that I am currently using in my biological anthropology courses still has an illustration of Purgatorius walking on the ground. Hopefully this study will change what students are learning about earliest primate evolution and will place Purgatorius in the trees where it rightfully belongs," said Stephen Chester, the paper's lead author. Chester, who conducted much of the research while at Yale University studying for his Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. Chester is also a curatorial affiliate at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Until now, paleontologists had only the animal's teeth and jaws to examine, which left much of its appearance and behavior a mystery. The identification of Purgatorius ankle bones, found in the same area as the teeth, gave researchers a better sense of how it lived.
"The ankle bones have diagnostic features for mobility that are only present in those of primates and their close relatives today," Chester said. "These unique features would have allowed an animal such as Purgatorius to rotate and adjust its feet accordingly to grab branches while moving through trees. In contrast, ground-dwelling mammals lack these features and are better suited for propelling themselves forward in a more restricted, fore-and-aft motion."
The research provides the oldest fossil evidence to date that arboreality played a key role in primate evolution. In essence, said the researchers, it implies that the divergence of primates from other mammals was not a dramatic event. Rather, primates developed subtle changes that made for easier navigation and better access to food in the trees.
The research appears in the Jan. 19 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Chinese citizens who suffered forced detention, torture, and a panoply of brutal human rights abuses at the hands of the Chinese government have been engaged in a high profile court case against Silicon Valley mainstay Cisco Systems for many years. Those Chinese citizens suffered yet another indignity in a California court a couple of weeks ago: a district judge dismissed the case against Cisco without even giving them the chance to gather evidence on the key point where the court found them wanting. The court noted that even though Cisco may have designed and developed the Golden Shield system for the purpose of tracking, identifying and facilitating the capture of Chinese religious minorities, Cisco would not be held liable because it didn’t do enough in the U.S. to facilitate human rights abuses. EFF attempted to file an amicus brief in the case after oral argument, but it was rejected.
The case seems high tech—it's about Cisco’s Golden Shield, a set of sophisticated technologies that include specific purpose-built parts for persecution of the Falun Gong. But it’s actually fairly simple: at what point does a company that intentionally builds tools that are specially designed for governmental human rights abuses become liable for the use of those tools for their intended (and known) purposes?
No tech company should be held accountable when governments misuse general use products to engage in human rights abuses. This isn’t about bare routers or server logs. The case alleged and presented some strong early evidence that Cisco did far more – including:
A library of carefully analyzed patterns of Falun Gong Internet activity (or “signatures”) that enable the Chinese government to uniquely identify Falun Gong Internet users;
Highly advanced video and image analyzers that Cisco marketed as the “only product capable of recognizing over 90% of Falun Gong pictorial information;”
Several log/alert systems that provide the Chinese government with real time monitoring and notification based on Falun Gong Internet traffic patterns;
Applications for storing data profiles on individual Falun Gong practitioners for use during interrogation and “forced conversion” (i.e., torture);
It also included a presentation by Cisco to the Chinese authorities highlighting the special tools Cisco offered for persecuting what it called “Falun Gong evil religion.” Using such terms about any ethnic or religious group in an internal presentation regarding a government project should be a red flag for anyone concerned about human rights.
The court acknowledged these allegations, noting that the complaint alleges “individual features customized and designed specifically to find, track and suppress Falun Gong,” and that the tools were actually used for those purposes: “Golden Shield provided the means by which all the Plaintiffs were tracked, detained and tortured.” The complaint also alleged that much of Cisco’s work building the specific tools to target this religious minority was conducted from its San Jose offices.
In an ordinary lawsuit, those allegations, which are credible and in some places confirmed, would be enough to let a party get into the evidence phase of a case, passing a motion to dismiss. Think about federal criminal law, where all that is needed for a criminal conspiracy is an agreement to commit a crime and an overt act. Similarly, in patent and copyright law, the standard of “inducement” liability allows responsibility for someone else’s actions when someone “distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement.” And there is no question that some Cisco’s “overt acts” and “affirmative expressions” to foster human rights abuses—like designing and developing Falun Gong identification and tracking modules—took place in San Jose.
In fact, the US government felt that there was a sufficient nexus to the U.S. to launch an indictment of Megaupload in Virginia based on far fewer connections to possibly illegal acts by its customers in the U.S. than Cisco had with its Chinese governmental customers. Good thing for Cisco that the Chinese government is just arresting, torturing and forcibly converting Falun Gong rather than committing copyright infringement.
So why is the standard so much higher for engaging in torture or forced conversion than it would be for bank robbing or patent or copyright infringement? The answer is that it shouldn’t be. The key law relied upon in the case, the Alien Tort Statute, requires, after a 2013 Supreme Court decision called Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum, that plaintiffs show
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After announcing last week that members of the Florida neighborhood watch program would not be allowed to carry firearms, Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith decided to back off from an outright ban, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Now instead of a no guns allowed attitude, Smith has taken a more subtle approach and decided to opt for strongly suggesting that neighborhood watch volunteers leave their guns at home instead. While the legality of such a ban was questioned, Smith claimed that he could have legally pushed the ban, but decided it was better to include, rather than exclude, those who wanted to participate in the program.
“We originally came out with a stern, ‘You should not,’” Smith said. “We took a second look at it,” out of fear that an outright ban would have infringed upon Second Amendment and concealed carry rights, local media reports.
“We want people to feel as though they are part of a movement,” Smith explained. “And it’s smarter for us to say, listen, if you’re going to be a part of it, you need to abide by the rules. And it’s a voluntary organization and if you choose not to be a part of it, you don’t have to be a part of it.”
Neighborhood watch volunteers will still be required to pass a background check in addition to signing a waiver that will release liability of the city should a member decide to carry a firearm while performing their duties.
The changes to the gun policy, as well as other general changes to the program, were announced in a community meeting Tuesday night.
The original plan to ban guns was met with much resistance and ridicule from gun rights advocates, but Smith assured that, while he listened to their concerns, it was not the determining factor in backing away from the ban.
Sean Caranna, executive director of Florida Carry, called prohibiting neighborhood watch members from being legally armed “irresponsible.”
“What you are doing is asking people to be out in their community, be visible and take note of what’s going on,” Caranna explained. “They can be more of a target for criminal aggression. We certainly don’t want the only person to be armed in a confrontation to be a criminal.”
Phil Unser, Neighborhood Watch coordinator in Wedgefield in east Orange County, said the gun ban just simply didn’t make sense, proposing the question if a member of the neighborhood watch was driving home with a gun in their car and saw someone breaking into a house, would they be required to go home and lock up their gun before reporting the crime to the police?
But Smith reiterated that the neighborhood watch program is not about going out on patrol, but rather being aware of what’s going on in the neighborhood by observing, identifying and reporting suspicious activity.
“We as a community have an opportunity to resolve problems by having conversations, by having meetings, by going to the city, by picking up the telephone and calling. That is what neighborhood watch is all about,” Smith explained. “Neighborhood watch is not about someone carrying a firearm and approaching someone. We are adamant about the fact that you should not approach an individual. You should not follow an individual. You should not track an individual. None of those things are under the premise of that we are looking at as far as neighborhood watch is concerned.”
Smith also made it clear that, “We’re not asking anyone to take their Second Amendment, or their concealed weapons rights away from them,” reiterating that his intentions were never to pat anyone down or confiscate firearms. He just simply wanted to provide more structure for the program, which he felt it was previously lacking.
“We’re trying to make something completely different from a mess,” he explained.Image caption CCTV captured the men entering the Graff store
Two men dressed in smart suits study the window display of one of London's foremost jewellery shops.
Wearing disguising make-up, the men walked calmly into Graff jewellery after security guards allowed them through.
But these men were not about to buy.
They were about to carry out the largest jewellery heist in UK history.
Within seconds they had drawn handguns and forced terrified staff to lie on the ground, threatening to shoot anyone who moved.
CCTV footage captured the drama as shop-worker Petra Ehnar was ordered at gunpoint to open a display case.
The robbers grabbed jewels, stuffing them into a bag. As insurance, Ms Ehnar was forced out of the store at gunpoint.
She later described the robbery as "the most terrifying experience a person can be put through".
"I was thinking I am going to be shot, killed," she said.
As far as I was concerned he wasn't brought up that way Clinton Mogg Snr, Father of Clinton "Jamal" Mogg High-profile heists
As they escaped one of the robbers shot at a security guard who had ran after them thinking Ms Ehnar was being kidnapped.
Shoppers took cover as the men jumped in a stolen blue BMW car and sped off.
A short distance away it hit a taxi. But the car sped off before stopping again when more shots were fired at passer-by Robert French who had given chase after seeing the collision.
The bag containing the jewels was handed to a waiting motor cyclist, as the men jumped into a waiting silver Mercedes. Meanwhile a van and a truck were used to hold up traffic.
Within two minutes on 6 August last year, Aman Kassaye, 25, and 27-year-old Craig Calderwood escaped with 43 different rings, bracelets, necklaces and watches with a retail value of more than £40m.
No-one was injured and it seemed an elaborate plan had prevailed.
But it was not long before police began making arrests.
Two days before the raid, the court was told Kassaye hired an unsuspecting professional make-up artist to make him and Craig Calderwood look older to disguise their appearance.
Later that day, they were seen on CCTV gazing into a window of Graff.
The make-up artist, Jessica Goodall, contacted police when she saw the CCTV pictures on TV. DNA was later found on make-up equipment and she picked them out at an ID parade.
Image caption A pair of white diamond earrings that were stolen in the raid
In the subsequent trial at Woolwich Crown Court, Graff security guard Eitan Azulay, who was shot at, said he became suspicious because he thought one man was wearing make-up. He radioed his colleague saying "something stinks here", moments before the guns were pulled.
Police recovered the BMW getaway car and, crucially, a mobile phone, purchased the day before the robbery, was found inside along with a sawn-off shotgun.
Then they began tracing suspects through phone records.
Mr Calderwood was arrested at Soho's Freedom Bar, which he frequented, after people there became suspicious when he changed his appearance.
In a letter found in his prison cell and read out in court by prosecutor Philip Bennetts, he admitted his involvement in the robbery.
"I'm truly sorry for the crime I committed," it read.
But he said he wrote the letter while he was depressed and in evidence he said his involvement in the raid was under duress for fear of his life.
The jury could not reach a verdict on Mr Calderwood.
Kassaye only admitted he had a "resemblance" to one of the gunmen. In his defence, Courtenay Griffiths QC, claimed the raid had been an inside job.
But there was no evidence for this and a string of witnesses dismissed it. Kassaye was found guilty of robbery, kidnap and possession of a firearm.
The court was told the "high-stakes" heist was a "professional, organised crime" executed with military precision and well-funded.
But Kassaye, of Battersea Park Road, London - a small-time drug dealer - and his conspirators were foot soldiers, not the brains behind it.
Ian Bourne QC, defending Calderwood, said: "Those at the top, and those who are in control of what is going on... are seldom seen and are never caught."
Maybe we've got to the stage where big pieces of jewellery can only be sold privately Robert Read, Jewellery expert
Clinton "Jamal" Mogg, from Bournemouth, Dorset, was a conspirator in the robbery.
The 42-year-old's father, Clinton Mogg Senior, told BBC News of his "shock" at his son's involvement.
"As far as I was concerned he wasn't brought up that way so there's no need, as far as I know, to go the short way about getting anything."
But what of the jewellery taken? None of it has been traced and a £1m reward from Graff's insurers remains for its recovery.
Robert Read, a jewellery and art expert at insurance underwriters Hiscox, said the chances of finding it are "small".
"Never say never, but the likelihood is the main items have been cut and each week that goes by the jewellery is spreading out into the underworld before it's reintroduced to the open market," he said.
"Big diamonds can be recut, repolished and there's no way you can trace that."
Mr Read said this was one of the largest ever heists in Europe.
"It does seem now the big jewellers, not just in the UK but in Europe, are being targeted," he added.
"The dilemma for the jeweller is he's in the business of selling.
"Maybe we've got to the stage where big pieces of jewellery can only be sold privately."
Two other men were found guilty of conspiracy to rob. They were Solomon Beyene, 25, of Lilestone Street, London; and Thomas Thomas, 45, of Durham Road, East Finchley, London.
Courtney Lawrence, 31, of Ladbroke Grove, London, and David Joseph, 23, of Flaxman Road, London, were both cleared of the same charge.Every week, Pizza Girl (Diary of a Pizza Girl) stops by with insights and a behind-the-scenes look into the world of pizza-delivery drivers. Take it away, PG! —The Mgmt.
Lately the future's been on my mind and particularly that pie-in-the-sky dream I've had of opening a pizzeria. I know that reality will be far from my vision, but right now, I'm having fun coming up with visions, so here's what I've got so far (licensing concerns aside):
I have a friend who wants to open up a comic shop. That's his dream. If he won the lottery, he'd spend it opening up the coziest comic shop that ever existed. It would be every geek's heaven. I want to put my pizzeria right next to it and I thought, just for kicks, I might go with a geek theme. I'm thinking that it would start with Pizza Girl, the pizza delivering superhero from Questionable Content, because she's my favorite superhero and therefore the guardian of the whole place. Maybe, just for kicks, I'd even dress up (or find someone to dress up) as her every once in a while.
The best part of this fantasy, and the part I'm really geeking out about, is coming up with my specialty pizzas.
First, my plain pepperoni slice is the Pizza Girl slice. Obviously my "everything" pizza is Superman, afterall, he has just about every power possible. Two Face is a half meats, half vegi pizza; you get to decide which half is the evil half. Thing has as many boulders of sausage as I can possibly fit on a slice. For The Human Torch I'm thinking some sort of really really hot pepper, the kind I have to make you sign a waver for so that you can't hold me liable for the hole this is going to burn in your stomach. Maybe as an occasional specialty I can put some green food coloring in my dough (does that even work?) and make The Hulk. Mario would have lots of mushrooms. I'm thinking of some sort of desert "pizza" involving Pop Rocks for Starfire.
The possibilities are nearly endless and it's just a matter of time before I get a hold of a pizza oven and start testing out recipes, though right now I'll have to stick to scoping out the competition and dreaming.
Other awesome things I have yet to even start thinking about: how to make my delivery vehicles geektastic (Batmobile maybe?), having my menu in both standard and graphic novel format, and what the heck my Green Lantern pizza would be.
This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.“For many, the gig economy is simply the next step in a losing effort to build some economic security in a world where all the benefits are floating to the top 10 percent.” This quote comes from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), but she is far from alone in her criticism of the growing sharing (or gig) economy. Even Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has implied that these companies only succeed by taking advantage of workers.
Yet not everyone thinks that new work opportunities made available by widespread peer-to-peer online interaction are harmful to workers. In what follows, The Heritage Foundation’s James Sherk defends independent work and shares the finding from his new paper, “The Rise of the ‘Gig’ Economy: Good for Workers and Consumers.”
Most workers in the gig economy prefer flexibility and control over their hours.
Jared Meyer: Why is independent contractor status crucial to the gig economy’s success? And what legal obligations do companies face with employees that do not apply to independent contractors?
James Sherk: Central to the appeal of gig economy jobs is that workers can choose when and where they work, or if they work at all. Most Americans want regular “9 to 5” jobs with predictable hours. But most workers in the gig economy prefer flexibility and control over their hours.
A survey of Uber drivers found that three-quarters of them preferred controlling their own schedule and being their own boss to working regular hours with employee benefits. Many gig economy workers have other things going on in their lives—school, family obligations, even another job—that they schedule their gig work around. Regular full-time employment rarely lets individuals work at their own convenience.
Gig workers can do this because they are (currently) classified as independent contractors. Legally they work for themselves, using software platforms to find clients. Since they work for themselves, they can set their own schedule and work at will.
If the government instead classified gig economy workers as employees, this freedom would end. Companies have many legal obligations to their employees that they do not have toward contractors. These include paying at least the minimum wage (going to $15 in New York and California) and paying overtime. State law often imposes additional obligations. For example, California requires firms to document that their employees take a 30 minute lunch break each day.
Companies facing these legal obligations need control over their employees’ schedules. They cannot let workers choose their own hours, then rack up large overtime bills. They must also ensure that their employees produce at least enough in value to cover the cost of the state (or local) minimum wage. That means selecting hours and locations for the workers, instead of letting workers choose when and where they work. Employee status significantly curtails the flexibility that attracts workers to the gig economy in the first place.
Unions dislike self-employment because a union of self-employed workers makes little sense. Self-employed workers do not strike against themselves.
JM: Yet, regardless of the benefits of independent contractor status, companies all across the gig economy face lawsuits over their worker classification decisions. Do these lawsuits have any merit?
JS: No and yes. The lawsuits are largely being driven by two groups: the first is trial lawyers. They hope to win rulings reclassifying gig economy workers as employees and forcing the platforms to pay damages for not paying their “employees” overtime, the minimum wage, etc. Contingency fees on any one of these cases would turn the lawyers filing the suit into multi-millionaires overnight. Thus far the trial lawyers have either lost all these suits, or settled, but the prospect of hitting the jackpot keeps them filing more.
The second group is labor unions. Unions dislike self-employment because a union of self-employed workers makes little sense. Self-employed workers do not strike against themselves. They would not hire unions to negotiate with themselves for higher salaries. Consequently unions typically support laws that push workers into employment relationships.
For example, a few years ago the Teamsters teamed up with environmental groups to push expensive environmental regulations on all trucks shipping out of the Port of Los Angeles. Self-employed (and non-union) truck owner-operators could not afford the necessary upgrades—but large trucking companies could. These environmental regulations effectively reserved the Port’s trucking work for employees—employees the Teamsters could unionize. In the same spirit unions are trying to reclassify gig economy workers as employees. They want to unionize and take dues from them, and they cannot do this if they work for themselves.
The gig economy platforms have the stronger legal arguments, but these lawsuits are not wholly baseless. Courts use complicated multi-part tests to determine whether workers are independent contractors or employees. Many of the elements of this test do point to gig-economy workers as self-employed: they set their own hours, accept jobs at will, use their own business judgement, provide their own equipment, and can work for multiple employers simultaneously.
However, some elements of the self-employment test do go against the gig economy platforms. Many gig economy jobs do not require particularly specialized skills, and their tasks are central to the business of the gig economy platforms. Uber would not have a business without its drivers. These facts point toward an employment relationship. The unions and lawyers are pushing the legal envelope, but they are not entirely blowing steam.
JM: Many policymakers on Capitol Hill mention Uber and the sharing economy in a positive light while speaking with their constituents. What can these federal lawmakers do to protect independent work from its opponents?
JS: The best long-term solution would be to amend federal law to clearly define self-employment status. Congress could state that any workers who choose their own hours, use their own business judgement and their own equipment, and have the freedom to work for multiple companies are independent contractors—full stop. Congress can say “if you do all this you are an independent contractor,” and not leave the courts guessing about how to apply the 20-factor common law test.
If Congress does not do that, then it should create a temporary safe-harbor for the gig economy by declaring that for the next seven years or so these workers and firms have an independent contractor relationship. Congress could then come back later to see how that safe-harbor provision worked out. Most likely Congress would find self-employment serves the needs of gig economy workers very well.
JM: While having this debate, policymakers need to keep in mind that the benefits of independent work extend far beyond Uber. Skilled professionals—everyone from plumbers and lawyers to music instructors and personal chefs—gain from easier access to customers. Online platforms make it easier and more affordable for independent workers to earn a living without laboring under employers. It is also important to keep in mind that consumers clearly benefit when they can access higher-quality goods and services at lower prices. The gig economy is good for workers and consumers.
Republished from Economics21.
Jared Meyer is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.
PopularAgainst the somewhat incongruous throbbing bass of Survivor's "Burning Heart," an elderly man with gray hair and a black pinstripe suit is making his way through a throng of cheering Christian Democrat delegates, many of whom are holding up banners reading "Juncker for President."
Jean-Claude Juncker, the center-right European People's Party (EPP) main candidate in the election for the European Parliament, climbs up to the stage. He looks tired. It's mid-May, he's in the town of Rotenburg an der Fulda in Germany and into the 37th day of his campaign. Volker Bouffier, the local state governor of Hesse, wishes him luck. "I'd rather have a beer," whispers Juncker. "A beer for Jean-Claude!" calls Bouffier.
"I feel like Obama," says Juncker during his speech. The US president also has to travel across an entire continent when he's on the campaign trail, he remarks, "only he has Air Force One and I just have a bus."
A few days earlier, on the road somewhere near Bremen, another bus carrying his rival Martin Schulz from the Party of European Socialists (PES) pulls in to an autobahn service station. His stomach rumbling, Schulz disembarks and spies the neon sign of a fast food restaurant. His hunger turns to indignation. "Burger King?!" he exclaims. "Can't you find me something decent?"
His staff remain impassive. They're used to their irascible boss. He's not as angry as he looks -- he's a typically tempestuous North Rhine-Westphalian, and it's just his way of letting off steam. They tell him to try the Serways restaurant. "Serways?" he rages, erupting into unprintable expletives. Still fuming, he walks across the parking lot. It's been a long day. He's visited five different cities in the last few hours, as well as a steelworks, a thermal power station and a care home. He's given two speeches in town centers, been interviewed, made phone calls and arranged appointments. And at the end of all that, all there is for the European Parliament president to eat is a curried sausage and fries at a service station in northern Germany.
Personalizing the Vote
For the last few weeks, an experiment has been underway in Europe. For the first time in history, candidates are vying with one another for the highest office in Brussels, the presidency of the European Commission. In the European elections taking place this week, 410 million people are casting their vote not only for a party but for that party's candidate. It's an innovation that has personalized the race, turning it into a stand-off between two rivals.
Martin Schulz, 58, and Jean-Claude Juncker, 59, are going head-to-head in the 28 countries of the EU, drumming up support and cooperation everywhere from Estonia to Portugal, from Ireland to Greece. But will this experiment be successful? Can an election campaign underway in so many different countries actually work?
After all, the elections are taking place at a time when Brussels is looking to the general public more than ever like a bubble. The last five years have seen the economies of many Southern European nations collapse, debts spiral and in some regions, unemployment among the younger generation has reached 50 percent. The euro crisis catapulted the bloc into an identity crisis.
Voter indifference was a problem even in the last European elections, five years ago. Putting faces to the parties is intended to jolt the electorate out of their EU fatigue -- but are the candidates for the EPP and the PES different enough to make the vote interesting?
Even if they are, the biggest challenge still lies ahead. The vote amounts to a referendum on whether or not the EU can become more democratic. A number of leaders of the EU member states resent the fact that the European Parliament wants to determine who will head the next European Commission -- because nominating the candidate is actually their job, according to the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, and all the European Parliament does is vote on their proposal. In this respect, the two rivals, Schulz and Juncker, have a common adversary: German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"Who is that?"
In early May, Schulz is out canvassing on the streets of Lisbon. It wasn't long ago that the Portuguese were protesting over austerity measures with posters showing Merkel with a Hitler moustache. Germany is seen by many here as overbearing, and the last thing they want to see is a German candidate succeed their very own José Manuel Barroso as Commission president.
Three cruise liners are anchored in the harbor on this particular day, and thousands of tourists are ambling through the historic city center, rubbing shoulders with camera people, photographers and members of the Portuguese Socialist Youth. In the center of the melée is Martin Schulz, sweating profusely. He stops by the downtown offices of a start-up and introduces himself to a young man with curly hair and a white t-shirt. They stand face to face, the desk between them. It feels a little claustrophobic.
"My name is Martin Schulz and I'm running for office as president of the European Commission," he says. There's a brief pause. The two men look at one another in silence. "And what do you do?" asks Schulz.
"We're an Internet company with offices in London and Lisbon," the young man answers. He seems to be as unfamiliar with the European Commission as he is with Schulz himself, despite the fact that the German has a fairly high profile as the current president of the European Parliament.
Few people on the streets of the Portuguese capital recognize him. Some of them stop and stare when he walks by. "Who is that?" asks one woman in French. Schulz waves when he's waylaid by a group of German tourists.
One of the biggest difficulties facing both Schulz and Juncker is boosting their profile across the bloc. That entails adjusting to various cultures and holding impassioned speeches in foreign languages. To some extent, the election campaign has boiled down to a test of the candidates' respective linguistic skills. Schulz speaks fluent French and English, and can also give a speech in Spanish and Italian. Juncker, meanwhile, is confident in English, German and French.
Nevertheless, both candidates have been known to get their languages mixed up. Taking part in a panel discussion last week -- in the final throes of the election campaign -- Jean-Claude Juncker fumbled for a word in French. "How do you say 'tank' again?" he asked French politician Bruno le Maire in German. At an event in Madrid, Juncker ended up with two sets of headphones round his neck, neither of which worked. "I'd better learn Spanish next time," he joked.
The former prime minister of Luxembourg, Juncker visited 32 cities in 18 EU countries on his two-month-long campaign trail, from Helsinki to Madrid, Cyprus to Ireland. He gave 27 press conferences and over 300 interviews. Most of the time, he traveled in a blue bus emblazoned with a "Juncker for President," slogan but covered the longer distances in a chartered plane.
In Sofia, Bulgaria, he was greeted by 15,000 fans in a football stadium; in Braunschweig, Germany, he appeared in the local Eintract stadium, debated with businesspeople, pressed the flesh in the Vienna Naschmarkt and visited the BMW factories in Munich. His rival Martin Schulz had an even busier schedule. The campaign proved to be a journey through European cultures that must on occasion have left the candidates not entirely sure in which city they'd woken up.
Too Many Similarities
It's Friday, May 9. The Piazza della Signoria in Florence. In the Palazzo Vecchio's awe-inspiring Salone dei Cinquecento, the floodlights are still trained on the stage where Juncker and Schulz just ended the first of what will be nine televised debates, held in English.
Schulz pushes through the crowd, which has been hand-picked. It consists of a few students from various international faculties; a lot of men in suits; a smattering of party supporters and a handful of spin doctors. Schulz reaches the far end of the room and disappears into an elevator.
"One and a half hours of wasted time," he grumbles. "We didn't talk about youth unemployment, the economy or the euro." Instead, they spent half an hour discussing institutional matters. "We're chasing our tail," he seethes.
Both Juncker and Schulz are battling a lack of public interest in the elections. Days before the polls open, even the educated middle classes have a hard time naming the two main parties' frontrunners. There's a distinct absence of excitement surrounding the European elections.
The trouble is that their platforms are just too similar. Both are fervently pro-EU, both would like Brussels to become more democratic and both want to see greater powers returned to governments and regions. Neither the candidate of both the center-right and the center-left rules out debt-sharing, even though they both deny it.
No amount of prime time slots can turn their campaigns into compelling viewing. In Germany, their last TV debate was watched by an audience of less than 2 million, with considerably more viewers glued to a detective show on another channel. Even "Germany's Next Top Model" fared better in the ratings.WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has claimed Donald Trump 'won't be allowed to win' next week's election during an interview to be broadcast on a pro-Kremlin TV station.
The Australian computer hacker was speaking from inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he also accused Hillary Clinton of receiving donations from the same people funding ISIS.
Assange said he was basing his claims on emails released last month by WikiLeaks.
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, pictured, claims next week's presidential election is fixed
He told veteran journalist John Pilger, pictured, the entire US establishment is backing Clinton
Speaking to Australian journalist John Pilger for Dartmouth Films, Assange claimed one of the leaked documents between showed a message sent by the then Secretary of State to John Podesta, who was an adviser to President Barack Obama.
Assange said the email urged Obama to 'bring pressure' on the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, 'which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [ISIS] and other radical Sunni groups'.
He described the email as the'most important' in the entire collection.
He claimed: 'All serious analysts know, and even the US government has agreed, that some Saudi figures have been supporting ISIS and funding ISIS, but the dodge has always been that it is some “rogue” princes using their oil money to do whatever they like, but actually the government disapproves. But that email says that it is the government of Saudi Arabia, and the government of Qatar that have been funding ISIS.'
Clinton has also been criticized over claims that the Clinton Foundation receives funding from Saudi and Qatari sources.
Assange, pictured, has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012
Assange claimed Donald Trump, pictured, will be defeated on Tuesday because the Washington elites would prefer an insider like Hillary Clinton inside the White House
Assange claimed big business, the banks and intelligence agencies are all behind Clinton
Later in the 25-minute interview, which will be broadcast on Russia Today, Assange claims next Tuesday's presidential election has been fixed in favour of Hillary Clinton.
He added: 'My analysis is that Trump would not be permitted to win. Why do I say that? Because he has had every establishment off his side. Trump does not have one establishment, maybe with the exception of the Evangelicals, if you can call them an establishment. Banks, intelligence, arms companies, foreign money, etc. are all united behind Hillary Clinton. And the media as well. Media owners, and the journalists themselves.'
Donald Trump has repeatedly said Tuesday's presidential election may be rigged, while providing scant evidence, and has urged supporters to keep an eye out for signs of voting fraud in Philadelphia and other heavily Democratic areas.
Democrats worry that could encourage Trump supporters to harass minority voters in a state that could determine whether Trump or his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, wins the presidency. Voting-rights advocates said they are already receiving reports of harassment.
Democrats have launched a legal blitz of their own in an attempt to shut down Trump's poll-watching efforts in Pennsylvania and three other battleground states, arguing in lawsuits that Republican monitoring efforts amount to 'vigilante voter intimidation' that violates federal law.
Assange earlier denied he was a stooge for the Russian intelligence services, claiming they were not behind the damaging leaks to the Clinton campaign.
He has been wanted by Swedish authorities since 2010 over rape allegations.
He has been hiding the the Ecuadorian embassy in London over fears he will be extradited to the United States.
He said:'The Clinton camp has been able to project a neo-McCarthyist hysteria that Russia is responsible for everything.
'Hillary Clinton has stated multiple times, falsely, that 17 US intelligence agencies had assessed that Russia was the source of our publications. That's false – we can say that the Russian government is not the source.'
The first tranche of emails published by WikiLeaks claimed the Democratic party leadership actively favored Clinton over her rival for the nomination Bernie Sanders.
The Department of Homeland Security Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said last month they were 'confident' the Russian government was responsible for the leaks.
But Russia has denied this and presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said it was 'nonsense'.The documentary Fresh Dressed showcases the threads and racial politics that run between the music genre and style – and explains how the classic looks of the 80s live on with Kanye West wearing Louis Vuitton
To get an idea of how entrenched the word “fresh” is to hip-hop, look to the Urban Dictionary. Across 14 pages, definitions include “Young. Fly. Flashy … fashion sense that people ain’t never seen before.” The general gist emerges: to be fresh is to be stylish, and style has always been key to hip-hop.
This connection is the subject of a new documentary, Fresh Dressed, directed by Sacha Jenkins and out this week. Starting with Run DMC – the group’s fat laces, Cazal glasses, gold chains and Kangol hats – and running up to current fashion killas Kanye West and A$AP Rocky, it’s a crash course in an alliance of style, culture and music. Talking heads range from Kanye himself, Damon Dash, Givenchy creative director Riccardo Tisci and American Vogue’s André Leon Talley. Highlights include the story of Tupac Shakur modelling for free as a gesture of support for black designer Karl Kani, and that of Dapper Dan, the cult designer who kitted out those on the 80s scene with tracksuits made from counterfeit Gucci- and Louis Vuitton-monogrammed fabric before these brands began to take legal action. Nas calls him “Tom Ford before Tom Ford”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Run DMC in their signature hats and gold chains. Photograph: Sunshine/REX Shutterstock
While style takeaways from Fresh Dressed are numerous (see the rediscovery of late-80s label Cross Colours), Jenkins’s film is really about the racial politics of hip-hop style. “All of these clothes are connected to what it means to be young and black in America,” says Erik Nielson, co-author of The Hip Hop & Obama Reader. “They were a reflection of urban life to some extent. If you think of the hoody, that goes back to early graffiti artists who used the baggy shape to hide their probably stolen spraypaint, and the hood to hide from the police. And baggy jeans have connections with prison.”
Jenkins points out that in the early hip-hop scene, clothes were a way to transcend the poverty that surrounded most of those involved. Damon Dash, who set up Rocawear with Jay Z, talks in the film about how “if you go home and you got roaches and 10 people living in an apartment, the only way you can … feel some kind of status is [with] what you have on your body.” This may link back to the origins of “fresh” – the hip-hop look is about being pristine, never grimy. “That’s a major difference between hip-hop and rock’n’roll,” says Jenkins. “You’ll never find photos of hip-hop stars wearing thrift clothing.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sean John’s AW02 collection. Photograph: Steve Wood/REX Shutterstock
While American classic labels such as Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren were popular in the hip-hop community – particularly with Hilfiger organising “drops” of free clothes on the streets of the projects – the music reaching the mainstream in the 90s led to the creation of labels specifically designed for this market, by those inside it. Fubu – which appropriately stood for For Us By Us – was set up in 1992 by Daymond John. Seven years later, global sales were £228m. Demand, says John in the film, was so extreme that stores “were selling polar fleece in August in Texas,” and LL Cool J rapped about the label in the Gap commercial he made in 1999. Artists’ labels followed. Beginning with Russell Simmons’ Phat Farm and Diddy’s Sean John, everyone from the Wu-Tang Clan to Eminem – an unlikely style icon in anyone’s book – had a go at cashing in.
The backlash was inevitable – these labels are no longer at the forefront of hip-hop culture. These days, wearing a brand such as Fubu is “seen as ‘ghetto’”, says Jenkins. Hip-hop stars such as West are more likely to be found in Parisian brands Givenchy and Louis Vuitton. “Houses like Louis Vuitton are connected to a dynasty far away from the inner city,” says the director. “It’s like being a conquerer – you’re buying into the notion of superiority.”
While there have always been connections with designer brands in hip-hop – see the Ralph Lauren-obsessed subculture Lo Lifes – these labels symbolise a kind of gold standard of European luxury. “With Kanye West it’s like: ‘I have something that you never will have,’” says Nielson. “There’s a form of self-aggrandising, to become larger than life because you can afford stuff in the upper echelons.” The need to have the latest symbols of status has its dark side away from West’s gilded world. Several people in Fresh Dressed mention the threat of sneakers being stolen from their feet, and there’s the story of a 2013 shooting in New York’s Bryant Park after a fight over a teenager’s Marmot coat.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kanye West in high-class designer brands is representative of hip-hop’s style. Photograph: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
According to Cynthia Lawrence-John, the fashion director at Volt magazine – who has worked with West and contributed to the V&A’s exhibition about black British street style, Staying Power – hip-hop style in 2015 has outgrown the street and is now part of the wider fashion conversation. “It has influenced fashion for years. If you are in that world you know that,” she says. “It’s appropriated by designers, but I don’t think the street always gets the credit.” The latest shift is style-hungry artists such as West experimenting with fashion by picking up on young designers at London fashion week, such as Astrid Andersen, and his own label Yeezy, which Lawrence-John says will have longevity because it “creates his own style”. It’s all in a lineage of fanaticism for fashion, one that can be traced back to those fat laces. “Hip-hop is a sensibility and an attitude that’s sprinkled on things that already exist. We reimagine and remix what is already there,” says Jenkins. “It’s in the way your pants hang or the way your cap tilts. It’s about identity.”
Five staples of the hip-hop look
Cazal 607s
Approved by Run DMC, these chunky black-framed glasses were street classics in the early
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position to begin with. I used to know 2 people in France who owned guns - un-registered. One had a K98k, misplaced by the Germans during WWII and handed down from his grandfather who had been in the Maquis. The other had an Inland M1 (not M2) carbine handed down by his father and presumably liberated from some GI. Every time he came to the US on business I would have to take him a gun store so he could buy "le lipstick poor sa amie" A notable similarity between both of them is the fact that their politics where both very left wing - PCF type left wing.
by 8 posted onby InABunkerUnderSF (Proudly deplorable since 2016.)
To: Olog-hai
Manhurin revolvers, made in france.Some of the best in the world. CC
To: Olog-hai
They are just starting to realize that each individual is their own personal first line of self defense as designed into God’s nature. The government’s police solve crimes, normally they don’t prevent them. If they look into their history they’ll find out why the royals kept the subject peasants disarmed until there was a war.
by 10 posted onby fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
To: Olog-hai
To: Olog-hai
Too bad the French don’t have a Second Amendment.
To: The Revolutionary Act
Their own revolution was, in contrast to the USA’s one, the precursor to all the communistic revolutions. All about power instead of freedom.
To: Olog-hai
Astutely true.
The bloody French Revolution and its 10,000 guillotined victims horrified our founding fathers. Enlightened liberal French philosopher’s teachings of the day led to the French Revolution by power hungry collectivists cloaking their movement with a Equality and Liberty for All label.
Their whole mad mob bloody revolution became an inspiration to Engels, Marx and Lenin’s future Marxist communist plans. RE: “Their own revolution was, in contrast to the USAs one, the precursor to all the communistic revolutions. All about power instead of freedom”.
by 14 posted onby MarchonDC09122009 (When is our next march on DC? When have we had enough?)
To: MarchonDC09122009
Indeed so; they can be described in the same way Churchill described socialists in general, who promote “the equal sharing of misery”.
To: butlerweave
Mais oui! “Ici Muslim, tiens atrappe!
by 16 posted onby jmacusa ("Dats all I can stands 'cuz I can't stands no more!''-- Popeye The Sailorman.)
To: Olog-hai
MAB made a few nice items, but the French would do well to acquire a Beretta.
To: Celerity
First steps.
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FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John RobinsonSales of Colin Kaepernick jerseys have soared in the past week since the San Francisco 49ers quarterback stepped into a national debate over systemic racism by refusing to stand during the national anthem.
As of Sunday, Kaepernick‘s $99 jersey was the top-seller among current players on the 49ers online store, and ranked No. 5 overall on the NFL’s store. Just over a week ago, before the controversy, Kaepernick — currently a backup quarterback — was ranked 20th on the 49ers site, as Seattle Times reporter Mike Rosenberg first pointed out.
Despite a flurry of criticism from NFL executives, fans and police unions, Kaepernick’s protest has been gaining support. On Thursday, teammate Eric Reid joined Kaepernick on one knee as “The Star Spangled Banner” was sung, and Seattle Seahawks player Jeremy Lane also sat out the anthem.
On Sunday, Megan Rapinoe, a star on the U.S. women’s national soccer team, took a knee during the national anthem before a match between the Seattle Reign and Chicago Red Bulls in support of Kaepernick.
“I am disgusted with way he has been treated and the fans and hatred he has received in all of this,” Rapinoe told ESPN’s Julie Foudy. “It is overtly racist. ‘Stay in your place black man.’ Just didn’t feel right to me. We need a more substantive conversation around race relations and the way people of color are treated.”
Kaepernick’s right to protest has largely been supported by his teammates and organization.
The jersey sales may signal that Kaepernick’s marketability is greater than many thought. So far, he has not publicly lost any endorsement deals.A trio of Premier League clubs have already expressed an interest in Norwich City’s England Under-21 international Nathan Redmond, who is set to leave Carrow Road this summer following relegation.
Norwich beat Watford but are relegated as Mbokani comes good at last Read more
Redmond, a £3.2m signing from Birmingham City in 2013, has featured in all but three of Norwich’s top-flight fixtures this season and scored his sixth league goal of term during a scintillating performance in Wednesday’s 4-2 defeat of Watford. Yet that result was not enough to keep Alex Neil’s side in the division, with Sunderland’s victory over Everton condemning Norwich to an immediate return to the second tier.
The 22-year-old, whose contract expires in 2017, is expected to depart, with Stoke City and West Ham United having been joined by Crystal Palace in pursuit of the winger, who will command a fee of around £10m. Mark Hughes considers the player a more financially viable option than West Bromwich Albion’s Saido Berahino, and Stoke and West Ham, who have opted against pursuing a permanent deal for Chelsea’s Victor Moses, would be prepared to offer wages in the region of £60,000 a week.
Redmond, however, is understood to be tempted by the prospect of more game time at Palace, who had explored the possibility of signing him in January, even if their basic salary would probably fall short of those proposed by other suitors. The FA Cup finalists would be keener to pay around £8m up front and include a sell-on clause in any deal, and Norwich may pursue that option given their interest in Palace’s Jordon Mutch.
The former Birmingham and Cardiff midfielder has been a bit-part player at Selhurst Park since joining for around £5m in January 2015 and has started only 10 Premier League games in 16 months. Palace would hope to recoup the money they paid for the 24-year-old and, although a conventional swap deal is unlikely, Mutch’s potential transfer could yet come into play in smoothing a deal for Redmond.Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier out-fundraised Kevin O’Leary in the first quarter of 2017, according to Elections Canada filings released Monday.
Bernier raised $1,031,312.18 from 5,724 individual contributions and O’Leary raised $1,029,568.48 from 8,084 different donations.
Lisa Raitt, surprisingly, raised just $208,368.00 — less than Pierre Lemieux’s campaign.
Kellie Leitch raised $536,418.94 from 3,291 individual contributions, followed by Erin O’Toole at $424,346.63 and Andrew Scheer with $403,014.45. Michael Chong is in sixth place, having raised $283,978.00. Just behind Chong is Lemieux at $237,693.84.
Brad Trost raised $120,114.00.
Andrew Saxton, Chris Alexander, Rick Peterson, Steven Blaney and Deepak Obhrai raised less than $100,000 each.
Tony Clement, who dropped out of the race in October, posted a higher return than Obhrai. Dan Linsday, a Winnipeg physician who dropped out in December, raised $2,525.00.
In total, leadership candidates raised $4,609,631.38.
The numbers show that the Bernier campaign has kept up its momentum. In 2016’s fourth fundraising quarter, Bernier brought in $586,165.27.Former White House press secretary Jay Carney fired back at Sean Spicer after the current press secretary said providing evidence to back up President Trump's accusations of wiretapping was "above my pay grade."
Spicer on Tuesday held his first press conference since February, during which he took a handful of questions on Trump's accusation Saturday that former President Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower during the presidential campaign. Trump's accusation did not include any evidence to back it up.
When asked during Tuesday's press briefing whether he could now offer any evidence, Spicer responded, "No, that's above my pay grade."
Carney immediately hit Spicer's statement on Twitter.
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"Actually, his 'pay grade' is the highest possible at WH - same as for chief of staff, national security and other senior personnel," Carney tweeted.
Actually, his "pay grade" is the highest possible at WH - same as for chief of staff, national security and other senior personnel. https://t.co/V3BENwFHjI — Jay Carney (@JayCarney) March 7, 2017
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump first tweeted on Saturday.
An Obama spokesman, Kevin Lewis, later responded:
“A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice. As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
Trump's allegation has widened a rift between Trump and his predecessor, according to reports, who made an effort to be cordial during the transition.Copyright by WBOY - All rights reserved Lonnie Smith Jr. and Caleb Dauphine
Copyright by WBOY - All rights reserved Lonnie Smith Jr. and Caleb Dauphine
Monongalia County sheriff's deputies responded to a residence on Tyrone Road in Morgantown for a reported welfare and extortion check.
A local bank contacted law enforcement after a customer called claiming she needed money to pay off a debt to protect her son from harm. The bank denied the funds and reported the call to law enforcement officials.
When deputies arrived at the residence, they talked to a male victim who said he was taken at gunpoint into an apartment at Marjorie Gardens Monday evening.
He told deputies that he was being held because of a debt and until the men who held him there could find the location of another male.
While being held at the apartment, he was burned, beaten and water boarded, according to sheriff's deputies.
On Tuesday morning, the victim was taken to his family's residence near Cheat Lake. The victim's mother was unable to get money from the bank, and signed her car title over to the suspects to ensure her son's safety.
Lonnie Smith Jr., 41, and Caleb Dauphine, 19, each residents of Marjorie Gardens in Morgantown, were charged with armed robbery and extortion.
They were arraigned in Monongalia County Magistrate Court and a bond has been set at $250,000 for each.
The Monongalia County Sheriff's Department was assisted by Morgantown Police and the Mon Metro Drug Task Force.Super powered janitorial duty isn’t glamorous, but it’s a team effort. Sometimes you’re the striker, and sometimes you’re the guy painting the lines on the field. Or hosing down the bleachers.
There’s probably plenty of things Sydney could be doing at a construction site besides just sweeping and scooping, buuuut, someone needs to be doing it and she is still just a recruit.
Unfortunately for Sydney, Jiggawatt can’t use the radio when she’s arc-stepping (not to be confused with ArcSTEP, Archon’s dance division, which totally exists). In some ways, Jiggawatt is a better teleporter than Harem. She can take slightly more (inanimate) mass with her, but she needs line of sight, or at least an indirect path, as she can jump into then through several sufficiently large/dense clouds before coming back down. A single arc-step is about as fast as Harem, but each extra bounce adds time, and Harem can potentially go much further in a single ‘port.
I guess Sydney’s wrist comp was making her arm sweaty, so she took it off. ¬.¬
Patreon supporters can view this page at twice the size! (as soon as I wake up and post it then immediately go back to sleep since Patreon doesn’t have a way to schedule posts yet.) $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.WASHINGTON — One of President Trump’s most controversial judicial nominees did not disclose on publicly available congressional documents that he is married to a senior lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office.
The nominee, Brett J. Talley, is awaiting a Senate confirmation vote that could come as early as Monday to become a federal district judge in Alabama. He is married to Ann Donaldson, the chief of staff to the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II.
Mr. Talley was asked on his publicly released Senate questionnaire to identify family members and others who are “likely to present potential conflicts of interest.” He did not mention his wife.
District judges often provide the first ruling when laws are called into question, decisions that can put them at odds with the White House and its lawyers. Last month, for example, judges in Hawaii and Maryland temporarily blocked Mr. Trump’s travel ban.Have you ever noticed that little dark circle that appears within the close button of a document window in OS X when you have unsaved changes? Yeah, me neither. After years of diligent Mac use, this subtle little element somehow escaped me until now. I guess I remember noticing it at times but never realized it was telling me to save my work. It’s a nice touch and got me wondering about what other subtle elements I might have missed over the years.
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I spent some time gathering up a number of these hidden gems and figured I’d list them here in the hopes that our readers could add to the list in the comments.
Save Dialog
When saving a file you can press / at the save dialog box to choose from any point in the file system via a file path.
Displays
You can press Shift + Ctrl + Eject to put external displays to sleep. On a MacBook this will force the system to sleep without having to close the lid.
Airport
Pressing the Option key when clicking on the AirPort icon in the menubar will display some detailed information about your wireless connection, including the transmit rate.
Finder
Pressing Control while clicking on the current location icon at the top of the Finder window opens a menu to let you select any parent location along that particular file path.
Screen
Pressing Ctrl + Option + Command + 8 will invert the color of your screen.
Dictionary
Pressing Ctrl + Command + D while hovering over a word in any Cocoa application (Safari, Mail, etc.) will automatically look up that word in the OS X dictionary app.
This list just scratches the surface of what I know are a huge number of hidden gems buried inside OS X. If you have any others you want to add to the list, please share it with us in the comments.George Brandis asked to front Senate Estimates again over Bell Group involvement
Updated
Federal Attorney-General George Brandis has been asked to again explain to a Senate Estimates committee his involvement in litigation to claw back nearly $1 billion from Alan Bond's failed Bell Group.
Key points: Labor, the Greens and crossbench senators co-sign a letter urging A—G George Brandis to address inconsistencies over previous statements
Michael Mischin revealed Senator Brandis was involved in the Bell Group case a month earlier than he had said
Senator Brandis is being invited to provide an explanation at today's Senate Estimates hearing
Labor, the Greens and crossbench senators Nick Xenophon and Derryn Hinch have co-signed a letter to Senator Brandis, asking him to address what they describe as an "inconsistency" between his previous statements on the matter and comments from his WA counterpart Michael Mischin.
Senator Brandis has denied claims he wanted the Commonwealth to run dead in a High Court case to let the WA Government get first priority on the settlement of the Bell Group.
Last week, Mr Mischin told the ABC's 7.30 that Senator Brandis' first involvement in the case was in February 2016.
That is a month earlier than what the Attorney-General told the Senate and a Senate committee late last year.
The letter to Senator Brandis, signed by Labor's Senate leader Penny Wong, Greens leader Richard Di Natale and Senators Hinch and Xenophon describe Mr Mischin's comments as "clearly inconsistent with your repeated assertions."
"Mistakes can be made. However, your specific statement declaring your first personal involvement being on 3 March was not an off-the-cuff remark," the senators wrote.
"It was made after you had been given several hours to prepare. You stood by your formal statement repeatedly in the Senate.
"The specific claim was repeated to a committee hearing more than a week later."
The letter invites the Attorney-General to take the opportunity at today's Senate Estimates hearing into his department to provide an explanation.
"Should you not accept this invitation, we will need to consider further options to ensure an appropriate explanation to the Senate," the letter threatens.
Senator Brandis is expected to make a further statement on the matter to the Senate committee.
Last week, Senator Brandis told the ABC he had seen Mr Mischin's statement and did not dispute what it said.
"I do not recall the conversation and it is clear from Mr Mischin's statement that any reference to the Bell matter was brief and inconclusive," Senator Brandis said in a statement.
"I note that Mr Mischin says that when he raised the matter with me, I told him that I was not in a position to discuss it then, but would do so in the future. I did so on March 4, 2016, which is when I had my first discussion with him about the matter.
"This is consistent with my account of these events as set out in my statement to the Senate on November 28, 2016, and elsewhere."
Topics: federal-government, federal-parliament, australia, wa
First postedKristen O’Meara, a teacher who lives just outside of Chicago, decided not to vaccinate her three daughters when they were born, citing belief in scientifically unsound anti-vaccination “research.” She has since changed her mind after her daughters (who are all under the age of seven), and she and her husband, contracted Kristen O’Meara, a teacher who lives just outside of Chicago, decided not to vaccinate her three daughters when they were born, citing belief in scientifically unsound anti-vaccination “research.” She has since changed her mind after her daughters (who are all under the age of seven), and she and her husband, contracted rotavirus, a painful illness that can cause diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration.
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“I put my kids at risk,” she said in an interview that aired on Good Morning America on Monday. “I should have taken more time to research both sides.”
“I scoured everything I could possibly find about why vaccines might be harmful. I became pretty convinced.”
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A recent A recent study from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that the number of doctors encountering parents who have refused their child vaccines for non-medical reasons has increased 74.5 percent to 87 percent between 2006 and 2013.
The thing about O’Meara’s technique (scouring everything about why vaccines might be bad for you ) is that it conveniently leaves out the settled science that vaccines are actually not bad for you, and are, in fact, good for you, in that they effectively prevent a host of diseases. The act of looking for information isn’t inherently honorable—anyone who scours 4chan for information about why women might be scientifically worse than men is bound to come out an avid men’s rights enthusiast. Check your The thing about O’Meara’s technique (scouring everything about why vaccinesmight be bad for you) is that it conveniently leaves out the settled science that vaccines are actually not bad for you, and are, in fact, good for you, in that they effectively prevent a host of diseases. The act of looking for information isn’t inherently honorable—anyone who scours 4chan for information about why women might be scientifically worse than men is bound to come out an avid men’s rights enthusiast. Check your research methods, people!
Anyway, O’Meara’s kids are now fully vaccinated and she says she feels guilty for putting them at risk.
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“I’m frustrated with the amount of misinformation I encountered when I set out on this journey,” O’Meara wrote in a New York Post article called “I was an anti-vax crackpot—until this happened.” “But in the end I am thankful, for the sake of Natasha, Áine and Lena, that I was able to reassess my position and accept information that is based on well-established, sound scientific evidence.”“The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine,” wrote the fiery essayist John Mitchel, whose words bought him a ticket to the penal colony of Tasmania.
What infuriated Mitchel was that the Irish were starving to death at the very time that rich stores of grain and fat livestock owned by absentee landlords were being shipped out of the country. The food was produced by Irish hands on Irish lands but would not go into Irish mouths, for fear that such “charity” would upset the free market, and make people lazy.
Ryan’s running mate in 2012, Mitt Romney, made the Tory case with his infamous remark that 47 percent of Americans are moochers, “dependent upon government.” Part of that dependence, he said, extended to people “who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.” Food — the gall!
You can’t make these kinds of heartless remarks unless you think the poor deserve their fate — that they have a character flaw, born of public assistance. And there hovers another awful haunt of Irish history. In 2012, Ryan said that the network of programs for the American poor made people not want to work.
On Wednesday, he went further, using the language of racial coding. This, after he told a story of a boy who didn’t want his free school lunch because it left him with “a full stomach and an empty soul.” The story was garbage — almost completely untrue.
“We have this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work.” In other words, these people are bred poor and lazy.
Where have I heard that before? Ah, yes — 19th-century England. The Irish national character, Trevelyan confided to a fellow aristocrat, was “defective.” The hungry millions were “a selfish, perverse, and turbulent” people, said the man in charge of relieving their plight.Caption:BOSTON, MA - APRIL 26: Jonas Gustavsson #50 of the Detroit Red Wings takes his mask off while in goal in the third period against the Boston Bruins in Game Five of the First Round of the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden on April 26, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jared Wickerham) (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images) BOSTON, MA - APRIL 26: Jonas Gustavsson #50 of the Detroit Red Wings takes his mask off while in goal in the third period against the Boston Bruins in Game Five of the First Round of the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden on April 26, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jared Wickerham) (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings will hold a special equipment and memorabilia sale at Hockeytown Authentics in Troy (1845 E. Big Beaver Rd.) on Saturday, May 31, from 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Fans will have the opportunity to purchase game-worn jerseys from the team’s recently-completed 2013-14 campaign. The jerseys were also worn during Nick Lidstrom Retirement Night and come with a commemorative “No. 5” Nick Lidstrom patch. In addition, various game-worn jerseys from previous seasons will be available at a discounted price. This one-day-only sale includes game-used hockey equipment such as sticks, skates, gloves and helmet visors. Autographed items, including pucks, photos, skates and sticks, will also be available for fans to add to their collections. Quantities are limited for all of these one-of-a-kind items.
Red Wings season ticket holders will have one hour of exclusive access to the equipment and memorabilia sale on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. The sale will then open to the general public from 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. and will be run on a first-come, first-served basis. Those fans who cannot attend Saturday’s sale can still make a purchase by calling Hockeytown Authentics at 248-680-0965. Phone orders will be taken starting at 1:00 p.m.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
April 14, 2016, 2:47 PM GMT / Updated April 14, 2016, 2:47 PM GMT By Maggie Fox
It’s all right to add folic acid to masa products, the flour used to make corn tortilla, tamales, pupusas and other Latin American food staples, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday.
Advocacy groups, including the March of Dimes, have been petitioning the FDA to allow the vitamin to be added to masa in the hope of reducing birth defects among Hispanics and Latinos.
Courtesy of Ana Frias
“The approval allows manufacturers to voluntarily add up to 0.7 milligrams of folic acid per pound of corn masa flour, consistent with the levels of certain other enriched cereal grains,” the FDA said in a statement.
“Great news for babies!” the March of Dimes, a charity committed to preventing birth defects, said in a statement.
Folic acid is a B vitamin found in leafy green vegetables, beans and fruit. It helps cells grow and if a pregnant woman doesn’t have enough folic acid, her baby can be born with severe birth defects such as spina bifida, when the spinal column doesn’t form correctly, or anencephaly, which means the baby doesn’t have a fully formed brain.
They’re referred to as neural tube defects, because the damage is done early in pregnancy, when the brain and spine are still forming.
People are supposed to get 400 micrograms a day, but many often do not.
So since 1998, the FDA has required that folic acid be added to most enriched bread flours, cornmeal, pasta, rice, and other grain products in the U.S. and Canada. It’s raised average folic acid intakes by about 100 micrograms a day and cut the number of children born with a neural tube defect by 25 to 50 percent.
“Great news for babies!”
This has prevented an estimated 10,000 neural tube defect-affected pregnancies between 1996 and 2006. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 3,000 babies each year are born with the devastating and costly problems.
And Hispanic women are about 20 percent more likely than other women to have babies with those conditions, and they continue to have far lower levels of folic acid intake, either through diet or supplements.
“The March of Dimes Foundation, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and others submitted a food additive petition in 2012 to request the extension of voluntary fortification to corn masa flour to increase the folic acid intake for U.S. women of childbearing age who regularly consume products made from corn masa flour as a staple in their diet,” the FDA said.
“Increased consumption of folic acid in enriched flour has been helpful in reducing the incidence of neural tube defects in the general population,” said Susan Mayne, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “Our analysis shows that adding folic acid to corn masa flour will help increase the consumption of folic acid by women who consume this flour as a staple in their diet.”
The March of Dimes, pediatricians and others hope this will help address clusters of birth defects that have been seen in some Hispanic communities.
“The FDA’s decision will prevent numerous cases of devastating birth defects like spina bifida," said March of Dimes president Dr. Jennifer Howse.
“The FDA’s approval is not based on the possibility of this reduced risk, but is instead based on a review of the safety of the proposed use of folic acid,” FDA said.
“Manufacturers may begin voluntary fortification of corn masa flour with folic acid on April 15, 2016. Consumers wishing to purchase products made with corn masa flour fortified with folic acid should check the ingredients statement for the presence of folic acid.”On Wednesday, the CIA released a dump of declassified documents and computer files recovered from Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound during the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed him. In this huge digital trove, amid stuff any reasonable observer might find somewhat surprising and counterintuitive in the possession of a fugitive radical terrorism financier ― screencaps from pornographic video games, a viral YouTube video of a British baby On Wednesday, the CIA released a dump of declassified documents and computer files recovered from Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound during the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed him. In this huge digital trove, amid stuff any reasonable observer might find somewhat surprising and counterintuitive in the possession of a fugitive radical terrorism financier ― screencaps from pornographic video games, a viral YouTube video of a British baby biting his brother’s finger, anime ― are 138 files that make perfect, dismal sense: “Tom and Jerry” cartoons. Bin Laden, if the contents of these files are to be trusted, was very possibly a nut for “Tom and Jerry,” and literally nothing in the history of the world has ever made more sense than that.
The way a joke works is, it starts with a buildup of expectations, and then, if the joke-maker does a good job, it defies those expectations in a surprising way, revealing something absurd about both the expectations and the reality that defied them. What’s funny, in the best jokes, is the glimpse you get of a silliness that reaches beyond the joke itself, to goose you for the universal condition of having an intellect in a world that will always find ways to exceed it. What’s funny in “Tom and Jerry” cartoons is: nothing. They are objects of dull, nihilistic cruelty fetishism for sociopaths.
For fun and tribal warfare, I like to compare (sometimes at frankly insane length ) “Tom and Jerry” to the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons created for Warner Bros. by the legendary animator Chuck Jones and his writing partner, Michael Maltese. The latter were conceived, initially, as a spoof of the former, and they provide an instructive contrast.
In the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons, the famished coyote schemes up ever more absurd methods for hunting the unflappable Road Runner across the barren, endless desert, and is foiled, again and again ― not by the Road Runner, but by his own ineptitude, then by the catastrophic failure of mail-order products, and then by the laws of the physical universe itself, which warp and contort themselves to ensure he will never succeed. The structure of a Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon is: The coyote’s schemes respond to and comment on each other, rhythmically and thematically, revealing the coyote’s doomed ambition and hubris and desperation. So do their results, pointedly returning again and again to the bird’s-eye image of him plunging to the bottom of a ravine, no matter what he does. The joke is about failure as an essential and inescapable part of having an intellect, and also, maybe, I hope, about postwar American helplessness to remedy our needs except via the products of unaccountable far-off corporations selling shoddy crap.
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But the point, here, is that there is a joke. There is at least one insightful existentialist joke in Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons. They are about something. There is no joke in “Tom and Jerry.” To the extent the cartoons are about anything, their theme is, “It’s great when awful, painful, violent stuff happens to someone else.”
Whereas Wile E. Coyote is a gaunt, starving wretch in a desolate wasteland, forced by hunger and circumstance to chase the only prey animal ever shown, Tom, the cat, is a plump, apple-cheeked pet in what typically appears to be a large, well-kept home. He has no particular motivation for pursuing Jerry, the mouse, except the reflexive impulse to prey upon and destroy something smaller than himself ― and then, after Jerry has foiled him, a sense of vengeful, reactionary grievance. Jerry, for his part, is a revoltingly cutesy psychopath; much of the time it’s made clear that he is not content merely to escape Tom, but relishes punishing him via sadistic methods that cause Tom excruciating pain and terror. Often he goes out of his way to prompt Tom’s attacks. Unlike the Road Runner, Jerry is not going somewhere else ― he has no business except provoking Tom so that he can hurt him. Essentially, he is the villain of the ” Saw” movies, but for little kids.
Structurally, “Tom and Jerry” cartoons are the opposite of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons. The chase sequences connecting Tom’s defeats are rote and meaningless and reveal nothing in particular about either Tom or Jerry. The variety, the point, is the awful, painful, violent stuff that happens to Tom at the end of each sequence, which does not happen for any particular reason except that the viewer is expected to enjoy watching it.
Why is any of it happening? What motivates either of these characters? “Tom and Jerry” is not interested in such matters. There is only Tom’s desire to do horrible violence to Jerry, and Jerry’s delight in doing horrible violence to Tom. What’s worse than the idea that viewers will relate to this and recognize themselves in it is the possibility that they will not, but will enjoy the carnage anyway, because it is not happening to them but is happening to someone else.
The world is a simple and purposeless machine whose only inputs and outputs are war. As a theory of things, this has much to recommend it for anyone who has lived through basically any part of human history. What’s chilling is the idea that anyone would enjoy watching this theory enacted, on screen, by a cute animated cat and mouse, in a cartoon for little children. Well, anyone other than a maniac whose life’s work was fear and death, I suppose. What’s your excuse?Location: GUIs Windows Shells > Packard Bell Navigator 3.5
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Packard Bell Navigator 3.5 Thanks to Matthew H. for the screen shots and info! Packard Bell Navigator 3.5 is an alternate shell for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 that Packard Bell bundled on most of their computers around 1995. PB Navigator 3.5 presents the functionality of the computer as a virtual house with rooms and objects that can be activated. The intent of this user interface was to aid novice users in using their Packard Bell computer. This shell could be compared to the famous Microsoft Bob, but it really doesn't come close. MS-Bob has customizable animated assistants that operate though out the environment and also several built in integrated productivity applications. PB Navigator lacks these. Also unlike Microsoft Bob, PB Navigator uses bit mapped images whereas MS-Bob uses scalable vector graphics. This means PB Navigator will only fill the entire display when run at 640*480. Packard Bell did not give users a setup program for the Navigator Software. All the end user would receive was a pre-installed copy on the hard drive and a system restore CD with PB Navigator as part of the restore image. This, combined with the fact that most people considered PB Navigator useless and a huge waste of space (the included tutorials were huge for their time), it is no wonder it was so hard to find someone with a copy.. Version 3.5 is an extension of earlier 1.x and 2.x versions that only used screens of buttons. Of the features shown below PB Navigator 3.0 was still mostly button based but included Kidspace, a "Hallway" screen linking the other button screens together, and a 2-d version of Workspace. There are also a few later versions (at least up to 3.9) that include more rooms.
When you start PB Navigator, by default it starts you off in the "Living Room". Clicking on various objects in the room starts predefined applications. For example, clicking on the remote control starts the Packard Bell Media Controller. Clicking on the fax machine starts FaxWorks and clicking on the box starts the Packard Bell registration program. The objects in the room can not be moved or otherwise manipulated. Hovering the mouse over either of the entryways to the rooms in the distance causes the distant room to light up. Clicking in these areas will take you to the other room. This version of PB Navigator has two other rooms you can navigate to. The "Info Room" and the "Software Room".
By clicking on one of the packages on the shelf you can start an Internet browser, news reader, e-mail program, access Prodigy, America On Line, CompuServe, or demos of them. There is also a shelf on the left wall that can be clicked to start a set
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or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. What matters, what should matter to reporters and citizens, is the extent to which those candidates believe that the government should be used to enforce their religion’s doctrines of morality on the rest of society. Those are the kind of questions that Keller should have asked, and the kind of questions all of us should ask.SpaceX CEO Elon Musk released images on Friday of the attempted landing of a Falcon 9 rocket on an ocean barge on Jan. 10. (SpaceX)
Elon Musk released photos Friday showing how his daring attempt to land a rocket booster on a floating barge last week ended in a spectacular fireball, or as he called it, a "rapid unscheduled disassembly."
@ID_AA_Carmack Full RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) event. Ship is fine minor repairs. Exciting day! pic.twitter.com/tIEctHFKHG — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2015
Musk's SpaceX has been working on building resuable rockets that it says would greatly reduce the cost of space flight. Typically, rockets are burned up and discarded after one use, which the billionaire entrepreneur has said is an unnecessary waste. Previously, SpaceX has tested short launches, with rockets blasting a few hundred feet into the air before landing softly on a landing pad. But last week's mission was the first time anyone has tried landing the first stage of a rocket on a floating barge at sea. The attempt came during an unmanned mission for NASA to resupply the International Space Station with food and supplies. After a successful launch, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket separated and then aimed for the barge, 300 feet long by 170 feet wide, using its engine thrust to slow down from a velocity of about 3,000 mph. As the photos show, it hit hard and exploded.
@ID_AA_Carmack Rocket hits hard at ~45 deg angle, smashing legs and engine section pic.twitter.com/PnzHHluJfG — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2015
Musk had previously said that the "grid fins" used to help guide the rocket had run out of hydraulic fluid. On the next attempt, scheduled for later this month, the rocket will have "way more hydraulic fluid." Even though the landing wasn't successful, Musk said, it "bodes well for the future."
The resupply mission, however, was successful. SpaceX's Dragon capsule docked to the space station Monday, allowing the astronauts on board to refill their cupboards.by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI
Residents who attended a community meeting on June 24 were receptive to plans to open a Seafood City Supermarket at 5033 N. Elston Ave. to replace the Kmart department store that is closing in August despite some concerns about parking lot congestion and the possibility of traffic spilling onto residential streets.
Alderman Margaret Laurino (39th) held the meeting at the Mayfair Library, 4400 W. Lawrence Ave., with Seafood City officials, an architect and a representative of a real estate development and consulting firm that is working with the company.
The grocery store chain, which specializes in Filipino and other Asian grocery products, has more than 20 stores in California, Nevada, Hawaii and Washington. The store on Elston will be its first in the Midwest.
The supermarket features seafood, meat departments, produce, bakery, health and beauty products, "as well as American products that one would normally find in any supermarket," according to the company’s Web site.
Tom Lowe of First Equity Group, which is consulting with Seafood City, said at the meeting that the family-owned company opened its first store in San Diego in 1989. "This will be the first store in Chicago," Lowe said. "A lot of studies and research went into where, and this was the number one choice for various reasons."
"I think that visibility and access and the density were a part of selecting the area," Lowe said. "Also, the Filipino demographic was part of the selection process because it’s well represented here.
"This concept has been very popular on the East Coast, and I think that there will be a big draw for it here. It will be accessible, there will be signs posted and it’s a great structure to work with."
Lowe said that Seafood City will occupy half of the 87,000 square feet and employ 250 people. The other half of the building will be leased to other retailers that are yet to be determined.
Lowe said that the Kmart building will be used, but that a portion of it will be torn down. "It will be a significant change from what you see there today," he said.
Seafood City manager of property and store development Rey Lacson said that the store will be open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, including Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Lacson said that the large Asian population in the area is was a big reason for opening the store on the Northwest Side.
Architect Peter Theodore of the firm Camburas and Theodore said that the current Kmart building is a vintage building that was a Venture store until 1998. "Not a lot has happened to it since then," Theodore said.
Theodore said that he originally wanted to strip the building and start from scratch, but that was too expensive. However, he said that only the roof and the rear wall will remain intact and everything else will be newly constructed.
The architecture firm specializes in projects for Walgreens, Jewel-Osco, Starbucks, T.J. Maxx and other stores.
"A lot of retailers would come into a store like this and throw a fresh coat of paint on it and add a few windows here and there, but Seafood City said that that they didn’t want to put a Band-aid on it and if we’re going to do it we want to do it right," Theodore said. "My goal was to look at the glass and the retail architecture and create the visibility and the likeness, the airiness that you see in the other areas of the city."
Theodore said that he used corrugated metal, brick and wood in the design of the store and that activity in the store will be seen from the parking lot and from the street.
Theodore said that the most important issue when designing the project was the function of the store as it relates to architecture. He said Seafood City is not using the site as the main retailer but rather as an anchor for other tenants.
"It’s going to provide you with services and needs that are not currently being facilitated such as a market where you can buy fresh fish, have that fish prepared while you are shopping," Theodore said. "You will get a presentation that is unique in the Chicago market from the standpoint that very few people do fish the way that Seafood City does. They fly in their fish fresh, and the fish is on tables where you can see it and the assortment of fish is incredible."
Lowe said that work on the store will begin in the fall and that it will open in the spring.
Residents at the meeting expressed concern that traffic to spill onto Keating Avenue, a residential street, about issues with turning onto Elston Avenue from the parking lot, parking issues and what kind of tenants would lease space there.
"I have a fairly extensive list of businesses that I don’t want there," Laurino said. She said that mid-sized stores such as a smaller Walgreens or a Chipotle would certainly be welcome. "I’m not suggesting that those are one of them, I just want to give you a sense of what might go in there," Laurino said.
The Kmart, which opened in 1998, is scheduled to close by Aug. 23, and it is currently having a liquidation sale. Sears Holding Company, the parent company of Kmart, has been closing many low-performing stores in the country.
Lowe said that rumors about the possibility of a theater as a tenant are just rumors. "We haven’t had a discussion with a theater," he said.
The parking lot on the site can be accessed from Keating Avenue or Elston Avenue. Laurino’s father, former alderman Anthony Laurino, held several meetings with residents to discuss their traffic concerns before the Venture was constructed about 25 years ago.
Theodore said that that the primary access to the parking lot will be from Elston and that he does not expect traffic to use Keating because the site has a large parking lot. "We looked at what happened with Kmart during the holidays, and I would see no reason why people would be going into the neighborhood when they want to leave," he said.
No zoning change will be required for the project, and no additional driveways are planned for the plaza,
"We’re delighted that they are here," Laurino said. "They will be wonderful neighbors. It’s not a big corporation, and this is a family-owned operation and they will be a part of the local community."
"They certainly addressed my issues with traffic, parking and the look of the building and hours," Laurino said. "They’ve been delightful to work with."
Also in the area, the long-delayed Thai Town Center on the former site of the 17th (Albany Park) District police station, 4461 N. Pulaski Road, opened its doors on July 3 as the Taste of Thai Town, according to owner Arun Sampanthavivat.
"It’s been a long and painstaking four years, but we have opened to the public on July 3," Sampanthavivat said. The center will feature a restaurant, a spa, a wellness center and office space. The project received funds from the Lawrence-Pulaski Tax Increment Financing District.
"This will be an accessible restaurant, and it will be causal dining, unlike my other restaurant," Sampanthavivat said. Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and dinner will be served from 5 to 10 p.m.
The old station, which was built in 1938, has been closed since the new 17th District station, 4650 N. Pulaski Road, opened in 2005. Plans to open the center have been in the works since 2011, but delays with funding and construction delayed the project.A piece of Corning's Gorilla Glass undergoes a flexibility test in the lab. Courtesy Corning Incorporated
You might say we're in the early days of the gadget age. A couple of decades ago, personal computers weren't portable and cell phones were rare luxuries. Today, a quick glance at the electronics store tells you all you need to know. Gadgets are our playthings and our playthings are portable.
But electronics have improved in other ways, too. Processor speeds have risen dramatically, following Moore's Law. Screen resolution is sharper and more vibrant than ever. And some companies spend almost as much time on aesthetics as they do engineering. But there's one improvement that you can't really see: Glass is getting stronger.
The manufacturing company Corning has developed a product it calls Gorilla Glass. The company designed the glass for our electronic lifestyles. As we carry around computers, tablets, smartphones, MP3 players and other devices, we risk damaging them through everyday use. Corning's Gorilla Glass stands up to abuse with scratch- and impact-resistant qualities. And Corning's approach allows the glass to be incredibly thin, meaning it won't interfere with capacitance touch screens or add significant weight to a device.
What's Corning's secret? What's so special about Gorilla Glass that sets it apart from other kinds of glass? The answer involves incredible temperatures, a special trough, robots and a molten salt bath. The finished product is a thin piece of glass that can withstand a lot of punishment.When Matthew Weiner spoke at the Paley Center earlier this year, he discussed the music selection process on Mad Men, saying everyone has access to his iPod, and access to his music list—"it really comes down to having an emotional response to a song. I have no rules about it. They do not have to be from the period."
Last night's episode ended with Judy Collins singing "Both Sides, Now," and since Weiner always places great importance on the final scene of each season: Season 1 ended with Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," Season 2 didn't have any music during the final scene, Season 3 ended with "Shahadaroba" by Roy Orbison, Season 4 ended with Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe," and Season 5's final scene was played out by Nancy Sinatra singing the theme to "You Only Live Twice."
Here's what else we heard on the show this season—strap on your Koss headphones and turn it up:
"Hawaiian Wedding Song," Elvis Presley
"Just A Gigalo," Bing Crosby
"Bonnie & Clyde," Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot
"Friends I Haven't Met Yet," Blue Sandlewood Soap
"Love Is Blue," Paul Mauriat
"Baby Jane (Mo Mo Jane)," Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
"Reach Out Of The Darkness," Friend and Lover
"Going Out of My Head," Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66
"Words Of Love," The Mamas and the Papas
"Dream A Little Dream Of Me," Ozzie Nelson
"Always Something There To Remind Me," Lou Johnson
"Piece Of My Heart," Janis Joplin ("Try (Just a Little Harder)" was also in this episode)
"Found Love," The Fly Bi Nights
"Harper Valley PTA," Jeannie C. Riley
"Porpoise Song," The Monkees
"Both Sides, Now," Judy Collins
Mashable has a growing playlist including songs throughout the entire series.An unapologetic James Clapper bristled at accusations of misconduct in front of a trade group today, announced that he intends to continue serving as national intelligence director through the rest of the Obama presidency, and released a new “National Intelligence Strategy” that includes a “Code of Ethics” that seems disconnected from the reality of intelligence collection as revealed by Edward Snowden.
Speaking in public, but in a friendly setting, Clapper mocked the notion of intelligence collection without risk, the potential for embarrassment or invasion of privacy. He snidely called it “Immaculate Collection.” (see NBC video.)
Clapper also confirmed a report that, in commemoration of Constitution Day, he led his staff this week in two separate “re-administrations” of the oath of office to the Constitution, which he characterized as a good bonding experience, rather than an urgently needed recommitment to observing the constitutional rights of Americans.
“While we’ve made mistakes, to be clear, the IC [intelligence community] never willfully violated the law,” he insisted.
And he complained bitterly of being “accused of lying to Congress.”
Clapper flat-out lied to Sen. Ron Wyden during a Senate hearing in March when he said the NSA does not wittingly “collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.”
Clapper has previously said he “responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner by saying no.”
On Thursday, he said he had been falsely accused of lying “because of a mistake and trying to answer on the spot a question about a specific classified program in an unclassified setting.”
His audience was made up mostly of contractors who do, or want to do, business with the intelligence community. One question from the audience: “You have a very supportive private sector in front of you. What is your most pressing need?”
Clapper said his people have failed to come up with ways to continue accessing critical intelligence without the sort of bulk data collection that was disclosed by Snowden.
“If you have ideas of how we can find the needles without having the haystacks, I’m all ears,” he said.
Asked if it was “possible to be an ethical whistleblower in the intelligence community,” Clapper said yes, with caveats. “The complication obviously for those in the intelligence community, for those who feel compelled to do so,” he said, is “doing so but not in a way that gratuitously compromises classified information.”
Clapper made much of the unclassified national security strategy’s opening section on ethics. Among those principles:
TRUTH. We seek the truth; speak truth to power; and obtain, analyze, and provide intelligence objectively. LAWFULNESS. We support and defend the Constitution, and comply with the laws of the United States, ensuring that we carry out our mission in a manner that respects privacy, civil liberties, and human rights obligations. INTEGRITY. We demonstrate integrity in our conduct, mindful that all our actions, whether public or not, should reflect positively on the Intelligence Community at large. STEWARDSHIP. We are responsible stewards of the public trust; we use intelligence authorities and resources prudently, protect intelligence sources and methods diligently, report wrongdoing through appropriate channels; and remain accountable to ourselves, our oversight institutions, and through those institutions, ultimately to the American people.
Clapper also complained about what he called his “constrained budget,” which he said has required the intelligence community to be “more creative”. Clapper’s annual “black budget” is somehwere around $53 billion.
Decrying the effects of Congress’s budget sequestration, Clapper said: ”We have all these threats, and in the face of all that, well, gee, let’s cut intelligence. Make sense to you?”
Clapper says the lesson from the last 16 months is: “We do need to be more transparent.” But the closest he came to endorsing any genuine reform was his assertion that there are “hundreds of thousands” of people with security clearances who don’t actually work with classified material, but want the “prestige” or the convenience. “I’m on the warpath to reduce the number of security clearances,” he said.
Photo: Getty ImagesOmar Rodriguez-López (of At the Drive-In and the Mars Volta) has announced a new album series. Starting next week and continuing through mid-December, Rodriguez-López will put out a solo album on a bi-weekly basis via Ipecac Recordings. The previously unreleased LPs were recorded from 2008 to 2013 while Rodriguez-López lived in Zapopan, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. They’ll be available digitally (with some CDs sold at Rodriguez-López’s live shows) before eventually being collected as a limited edition CD/LP box set. The first album in the series is called Sworn Virgins. It’s out July 15. See Rodriguez-López’s release schedule below.
Omar Rodriguez-López:
07-15 Sworn Virgins
07-29 Corazones
08-12 Blind Worms Pious Swine
08-26 Arañas en La Sombra
09-09 Umbrella Mistress
09-23 El Bien Y Mal Nos Une
10-07 Cell Phone Bikini
10-21 Infinity Drips
11-04 Weekly Mansions
11-18 Zapopan
12-02 Nom De Guerre Cabal
12-16 Some Need It Lonely
Revisit Omar Rodriguez-López’s “Agua Dulce De Pulpo” music video:Aden, Yemen: The Defense Ministry came under attack Thursday from a suicide car bomber and heavily armed gunmen, killing 52 people and wounding 167 in a fierce battle in the heart of Yemen's capital of Sanaa, the government said.
Among the dead at the Defense Ministry complex, which also houses a military hospital, were soldiers and civilians, including seven foreigners — two Germans, two Vietnamese, two Filipinos and one Indian, according to the Supreme Security Commission.
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the two-stage assault, but suicide bombings and complex attacks are the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.
The brazen morning attack, the deadliest in Sanaa since May 2012, underlined the ability of insurgents to strike at the government as they exploit the instability that has plagued this key US ally for more than two years. Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed was in Washington for talks Thursday, and the US State Department condemned the "senseless killing and wounding of dozens."
The US considers Yemen's al-Qaeda branch, known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, to be the most active in the world. In recent months, Washington has sharply escalated drone attacks against the militants in the impoverished nation. US forces also have been training and arming Yemeni special forces, and exchanging intelligence with the central government.
The terrorist network gained a major foothold in the south, taking over several towns in the chaos that followed the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The drone strikes and a series of US-backed military offensives helped uproot several key militant strongholds, but al-Qaeda continues to fight back.
In an attack blamed on al-Qaeda in May 2012, a suicide bomber blew himself up amid troops taking part in a parade rehearsal near the presidential palace in Sanaa, killing 93 soldiers.
The government statement said all the militants who stormed the complex Thursday were killed, but it did not say how many. State TV showed a dozen bodies, identifying them as the attackers.
Military helicopters hovered over the site as soldiers and ambulances arrived and gunfire echoed in the streets.
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who succeeded Saleh, later met with military commanders inside the devastated complex and ordered an investigation into the incident, military officials said.
In Berlin, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle confirmed that two Germans and a Yemeni who worked for the aid organisation GIZ were killed.
Military officials said the attack may have been timed to target a planned meeting of top commanders, although the session was unexpectedly delayed. They added that two army vehicles disappeared from the complex last month, but they did not know whether those were used in the assault.
The Defense Ministry was tipped off last week that a major attack in the capital was imminent, prompting authorities to reinforce security forces, the officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Marie Harf, a deputy spokeswoman for the US State Department, condemned the attack.
"We stand with Yemen against this violence and remain firmly committed to supporting the Yemeni people as they seek to conclude the National Dialogue and move forward peacefully with Yemen's historic democratic transition," she said.
Westerwelle also denounced what he called "this cowardly attack."
"These terrible crimes cannot be justified," he said, urging the authorities to find those responsible for the attack.
"Yemen must not become a place of terrorism," he said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon added his condemnation and believes "the only path to a stable, prosperous and democratic Yemen is through the ongoing peaceful and all-inclusive National Dialogue Conference," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Yemen is strategically located at the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia, two of Washington's closest Arab allies. Yemen has a shoreline on the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea close to the vital shipping lines carrying oil from the energy-rich Gulf region to the West.
AP
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) apparently has placed a resolution on the Internet in the regulations being developed at the meeting, drawing accusations that it acted improperly.
At the close of the Wednesday sessions of WCIT, which continued into the night and concluded early Thursday morning in Dubai, the chairman of the conference apparently turned an informal process into a vote, according to the Internet Society.
Adopting a resolution on the Internet violated assurances that the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) being developed at WCIT wouldn't be about the Internet, said the non-governmental group, which advocates equal access to the Internet. It wasn't immediately clear what the resolution stated.
The U.S., the European Union and some other countries have opposed bringing the Internet under the ITRs, and this has been one of the key issues at WCIT. The treaty being developed at the meeting has to be signed by Friday.
"What was first termed as getting a 'temperature of the room' by the Chairman of the conference turned into an apparent 'vote' to include an Internet Resolution in the ITRs," The Internet Society said. That action "resulted in much confusion among the delegates," the group said.
The Internet Society expressed concern that language about competition, liberalization, free flow of information and independent regulation largely had been removed from the text of the treaty.
"Additionally, and contrary to assurances that this treaty is not about the Internet, the conference appears to have adopted, by majority, a resolution on the Internet," the Society said in a statement. "Amendments were apparently made to the text but were not published prior to agreement. This is clearly a disappointing development and we hope that tomorrow brings an opportunity for reconsideration of this approach."
Several commenters on Twitter also voiced concern about the decision-making process, some calling it a "vote/non-vote."
Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is [email protected] GOP Rep: Trump and Obama Presidencies Are Essentially the Same
Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz announced last month that he will be leaving the Untied States Congress at the end of June. But that didn’t stop the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee from taking a few parting shots at President Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and fellow Republicans on his way out the door.
“The reality is, sadly, I don’t see much difference between the Trump administration and the Obama administration. I thought these floodgates would open up with all the documents we wanted from the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Pentagon,” Chaffetz told Sinclair Broadcast Group in an interview that aired on Sunday.
Chaffetz claimed that the Trump administration has actually been worse than the Obama administration when it comes to fulfilling oversight requests from Congress.
“In many ways, it’s almost worse because we’re getting nothing, and that’s terribly frustrating and, with all due respect, the Attorney General has not changed at all. I find him to be worse than what I saw with Loretta Lynch in terms of releasing documents and making things available. I just, that’s my experience, and that’s not what I expected”, he said.
“We tried to issue subpoenas. We tried to hold people in contempt and the Obama administration said ‘no,’ and the Trump administration came in and did zero. Nothing. Nothing changed,” Chaffetz added.
The outgoing Congressman also took the opportunity to criticize fellow Republicans who he does not believe are doing a good enough job fulfilling their oversight responsibilities.
“The reality is, there aren’t very many people that want to play offense. There aren’t that many who say, ‘Look we have a duty and an obligation to fulfill the oversight responsibility that was put in place at the very founding of our country”.
[image via screengrab]
Loading...New Delhi: Shashi Shekhar Vempati, the newly appointed chief executive officer of Prasar Bharati, has already set himself some targets. The 43-year-old media and tech professional (also a member of the Prasar Bharati board), is looking to turn the public broadcaster around and revive viewership and finances of the network. Prasar Bharati runs Doordarshan and All India Radio.
Vempati, who will be the first non-Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer ever to spearhead the public broadcaster, takes charge on Monday.
In an interview, Vempati talks about his agenda as the CEO, the revival of Doordarshan, and his plans to put Prasar Bharati on a global stage, alongside BBC and Al Jazeera. Edited excerpts:
What will be your agenda for the next five years, given the competition from private broadcasters?
First of all, my plan is to learn, listen and understand the challenges of the organization and bring my private sector experience into play.
We have to see how we can bring Doordarshan from where it is to where it needs to be in terms of engagement, loyalty, trust and impact.
I would not like to compare ourselves with private players. Being a public broadcaster, our canvas is entirely different. The aspirations are bigger. I want to create a global voice for India which something no private player would aspire for. I don’t see private players as competitors; they could very well be good partners.
Your appointment comes at a time when Doordarshan is looking at a complete overhaul in channel programming and packaging. How challenging could this new journey be?
The whole strategy of coming up with a new look, and a new way of presenting engaging content, will be very challenging. We have to do things differently and think about the funding. We have to prioritize activities, given budget constraints.
The reach of Doordarshan is huge and there is the nostalgia factor that plays in. There are people who grew up with Doordarshan. But, sustaining audiences and bringing them back is a challenge, especially with younger viewers; the children of liberalization have very little or no memory of Doordarshan.
As a member of the Prasar Bharati board, what are the problems that you have identified with the organization?
One of the biggest challenges is that this organization (both Doordarshan and All India Radio) does not operate like a modern, 21st century media organization. We have to embrace modern IT and management practices, which will improve the ease of doing business.
Second, there is a lack of trust and transparency. Stakeholders—both inside and outside the organization—have had bad experiences with Doordarshan at one point or the other. There is a lot of negativity that needs to be addressed. Once we address these macro issues, everything else will fall into place.
Is a digital platform in the pipeline?
Last year, a committee was formed by the board under the leadership of Prasar Bharati chairman. That committee had submitted a set of recommendations to the board for creating a global digital platform for Prasar Bharati. The board had approved the proposal.
The report has now been sent to both the information and broadcasting (I&B) minister and the Prime Minister.
This is going to be one of the top agendas for us in the coming months. I am looking to create a digitally savvy public broadcaster.
So far, the government has been leveraging the reach of public broadcaster for communicating with people. Given the current political scenario, what role will the public broadcaster play under you?
A public broadcaster has two purposes—one is engaging with citizens across the country and giving them relevant information. That’s a broader social mission that cuts across political parties and will continue irrespective of who is in power.
Second, there are things that are specific to the current government, be it Centre or state. Like, there is Mann Ki Baat (on All India Radio) at the Centre and then there is a similar show held by the Karnataka CM. Here, it is not about a political party but about engaging with the citizens, and a public broadcaster is the vehicle for doing that.
Going forward, I want to take the global road because that has been neglected for years. We want to have a global voice like BBC and Al Jazeera.
This is where I feel the global digital platform that we are creating will come into play. We are a billion-people democracy, the largest one and a very young one at that. The world deserves to hear our voice and get our perspective on global events.
Prasar Bharati has been trying to pull itself out from the government support and become an autonomous institution. Is it proceeding towards commercial viability?
Financial autonomy is a complex issue. Prasar Bharati employees continue to be Government of India employees and the government bears the wage bill for them.
Financial autonomy is something we have to apply our minds on. We have to work out issues related to the workforce and figure out an ideal funding model to head towards financial autonomy.
As for functional autonomy, there is a very symbiotic relationship between the government and the organization, and I don’t think that is going away anytime soon.Sandra Bullock arrives at last year’s Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Jordan Strauss/Invision via Associated Press)
When the news broke that Sandra Bullock will be starring in a gender-flipped remake of “Ocean’s Eleven,” it was inevitable that entertainment writers would give in to the temptation to fantasy-cast the whole lineup. I particularly liked the set of suggestions from Matt Brennan of Thompson on Hollywood, which was full of great ways to make use of actresses like Kristen Wiig’s skills as well as irresistible juxtapositions, like the possibility of Jessica Chastain and Amy Adams playing bickering sisters. The “Ocean’s Eleven” franchise, which started in 1960 as a Rat Pack heist movie about a group of World War II veterans before morphing into a stylish 2001 Steven Soderbergh remake and George Clooney vehicle, followed by “Ocean’s Twelve” in 2004 and “Ocean’s Thirteen” in 2007, have always been an opportunity to showcase a whole lot of Hollywood talent in a supersized ensemble picture. And the idea of seizing that opportunity and using it to let Hollywood actresses play is absolutely compelling.
But I felt a sense of unease at the news, and the readers of my chat appear to have felt the same hollowness as well, because a number of them asked about it this week. And I don’t think it’s just because Bullock’s movie “Our Brand Is Crisis,” in which she plays a political consultant originally intended to be Clooney (whom she’ll also replace in “Ocean’s Eleven”), is presently tanking at the box office and earning poor reviews from critics I trust. The news about a gender-swapped “Ocean’s Eleven” is the kind of thing that sounds like a step toward equality, but is rooted in an idea about women and storytelling that actually risks shutting out women’s voices and perspectives in the long run.
There are two situations in which casting a woman in a role originally written for a man can yield benefits, one of them convincingly argued by Alison Willmore at BuzzFeed last week. Using “Our Brand Is Crisis” as evidence, Willmore suggests that such gender-swapped castings can shake us out of our complacency about familiar tropes, in this case, the amoral anti-hero, always a man, whose sheer competence overcomes our disgust at his repulsive profession or personal behavior.
“We’re used to male antiheroes, often accompanied by women as the nagging moral centers, but Bullock’s character is a gleeful participant in the f——up industry of exporting the most manipulative of American campaigning abroad (that is, until ‘Our Brand Is Crisis’s terrible failure of nerve),” Willmore writes. “She unsettles an otherwise familiar story about someone who’s really good at their terrible job, and without the need for someone to stand around wagging their finger at what she’s doing.”
It’s absolutely true that parts like these can give us a useful jolt, making us wonder why we might tolerate a difficult but insightful male CIA agent but be turned off by a Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) in “Homeland” or a Maya (Jessica Chastain) in “Zero Dark Thirty”; or why we might let a troubled man fix himself but expect a troubled woman to be fixed by a man. The same can be true of playing with racial expectations, as our debates about the possibility of a black James Bond suggest: One role entertainment can play is to confront us with the double standards that allow us to admire womanizing and expertise with violence in a white man but see the same behavior as licentious and threatening in a black one.
The other useful role gender-flipping can potentially play is to change the preexisting stories themselves. “Magic Mike XXL,” another movie Willmore mentions in her piece, is a different film for having Jada Pinkett Smith playing promoter Rome in it. If a man had that role, he might have been part of the pretty but somewhat shallow crew who surrounds the titular male stripper (Channing Tatum). But by making Rome not just a woman, but Mike’s former lover, “Magic Mike XXL” acquires a sweet, melancholy center that nods to — if not quite equals — Mike’s struggles from the original “Magic Mike.” It’s not merely a road trip anymore, but a story about exes who find a way to be friends, people who appreciate each other’s finer qualities without necessarily feeling drawn to indulge in them.
But asking movies to do one of these two things is, frankly, setting a rather high standard for Hollywood fare. Maybe it’s a reasonable mark to hope for when the director in question is someone like Paul Feig, who has defined his career in recent years by making strong comedies for actresses and poking at gender expectations in films such as “Bridesmaids” and “Spy.” Not every director, though, is going to bring such credentials and such clear intention to a resurrection of an old, popular property like “Ghostbusters.” Slotting actresses into roles that male actors were initially intended to occupy could just as easily result in movies where women are determined to be interesting and admirable only when they act like men often do in films: when they’re decisive, physically forceful and confident in their sexuality without fear of consequence.
The announcement of the gender-flipped “Ocean’s Eleven” came around the same time that Vulture published Kyle Buchanan’s list of 100 female directors who ought to be working regularly in the entertainment industry; I’m sure we could come up with a list of female writers with relative ease. That list was a reminder of the limits of casting actresses in roles initially intended for men, especially when those roles are written and directed by men.
Using that kind of role reversal as anything other than a temporary tactic in the fight for gender equity in Hollywood (something Willmore and I both agree could be temporarily useful) risks ceding the idea that there’s anything distinct about female characters and women’s perspectives. If the most interesting woman is basically just a man, we’re settling for leaving the Hollywood door only partially open. Actresses like Bullock may slip through. But stories that are unavoidably about women and femaleness, where the lead couldn’t possibly be replaced by a man, may remain out in the cold.In a scientific first, researchers have discovered a bizarre inter-species relationship in which salamanders and algae cozy up together to share cells. Scientists aren’t entirely sure why these two very different organisms have adopted such an intimate arrangement, but the discovery could represent a completely new form of symbiotic relationship.
Cell-within-cell arrangements between species are common in nature, but up until this point it’s only been seen in creatures like coral, clams, and insects. New research published in the science journal eLife describes the first known example of photo-cellular symbiosis involving the cells of a fully grown vertebrate animal, that is, an animal with a spinal column or backbone.
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As a collaborative research team from the American Museum of Natural History and Gettysburg College revealed, the green alga Oophila amblystomatis makes its home inside of cells located across the
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phones, our cars and our computers. These tiny amounts may not sound like much, but they add up to a global trade in minerals worth billions of pounds.
Paying for conflict
If you have ever wondered how violent armed groups can afford to pay and equip their fighters, even in some of the world’s poorest countries, at least part of the answer is often found in and around these mining sites. Some armed groups seize and run mines of their own, but mining is treacherous. Many therefore prefer to extort or illegally tax independent miners, who have little choice but to brave its many hazards in search of a livelihood. Others levy tolls on key transportation routes in areas where the government offers little protection.
There are cases in which violence is aimed directly at control of natural resources. More often, however, the root cause of a conflict goes deeper. In such cases, ready access to the cash supplied by the minerals trade can still intensify violence and prolong conflict, creating economic incentives that favour continued chaos over peace.
In countries like Zimbabwe, partisan national security forces and secret police have looted diamond fields to secure a lucrative off-budget revenue stream that frees them from government budgets and the oversight these bring.
Swiss companies had been buying gold said to originate in Togo, a country that produces little or none
This illicit trade can flourish because there is an undiscerning and ready market for these resources. Global supply chains – many of which lead to major markets such as the EU – are highly secretive and poorly regulated. This offers those with dodgy minerals to sell plenty of weak points where their tainted goods can be mixed into legitimate supply chains.
An informal “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture still prevails within many companies and supply chains, meaning legacies of violence or conflict-finance are soon lost and forgotten, and with them, the sense of ownership and responsibility that can bring change.
What can companies do?
It doesn’t have to be this way. When companies work together to make their supply chains more transparent they can ask questions and identify warning signs that might warrant further investigation and action.
Last year Berne Declaration, a Swiss NGO, reported that Swiss companies had been buying thousands of kilos of gold said to originate in Togo, a country that produces little or no gold. In reality, much of the gold reportedly originated in Burkina Faso, where gold is often mined in treacherous conditions. When such risks are identified, companies have an obligation and opportunity to use their leverage to seek answers and push for change.
Companies and consumers must not confuse this requirement to take greater care when sourcing from high-risk environments with an encouragement to move their business elsewhere. If someone breaks into your office, the responsible thing to do is to invest in some alarms, not to close the office, fire everyone, and move to a safer city. At least not until other options have been exhausted.
What can a South Sudan brewery teach us about business in conflict zones? Read more
Legislators and some companies are beginning to take notice. The UN has made it clear that companies have a responsibility to make sure they are not financing conflict or human rights abuses, and multinational bodies such as the OECD have developed guidance to help them.
Far too few companies have responded, however, leading the US government to pass legislation requiring some US companies to exercise due diligence on key mineral supply chains. The EU is now considering legislation of its own, but risks falling behind the US with a weak and voluntary law that has been widely criticised by civil society.
When companies and governments behave responsibly, the minerals trade can bring jobs and investment. This is the great promise of international trade. In order to deliver on this promise, however, both sides of the supply chain must live up to their part of the bargain. Those enjoying the benefits at one end have a responsibility to ensure they are also being felt at the other. Ignorance is no excuse.Android 2.2, or "Froyo," was announced months ago, but it's just now rolling out to popular Android phones like the Droid, Incredible, and EVO 4G. So what new and improved features should you look for now that you've updated? Take a look.
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Note: Gina originally covered Froyo's coolest features on May 24, shortly after an unofficial download was available for Nexus One owners. We're bumping it back up the queue for the bulk of Android owners actually seeing Froyo for the time, and adding in a few items we missed the first time.
Android 2.2 (code-named "Froyo," the next alphabetical installment of dessert-named releases after Cupcake, Donut, and Eclair) is now previously rolled out to Nexus One handsets. Whether or not you've received your update just yet, here's a quick look at our favorite new features.
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The biggest "Thank heavens" change in Android 2.2 is found in the Market. In previous versions, you'd get a notification about updates being available. Then you'd head to the Market's Downloads section, and have to click just one app you wanted to update, see notes about the update, hit the Update button after seeing the permissions the app needed—and then do that all again for each update. With Froyo, you simply hit the "Update all" button in the Market, and you're good to go. You might have to individually approve an app or two, if a new feature requires a new permission or a license agreement has changed, but otherwise this process is much, much easier. Image via Ars Technica's own in-depth review of Froyo.
Another not-so-obvious Android 2.2 feature is its ability to connect to Google's cloud servers in ways that make very cool apps possible. This will mean some seriously cool music and picture syncing in the future, but for now, you get access to apps like the Chrome to Phone and Android2cloud apps, which send links, Maps, and even text back and forth between your Chrome (or Firefox) browser and your Android.
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Android 2.2's other three major updates are marquee features: built-in tethering/portable hotspot capabilities, Flash support, and noticeably sped-up JavaScript performance in the web browser. (Update: Oh yeah, there's Microsoft Exchange support, too.) There are several more subtle interface improvements as well. Perhaps my favorite is the most simple: a revamped homescreen dock, which you can see at the bottom of the screenshot at top. (Click to enlarge.) It gives you one-tap access to the three things you want to get to on your phone quickly: the dialer, your apps, and your web browser. Compare this screenshot to Android 2.1's homescreen.
Portable Hotspot and USB Tethering
Froyo obviates the need for an application like PdaNet or rooting Android to use your phone's data connection to get online with your laptop. You can get your laptop, iPod touch, or iPad online via Android 2.2 by turning your phone into a portable hotspot a la the MiFi. Enable your portable hotspot in the Wireless settings area. Name your access point, optionally assign a WPA2 PSK password, and any Wi-Fi enabled device in the area will be able to see and connect to it. I'm not sure what any provider-imposed limitations on this are, but up to 8 devices can connect to the Froyo access point.
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USB tethering—that is, using your phone as a modem to get online—is available on Windows and Linux (not the Mac). Windows XP users have to download a driver; Windows 7, Vista, and Linux users are good to go by just enabling tethering on the phone and connecting it via the USB cable to your computer.
Select Text on Web Pages, in Email
While it's not as well-implemented as the iPhone OS's select text feature is, in Froyo you can now select text that's not in a text field and copy it to clipboard. Gmail and the browser are the only two apps I've seen this available in, but hopefully there will be more to come.
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On either a web page or in email, to select text, hit the settings menu and tap "More." (Yes, already it's too many steps.) Choose "Select text" from the menu, as shown.
You'll notice a little mouse pointer on screen. Tap and drag your finger around the text you want to select, which will turn pink, as shown. When you're done, text gets copied to the clipboard automatically.
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This process is too buried in the Settings menu and involves too many steps right now, but it's better than nothing.
Flash Support
A beta of the Flash 10 browser plug-in for Froyo is available in the Android Market; search for Flash there to download it. It works just the way you'd expect. With the plug-in enabled, you'll see Flash-based ads and embedded video and be able to play games. I played Google's homepage Pac-Man on my N1, and with the Flash plug-in enabled I could hear the game's music (which is the only part of it that involves Flash). I could play YouTube videos on-page. However, despite some tinkering, I couldn't get a Hulu or Vimeo video to play. On Hulu I got a "your device isn't supported" message, and Vimeo told me I needed to download Flash 10. So, Adobe's Flash 10 plug-in for Android 2.2 is indeed beta.
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If you don't necessarily want to see every Flash bit of every web page, you can change your settings to enable Flash on demand. To do so, in the Browser's Settings panel, tap "Enable plug-ins." There, if you choose "On demand," when you visit a page with Flash content you have to tap it to activate the Flash plug-in. I haven't done much Flash testing yet to get a handle on battery usage and performance, but I imagine the "On demand" setting will be a battery-saver for Flash users.
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Gmail Auto-Advance
In the native Gmail client, you can easily move to older or newer conversations using left and right arrow buttons at the bottom of an open message. You can also configure Gmail to auto-advance to older or newer conversations when you delete or archive a particular message. To do so, in Gmail's settings, tap on "Auto-advance."
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Twitter Integration
Most of my friends are on Twitter, not Facebook, so I'm liking that my friends' latest tweet appears in his/her contact card automatically, as shown here under Anil's name. Android 2.1 started this type of social network integration with Facebook, and this is the same functionality. If a user has both a Facebook page and a Twitter stream, the status shown at the top of the contact card is the most recent status update from either network.
My wish: that Froyo had Flickr integration the way that the HTC Sense UI has it on my new EVO.
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Drop-out Menus
The Android Google search box—which I use constantly—now has a menu that drops out from the G logo which lets you narrow down your search results by type. Android 2.1 introduced this visual style of menu on people inside Gmail and in the contacts list; nice to see it extend to other UI controls.
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Improved Application Manager
Froyo's Application Manager (Settings>Manage Applications) has a nice new tabbed interface which lets you see apps by what's been downloaded, installed, what's running, and what lives on the SD card.
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Better Camera Controls
The camera controls in Froyo are much easier to get to and they flip based on the phone's orientation. In 2.1 you had to slide out a panel to change camera settings. In Froyo small icons always line the side of the frame and give you one-tap access to zoom, focus, exposure, location, flash, and white balance settings. Zoom isn't available for the video camera, just the still camera.
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JavaScript-Heavy Webapps Work Well
I was thrilled to discover that Google Wave actually works on Froyo—well! In Android 2.1, after warning you to use a better browser, Wave would invariably crash your browser 60 seconds into usage. On Froyo, you no longer get the "use a better browser" message, and long, involved waves load without crashing. Hallelujah! Most likely this is a happy result of Froyo's much-improved JavaScript performance.
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Update: Froyo also offers Microsoft Exchange support but I don't have an Exchange setup to test it with, sorry!
The more I use Froyo the more new stuff I discover. What'd I miss? What's your favorite improvement? Let me know in the comments.Auto-Brewery Syndrome: Apparently, You Can Make Beer In Your Gut
Enlarge this image toggle caption Morgan Walker/NPR Morgan Walker/NPR
This medical case may give a whole new meaning to the phrase "beer gut."
A 61-year-old man — with a history of home-brewing — stumbled into a Texas emergency room complaining of dizziness. Nurses ran a Breathalyzer test. And sure enough, the man's blood alcohol concentration was a whopping 0.37 percent, or almost five times the legal limit for driving in Texas.
There was just one hitch: The man said that he hadn't touched a drop of alcohol that day.
"He would get drunk out of the blue — on a Sunday morning after being at church, or really, just anytime," says Barabara Cordell, the dean of nursing at Panola College in Carthage, Texas. "His wife was so dismayed about it that she even bought a Breathalyzer."
Other medical professionals chalked up the man's problem to "closet drinking." But Cordell and Dr. Justin McCarthy, a gastroenterologist in Lubbock, wanted to figure out what was really going on.
So the team searched the man's belongings for liquor and then isolated him in a hospital room for 24 hours. Throughout the day, he ate carbohydrate-rich foods, and the doctors periodically checked his blood for alcohol. At one point, it rose 0.12 percent.
Eventually, McCarthy and Cordell pinpointed the culprit: an overabundance of brewer's yeast in his gut.
That's right, folks. According to Cordell and McCarthy, the man's intestinal tract was acting like his own internal brewery.
The patient had an infection with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Cordell says. So when he ate or drank a bunch of starch — a bagel, pasta or even a soda — the yeast fermented the sugars into ethanol, and he would get drunk. Essentially, he was brewing beer in his own gut. Cordell and McCarthy reported the case of "auto-brewery syndrome" a few months ago in the International Journal of Clinical Medicine.
When we first read the case study, we were more than a little skeptical. It sounded crazy, a phenomenon akin to spontaneous combustion. I mean, come on: Could a person's gut really generate that much ethanol?
Brewer's yeast is in a whole host of foods, including breads, wine and, of course, beer (hence, the name). The critters usually don't do any harm. They just flow right through us. Some people even take Saccharomyces as a probiotic supplement.
But it turns out that in rare cases, the yeasty beasts can indeed take up long-term residency in the gut and possibly cause problems, says Dr. Joseph Heitman, a microbiologist at Duke University.
"Researchers have shown unequivocally that Saccharomyces can grow in the intestinal tract," Heitman tells The Salt. "But it's still unclear whether it's associated with any disease" — or whether it could make someone drunk from the gut up.
We dug around the scant literature on auto-brewery syndrome and uncovered a handful of cases similar to the one in Texas. Some reports in Japan date back to the 1970s. In most instances, the infections occurred after a person took antibiotics — which can wipe out the bacteria in the gut, making room for fungi like yeast to flourish — or had another illness that suppresses their immune system.
Still, such case reports remain extremely rare. Heitman says he had never heard of auto-brewery syndrome until we called him up. "It sounds interesting," he says. But he's also cautious.
"The problem with a case report," he notes, "is that it's just one person. It's not a controlled clinical study."lake macquarie, shark, bull shark, fishing, tinny, attack
Lake residents fear sharks, want Belmont baths back A CHILLING encounter with an ‘‘aggressive’’ two-and-a-half metre long bull shark has left a 21-year-old Lake Macquarie man shaken, and concerned for the safety of swimmers as the weather heats up. Jake Blackburn was fishing with his girlfriend’s father, Norbert Willis, near Bolton Point on Saturday when the two men got a close up glimpse of ‘‘an angry bull shark’’. A regular fisher, Mr Blackburn said neither man was paying attention to the water when their 4.75 metre Bluefin dinghy suddenly started jolting. ‘‘I’d just pulled in a flathead [and] when we looked up and there was this big tail out of the water thrashing around,’’ he said. The shark had tangled itself in the cord of the boat’s sea anchor at such a speed that, Mr Blackburn said, it pulled the boat along for a few seconds. ‘‘It got tangled and sort of did a death roll thing and flipped its tail up in the air,’’ he said. ‘‘It was tearing the sea anchor to shreds.’’ After it freed itself Mr Willis instinctively pulled the anchor in, and the shark swam away momentarily before coming back to inspect the boat. ‘‘It disappeared for a second then it came back up and had a look at the motor, then it slowly swam around the side and had a look at us. ‘‘It was like it was saying ‘why’d you do that to me?’’’ Bull sharks have a reputation for being feisty, and Mr Blackburn said he ‘‘couldn’t believe how aggressive’’ the animal was. The encounter left the 21-year-old shaken, but he threw his line back out. ‘‘Yeah we kept fishing, we sort of waited a bit and were looking around to see if it’d come back, but it had enough of us,’’ he said. ‘‘The whole thing probably only lasted about two minutes but it felt like a lot longer than that. ‘‘I just thought ‘holy crap’ and the adrenaline kicked in, my legs and knees and arms were all shaking after it.’’ He said the sighting brought home the potential threat to swimmers. ‘‘I go fishing nearly every weekend and I’ve never seen anything like that [but] it’s just a worry that it’s school holidays and people are starting to get out into the water, knowing that that thing’s out there,’’ he said. ‘‘There are a lot of kids and their family’s out at the moment on the water and it could be potentially dangerous for them.’’ Two weeks ago two fishermen had a run in with a three metre great white at a spot known as The Barge, about halfway between Coal Point and Belmont. A few days earlier Paul Wilcox, 50, died at Byron Bay from a shark attack off the town’s main beach. THIS picture was taken on the Central Coast on September 17 at Killcare by drone pilot Tom Caska. It shows a massive shark following a pod of dolphins right near where people are surfing. They are on 3m long SUP boards, which gives an indication of its size. Source: Newcastle Herald
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/storypad-36mDshx2U2dAuMR3XyjpW6R/de5fcb08-9509-4683-a55d-4cc3ef1fc2fa.jpg/r3_3_1198_678_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgPARIS (AP) — Disgruntled farmers have brought their sheep to the Eiffel Tower to protest wolf attacks, and what they call the government's anti-farmer environmental policies.
The woolly protesters munched grass near the Paris monument while their owners urged tougher measures against wolf attacks. The government says its existing plan on preventing attacks and compensating farmers is sufficient. Authorities also want to ensure protections for wolves.
The march Thursday came as President Francois Hollande spoke at an environmental meeting about plans for cleaner energy and France's plans to host the U.N. Climate Change Conference next year.
Protester Franck Dieny said government policies — which include large subsidies to agriculture — are less and less farmer-friendly and "don't recognize... the role we play maintaining the landscape" that so many visitors to France appreciate.Credit: Marvel Comics
ALL-NEW, ALL DIFFERENT AVENGERS teasr part 2 Credit: Marvel Comics
As suspected, Marvel didn't waste much time revealing more of the five blacked-out members of the All-New, All-Different Avengers roster, who will debut as the lead feature in the publisher's 2015 Free Comic Book Day Gold offering in May.
Wednesday morning they revealed two more - the Vision and Nova.
Nova is spot on with Newsarama's speculation on Tuesday, but the identity of this Nova remains in question. The most prominent Nova at the moment is Sam Alexander from the Nova series and would fit with the speculated theme of being legacy heroes. That being said, a return for Marvel's original Nova Richard Rider isn't out of the question, nor is it being a Nova not-yet-introduced such as the ones listed as part of the upcoming The Infinity Gauntlet series set during "Secret Wars."
The second hero, the Vision, is also a legacy hero but different than the others. The Vision was one of the caped heroes Newsarama speculated it might be, and his position as a legacy hero stems from being created in comics By Ultron, who was created by the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym, but also featuring a psyche patterned after another Avenger, Wonder Man. It goes deeper than that however, as for a time it was believed in comics that the Vision was a re-use of the android body of the original Human Torch, Jim Hammond. Also, Marvel published a previous character named the Vision in the 1940s that, while unrelated, has some similiar visual cues.
Of course, the Vision could always be reprogrammed with the brain waves of any deceased hero, so there's that potential as well.
The Vision has appeared most recently in the recently re-numbered Uncanny Avengers series by Rick Remender and Daniel Acuna. No creative team has been announced for The All-New, All-Different Avengers yet, but this cover is illustrated by Jerome Opena.Clinton decided to run with that. In a hacked message revealed by WikiLeaks, DNC staffers discussed how the Clinton campaign had made a strategic decision to try to decouple Trump from the rest of the GOP, calculating that the risks of normalizing Trump by making him seem like just another Republican outweighed the benefits of collateral damage Trump might to do other Republicans. Clinton dialed back her rhetoric. She began courting Republican endorsements. Former GOP officials who had decided to back her got prominent billing at the Democratic National Convention in July, which struck a patriotic, perhaps jingoistic pose that seemed custom-made to appeal to wavering conservatives.
That worked, to a degree. Dozens of Republicans, including former senators, congressmen, and cabinet members, announced they would back Clinton. A host of staunchly Republican newspapers endorsed her, in some cases making it their first Democratic endorsement in decades—or ever. But while Clinton has built her formidable lead, that hasn’t translated into a predicted Democratic landslide in the House and Senate.
On the Senate side, FiveThirtyEight gives a nearly three-in-four chance of Democratic control. The Upshot offers a more sober 60 percent chance. But there are peculiar results on the board. Clinton holds a solid lead in New Hampshire, but Democrat Maggie Hassan has been unable to break away from Senator Kelly Ayotte. Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey was thought to be one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the chamber, but he’s keeping the race close, too. (If Democrats had recruited stronger candidates, they might be doing better in the Ohio Senate race and winning in the North Carolina contest.)
The House side offers less hope for progressives. Although Democrats now hold a sizable lead on the generic ballot (i.e., “Would you vote for a Democrat or a Republican for U.S. House?”), their odds of actually winning the chamber remain slim, for reasons that include the big Republican edge now, gerrymandering, and Democrats being disadvantageously packed into urban districts.
So what are Democrats to do? Clinton’s overtures to Trump-hating Republicans have largely disappeared, and it’s reasonable to assume that they already achieved their maximum impact. But they haven’t been replaced by a coherent new strategy. That’s visible in a pair of stories Tuesday. Ruby Cramer and Nathaniel Meyersohn report on how Clinton seems determined to hold back on the GOP. Alex Seitz-Wald, meanwhile, reports that Clinton aides are plotting a more aggressive message. Any friction between these two storylines seems to indicate continued lack of agreement, not inaccurate reporting.
The man to watch here is Obama, because even as Clinton holds back the president is speaking more aggressively. But while some reports have portrayed this as a full return to the approach from spring, a close look at what Obama’s saying demonstrates that he’s attempting a sort of hybrid approach, both tying Republicans to Trump but also creating a certain amount of distance.Deep in the forests of the Himalayas, the World’s largest bee is making honey that’ll knock your socks off. So precious is this honey that locals in China and Nepal risk their lives to harvest and sell it to wealthy asian men and curious tourists. But what is all the fuss about ‘mad honey’ and what makes it so special?
Mad honey, also known as red honey, is produced by the Himalayan cliff bee (Apis dorsata laboriosa), the largest bee in the world at just over 3cm long. It is the highland sub species of a relatively common bee, Apis dorsata, however only the highland species has access to the Rhododendron flowers that make it’s honey mad. Many Rhododendron species contain grayanotoxins, which is why they are widely known to be poisonous to humans. In the highlands of the himalayas; Bhutan, Yunnan (China), India and Nepal, the rare Himalayan cliff bee lives along side Rhododendrons (e.g. Rhododendron luteum and Rhododendron ponticum), and frequently collects nectar from their poisonous flowers.
Honey made from the nectar of the poisonous Rhododendron flowers comes with some pretty potent properties. Mad honey is known to be a powerful hallucinogen and recreational drug as well as being ascribed many medicinal features. The honey is thought to be effective in treating everything from hypertension and diabetes to poor sexual performance, when taken in small doses. In large doses it can be highly toxic and even fatal.
In small amounts, the honey is intoxicating, giving a feeling of relaxation and a pleasant dizziness and tingling sensation. It can be hallucinogenic, although there is little scientific literature regarding it’s effects. When taken in larger doses, however, mad honey can cause Rhododendron poisoning (or honey intoxication) which is characterised by vomiting, progressive muscle weakening and heart irregularities.
In 67BC, mad honey was used by King Mithridates’ army who left chunks of it out for the Roman enemy to find; whilst tripping, the Roman army was easily defeated!
The properties of mad honey, both pleasant and harmful, are due to the grayanotoxins in it, derived from the Rhododendron nectar. Grayanotoxins are a group of toxins produced by Rhododendrons and plants in the Erincaceae family. Because of it’s intoxicating and medicinal effects, mad honey fetches a high price – often four or five times that of normal honey. Unfortunately, the bees have not made it easy for locals to make a profit. In the Himalayan mountains, above altitudes of 2500m, Himalayan cliff bees build enormous nests on the overhanging rocks of Southwestern facing cliffs. These huge nests, up to 5ft in diameter and containing 60kg of honey, are extraordinarily difficult to reach. But the honey inside is so valuable that many local people try anyway. They collect two batches of honey a year, in spring and autumn, although spring time is the only time the honey is truly mad.
The documentary shows the remarkable lengths people have gone to to access this rare and unique honey:
Help us do science! I’ve teamed up with researcher Paige Brown Jarreau to create a survey of Curious Meerkat readers. By participating, you’ll be helping me improve Curious Meerkat and contributing to SCIENCE on blog readership It should only take 10-15 minutes to complete, and in return you’ll be entered into a prize draw for a $50 Amazon gift card. Two Curious Meerkat readers are guaranteed to win! You will also get FREE science artfrom Paige’s Photography for participating, as well as a chance to win a t-shirt and other perks! Click HERE to take the survey now!
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By: Claire Asher Claire is a Freelance Science Writer and Communicator, and Innovation Officer for the London NERC Doctoral Training Partnership. She created Curious Meerkat in 2009, and has also written for a variety of publications including New Scientist, BBC Earth, ScienceNOW, Nature News and The Scientist. She completed her PhD in 2013, studying the social behaviour of dinosaur ants.
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Featured image is used under a creative commons license from Wikimedia Commons. Original image by Fir0002London's prestigious Grosvenor House hotel has collapsed into administration after its jailed Indian owner failed to remortgage the property in a desperate attempt to raise £1billion to pay for his bail.
Deloitte said it had been appointed administrator of Sahara Grosvenor House Hospitality, which owns the long leasehold to the five-star hotel in Park Lane.
The venue is operated by Marriott and day-to-day running of the hotel will continue unaffected.
Grosvenor House is operated by Marriott and day-to-day running of the hotel will continue unaffected.
Indian tycoon Subrata Roy, who built a billion-pound media and property empire from the back of a Lambretta, bought the lease in 2010 for £470million.
However, he was jailed for contempt of court last year after failing to show up and defend himself against fraud allegations.
He had failed to return £2.1billion to investors who were sold illegal bonds.
Roy, whose homes include replicas of the White House and Buckingham Place, attempted to remortgage properties in London and New York from his prison cell in Delhi to pay what is one of the world’s biggest bail sums.In a critical security advisory issued over the weekend, the Tor Project told its users that they should seriously consider migrating out of Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
In a critical security advisory issued over the weekend, the Tor Project told its users that they should seriously consider migrating away from Microsoft’s Windows operating system and disabling JavaScript.
The Tor Project security advisory was a response to revelations on Sunday that an attack had targeted users of the Tor Browser. According to the advisory, the attack exploited a Firefox JavaScript vulnerability that has already been resolved. The vulnerability is a cross-platform threat, but the exploit in this case was Windows-specific. Tor Browser Bundle users on Linux, OS X, and LiveCD systems like Tails were never at risk of exploit.
The advisory lays out a list of actions users should take to protect themselves and their anonymity in the future, concluding with the Tor Project’s Roger Dingledine writing:
“Really, switching away from Windows is probably a good security move for many reasons.”
Users are also advised to make sure they are running a recent enough version of the Tor Browser. The vulnerability itself was fixed in Firefox 17.0.7, which means that Tor versions 2.3.25-10, 2.4.15-alpha-1, 2.4.15-beta-1, and 3.0alpha2 are all safe. Users are also urged to stay updated moving forward because this isn’t the first Firefox vulnerability and it won’t be the last. Beyond that, there are other vectors for potential attack, including JavaScript, css, svg, xml, the renderer, and more. It may also be a good idea to just disable JavaScript altogether, Dingledine writes.
“We need help improving usability of (and doing more security analysis of) better sandboxing approaches as well as VM-based approaches like Whonix and WiNoN,” Dingledine writes. “Please help!”
Auto-update is not yet supported on the Tor Browser, so users are responsible for updating themselves. The Electronic Frontier Foundation published a guide that walks users through the process.
The Tor Browser, per the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s explanation, is a modified version of the Mozilla Firefox browser that gives users the ability to browse anonymously through Tor without having to do any real configuration. Because the Tor Browser is based largely on Mozilla code, it is often affected by Mozilla vulnerabilities.
Regarding the attack itself, the Tor Project said, “We don’t currently believe that the attack modifies anything on the victim computer.”
However, the vulnerability enabled arbitrary code execution. An attacker could potentially take over a victim’s machine. In reality, the attack appears to have collected hostnames and MAC addresses from victim-machines, which the attacker then sent to a remote server over a non-Tor connection, before crashing those machines. The attack seems to have been injected into Tor hidden services, effectively meaning that the attacker may have a list of users that visited those hidden services.sixteen on the honor roll i wish that i was dead hate my parents i got zits and bruises round my head pressure's on to get good grades so i can be like them do my homework all the time i can't go out just then people they ain't friends at all they tease and suck me dry yell at me when i fuck up and party while i cry i look so big on paper i feel so fucking small wanna die and you don't care just stride on down the hall suicide suicide read the paper wonder why turn the light out then you cry it's your fault you made me die touch me won't you touch me now so frozen i can't love when i was born my mama cried and pi cked me up with gloves girls they kick me in the eye want answers to the tests when they get them they drive off and leave me home to rest hold my head make me warm tell me i am loved give me hope let me cry make me feel give me touch the window's broken bleeding screaming lying in the hall i'm gone no one remembers me a pi cture on the wall "he was such a bright boy the future in his hands" or a s pi neless human pi nball shot around by your demands suicide suicide going to sleep and when i die you'll look up and realize then look down and wipe your eyes then go back to your stu pi d lives aw shitThe largest ever Ebola virus disease outbreak is ravaging West Africa. The constellation of little public health infrastructure, low levels of health literacy, limited acute care and infection prevention and control resources, densely populated areas, and a highly transmissible and lethal viral infection have led to thousands of confirmed, probable, or suspected cases thus far. Ebola virus disease is characterized by a febrile severe illness with profound gastrointestinal manifestations and is complicated by intravascular volume depletion, shock, profound electrolyte abnormalities, and organ dysfunction. Despite no proven Ebola virus–specific medical therapies, the potential effect of supportive care is great for a condition with high baseline mortality and one usually occurring in resource-constrained settings. With more personnel, basic monitoring, and supportive treatment, many of the sickest patients with Ebola virus disease do not need to die. Ebola virus disease represents an illness ready for a paradigm shift in care delivery and outcomes, and the profession of critical care medicine can and should be instrumental in helping this happen.
Origins of the 2014 West Africa Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak Section: Choose Top of page Abstract Origins of the 2014 West... << Public Health Challenges... Clinical and Pathophysiol... Supportive and Specific T... The Importance and Challe... Sociocultural Context of... The Imperative to Improve... References CITING ARTICLES On March 21, 2014, the World Health Organization was notified of a rapidly evolving outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the forested regions of southeastern Guinea that subsequently spread to the capital city, Conakry, marking the world’s first EVD outbreak in a major metropolitan area (1). Since March, Ebola virus (formerly labeled Zaire Ebola virus and typically associated with mortality rates of 50–90%) has ravaged West Africa, including Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, and Nigeria (Figure 1). With 5,335 confirmed, probable, or suspected cases and 2,622 deaths thus far, this is the largest and most devastating Ebola virus outbreak in history (2). West Africa has never before experienced an Ebola virus outbreak. Despite experience with Lassa fever, the initial challenges of EVD experienced in Guinea are emblematic of those throughout the region. The Guinean population of approximately 11,451,000 persons has a life expectancy at birth of 58 years, a gross national income of 970 international dollars, and 67 international dollars expenditure on health per capita per year (3). In West Africa, the stark and undeniable reality is that baseline public health and acute care resources are severely limited (3, 4). Rural residents travel long distances for basic healthcare needs. In Guinea’s largest public hospital, the intensive care units have no piped oxygen and no mechanical ventilators. Basic infection prevention and control is plagued by an unstable supply of running water and insufficient personal protective equipment, which facilitates spread of communicable diseases such as Ebola. The constellation of limited public health infrastructure, low levels of health literacy, few acute care and infection prevention and control resources, densely populated areas, a mobile population, and a highly transmissible and lethal viral infection have created a perfect storm underlying this outbreak. We offer the following insights from the perspective of clinicians who have assisted in the treatment of patients with EVD throughout West Africa during this outbreak.
Public Health Challenges in Responding to EVD Section: Choose Top of page Abstract Origins of the 2014 West... Public Health Challenges... << Clinical and Pathophysiol... Supportive and Specific T... The Importance and Challe... Sociocultural Context of... The Imperative to Improve... References CITING ARTICLES Ebola virus outbreaks occur at relatively frequent intervals (two dozen outbreaks over the past 30 yr). They occur most commonly in central Africa but are often confined to rural areas with limited external transmission (5). The natural reservoirs include bats, with primates and possible other
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in its exhibit of the planets when it reopened as the Rose Center for Earth and Space in 2000.[8]
Starting in 2000, with the discovery of at least three bodies (Quaoar, Sedna, and Eris) all comparable to Pluto in terms of size and orbit, it became clear that either they all had to be called planets or Pluto would have to be reclassified. Astronomers also knew that more objects as large as Pluto would be discovered, and the number of planets would start growing quickly. They were also concerned about the classification of planets in other planetary systems. In 2006, the first measurement of the volume of Eris erroneously (until the New Horizons mission to Pluto) showed it to be slightly larger than Pluto, and so was thought to be equally deserving of the status of 'planet'.[3]
Because new planets are discovered infrequently, the IAU did not have any machinery for their definition and naming. After the discovery of Sedna, it set up a 19-member committee in 2005, with the British astronomer Iwan Williams in the chair, to consider the definition of a planet. It proposed three definitions that could be adopted:
Cultural a planet is a planet if enough people say it is; Structural a planet is large enough to form a sphere; Dynamical the object is large enough to cause all other objects to eventually leave its orbit.[9]
Another committee, chaired by a historian of astronomy, Owen Gingerich, a historian and astronomer emeritus at Harvard University who led the committee which generated the original definition, and consisting of five planetary scientists and the science writer Dava Sobel, was set up to make a firm proposal.[10]
Proposals [ edit ]
First draft proposal [ edit ]
Illustration of the draft proposal
The original proposal would have immediately added three planets, shown here in a size comparison to Earth. Leftmost is Pluto (shown in lieu of Eris, which is about the same size), then Charon, Ceres, and Earth
The IAU published the original definition proposal on August 16, 2006.[11] Its form followed loosely the second of three options proposed by the original committee. It stated that:[11]
A planet is a celestial body that (a) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither a star nor a satellite of a planet.
This definition would have led to three more celestial bodies being recognized as planets, in addition to the previously accepted nine:
Ceres, which had been considered a planet at the time of its discovery, but was subsequently treated as an asteroid
Charon, a moon of Pluto; the Pluto-Charon system would have been considered a double planet
Eris, a body in the scattered disk of the outer Solar System
A further twelve bodies, pending refinements of knowledge regarding their physical properties, were possible candidates to join the list under this definition. Some objects in this second list were more likely eventually to be adopted as 'planets' than others. Despite what had been claimed in the media,[12] the proposal did not necessarily leave the Solar System with only twelve planets. Mike Brown, the discoverer of Sedna and Eris, has said that at least 53 known bodies in the Solar System probably fit the definition, and that a complete survey would probably reveal more than 200.[13]
The definition would have considered a pair of objects to be a double planet system if each component independently satisfied the planetary criteria and the common center of gravity of the system (known as the barycenter) was located outside of both bodies.[14] Pluto and Charon would have been the only known double planet in the Solar System. Other planetary satellites (like Earth and its moon) might be in hydrostatic equilibrium, but would still not have been defined as a component of a double planet, since the barycenter of the system lies within the more massive celestial body (the Earth).
The twelve "candidate planets" that were possibilities for inclusion under the originally proposed definition. Note that all but the last three are trans-Neptunian objects. The smallest three (Vesta, Pallas, Hygeia) are in the asteroid belt.
The term "minor planet" would have been abandoned, replaced by the categories "small Solar System body" (SSSB) and a new classification of "pluton". The former would have described those objects underneath the "spherical" threshold. The latter would have been applied to those planets with highly inclined orbits, large eccentricities and an orbital period of more than 200 earth years (that is, those orbiting beyond Neptune). Pluto would have been the prototype for this class. The term "dwarf planet" would have been available to describe all planets smaller than the eight "classical planets" in orbit around the Sun, though would not have been an official IAU classification.[15] The IAU did not make recommendations in the draft resolution on what separated a planet from a brown dwarf.[16] A vote on the proposal was scheduled for August 24, 2006.[12]
Such a definition of the term "planet" could also have led to changes in classification for the trans-Neptunian objects Haumea, Makemake, Sedna, Orcus, Quaoar, Varuna, 2002 TX 300, Ixion, and 2002 AW 197, and the asteroids Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea.
On 18 August the Committee of the Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society endorsed the draft proposal.[17] The DPS Committee represents a small subset of the DPS members, and no resolution in support of the IAU definition was considered or approved by the DPS membership.
According to an IAU draft resolution, the roundness condition generally results in the need for a mass of at least 5×1020 kg, or diameter of at least 800 km.[15] However, Mike Brown claims that these numbers are only right for rocky bodies like asteroids, and that icy bodies like Kuiper Belt objects reach hydrostatic equilibrium at much smaller sizes, probably somewhere between 200 and 400 km in diameter.[18] It all depends on the rigidity of the material that makes up the body, which is in turn strongly influenced by its internal temperature. Assuming that Methone's shape reflects the balance between the tidal force exerted by Saturn and the moon's gravity, its tiny 3 km diameter suggests Methone is composed of icy fluff.[19][20]
Advantages [ edit ]
The proposed definition found support among many astronomers as it used the presence of a physical qualitative factor (the object being round) as its defining feature. Most other potential definitions depended on a limiting quantity (e.g., a minimum size or maximum orbital inclination) tailored for the Solar System. According to members of the IAU committee this definition did not use human-made limits but instead deferred to "nature" in deciding whether or not an object was a planet.[21]
It also had the advantage of measuring an observable quality. Suggested criteria involving the nature of formation would have been more likely to see accepted planets later declassified as scientific understanding improved.
Additionally, the definition kept Pluto as a planet. Pluto's planetary status was and is fondly thought of by many, especially in the United States since Pluto was found by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, and the general public could have been alienated from professional astronomers; there was considerable uproar when the media last suggested, in 1999, that Pluto might be demoted, which was a misunderstanding of a proposal to catalog all trans-Neptunian objects uniformly.[22]
Criticism [ edit ]
Protest demonstration against the "demotion" of Pluto
The proposed definition was criticised as ambiguous: Astronomer Phil Plait and NCSE writer Nick Matzke both wrote about why they thought the definition was not, in general, a good one.[23][24] It defined a planet as orbiting a star, which would have meant that any planet ejected from its star system or formed outside of one (a rogue planet) could not have been called a planet, even if it fit all other criteria. However, a similar situation already applies to the term'moon'—such bodies ceasing to be moons on being ejected from planetary orbit—and this usage has widespread acceptance. Another criticism was that the definition did not differentiate between planets and brown dwarf stars. Any attempt to clarify this differentiation was to be left until a later date.
There had also been criticism of the proposed definition of double planet: at present the Moon is defined as a satellite of the Earth, but over time the Earth-Moon barycenter will drift outwards (see tidal acceleration) and could eventually become situated outside of both bodies.[25] This development would then upgrade the Moon to planetary status at that time, according to the definition. The time taken for this to occur, however, would be billions of years, long after many astronomers expect the Sun to expand into a red giant and destroy both Earth and Moon.[26]
In an 18 August 2006 Science Friday interview, Mike Brown expressed doubt that a scientific definition was even necessary. He stated, "The analogy that I always like to use is the word "continent". You know, the word "continent" has no scientific definition... they're just cultural definitions, and I think the geologists are wise to leave that one alone and not try to redefine things so that the word "continent" has a big, strict definition."[27]
On 18 August, Owen Gingerich said that correspondence he had received had been evenly divided for and against the proposal.[28]
Alternative proposal [ edit ]
The chronology of the events that took place in the IAU General Assembly are detailed in [1] (in Spanish).
According to Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, a subgroup of the IAU met on August 18, 2006 and held a straw poll on the draft proposal: only 18 were in favour of it, with over 50 against. The 50 in opposition preferred an alternative proposal drawn up by Uruguayan astronomers Gonzalo Tancredi and Julio Ángel Fernández.[28]
“ (1) A planet is a celestial body that (a) is by far the largest object in its local population[1], (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape [2], (c) does not produce energy by any nuclear fusion mechanism [3]. (2) According to point (1) the eight classical planets discovered before 1900, which move in nearly circular orbits close to the ecliptic plane are the only planets of the Solar System. All the other objects in orbit around the Sun are smaller than Mercury. We recognize that there are objects that fulfill the criteria (b) and (c) but not criterion (a). Those objects are defined as "dwarf" planets. Ceres as well as Pluto and several other large Trans-Neptunian objects belong to this category. In contrast to the planets, these objects typically have highly inclined orbits and/or large eccentricities. (3) All the other natural objects orbiting the Sun that do not fulfill any of the previous criteria shall be referred to collectively as "Small Solar System Bodies".[4] Definitions and clarifications The local population is the collection of objects that cross or closely approach the orbit of the body in consideration. This generally applies to objects with sizes above several hundred kilometers, depending on the material strength. This criterion allows the distinction between gas giant planets and brown dwarfs or stars. This class currently includes most of the Solar System asteroids, Near-Earth objects (NEOs), Mars-, Jupiter- and Neptune-Trojan asteroids, most Centaurs, most Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), and comets.[29] ”
Under this proposal, Pluto would have been demoted to a dwarf planet.
Revised draft proposal [ edit ]
On 22 August the draft proposal was rewritten with two changes from the previous draft.[30][31] The first was a generalisation of the name of the new class of planets (previously the draft resolution had explicitly opted for the term 'pluton'), with a decision on the name to be used postponed. Many geologists had been critical of the choice of name for Pluto-like planets,[32] being concerned about the term pluton which has been used for years within the geological community to represent a form of magmatic intrusion; such formations are fairly common balls of rock.[33][34] Confusion was thought undesirable due to the status of planetology as a field closely allied to geology.[35] Further concerns surrounded use of the word pluton as in major languages such as French and Spanish, Pluto is itself called Pluton, potentially adding to confusion.
The second change was a redrawing of the planetary definition in the case of a double planet system. There had been a concern that, in extreme cases where a double body had its secondary component in a highly eccentric orbit, there could have been a drift of the barycenter in and out of the primary body, leading to a shift in the classification of the secondary body between satellite and planet depending on where the system was in its orbit.[36] Thus the definition was reformulated so as to consider a double planet system in existence if its barycenter lay outside both bodies for a majority of the system's orbital period.
Later on August 22, two open meetings were held which ended in an abrupt about-face on the basic planetary definition. The position of astronomer Julio Ángel Fernández gained the upper hand among the members attending and was described as unlikely to lose its hold by August 24. This position would result in only eight major planets, with Pluto ranking as a "dwarf planet".[37] The discussion at the first meeting was heated and lively, with IAU members in vocal disagreement with one another over such issues as the relative merits of static and dynamic physics; the main sticking point was whether or not to include a body's orbital characteristics among the definition criteria. In an indicative vote, members heavily defeated the proposals on Pluto-like objects and double planet systems, and were evenly divided on the question of hydrostatic equilibrium. The debate was said to be "still open", with private meetings being held ahead of a vote scheduled for the following day.[38]
At the second meeting of the day, following'secret' negotiations, a compromise began to emerge after the Executive Committee moved explicitly to exclude consideration of extra-solar planets and to bring into the definition a criterion concerning the dominance of a body in its neighbourhood.[39]
Final draft proposal [ edit ]
The final, third draft definition proposed on 24 August was:
“ The IAU...resolves that planets and other bodies in the Solar System be defined into three distinct categories in the following way: (1) A planet [1] is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit. (2) A "dwarf planet" is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape [2], (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite. (3) All other objects [3] orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as "Small Solar System Bodies". [1] The eight planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. [2] An IAU process will be established to assign borderline objects into either dwarf planet and other categories. [3] These currently include most of the Solar System asteroids, most Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), comets, and other small bodies. ”
Illustration of the final proposal
Plenary session debate [ edit ]
Voting on the definition took place at the Assembly plenary session during the afternoon. Following a reversion to the previous rules on 15 August, as a planetary definition is a primarily scientific matter, every individual member of the Union attending the Assembly was eligible to vote. The plenary session was chaired by astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell.[40] During this session, IAU members cast votes on each resolution by raising yellow cards. A team of students counted the votes in each section of the auditorium, and astronomer Virginia Trimble compiled and tallied the vote counts.[41]
Plenary session of the IAU General Assembly on August 24, 2006. Votes were cast by raising yellow cards.
The IAU Executive Committee presented four Resolutions to the Assembly, each concerning a different aspect of the debate over the definition.[42] Minor amendments were made on the floor for the purposes of clarification.
Resolution 5A constituted the definition itself as stated above. There was much discussion among members about the appropriateness of using the expression "cleared the neighbourhood" instead of the earlier reference to "dominant body", and about the implications of the definition for satellites. The Resolution was ultimately approved by a near-unanimous vote.
constituted the definition itself as stated above. There was much discussion among members about the appropriateness of using the expression "cleared the neighbourhood" instead of the earlier reference to "dominant body", and about the implications of the definition for satellites. The Resolution was ultimately approved by a near-unanimous vote. Resolution 5B sought to amend the above definition by the insertion of the word classical before the word planet in paragraph (1) and footnote [1]. This represented a choice between having a set of three distinct categories of body (planet, "dwarf planet" and SSSB) and the opening of an umbrella of 'planets' over the first two such categories. The Resolution proposed the latter option; it was defeated convincingly, with only 91 [43] members voting in its favour.
sought to amend the above definition by the insertion of the word before the word in paragraph (1) and footnote [1]. This represented a choice between having a set of three distinct categories of body (planet, "dwarf planet" and SSSB) and the opening of an umbrella of 'planets' over the first two such categories. The Resolution proposed the latter option; it was defeated convincingly, with only 91 members voting in its favour. Resolution 6A proposed a statement concerning Pluto: "Pluto is a dwarf planet by the above definition and is recognized as the prototype of a new category of trans-Neptunian objects." After a little quibbling over the grammar involved and questions of exactly what constituted a "trans-Neptunian object", [ citation needed ] the Resolution was approved by a vote of 237–157, with 30 abstentions. [44] A new category of dwarf planet was thus established. It would be named "plutoid" and more narrowly defined by the IAU Executive Committee on 11 June 2008.
proposed a statement concerning Pluto: "Pluto is a dwarf planet by the above definition and is recognized as the prototype of a new category of trans-Neptunian objects." After a little quibbling over the grammar involved and questions of exactly what constituted a "trans-Neptunian object", the Resolution was approved by a vote of 237–157, with 30 abstentions. A new category of dwarf planet was thus established. It would be named "plutoid" and more narrowly defined by the IAU Executive Committee on 11 June 2008. Resolution 6B sought to insert an additional sentence at the end of the statement in 6A: "This category is to be called 'plutonian objects'." There was no debate on the question, and in the vote the proposed name was defeated by 186–183; a proposal to conduct a re-vote was rejected. An IAU process was then to be put in motion to determine the name for the new category.[43]
On a literal reading of the Resolution, "dwarf planets" are by implication of paragraph (1) excluded from the status of 'planet'. Use of the word planet in their title may, however, cause some ambiguity.
Final definition [ edit ]
The final definition, as passed on 24 August 2006 under the Resolution 5A of the 26th General Assembly, is:[45][46]
The IAU further resolves:
“ Pluto is a "dwarf planet" by the above definition and is recognized as the prototype of a new category of Trans-Neptunian Objects[1]. Footnote: [1] An IAU process will be established to select a name for this category. ”
The IAU also resolved that "planets and dwarf planets are two distinct classes of objects", meaning that dwarf planets, despite their name, would not be considered planets.[43]
Closing issues [ edit ]
Substance [ edit ]
Alan Stern, the lead scientist on NASA's robotic mission to Pluto, contended that Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune have not fully cleared their orbital zones, just like Pluto. Earth orbits with 10,000 near-Earth asteroids. Jupiter, meanwhile, is accompanied by 100,000 Trojan asteroids on its orbital path. Stern has asserted: "If Neptune had cleared its zone, Pluto wouldn't be there."[47]
Some astronomers counter this opinion by saying that, far from not having cleared their orbits, the major planets completely control the orbits of the other bodies within their orbital zone. Although Jupiter does coexist with a large number of small bodies in its orbit (the Trojan asteroids), these bodies only exist in Jupiter's orbit because they are in the sway of the planet's huge gravity. Earth accretes or ejects near-Earth asteroids on million-year time scales, thereby clearing its orbit. Similarly, Pluto may cross the orbit of Neptune, but Neptune long ago locked Pluto and its attendant Kuiper belt objects, called plutinos, into a 3:2 resonance (i.e., they orbit the Sun twice for every three Neptune orbits). Since the orbits of these objects are entirely dictated by Neptune's gravity, Neptune is therefore gravitationally dominant.[48]
On June 11, 2008, the IAU announced that the subcategory of dwarf planets with trans-Neptunian orbits would be known as "plutoids". In an accompanying press release, the IAU said that:[49]
“ Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit. ”
This subcategory includes Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris.
Some aspects of the definition are as yet difficult to apply outside the Solar System. Techniques for identifying extrasolar objects generally cannot determine whether an object has "cleared its orbit", except indirectly via an orbit-clearing criterion. The wording of the 2006 definition is heliocentric in its use of the word Sun instead of star or stars, and is thus not applicable to the numerous objects which have been identified in orbit around other stars. A separate "working" definition for extrasolar planets was, however, recommended by a working group of the IAU in 2003[50] and includes the criterion: "The minimum mass/size required for an extrasolar object to be considered a planet should be the same as that used in the Solar System."[51]
Process [ edit ]
The final vote was criticized because of the relatively small percentage of the 9000-strong IAU membership who participated. Besides the fact that most members do not attend the General Assemblies, this lack was also due to the timing of the vote: the final vote was taken on the last day of the 10-day event, after many participants had left or were preparing to leave. Many astronomers were also unable or chose not to make the trip to Prague and, thus, cast no vote. Only 424 astronomers were present for the vote, which is less than 5% of the astronomer community.[47] However, sampling 400 representative members out of a population of 9,000 statistically yields a result with good accuracy (confidence interval better than 5%).[52] Astronomer Marla Geha has clarified that not all members of the Union were needed to vote on the classification issue: only those whose work is directly related to planetary studies.[53]
Impact [ edit ]
The decision generated cultural and societal implications, affecting the "industry of astronomical artifacts and toys."[54] Most educational books that included the definition were printed after 2006. The decision was important enough to prompt the editors of the 2007 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia to hold off printing until a final result had been reached.[54] The new designation also has repercussions in the astrological world and finds mixed receptions, with differences of opinion as to whether to make any changes to astrological practice as a result of the definition.[55]
Popular culture [ edit ]
The impact of the revised definition, particularly the change in the status of Pluto, has been reflected in popular culture. A number of musical contributions have commemorated the change:
Plutoed [ edit ]
The verb to pluto (preterite and past participle: plutoed) was coined in the aftermath of the 2006 IAU decision. In January 2007, the American Dialect Society chose plutoed as its 2006 Word of the Year, defining to pluto as "to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet."[56][57]
Society president Cleveland Evans stated the reason for the organization's selection of plutoed: "Our members believe the great emotional reaction of the public to the demotion of Pluto shows the importance of Pluto as a name. We may no longer believe in the Roman god Pluto, but we still have a sense of connection with the former planet".[58]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Planet Definition Questions & Answers Sheet, International Astronomical Union Official Site
Q&A: The IAU's Proposed Planet Definition Q&A article on the new definition from SPACE.com'Who'll give me $20million for my son?' Saudi man tries to sell his boy on Facebook after court shuts down his illegal business
Only condition is to know which city buyer lives in
Claims it's last option to provide for wife and daughter
A Saudi man is trying to sell his son on Facebook for around $20million to avoid 'living in poverty' after his illegal business was shut down, it was reported today.
Saud bin Nasser Al Shahry claims trafficking his son is the only option to continue providing for his wife and daughter.
He says he is willing to go to court to complete the sale, the only condition of which is to know which city the buyer lives in.
Desperate: Saud bin Nasser Al Shahry with his son, whom he wants to sell on Facebook for $20million to avoid poverty
Al Shahry made the decision after first asking whether the authorities could help him financially when his illegal debt-collection business was shut down by a court, he told Qatari news outlet Al Sharq.
He was apparently denied the request because he was older than 35.
It is not clear whether his actions are merely a publicity stunt or, if genuine, whether he would be able to carry out the sale without redress.
Human trafficking is an offence in Saudi Arabia, but the country does not comply with minimum international standards, according to the U.S. Department of State.
Unlikely medium: Facebook's terms and condition do not allow anyone to post content that infringes a person's human rights
In recent reports, quoted in Venture Beat, it said the Saudi government 'continues to lack adequate anti-trafficking laws, and, despite evidence of widespread trafficking abuses, did not report any criminal prosecutions, convictions or prison sentences for trafficking crimes committed against foreign domestic workers.'
Facebook is also unlikely to allow such a sale through its website.
According to its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, users 'will not post content or take any action on Facebook that infringes or violates someone else’s rights or otherwise violates the law.'By Troy Stangarone
After North Korea’s sixth nuclear test, there were expectations that the United Nations would pass a new round of sanctions that would potentially be debilitating for North Korea. Early discussions included bans on exports of oil to North Korea and cutting off North Korea’s use of overseas laborers to earn hard currency. Steps that far were always unlikely, but based on initial reporting of the expected measures in the new sanctions resolution and a review of a recent draft of the new sanctions resolution, the United States likely achieved the best result it could have hoped for in a new round of UN sanctions.
With the last round of UN sanctions having been passed only on August 5 and barely implemented, there was likely always going to be resistance to harsh new sanctions before member states had a chance to determine if the last round of sanctions were having an effect. It takes time for sanctions to take effect and states such as China and Russia most likely would not want to pile on a significant amount without knowing how the new sanctions would impact North Korea.
Additionally, complete bans on exports of oil to North Korea and the use of North Korean laborers were always unlikely, despite the serious nature of North Korea’s most recent nuclear test. While the Global Times and others suggested that China should end its supply of oil to North Korea if it tested another nuclear weapon, Beijing also has concerns about the long-terms stability of the regime in Pyongyang, concerns it is unlikely to let go of in the near future. China wasn’t the only one to back off of the suggestion of cutting off North Korea’s oil supply — Russia also quickly dismissed suggestions of an oil embargo. Without Russia’s support both in the UN and as a potential supplier of oil to North Korea, stringent sanctions on oil were unlikely.
Banning the use of North Korean labor was also always a longshot. China and Russia are the two largest consumers of North Korean labor, and Russia in particular was unlikely to support a complete ban, as North Korea supplies an important source of labor in the sparsely populated Russian Far East.
That being said, the new resolution does move the process forward in terms of restricting North Korea’s ability to earn hard currency and to limit its imports of oil. Much as initial caps on North Korean exports of coal, the new resolution would place a cap on North Korea’s imports of refined petroleum at 500,000 barrels for the rest of 2017 and 2 million for subsequent years. Also similar to the coal caps, it would require states to report their exports to the United Nations on a monthly basis.
It also places a softer cap on exports of crude oil to North Korea, which China provides to Pyongyang as aid. The soft cap limits exports to the amount exported in the prior year, but since China does not report its exports of crude to North Korea and there is no reporting requirement for crude, there is still the potential for China to export more than would be expected to North Korea.
The new restrictions on use of North Korean labor, while a step forward, are also potentially exploitable. While it would prohibit countries from issuing work permits for North Korean nationals except for humanitarian purposes or for objectives consistent with prior UN resolutions, it also allows contracts signed prior to the resolution to continue. This means that we are not likely to seen a reduction in North Korean workers abroad soon.
The resolution also contains a ban on the export of North Korean textiles, potentially reducing North Korea’s earnings of hard currency by $800 million. While this will remove one of North Korea’s major remaining export items, textiles are also a labor-intensive industry. By banning exports of textiles, this also removes one potential tool for reshaping North Korea over time — developing a larger consumer base that can eventually pressure the regime internally.
While this may have been the best that could be achieved at the United Nations, it is disappointing that China and Russia would not support more robust sanctions against North Korea. While the new sanctions continue to restrict North Korea’s ability to earn hard currency, more should have been done in response to North Korea’s test of a thermonuclear device. By holding back on more stringent sanctions, China and Russia risk sending a signal to North Korea that it should not be worried about strict consequences for their actions.
Despite China and Russia’s reluctance to go along with more stringent sanctions, it is important for the United States and its allies to continue to maintain Moscow and Beijing’s cooperation. This is not a problem that the United States can solve on its own.
Troy Stangarone is the Senior Director for Congressional Affairs and Trade at the Korea Economic Institute of America. The views expressed here are the author’s alone.
Photo from United Nations Photo’s photostream on flickr Creative Commons.When we reviewed the new RX 480, we found a lot to like, but other sleuths managed to dig a little deeper and found problems, namely: the card was exceeding PCIe spec for power draw. That may sound bad, and it's definitely not good, but in speaking with several motherboard companies, most of them felt it was a non-issue. Regardless, AMD promised to release a driver update that would address the problem, and today AMD has released their Crimson 16.7.1 drivers that can put the kibosh on the Radeon RX 480's overzealous power draw.
There were actually two issues related to power. The first was pulling too much power from the PCIe slot and exceeding its 75W power limit, but reviewers also found that AMD's introductory Polaris part was sometimes exceeding its rated total power consumption of 150W. That was less of a concern than overdrawing through the PCIe slot connector, but a concern nonetheless. AMD potentially solves both issues with its Crimson 16.7.1 driver. We say "potentially" because it's up to end users to decide if they want to reduce the overall power consumption at the expense of performance.
The first thing the Crimson 16.7.1 driver update does is redistribute some of the power load from the PCIe slot to the Radeon RX 480's single 6-pin PCIe power connector. This doesn't reduce the total power consumption, but it does bring the power draw on the PCIe slot within spec, thereby alleviating concerns of the card damaging motherboards.
As a result of this rejiggering, the power draw in the 6-pin PCIe connector goes over spec. That shouldn't be much of an issue—it's better equipped to handle the added power draw than a motherboard's PCIe slot—but if that's still a concern, there's an optional "compatibility" toggle in Crimson's Global Settings that brings down the total power consumption of the card. Enabling compatibility mode means everything is under spec. There's a performance hit for doing so, though AMD claims it's "minimal" and offset by performance tweaks introduced by Crimson 16.7.1, which bumps performance in popular titles by up to 3 percent. Note that the toggle is turned off by default.
If you're concerned about this power business, our GPU editor, Jarred, used to do Bitcoin mining and had ASICs pulling well over 200W per 6-pin connector. With a good power supply, even that wasn't a problem, so he at least isn't worried about exceeding the 6-pin connector's 75W spec by 25-50W. And it's not like this is the first card ever to go over the 75W spec; cards from both AMD and Nvidia have done that in the past, particularly factory overclocked models. Still, AMD is taking the 'better safe than sorry' approach, or at least giving their users the opportunity to do so.
Also worth noting is that the current issue only affects the reference RX 480 cards. Custom AIB cards are more likely to offer factory overclocks and come with an 8-pin PEG connector. 8-pin PEG allows up to 150W, and combined with the 75W from the PCIe slot the RX 480 should have ample headroom, even with overclocking.
In addition to the power draw issue and performance upgrades, AMD says Crimson 16.7.1 fixes the following issues:
Radeon RX 480 limited PCI-E Bandwidth (PCI-E bandwidth is now at the correct speed on the Radeon RX 480) with Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1.
Minor stuttering no longer occurs in Grand Theft Auto V on Radeon RX 480 with Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1.
Video corruption will not be observed in DOOM with resolutions above 1920x1080 with Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1.
Hitman graphical corruption no longer occurs when the game is set to use DirectX12 API and using zoom with weapons with Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1.
Display will not exhibit minor flicker on Radeon RX 480 when Freesync is enabled on a games launch or exit with Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1.
You can download the Crimson 16.7.1 driver update here.Today your Internet and TV service are probably connected to your home via copper wires. This technology has been around for over 100 years, and it just wasn’t built for what we’re trying to use it for today. My job with Google Fiber is to build thousands of miles of brand new fiber-optic cable, which is far better and faster than copper at transmitting information, such as the bits that make up your favorite websites, YouTube videos, video chats, or online games. Fiber-optic cables are made of glass, and they use lasers to transmit information — close to the speed of light! It’s amazing technology, but unfortunately very few homes have direct access to fiber networks today.
That’s where my team comes in. Every day, we’re working to plan and build brand new Google Fiber networks in Kansas City and Austin. There are a few big steps.
Step 1: Figure out where we can put our fiber. We need to build thousands of miles of fiber — but we can’t just put it wherever we want. First, we use the infrastructure data that the city has shared with us to create a base map of where we can build (existing utility poles, conduit) and where we should avoid (water, sewer and electric lines). Then, a team of surveyors and engineers hits the streets to fill in any missing details.
Step 2: Design the network. There are a few basic components to our Fiber networks that we need to design from scratch for every single city. In general, you can think of it as a hub-and-spoke design:
Every mile of this network has to be planned and diagramed, which takes a huge amount of time (imagine planning a network that touches ~30 utility poles per mile, for thousands of miles). We also plan and build backup fiber routes; we want to be ready just in case there's a break in service along any section of our network (it just so happens that squirrels love to chew through fiber lines).
Step 3: Build the network. Only
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now that I mention it.
Credit: Patrick Gleason (DC Comics)
Nrama: Pete, the setting for this issue is Batman's world, which allows you to bring in not only Maya and Goliath, but even Alfred. Why did you want to bring the Superman characters to the Batcave? Was it so the reader could kind of see that world through Jon's eyes?
Tomasi: Yeah. When Pat and I were talking about the story, we wanted to make sure we moved from the place of Jon's familiar world in Hamilton and get to a place that's the complete opposite, which is the deep, dark Batcave. So it's like he's gone from the light into the darkness.
It just made dramatic and tonal sense. It felt natural to get him into the cave and get him into Damian's atmosphere, and to get him into the Bat-family also, and get him introduced to them.
With only two issues, we really wanted to make sure we let it breathe. But at the same time, having played with the characters so long in Batman and Robin with Pat, it was nice to be able to put them all together in as organic a way as possible.
Credit: Patrick Gleason (DC Comics)
Gleason: Plus, we had to have Jon meet Damian's pets. That had to happen somewhere, preferably sooner than later. We had to bring in Bat Cow and Titus. So that might have been a little self-indulgent.
Tomasi: And also, we wanted to show everybody how much we do, in fact, love animals.
Gleason: Yes, we do love animals! Despite rumors!
But the scene also allows us to play with how Damian sees Jon.
Nrama: Reading the issue, what really stands out is that, they're just two kids. I mean, they act like two kids would, but they're doing it with Superman and Batman standing there. And the two men are comparing notes on being dads just like two dads would.
Credit: DC Comics
Gleason: Yep, the boys are just boys. I mean, they're a special breed of boys, because they could easily kill each other if they lost their temper.
But there's also that underlying idea that they understand each other. And the loneliness they have being these children of superheroes - they may start to see that they're not alone. Even though their parents are forcing them together, there might be something they can get from each other.
And that applies to the parents too. Batman and Superman now have this common element in their lives, in this early stage of their relationship - between this Superman and Batman.
It all fits really well. Having Jon and Damian be frenemies - I think people will enjoy seeing the fireworks that come out of that.
Credit: DC Comics
Nrama: How does this lead toward what's coming next in the book? And I assume it also leads toward Super Sons?
Tomasi: Yeah, I think you can look at Superman #10 and #11 as a prologue to Super Sons. The story is kind of lighting the fuse and showing that, obviously, it's going to be a really long fuse. In Super Sons, we can't be showing these two kids suddenly wrapping their arms around each other, like "Yee-ha, we're best buddies forever."
It's going to be constant oneupmanship. They've got such different points of view and perspectives - not only from, obviously, their DNA, but even where they're growing up and their surroundings. Everything that makes them tick is all very different.
So it's going to be a constant battle between personalities, and disagreements on the way to do things. They're each their father's son, so to speak, so they're coming at everything differently. And that's going to cause a lot of dramatic tension between the two.
It's going to be a lot of fun, as we show in #10 and #11, and then moving on to February in Super Sons. There's a lot of kinetic energy and a lot of atoms smashing against atoms. They're not going to be happy-go-lucky together, that's for sure.
Credit: Patrick Gleason (DC Comics)
Issues #10 and #11 show you in a very clean and succinct way just what the differences between these characters are. And we explore it in Super Sons too. In a cool little sequence - people coming on board, if they are, for the first time on Super Sons, it was really important for me, really clearly and quickly, to show just what makes each of these characters tick and how different they are.
It's important in a book like that. It just wouldn't be as interesting if they're both on the same page. They've got to be coming at everything from different angles, and that's what makes it more interesting. And a lot more fun.
There's a lot of fun in Superman #10 and #11 that Pat and I put in there, and Super Sons is the same way. This book cannot be immersed in a dark place. It really needs to have a lot of light and levity and really character-based humor. It makes it a lot more of a fun read and really shows these characters in a fun and dramatic light.
Nrama: That said, the stuff going on with "Rebirth" is looming on the horizon. Will these books with their levity and fun with the kids - with boys featured in both Super Sons and Superman - will these two books be affected by "Rebirth" in the coming months?
Credit: Patrick Gleason (DC Comics)
Tomasi: Yeah, I mean, there's no getting around that. Right now, everybody has to feel that there's change coming, which is always good in a periodical and a comic book. But especially these coming out so frequently - like Pat and I have with Doug Mahnke, it's two times a month. So you've got to make sure that there's shake-up and change and evolving moments and beats coming up.
Pat and I have been obviously plugged into the rest of the DCU on what's going on and what's coming up, to make sure our book is going to reflect that.
Gleason: That's not to say we'll lose the adventure and fun side of stuff in Superman. That's one of the things that the twice-a-month format has really afforded us. We're doing these three mini-arcs in a row, starting with "Dinosaur Island" and then the "In the Name of the Father" stuff we're doing now, and then moving on to Frankenstein. We're really looking at this as little bite-size arcs that let us explore that fun and excitement and adventure - it's the side of Superman that people have really been asking for.
We're making that a part of the book, so then we're ready to move into the bigger DC-wide stuff that's coming down the hatch. We can't talk about what that means for the book overall, obviously, but it's been really great to be able to do these fun arcs before the bigger stuff hits down the road.images: Home Energy
Though their definitely seems to be some doubt as to the ultimate effectiveness of small-scale wind turbines, particularly in urban environments, that hasn't stopped new development of home-based and roof-mounted wind turbines. While Phillipe Starck's wind turbine is little more than eye candy at this point, the Windspire is one option which you can purchase. Here's another innovate option that you actually buy.
The Silent Spherical Wind Turbine
Designed by Swedish company Home Energy (website only in Swedish), the Energy Ball breaks from most wind turbine design by using a spherical structure. Home Energy says that by using such a design significantly higher aerodynamic efficiency can be achieved, as compared to traditional designs. What's more the Energy Ball is claimed to be "completely silent".Two Models Available
Two models are available, the 0.5 kW Energy Ball V100 with a diameter of 110cm (43"), and the 2.5 kW Energy Ball V200 with a diameter of 198cm (78"). Home Energy claims that the V200 can provide up to 50% of a typical home's electrical needs, while the V100 should be seen as a supplement to other energy sources. Both can produce power starting at wind speeds of 3 meters/second, and max out in wind speeds of 40 m/s.
The V100 has a list price of just under SKr 30,000 ($4,600); the V200 sells for about SKr 53,000 ($8,100). Both prices are just for the turbine, inverter and cabling. Mounting materials are additional. Installation on either stand-alone post or on the roof requires two people and is expected to take about 4-6 hours.
:: Home Energy and :: Inhabitat
Wind Power
Phillipe Starck Uses His Super Powers for Good Instead of Evil
Check Out the Windspire: Backyard Vertical Wind Turbine Video Clip
Small-Scale Wind Turbine Potential Great, Limited by Installation & Electricity CostsEgypt’s cabinet is proposing to jail reporters who report nongovernment statistics about the number of people killed in terrorist attacks, the Guardian in the U.K. reported Sunday. Releasing reports about death tolls that don’t echo official government stats could be grounds for arrest under a new measure sent to the president for his approval.
Egyptian officials described as “false news” the publication of death tolls associated with terrorist attacks that don’t jibe with government accounts, and those who publish them may face two years in prison. The proposed law must be OK’d by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who is expected to sign it quickly, according to Agence France-Presse.
The crackdown -- especially on foreign media -- comes after attacks by the Islamic State group on a remote Egyptian town last week. Focused on five different security checkpoints in northern Sinai, they killed 17 members of Egyptian security forces, CNN reported. The attacks were characterized by foreign media outlets as a stark demonstration of the growing scope of Islamic State group influence across North Africa.
According to an Egyptian official who supports the proposed law, media reports of the attacks varied greatly in the aftermath. While some echoed the initial report of 17 being killed, others published that as many as 100 had been killed. Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zind told AFP that such false reports affected the “morale” of the nation.
“There was no choice but to impose some standards,” Zind said. “The government has the duty to defend citizens from wrong information.” He added: “I hope no one interprets this as a restriction on media freedoms. It’s just about numbers [in death tolls].”
Photo: Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa But there was quick criticism for the move by the Egyptians. Gamal Eid, the executive director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, told the Guardian the proposed law recalls measures promulgated in Nazi Germany.
“We are faced with an article that pushes the media towards [Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph] Goebbels’ media -- the media of one opinion and one narrative,” he said. “It is against the freedom of press, especially press that is critical and professional.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists cited Egypt last week for the imprisonment of journalists, saying the nation has reached an “all-time high” in detentions. Egypt is holding at least 18 journalists behind bars, according to CPJ.
Photo: AFP/Getty Images/Khaled Desouki
There is a growing clash between Egypt’s government and the country's public as the official crackdown continues in the wake of years of political tumult in the nation. Thousands of demonstrators have been arrested or killed during the unrest. The murder of Egypt’s top prosecutor Hisham Barakat by a car bomb last week has prompted another round of promises from officials to impose stricter laws against dissidents. Barakat was a prime target for opponents of the government accused of detaining thousands of critics.FRISCO, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys restructured the contract of 10-time Pro Bowl tight end Jason Witten, creating $2.75 million in cap room.
The Cowboys converted $5.5 million of Witten’s $6.5 million base salary into a signing bonus, which reduced Witten’s cap number from $8.612 million to $5.862 million. Witten is signed through 2017 and is set to make $7.4 million next season with a cap figure of $12.262 million.
Witten’s is the third contract the Cowboys have restructured in the last week. They re-worked Orlando Scandrick's contract to create $3 million in cap room. They added a $2 million roster bonus to Sean Lee's contract that increased the linebacker’s cap figure by $250,000. Early in the offseason the Cowboys restructured the deals of left tackle Tyron Smith and defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford to create cap room.
Over the years the Cowboys have carried $2 million to $3 million of unused cap room to deal with injuries and other needs during the course of the season.Today we’re making Instapaper Premium available to all Instapaper users, free of charge. Instapaper Premium is the best way to experience all that Instapaper has to offer, and we’re excited to open it up to everyone.
Before, some of our greatest features were limited to Instapaper Premium subscribers. Now that we’re better resourced, we’re able to offer everyone the best version of Instapaper. Starting today, all users will have access to:
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For existing Instapaper Premium users, we’ll offer prorated refunds for your current subscription, and you’ll no longer be billed for Instapaper Premium. Thanks for your support throughout the years, we appreciate it.
All users will continue to have an ad-free Instapaper app experience, and we’re eliminating ads on the web entirely.
Opening Instapaper Premium is something we’ve always wanted to do, and we’re thrilled to give everyone the very best Instapaper experience. If you’ve got any questions or feedback, just let us know via [email protected] or @InstapaperHelp on Twitter.
– Instapaper TeamPhoto courtesy of Prof. Neal Katya / AP Salim Ahmed Hamdan
Salim Hamdan had spent two years as a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay when he first met Lieut. Commander Charles Swift, his Pentagon-appointed Navy defense lawyer. At the meeting, Swift suggested the possibility of suing President Bush on his behalf.
"This lawsuit, will it make you rich?" Hamdan asked after a long pause.
"No, but it might make me famous," Swift answered. "It might make you famous, too."
"I don't want to be famous," Hamdan replied. "I just want to get out of here."
Four and a half years later, Hamdan is still on Guantánamo, but Swift's prediction has proved correct. Hamdan is certainly famous. Not only was this Yemeni man, a former driver for Osama bin Laden with a fourth-grade education, at the center of what is perhaps the Supreme Court's most important decision on presidential power ever, he is now the first defendant in America's first war-crimes trials since World War II. Hamdan, in his late 30s, stands accused of providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
And yet, despite landing in the center of a historic legal drama, Hamdan remains largely unknown to the American public. His story is still shrouded in mystery. It remains unclear whether he was a dedicated lieutenant of bin Laden's "a body man for bin Laden," as one of the government's lawyers once described him to me or, as his defense lawyers will claim, little more than a lowly foot soldier. I've been following Hamdan's story since early 2004, when I started writing a book about his case, and I have spent hundreds of hours interviewing his lawyers, his family, his mentor and his interrogator. From these conversations I have been able to assemble a portrait of Hamdan's extraordinary journey from the deserts of Yemen to an al-Qaeda compound in Afghanistan to the dock of the U.S. military tribunal he entered this week. Like few other cases, his story sheds light on how the Bush Administration has prosecuted the war on terrorism since 9/11, and where it might be heading now.
Hamdan's journey began in 1996, when he first met Nasser al-Bahri outside a mosque in Sana, the capital city of Yemen. At the time, al-Bahri, a well-educated Saudi and veteran holy warrior, was assembling a small army of jihadis to fight alongside Tajikistan's small Islamic insurgency against its Russian-backed government. Hamdan was by all accounts an easy convert. Orphaned at a young age, he found a father figure in the confident and committed al-Bahri, and a purpose in jihad.
Al-Bahri ultimately managed to recruit 35 men, mostly Yemenis like Hamdan, but they were stopped in Afghanistan before they could make it to Tajikistan. What happened next would change Hamdan's life forever. At loose ends and casting about for a cause, one of the jihadis suggested that they go see a man named Osama bin Laden. Hamdan's group soon found their way to bin Laden, arriving at his camp in the caves of Tora Bora only days before Ramadan, the holiest time of the year. For three days they listened to bin Laden preach about the religious imperative of reversing America's presence in the Persian Gulf and of changing the approach to fighting Islam's enemies. "[Bin Laden] said we must carry out painful attacks on the United States until it becomes like an agitated bull, and when the bull comes to our region, he won't be familiar with the land, but we will," al-Bahri told me.
Seventeen of the original 35 jihadis decided to stay. Hamdan was one of them. With only a fourth-grade education, Hamdan made himself useful as a mechanic and driver. He ultimately ended up serving bin Laden himself as a chauffeur and bodyguard, following the sheik when he relocated for security reasons to Tarnak Farms, a walled al-Qaeda compound 30 minutes outside Kandahar. According to both al-Bahri and FBI interrogator Ali Soufan, Hamdan had bin Laden's trust but was not a member of his inner circle. Both men describe Hamdan as deferential, eager to please. Their accounts differ, though, when it comes to Hamdan's level of involvement with al-Qaeda. Al-Bahri characterized him as a circumstantial participant, someone with limited options who just needed a job, while Soufan said he was undeniably part of the al-Qaeda conspiracy, pointing out that Hamdan swore a bayat, or oath of loyalty, to bin Laden.
In the days leading up to 9/11, Hamdan joined a small motorcade of al-Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who drove into the mountains above Khost to watch the hijacked planes crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on satellite TV. Hamdan was also at bin Laden's side as a driver in the weeks that followed, while the motorcade moved from one guesthouse to the next as bin Laden and al-Zawahiri readied their remaining fighters for America's imminent invasion.
In late November, with U.S. forces sweeping across Afghanistan, Hamdan returned to his home in Kandahar, one of the last Taliban strongholds, for his young daughter and pregnant wife, and drove them toward Pakistan. What happened next forms a central source of dispute between Hamdan and the government. According to his defense lawyers, Hamdan figured that he would be arrested if he tried to cross the border, so he instead dropped off his family and planned to return the car, which he had borrowed, before finding a different way into Pakistan. Soufan and government prosecutors say that Hamdan remained in Afghanistan to fight alongside al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Their account is corroborated by the fact that the Northern Alliance forces who captured Hamdan in Afghanistan hours after he left his family at the border found two surface-to-air missiles in the trunk of his car.
In May 2002, Hamdan was flown to Guantánamo Bay, where he became detainee No. 149. Soon after, he met Soufan, the FBI's foremost expert on al-Qaeda, who interrogated Hamdan repeatedly until December 2003, when President Bush chose him from among thousands of detainees in U.S. custody to be the first Arab defendant in the military tribunals.
Hamdan was not necessarily an obvious choice for this historic role. He wasn't a high-ranking officer of al-Qaeda, nor was he known to have participated in any specific terrorist operations against the U.S. But from the prosecutor's perspective, he did have certain things going for him. Because the military tribunal system was brand-new, the government thought it made sense to try lower-ranking operatives first, in case anything went wrong. Hamdan had also been in U.S. custody since his capture and had not been rendered to any foreign countries for interrogation, which might have opened the door for his defense lawyer to raise questions about his treatment. And his story certainly had narrative appeal: Hamdan had been with bin Laden between 1996 and 2001, a stretch of time that spanned not just 9/11 but al-Qaeda's 1998 attacks on two embassies in East Africa and the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen.
But in 2004, Swift, Hamdan's military defense lawyer, successfully urged his client to reject the government's tentative offer 20 years imprisonment in exchange for full cooperation, including testifying at the military commissions of other detainees. Together with a young constitutional law professor named Neal Katyal, Swift built a defense that delayed Hamdan's military tribunal for years as it gradually made its way through the courts. His lawyers' perseverance meant little to Hamdan. Officials at Guantánamo have characterized Hamdan as a problematic prisoner, a rabble-rouser who turns every order into a negotiation and incites his fellow inmates to acts of defiance. For this reason, he has spent much of his time in conditions tantamount to solitary confinement. Hamdan has blamed Swift for failing to improve his life on Guantánamo and has often refused to see him and even fired him once. Hamdan has also gone on and off hunger strikes, one of which ended with his being force-fed liquid nutrients in a restraining chair.
In the spring of 2006, Hamdan's lawsuit, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, reached the Supreme Court. The justices handed Hamdan a sweeping victory, with the majority finding that the President's military tribunals were unlawful. But Hamdan's odyssey didn't end there. Rather than offer Hamdan a reduced sentence, the Administration redoubled its efforts, pressing Congress to authorize the military tribunals, which it did by passing the Military Commissions Act during the waning days of the Republican Congress in the fall of 2006. Hamdan was recharged under the Military Commissions Act and moved into a new maximum-security facility. There he was permitted only an hour or so of indirect contact with other detainees during his daily recreation period. (He had to exercise alone, but his chain-linked recreation pen adjoined several others.)
By his lawyers' accounts, Hamdan's six years at Gitmo have left him a shell of a man. He has deteriorated mentally to the point where he can no longer meaningfully assist in his own criminal defense. He is suicidal, hears voices inside his head and talks to himself. And yet his trial, which is taking place in a small courtroom at Guantánamo Bay, will still influence the future of the tribunal system. Under the rules of the tribunal, Hamdan faces a jury of military officers who will decide his innocence or guilt. Whether their decision is perceived as fair will go a long way toward determining if the military tribunals that President Bush first authorized in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks will survive under the next Commander in Chief. In that sense, the fame or infamy of Salim Hamdan may endure long after his trial ends.
Jonathan Mahler's book, The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power, from which this article is adapted, will be published in early August.CHICAGO (AP) - A Chicago-area family is giving University of Chicago Medicine its biggest ever donation - $100 million to establish an institute devoted to improving health and preventing disease by optimizing the body’s own defenses.
The gift announced Wednesday will create The Duchossois (DUHCH’-uh-swah) Family Institute. The donation comes from investment business The Duchossois Group Inc.’s Chairman and CEO Craig Duchossois, his wife, Janet, and The Duchossois Family Foundation.
The institute will support research and interventions based on how the human immune system, microorganisms and genetics interact to maintain health.
University president Robert Zimmer says in a statement that the institute will use “the creativity and skill of university researchers across many fields in bringing new perspectives to medical science.”
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC.Here's how Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz celebrated Easter this year; by appearing on Fox News and tripling down on his demands that we indiscriminately kill more innocent civilians by attempting to carpet bomb ISIS out of existence.
So tell me Senator, who would Jesus carpet bomb?
Here's his fearmongering response to the criticism he received from both President Obama and Hillary Clinton over the same reckless remarks he's made on several occasions already.
BREAM: Well, Senator, you know the president responded to your idea by invoking your father. Here's a bit of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just left a country that engages in that kind of neighborhood surveillance -- which, by the way, the father of Senator Cruz escaped for America, the land of the free.
(END VIDO CLIP)
BREAM: Also this week former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referenced your comments with respect to carpet bombing. Here is her take.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Proposing that doesn't make you sound tough. It makes you sound like you're in over your head.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: Earlier this month, CNN had a poll asking who’s best equipped to handle the issues of foreign policy, former Secretary Clinton was atop the list, you came in fourth, behind Trump and Sanders as well.
So, as a first term senator, as the secretary suggested, are you in over your head on foreign policy?
CRUZ: Listen, I'll tell who you is in over their head and it's Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and John Kerry and the entire Obama administration. The Obama-Clinton foreign policy is a manifest disaster. Every single region on earth, Shannon, has gotten worse.
Our friend and allies, we've abandoned them. This has been the most anti-Israel administration we have ever seen. And we have shown weakness and appeasement to our enemies.
You know, it's rich saying Obama attacking me when he just got back from going to a baseball game with the Castros, celebrating and toasting a communist dictator who tortures and murders his citizens, who oppresses them and who is rabidly anti-American and who spreads terrorism throughout Latin America.
↓ Story continues below ↓
As the president noted, yes, my father was in prison and tortured in Cuba. So was my aunt. She was imprisoned and tortured by Castro's goons in Cuba.
And yet, what President Obama has done, what Hillary Clinton has done, what John Kerry has done is sent billions of dollars to the enemies of America, billions of dollars to the Castros, that they will use to increase repression, increase spreading terrorism throughout Latin America, and over $100 billion to the Ayatollah Khamenei in Iran. That money will be used to fund Islamic terrorists that are coming to murder Americans, murder Europeans, to murder Israelis. And it will be used to fund their nuclear program and their ICBM program, which is designed to murder millions of Americans.
This policy of weakness and appeasement doesn't work. And I think the American people are tired of it. They're tired of the moralizing and lecturing. You notice Obama and Hillary seemed more mad at me than they are at ISIS, than they are the terrorists who are murdering. We know of at least two Americans who were murdered Brussels. There may be many more. There are still people missing.
Our prayers are with them. But we need a president who will bring the full force and fury of the United States of America to defeating ISIS.
Shannon, I’ll tell you, if I’m president, we will utterly and completely destroy ISIS. We will carpet bomb them into oblivion, using overwhelming airpower. We will arm the Kurds on the ground. We will use our forces to defeat them and we won't put our forces in combat with the rules of engagement that Obama is so fond of that tie their arms behind their back that make it impossible for them to fight and win. That is wrong and that is immoral.
If and when we use military force, we will use it to win, to defeat our enemies with overwhelming force and then we’ll get the heck out. We won't engage in nation-building, but rather, we'll keep America safe.Baylor Family celebrates President Livingstone’s Inauguration
Thursday was a landmark day in Baylor history, as Dr. Linda Livingstone was officially inaugurated as the university’s 15th president. Thousands of members of the Baylor Family gathered in the Ferrell Center Thursday afternoon for the ceremony, at which President Livingstone shared her vision for the university.
“Baylor exists to demonstrate that faith is not a deterrent to scholarship,” she noted. “Rather, it is the very motivation for discovering the richness of Creation. It compels us to engage with issues spanning the intellectual and ideological spectrum, combating provincialism and prejudice by fostering productive dialogues that ultimately bring our discoveries to bear in tackling the most complex problems facing society.”
[PHOTOS/VIDEO: Inauguration Ceremony photos and complete video || Family Dinner with the Livingstones photos || Dr Pepper Hour video || Video of Livingstone’s Inaugural Message]
The ceremony — which also included a memorable introduction by Dr. Livingstone’s daughter, Shelby, and a blessing prayed by the President’s husband, Brad — was the culmination of a week’s worth of events. Students enjoyed a special Dr Pepper Hour with the President on Tuesday afternoon, and were welcomed to a dinner with the Livingstones outside Allbritton House Tuesday night. On Wednesday, an academic symposium featured Baylor experts from across the university speaking on how we can help mankind reach its fullest potential. And after the ceremony Thursday, a reception outside the Ferrell Center allowed guests to meet with President Livingstone.
[READ coverage of the Inauguration from the Waco Tribune-Herald and Baylor Lariat]
President Livingstone officially took office in June, but this week’s events provided us a chance to properly celebrate, honor and welcome our new executive — and if the multiple standing ovations Dr. Livingstone received Thursday were any indication, the Baylor Family was more than happy to take advantage of the opportunity!
Sic ’em, President Livingstone!A breakthrough in understanding human skin cells offers a pathway for new anti-ageing treatments.
For the first time, scientists at Newcastle University, UK, have identified that the activity of a key metabolic enzyme found in the batteries of human skin cells declines with age.
A study, published online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, has found that the activity of mitochondrial complex II significantly decreases in older skin.
This discovery brings experts a step closer to developing powerful anti-ageing treatments and cosmetic products which may be tailored to counteract the decline in the enzyme's activity levels.
Findings may also lead to a greater understanding of how other organs in the body age, which could pave the way for drug developments in a number of age-related diseases, including cancer.
Mark Birch-Machin, Professor of Molecular Dermatology at Newcastle University, led the pioneering study with Dr Amy Bowman from his research group.
Professor Birch-Machin said: "As our bodies age we see that the batteries in our cells run down, known as decreased bio-energy, and harmful free radicals increase.
"This process is easily seen in our skin as increased fine lines, wrinkles and sagging appears. You know the story, or at least your mirror does first thing in the morning!
"Our study shows, for the first time, in human skin that with increasing age there is a specific decrease in the activity of a key metabolic enzyme found in the batteries of the skin cells.
"This enzyme is the hinge between the two important ways of making energy in our cells and a decrease in its activity contributes to decreased bio-energy in ageing skin.
"Our research means that we now have a specific biomarker, or a target, for developing and screening anti-ageing treatments and cosmetic creams that may counter this decline in bio-energy.
"There is now a possibility of finding anti-ageing treatments which can be tailored to differently aged and differently pigmented skin, and with the additional possibility to address the ageing process elsewhere in our bodies."
Complex II activity was measured in 27 donors, from aged six to 72 years. Samples were taken from a sun-protected area of skin to determine if there was a difference in activity with increasing age.
Techniques were used to measure the activities of the key enzymes within mitochondria that are involved in producing the skin cell's energy, a type of mitochondrial gym or skin physical. This was applied to cells derived from the upper (epidermis) and lower (dermis) levels of skin.
It was found that complex II activity significantly declined with age, per unit of mitochondria, in the cells derived from the lower rather than the upper levels, an observation not previously reported for human skin.
The scientists found that the reason for this is the amount of enzyme protein was decreased and furthermore this decrease was only observed in those cells that had stopped proliferating.
Further studies will now be required to fully understand the functional consequences in skin and other tissues, and to establish methods to assess anti-ageing strategies in human skin.
Dr Bowman, Research Associate at Newcastle University's Institute of Cellular Medicine, said: "Newcastle University is pioneering research into ageing as it has long been thought that mitochondria play an important role in the ageing process, however the exact role has remained unclear.
"Our work brings us one step closer to understanding how these vital cell structures may be contributing to human ageing, with the hope of eventually specifically targeting areas of the mitochondria in an attempt to counteract the signs of ageing."
A recent study carried out in mice showed that complex II activity is lower in the skin of naturally aged older mice compared to younger mice.Share. Clean out that fridge. Clean out that fridge.
Regardless of platform, Batman: Arkham Knight will require you to have a whopping 45 GB of free space on your hard drive.
Rocksteady Studios' upcoming superhero action game is up for pre-order, and according to the Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 listings, you'll need just shy of 50 GB to download an install the game.
Exit Theatre Mode
Warner Bros. Interactive has announced a slew of different pre-order bonuses for its highly-anticipated title, including a pair of awesome skins (one inspired by the animated series Batman Beyond, and the other styled after Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns) for those who pre-order the game on PC.
Batman: Arkham Knight launches in just a few weeks, immediately following the madness of this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. While you patiently wait for its June 23 release, check out our hands-on preview.
Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. Feel free to send him your E3 predictions over on Twitter.Former Predators defenseman Seth Jones leads the Blue Jackets in average ice time since joining them in January. (Photo: Michael Dwyer / AP)
The Predators were probably the only team in the NHL that could remove a player like Seth Jones from their roster without drastically weakening their defense.
They didn't want to do it. Predators general manager David Poile was hesitant to disrupt the defensive depth that was the envy of the league, but it had to be done to improve the team's stable of forwards. On Jan. 6, Nashville flipped Jones to Columbus for center Ryan Johansen, a long-rumored trade of two fourth overall draft picks that gave each team something it seriously needed.
"It's funny because all of the guys in Nashville, especially on the back end, are so tight on and off the ice," Jones said during a recent phone interview. "We kind of knew something was bound to happen. Obviously, we didn't know when. We understood that probably someone was going to go, but just didn't know who or when."
When Jones makes his first visit to Nashville to face his former teammates Saturday, he'll do so in a much more significant role than he ever played in two-plus seasons with the Predators. In 33 games for the Blue Jackets, Jones is averaging a team-leading 24:27 of ice time per game, almost five more minutes than he did in 40 games before the trade.
"He's been good," Predators captain Shea Weber said. "I've had a chance to watch him on TV a fair bit, and any chance I've seen him, he's played well. It was a tough battle here. With our defense being so deep, it was tough to get anybody a lot of minutes, to be honest. I think with him moving, he's got more responsibility and he's done well since."
Jones spent most of his 199-game Predators career as a bottom-pairing defenseman. The 21-year-old had the talent to play more meaningful minutes, but Nashville didn't need him to. With Weber, Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis receiving the majority of the defensive responsibilities, Jones became an incredible luxury for the Predators, a top-two defenseman on almost every other NHL team playing on the third pair.
But Jones wanted a chance to grow, which would've been difficult in Nashville with Weber and Ellis blocking his path on the right side of the team's depth chart. When Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella told Jones upon his arrival that he had no intention of easing him in and expected him to immediately handle tougher assignments, Jones was obviously excited.
"Everyone there deserves what they got.... I think it just had to happen," Jones said of his previous situation. "I think Shea and Roman were the guys there and they deserved everything they got. I don't know if the minutes I'm getting here (wouldn't) have been the minutes I (could have eventually gotten) in Nashville. Maybe down the road, I don't know. That's a question I don't have the answer to, but I think just the opportunity to play more was obviously quicker here."
In
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form was evolving, so was the basic SST concept. Bristol's original Type 198 was a small design with an almost pure slender delta wing,[28] but evolved into the larger Type 223.
Partnership with Sud Aviation [ edit ]
By this time similar political and economic concerns in France had led to their own SST plans. In the late 1950s the government requested designs from both the government-owned Sud Aviation and Nord Aviation, as well as Dassault.[N 4] All three returned designs based on Küchemann and Weber's slender delta; Nord suggested a ramjet powered design flying at Mach 3, the other two were jet powered Mach 2 designs that were similar to each other. Of the three, the Sud Aviation Super-Caravelle won the design contest with a medium-range design deliberately sized to avoid competition with transatlantic US designs they assumed were already on the drawing board.
As soon as the design was complete, in April 1960, Pierre Satre, the company's technical director, was sent to Bristol to discuss a partnership. Bristol was surprised to find that the Sud team had designed a very similar aircraft after considering the SST problem and coming to the very same conclusions as the Bristol and STAC teams in terms of economics. It was later revealed that the original STAC report, marked "For UK Eyes Only", had secretly been passed to the French to win political favour. Sud made minor changes to the paper, and presented it as their own work.
Unsurprisingly, the two teams found much to agree on. The French had no modern large jet engines, and had already concluded they would buy a British design anyway (as they had on the earlier subsonic Caravelle). As neither company had experience in the use of high-heat metals for airframes, a maximum speed of around Mach 2 was selected so aluminium could be used – above this speed the friction with the air warms the metal so much that aluminium begins to soften. This lower speed would also speed development and allow their design to fly before the Americans. Finally, everyone involved agreed that Küchemann's ogee shaped wing was the right one.
The only disagreements were over the size and range. The UK team was still focused on a 150-passenger design serving transatlantic routes, while the French were deliberately avoiding these. However, this proved not to be the barrier it might seem; common components could be used in both designs, with the shorter range version using a clipped fuselage and four engines, the longer one with a stretched fuselage and six engines, leaving only the wing to be extensively re-designed. The teams continued to meet through 1961, and by this time it was clear that the two aircraft would be considerably more similar in spite of different range and seating arrangements. A single design emerged that differed mainly in fuel load. More powerful Bristol Siddeley Olympus engines, being developed for the TSR-2, allowed either design to be powered by only four engines.
Cabinet response, treaty [ edit ]
While the development teams met, French Minister of Public Works and Transport Robert Buron was meeting with the UK Minister of Aviation Peter Thorneycroft, and Thorneycroft soon revealed to the cabinet that the French were much more serious about a partnership than any of the US companies. The various US companies had proved uninterested in such a venture, likely due to the belief that the government would be funding development and would frown on any partnership with a European company, and the risk of "giving away" US technological leadership to a European partner.
When the STAC plans were presented to the UK cabinet, a very negative reaction resulted. The economic considerations were considered highly questionable, especially as these were based on development costs, now estimated to be £150 million, which were repeatedly overrun in the industry. The Treasury Ministry in particular presented a very negative view, suggesting that there was no way the project would have any positive financial returns for the government, especially in light that "the industry's past record of over-optimistic estimating (including the recent history of the TSR.2) suggests that it would be prudent to consider the £150 million [cost] to turn out much too low."
This concern led to an independent review of the project by the Committee on Civil Scientific Research and Development, which met on topic between July and September 1962. The Committee ultimately rejected the economic arguments, including considerations of supporting the industry made by Thorneycroft. Their report in October stated that it was unlikely there would be any direct positive economic outcome, but that the project should still be considered for the simple reason that everyone else was going supersonic, and they were concerned they would be locked out of future markets. Conversely, it appeared the project would not be likely to significantly impact other, more important, research efforts.
After considerable argument, the decision to proceed ultimately fell to an unlikely political expediency. At the time, the UK was pressing for admission to the European Common Market, which was being controlled by Charles de Gaulle who felt the UK's Special Relationship with the US made them unacceptable in a pan-European group. Cabinet felt that signing a deal with Sud would pave the way for Common Market entry, and this became the main deciding reason for moving ahead with the deal. It was this belief that had led the original STAC documents being leaked to the French. However, De Gaulle spoke of the European origin of the design, and continued to block the UK's entry into the Common Market.
The development project was negotiated as an international treaty between the two countries rather than a commercial agreement between companies and included a clause, originally asked for by the UK, imposing heavy penalties for cancellation. A draft treaty was signed on 29 November 1962.[36]
Naming [ edit ]
Reflecting the treaty between the British and French governments that led to Concorde's construction, the name Concorde is from the French word concorde ( IPA: [kɔ̃kɔʁd]), which has an English equivalent, concord. Both words mean agreement, harmony or union. The name was officially changed to Concord by Harold Macmillan in response to a perceived slight by Charles de Gaulle. At the French roll-out in Toulouse in late 1967,[37] the British Government Minister for Technology, Tony Benn, announced that he would change the spelling back to Concorde.[38] This created a nationalist uproar that died down when Benn stated that the suffixed "e" represented "Excellence, England, Europe and Entente (Cordiale)". In his memoirs, he recounts a tale of a letter from an irate Scotsman claiming: "[Y]ou talk about 'E' for England, but part of it is made in Scotland." Given Scotland's contribution of providing the nose cone for the aircraft, Benn replied, "[I]t was also 'E' for 'Écosse' (the French name for Scotland) – and I might have added 'e' for extravagance and 'e' for escalation as well!"
Concorde also acquired an unusual nomenclature for an aircraft. In common usage in the United Kingdom, the type is known as Concorde without an article, rather than the Concorde or a Concorde.[40][41]
Sales efforts [ edit ]
Described by Flight International as an "aviation icon" and "one of aerospace's most ambitious but commercially flawed projects",[42][43] Concorde failed to meet its original sales targets, despite initial interest from several airlines.
At first, the new consortium intended to produce one long-range and one short-range version. However, prospective customers showed no interest in the short-range version and it was dropped.[36]
An advertisement covering two full pages, promoting Concorde, ran in the 29 May 1967 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology. The advertisement predicted a market for 350 aircraft by 1980 and boasted of Concorde's head start over the United States' SST project.[44]
Concorde had considerable difficulties that led to its dismal sales performance. Costs had spiralled during development to more than six times the original projections, arriving at a unit cost of £23 million in 1977 (equivalent to £140.36 million in 2018).[45] Its sonic boom made travelling supersonically over land impossible without causing complaints from citizens.[46] World events had also dampened Concorde sales prospects, the 1973-74 stock market crash and the 1973 oil crisis had made many airlines cautious about aircraft with high fuel consumption rates; and new wide-body aircraft, such as the Boeing 747, had recently made subsonic aircraft significantly more efficient and presented a low-risk option for airlines. While carrying a full load, Concorde achieved 15.8 passenger miles per gallon of fuel, while the Boeing 707 reached 33.3 pm/g, the Boeing 747 46.4 pm/g, and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 53.6 pm/g. An emerging trend in the industry in favour of cheaper airline tickets had also caused airlines such as Qantas to question Concorde's market suitability.[49]
The consortium secured orders (i.e., non-binding options) for over 100 of the long-range version from the major airlines of the day: Pan Am, BOAC, and Air France were the launch customers, with six Concordes each. Other airlines in the order book included Panair do Brasil, Continental Airlines, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, American Airlines, United Airlines, Air India, Air Canada, Braniff, Singapore Airlines, Iran Air, Olympic Airways, Qantas, CAAC Airlines, Middle East Airlines, and TWA.[36][50][51] At the time of the first flight the options list contained 74 options from 16 airlines:
Testing [ edit ]
Concorde 001 first flight in 1969
The design work was supported by a preceding research programme studying the flight characteristics of low ratio delta wings. A supersonic Fairey Delta 2 was modified to carry the ogee planform, and, renamed as the BAC 221, used for flight tests of the high speed flight envelope, the Handley Page HP.115 also provided valuable information on low speed performance.
Construction of two prototypes began in February 1965: 001, built by Aérospatiale at Toulouse, and 002, by BAC at Filton, Bristol. Concorde 001 made its first test flight from Toulouse on 2 March 1969, piloted by André Turcat,[55] and first went supersonic on 1 October.[56] The first UK-built Concorde flew from Filton to RAF Fairford on 9 April 1969, piloted by Brian Trubshaw.[57][58] Both prototypes were presented to the public for the first time on 7–8 June 1969 at the Paris Air Show. As the flight programme progressed, 001 embarked on a sales and demonstration tour on 4 September 1971, which was also the first transatlantic crossing of Concorde.[59][60] Concorde 002 followed suit on 2 June 1972 with a tour of the Middle and Far East.[61] Concorde 002 made the first visit to the United States in 1973, landing at the new Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport to mark that airport's opening.[62]
During testing, Concorde F-WTSB attained the highest altitude recorded in sustained level flight of a passenger aircraft of 68,000 ft, in June 1973. Concorde G-AXDN attained the highest recorded speed of Mach 2.23 on 26 March 1974, at an altitude of 63,700 ft.[citation needed]
Concorde on early visit to Heathrow Airport on 1 July 1972
While Concorde had initially held a great deal of customer interest, the project was hit by a large number of order cancellations. The Paris Le Bourget air show crash of the competing Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 had shocked potential buyers, and public concern over the environmental issues presented by a supersonic aircraft—the sonic boom, take-off noise and pollution—had produced a shift in public opinion of SSTs. By 1976 four nations remained as prospective buyers: Britain, France, China, and Iran.[46] Only Air France and British Airways (the successor to BOAC) took up their orders, with the two governments taking a cut of any profits made.[63]
The United States cancelled the Boeing 2707, its rival supersonic transport programme, in 1971. Observers have suggested that opposition to Concorde on grounds of noise pollution had been encouraged by the United States Government, as it lacked its own competitor.[64] The US, India, and Malaysia all ruled out Concorde supersonic flights over the noise concern, although some of these restrictions were later relaxed.[65][66] Professor Douglas Ross characterised restrictions placed upon Concorde operations by President Jimmy Carter's administration as having been an act of protectionism of American aircraft manufacturers. Concorde flew to an altitude of 68,000 ft (20,700 m) during a test flight in June 1973.[68]
Design [ edit ]
Concorde flight deck layout
General features [ edit ]
Concorde is an ogival delta winged aircraft with four Olympus engines based on those employed in the RAF's Avro Vulcan strategic bomber. It is one of the few commercial aircraft to employ a tailless design (the Tupolev Tu-144 being another). Concorde was the first airliner to have a (in this case, analogue) fly-by-wire flight-control system; the avionics system Concorde used was unique because it was the first commercial aircraft to employ hybrid circuits.[69] The principal designer for the project was Pierre Satre, with Sir Archibald Russell as his deputy.[70]
Concorde pioneered the following technologies:
For high speed and optimisation of flight:
For weight-saving and enhanced performance:
Powerplant [ edit ]
Close up of engine nozzles of production Concorde G-AXDN. The nozzle consists of tilting cups. Concorde's intake ramp system schematics Concorde's intake ramp system
A symposium titled "Supersonic-Transport Implications" was hosted by the Royal Aeronautical Society on 8 December 1960. Various views were put forward on the likely type of powerplant for a supersonic transport, such as podded or buried installation and turbojet or ducted-fan engines.[87][88] Boundary layer management in the podded installation was put forward as simpler with only an inlet cone but Dr. Seddon of the RAE saw "a future in a more sophisticated integration of shapes" in a buried installation. Another concern highlighted the case with two or more engines situated behind a single intake. An intake failure could lead to a double or triple engine failure. The advantage of the ducted fan over the turbojet was reduced airport noise but with considerable economic penalties with its larger cross-section producing excessive drag.[89] At that time it was considered that the noise from a turbojet optimised for supersonic cruise could be reduced to an acceptable level using noise suppressors as used on subsonic jets.
The powerplant configuration selected for Concorde, and its development to a certificated design, can be seen in light of the above symposium topics (which highlighted airfield noise, boundary layer management and interactions between adjacent engines) and the requirement that the powerplant, at Mach 2, tolerate combinations of pushovers, sideslips, pull-ups and throttle slamming without surging.[90]:p.131 Extensive development testing with design changes and changes to intake and engine control laws would address most of the issues except airfield noise and the interaction between adjacent powerplants at speeds above Mach 1.6 which meant Concorde "had to be certified aerodynamically as a twin-engined aircraft above Mach 1.6".[90]
Rolls-Royce had a design proposal, the RB.169, for the aircraft at the time of Concorde's initial design[91] but "to develop a brand-new engine for Concorde would have been prohibitively expensive"[92] so an existing engine, already flying in the TSR-2 prototype, was chosen. It was the Olympus 320 turbojet, a development of the Bristol engine first used for the Avro Vulcan bomber.
Great confidence was placed in being able to reduce the noise of a turbojet and massive strides by SNECMA in silencer design were reported during the programme.[93] However, by 1974 the spade silencers which projected into the exhaust were reported to be ineffective.[94] The Olympus Mk.622 with reduced jet velocity was proposed to reduce the noise[95] but it was not developed.
Situated behind the leading edge of the wing the engine intake had wing boundary layer ahead of it. Two thirds was diverted and the remaining third which entered the intake did not adversely affect the intake efficiency[90]:p.21 except during pushovers when the boundary layer thickened ahead of the intake and caused surging. Extensive wind tunnel testing helped define leading edge modifications ahead of the intakes which solved the problem.[96]
Each engine had its own intake and the engine nacelles were paired with a splitter plate between them to minimise adverse behaviour of one powerplant influencing the other. Only above Mach 1.6 was an engine surge likely to affect the adjacent engine.[90]
Concorde needed to fly long distances to be economically viable; this required high efficiency from the powerplant. Turbofan engines were rejected due to their larger cross-section producing excessive drag. Olympus turbojet technology was available to be developed to meet the design requirements of the aircraft, although turbofans would be studied for any future SST.[97]
The aircraft used reheat (afterburners) at take-off and to pass through the upper transonic regime and to supersonic speeds, between Mach 0.95 and Mach 1.7. The afterburners were switched off at all other times.[98] Due to jet engines being highly inefficient at low speeds, Concorde burned two tonnes of fuel (almost 2% of the maximum fuel load) taxiing to the runway.[99] Fuel used is Jet A-1. Due to the high thrust produced even with the engines at idle, only the two outer engines were run after landing for easier taxiing and less brake pad wear – at low weights after landing, the aircraft would not remain stationary with all four engines idling requiring the brakes to be continuously applied to prevent the aircraft from rolling.
The intake design for Concorde's engines was especially critical.[100] The intakes had to provide low distortion levels (to prevent engine surge) and high efficiency for all likely ambient temperatures to be met in cruise. They had to provide adequate subsonic performance for diversion cruise and low engine-face distortion at take-off. They also had to provide an alternative path for excess intake air during engine throttling or shutdowns.[101] The variable intake features required to meet all these requirements consisted of front and rear ramps, a dump door, an auxiliary inlet and a ramp bleed to the exhaust nozzle.[102]
As well as supplying air to the engine, the intake also supplied air through the ramp bleed to the propelling nozzle. The nozzle ejector (or aerodynamic) design, with variable exit area and secondary flow from the intake, contributed to good expansion efficiency from take-off to cruise.[103]
Engine failure causes problems on conventional subsonic aircraft; not only does the aircraft lose thrust on that side but the engine creates drag, causing the aircraft to yaw and bank in the direction of the failed engine. If this had happened to Concorde at supersonic speeds, it theoretically could have caused a catastrophic failure of the airframe. Although computer simulations predicted considerable problems, in practice Concorde could shut down both engines on the same side of the aircraft at Mach 2 without the predicted difficulties.[104] During an engine failure the required air intake is virtually zero. So, on Concorde, engine failure was countered by the opening of the auxiliary spill door and the full extension of the ramps, which deflected the air downwards past the engine, gaining lift and minimising drag. Concorde pilots were routinely trained to handle double engine failure.[105]
Concorde's Air Intake Control Units (AICUs) made use of a digital processor to provide the necessary accuracy for intake control. It was the world's first use of a digital processor to be given full authority control of an essential system in a passenger aircraft. It was developed by the Electronics and Space Systems (ESS) division of the British Aircraft Corporation after it became clear that the analogue AICUs fitted to the prototype aircraft and developed by Ultra Electronics were found to be insufficiently accurate for the tasks in hand.[106]
Concorde's thrust-by-wire engine control system was developed by Ultra Electronics.[107]
Heating problems [ edit ]
Air compression on the outer surfaces caused the cabin to heat up during flight. Every surface, such as windows and panels, was warm to the touch by the end of the flight.[108] Besides engines, the hottest part of the structure of any supersonic aircraft is the nose, due to aerodynamic heating. The engineers used Hiduminium R.R. 58, an aluminium alloy, throughout the aircraft because of its familiarity, cost and ease of construction. The highest temperature that aluminium could sustain over the life of the aircraft was 127 °C (261 °F), which limited the top speed to Mach 2.02.[109] Concorde went through two cycles of heating and cooling during a flight, first cooling down as it gained altitude, then heating up after going supersonic. The reverse happened when descending and slowing down. This had to be factored into the metallurgical and fatigue modelling. A test rig was built that repeatedly heated up a full-size section of the wing, and then cooled it, and periodically samples of metal were taken for testing.[110][111] The Concorde airframe was designed for a life of 45,000 flying hours.[112]
Concorde skin temperatures
Owing to air compression in front of the plane as it travelled at supersonic speed, the fuselage heated up and expanded by as much as 300 mm (almost 1 ft). The most obvious manifestation of this was a gap that opened up on the flight deck between the flight engineer's console and the bulkhead. On some aircraft that conducted a retiring supersonic flight, the flight engineers placed their caps in this expanded gap, wedging the cap when it shrank again.[113] To keep the cabin cool, Concorde used the fuel as a heat sink for the heat from the air conditioning.[114] The same method also cooled the hydraulics. During supersonic flight the surfaces forward from the cockpit became heated, and a visor was used to deflect much of this heat from directly reaching the cockpit.
Concorde had livery restrictions; the majority of the surface had to be covered with a highly reflective white paint to avoid overheating the aluminium structure due to heating effects from supersonic flight at Mach 2. The white finish reduced the skin temperature by 6 to 11 degrees Celsius.[116] In 1996, Air France briefly painted F-BTSD in a predominantly blue livery, with the exception of the wings, in a promotional deal with Pepsi.[117] In this paint scheme, Air France was advised to remain at Mach 2 for no more than 20 minutes at a time, but there was no restriction at speeds under Mach 1.7. F-BTSD was used because it was not scheduled for any long flights that required extended Mach 2 operations.[118]
Structural issues [ edit ]
Fuel pitch trim
Due to its high speeds, large forces were applied to the aircraft during banks and turns, and caused twisting and distortion of the aircraft's structure. In addition there were concerns over maintaining precise control at supersonic speeds. Both of these issues were resolved by active ratio changes between the inboard and outboard elevons, varying at differing speeds including supersonic. Only the innermost elevons, which are attached to the stiffest area of the wings, were active at high speed. Additionally, the narrow fuselage meant that the aircraft flexed.[71] This was visible from the rear passengers' viewpoints.[120]
When any aircraft passes the critical mach of that particular airframe, the centre of pressure shifts rearwards. This causes a pitch down moment on the aircraft if the centre of gravity remains where it was. The engineers designed the wings in a specific manner to reduce this shift, but there was still a shift of about 2 metres. This could have been countered by the use of trim controls, but at such high speeds this would have dramatically increased drag. Instead, the distribution of fuel along the aircraft was shifted during acceleration and deceleration to move the centre of gravity, effectively acting as an auxiliary trim control.[121]
Range [ edit ]
To fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean, Concorde required the greatest supersonic range of any aircraft.[122] This was achieved by a combination of engines which were highly efficient at supersonic speeds,[N 5][71] a slender fuselage with high fineness ratio, and a complex wing shape for a high lift-to-drag ratio. This also required carrying only a modest payload and a high fuel capacity, and the aircraft was trimmed with precision to avoid unnecessary drag.[19][121]
Nevertheless, soon after Concorde began flying, a Concorde "B" model was designed with slightly larger fuel capacity and slightly larger wings with leading edge slats to improve aerodynamic performance at all speeds, with the objective of expanding the range to reach markets in new regions.[123] It featured more powerful engines with sound deadening and without the fuel-hungry and noisy afterburner. It was speculated that it was reasonably possible to create an engine with up to 25% gain in efficiency over the Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593.[124] This would have given 500 mi (805 km) additional range and a greater payload, making new commercial routes possible. This was cancelled due in part to poor sales of Concorde, but also to the rising cost of aviation fuel in the 1970s.[125]
Radiation concerns [ edit ]
External view of Concorde's fuselage British Airways Concorde interior. The narrow fuselage permitted only a 4-abreast seating with limited headroom.
Concorde's high cruising altitude meant passengers received almost twice the flux of extraterrestrial ionising radiation as those travelling on a conventional long-haul flight.[126][127] Upon Concorde's introduction, it was speculated that this exposure during supersonic travels would increase the likelihood of skin cancer.[128] Due to the proportionally reduced flight time, the overall equivalent dose would normally be less than a conventional flight over the same distance.[129] Unusual solar activity might lead to an increase in incident radiation.[130] To prevent incidents of excessive radiation exposure, the flight deck had a radiometer and an instrument to measure the rate of decrease of radiation.[127] If the radiation level became too high, Concorde would descend below 47,000 feet (14,000 m).
Cabin pressurisation [ edit ]
Airliner cabins were usually maintained at a pressure equivalent to 6,000–8,000 feet (1,800–2,400 m) elevation. Concorde's pressurisation was set to an altitude at the lower end of this range, 6,000 feet (1,800 m).[131] Concorde's maximum cruising altitude was 60,000 feet (18,000 m); subsonic airliners typically cruise below 44,000 feet (13,000 m).
A sudden reduction in cabin pressure is hazardous to all passengers and crew.[132] Above 50,000 feet (15,000 m), a sudden cabin depressurisation would leave a "time of useful consciousness" up to 10–15 seconds for a conditioned athlete.[133] At Concorde's altitude, the air density is very low; a breach of cabin integrity would result in a loss of pressure severe enough that the plastic emergency oxygen masks installed on other passenger jets would not be effective and passengers would soon suffer from hypoxia despite quickly donning them. Concorde was equipped with smaller windows to reduce the rate of loss in the event of a breach, a reserve air supply system to augment cabin air pressure, and a rapid descent procedure to bring the aircraft to a safe altitude. The FAA enforces minimum emergency descent rates for aircraft and noting Concorde's higher operating altitude, concluded that the best response to pressure loss would be a rapid descent.[135] Continuous positive airway pressure would have delivered pressurised oxygen directly to the pilots through masks.
Flight characteristics [ edit ]
Concorde performing a low-level fly-by at an air show in August 1981
While subsonic commercial jets took eight hours to fly from New York to Paris, the average supersonic flight time on the transatlantic routes was just under 3.5 hours. Concorde had a maximum cruise altitude of 18,300 metres (60,039 ft) and an average cruise speed of Mach 2.02, about 1155 knots (2140 km/h or 1334 mph), more than twice the speed of conventional aircraft.
With no other civil traffic operating at its cruising altitude of about 56,000 ft (17,000 m), Concorde had exclusive use of dedicated oceanic airways, or "tracks", separate from the North Atlantic Tracks, the routes used by other aircraft to cross the Atlantic. Due to the significantly less variable nature of high altitude winds compared to those at standard cruising altitudes, these dedicated SST tracks had fixed co-ordinates, unlike the standard routes at lower altitudes, whose co-ordinates are replotted twice daily based on forecast weather patterns (jetstreams). Concorde would also be cleared in a 15,000-foot (4,600 m) block, allowing for a slow climb from 45,000 to 60,000 ft (18,000 m) during the oceanic crossing as the fuel load gradually decreased.[138] In regular service, Concorde employed an efficient cruise-climb flight profile following take-off.
The delta-shaped wings required Concorde to adopt a higher angle of attack at low speeds than conventional aircraft, but it allowed the formation of large low pressure vortices over the entire upper wing surface, maintaining lift. The normal landing speed was 170 miles per hour (274 km/h). Because of this high angle, during a landing approach Concorde was on the "back side" of the drag force curve, where raising the nose would increase the rate of descent; the aircraft was thus largely flown on the throttle and was fitted with an autothrottle to reduce the pilot's workload.
The only thing that tells you that you're moving is that occasionally when you're flying over the subsonic aeroplanes you can see all these 747s 20,000 feet below you almost appearing to go backwards, I mean you are going 800 miles an hour or thereabouts faster than they are. The aeroplane was an absolute delight to fly, it handled beautifully. And remember we are talking about an aeroplane that was being designed in the late 1950s – mid 1960s. I think it's absolutely amazing and here we are, now in the 21st century, and it remains unique. John Hutchinson, Concorde Captain, "The World's Greatest Airliner" (2003)[143]
Brakes and undercarriage [ edit ]
Concorde main undercarriage Tail bumper of Concorde G-BOAG at the Museum of Flight in Seattle
Because of the way Concorde's delta-wing generated lift, the undercarriage had to be unusually strong and tall to allow for the angle of attack at low speed. At rotation, Concorde would rise to a high angle of attack, about 18 degrees. Prior to rotation the wing generated almost no lift, unlike typical aircraft wings. Combined with the high airspeed at rotation (199 knots indicated airspeed), this increased the stresses on the main undercarriage in a way that was initially unexpected during the development and required a major redesign.[144] Due to the high angle needed at rotation, a small set of wheels was added aft to prevent tailstrikes. The main undercarriage units swing towards each other to be stowed but due to their great height also need to contract in length telescopically before swinging to clear each other when stowed.[145] The four main wheel tyres on each bogie unit are inflated to 232 lb/sq in (1,600 kPa). The twin-wheel nose undercarriage retracts forwards and its tyres are inflated to a pressure of 191 lb/sq in (1,320 kPa), and the wheel assembly carries a spray deflector to prevent standing water being thrown up into the engine intakes. The tyres are rated to a maximum speed on the runway of 250 mph (400 km/h).[146] The starboard nose wheel carries a single disc brake to halt wheel rotation during retraction of the undercarriage. The port nose wheel carries speed generators for the anti-skid braking system which prevents brake activation until nose and main wheels rotate at the same rate.
Additionally, due to the high average take-off speed of 250 miles per hour (400 km/h), Concorde needed upgraded brakes. Like most airliners, Concorde has anti-skid braking – a system which prevents the tyres from losing traction when the brakes are applied for greater control during roll-out. The brakes, developed by Dunlop, were the first carbon-based brakes used on an airliner.[147] The use of carbon over equivalent steel brakes provided a weight-saving of 1,200 lb (540 kg). Each wheel has multiple discs which are cooled by electric fans. Wheel sensors include brake overload, brake temperature, and tyre deflation. After a typical landing at Heathrow, brake temperatures were around 300–400 °C (570–750 °F). Landing Concorde required a minimum of 6,000 feet (1,800 m) runway length, this in fact being considerably less than the shortest runway Concorde ever actually landed on, that of Cardiff Airport.[149]
Droop nose [ edit ]
Concorde's drooping nose, developed by Marshall's of Cambridge at Cambridge Airport,[150] enabled the aircraft to switch between being streamlined to reduce drag and achieve optimal aerodynamic efficiency without obstructing the pilot's view during taxi, take-off, and landing operations. Due to the high angle of attack, the long pointed nose obstructed the view and necessitated the capability to droop. The droop nose was accompanied by a moving visor that retracted into the nose prior to being lowered. When the nose was raised to horizontal, the visor would rise in front of the cockpit windscreen for aerodynamic streamlining.[150]
Concorde landing at Farnborough in September 1974
A controller in the cockpit allowed the visor to be retracted and the nose to be lowered to 5° below the standard horizontal position for taxiing and take-off. Following take-off and after clearing the airport, the nose and visor were raised. Prior to landing, the visor was again retracted and the nose lowered to 12.5° below horizontal for maximal visibility. Upon landing the nose was raised to the 5° position to avoid the possibility of damage.[150]
The US Federal Aviation Administration had objected to the restrictive visibility of the visor used on the first two prototype Concordes, which had been designed before a suitable high-temperature window glass had become available, and thus requiring alteration before the FAA would permit Concorde to serve US airports. This led to the redesigned visor used on the production and the four pre-production aircraft (101, 102, 201, and 202). The nose window and visor glass, needed to endure temperatures in excess of 100 °C (210 °F) at supersonic flight, were developed by Triplex.[152]
Operational history [ edit ]
1973 Solar Eclipse Mission [ edit ]
Concorde 001 was modified with rooftop portholes for use on the 1973 Solar Eclipse mission and equipped with observation instruments. It performed the longest observation of a solar eclipse to date, about 74 minutes.[153]
Scheduled flights [ edit ]
The official handover ceremony to British Airways of its first Concorde occurred on 15 January 1976 at Heathrow Airport
Air France Concorde (F-BTSD) short-lived promotional Pepsi livery, April 1996
Scheduled flights began on 21 January 1976 on the London–Bahrain and Paris–Rio de Janeiro (via Dakar) routes,[154] with BA flights using the Speedbird Concorde call sign to notify air traffic control of the aircraft's unique abilities and restrictions, but the French using their normal call signs.[155] The Paris-Caracas route (via Azores) began on 10 April. The US Congress had just banned Concorde landings in the US, mainly due to citizen protest over sonic booms, preventing launch on the coveted North Atlantic routes. The US Secretary of Transportation, William Coleman, gave permission for Concorde service to Washington Dulles International Airport, and Air France and British Airways simultaneously began a thrice-weekly service to Dulles on 24 May 1976.[156] Due to low demand, Air France cancelled its Washington service in October 1982, while British Airways cancelled it in November 1994.[157]
When the US ban on JFK Concorde operations was lifted in February 1977, New York banned Concorde locally. The ban came to an end on 17 October 1977 when the Supreme Court of the United States declined to overturn a lower court's ruling rejecting efforts by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and a grass-roots campaign led by Carol Berman to continue the ban.[158] In spite of complaints about noise, the noise report noted that Air Force One, at the time a Boeing VC-137, was louder than Concorde at subsonic speeds and during take-off and landing.[159] Scheduled service from Paris and London to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport began on 22 November 1977.[160]
In 1977, British Airways and Singapore Airlines shared a Concorde for flights between London and Singapore International Airport at Paya Lebar via Bahrain. The aircraft, BA's Concorde G-BOAD, was painted in Singapore Airlines livery on the port side and British Airways livery on the starboard side.[161][162] The service was discontinued after three return flights because of noise complaints from the Malaysian government;[163] it could only be reinstated on a new route bypassing Malaysian airspace in 1979. A dispute with India prevented Concorde from reaching supersonic speeds in Indian airspace, so the route was eventually declared not viable and discontinued in 1980.[164]
During the Mexican oil boom, Air France flew Concorde twice weekly to Mexico City's Benito Juárez International Airport via Washington, DC, or New York City, from September 1978 to November 1982.[165][166] The worldwide economic crisis during that
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when judging others compared to those in low-power positions. Therefore, it makes sense that supervisors, and not direct reports, showed the bias. If the results from this study can be generalized to other settings, then women may be at an unfair disadvantage in workplaces where people at the top place a high degree of emphasis on creative and innovative thinking.
Although the findings from this research are potentially the most damaging for women, they have important implications for everyone. Most of us would be reluctant to admit any tendency to evaluate a potentially innovative idea as less so simply because it was generated by a woman. However, if we do possess such a bias, it may cause us to overlook an important idea that has the potential to change our lives for the better.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
A husband was killed and his wife critically injured Friday when they were stabbed trying to stop a robbery at the 7-Eleven store in Valley Village where they both worked, according to police.
The double stabbing occurred at the convenience store's location near the intersection of Laurel Canyon and Chandler boulevards about 9:15 a.m., according to Officer Rosario Herrera of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Section.
Police initially responded to an attempted robbery call, she said.
A man in his 40s had entered the store and tried to alcohol and a hot dog when he was confronted by the female clerk, LAPD Lt. John Jenal told the newspaper.
The alleged thief “shanked her multiple times" before stabbing her husband, who had gone to check on his wife, Jenal said.
Police had not released the names of the victims, but they were identified by friends as Washi Ahmed and Lagrima "Paulina" Lopez.
The stabbings occurred outside the store, in the parking lot near the neighboring laundromat, LAPD Lt. Mike Kozak told KTLA.
"There's a significant amount of blood over there," he said during an interview at the scene.
A surveillance camera outside the laundromat captured the brutal crime on video.
The video showed Lopez running after the man closely followed by Ahmed. Lopez can be seen confronting the man and grabbing the beer and hot dog from his hands.
The man then pulled out a knife and stabbed Lopez repeatedly, the video showed.
As Ahmed tried to push the man off his wife, the assailant swung around and stabbed him in the neck.
Food items, blood stains and the woman's red 7-Eleven top all remained outside the laundromat hours after the violent attack, video showed.
Both victims were transported to a local hospital, where the husband was pronounced dead, according to Herrera and the Times. Lopez was listed in critical condition.
“We think this is extremely tragic incident for people to be injured over something as minor as just a few dollars worth of food," Kozak said.
A person identified by police as a "suspect" in the case is in custody, according to LAPD.
"The first officer on scene put out a crime broadcast based on witness statements," Kozak said. That led to him being apprehended a few blocks away when an officer "noticed the suspect as he was fleeing."
The unidentified man was arrested and expected to be booked on a murder charge, the Times reported.
Kelly Seidel, a regular customer at the 7-Eleven location, said he's observed people trying to steal from the store before.
"I’ve seen hoodlums come in and they try to go out with a couple twelve packs of beer, and I actually went after a guy down the sidewalk one day and got the two twelve packs of beer back," he told KTLA.
Seidel added he was "shocked" over the attack.
“I’m just at a loss for words," he said. “They’re the best people in the whole world, and I just can’t believe that something like this would happen.”
KTLA's Feven Kiflegiorgis and Jennifer Thang contributed to this story.
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Please enable Javascript to watch this videoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic Senator Al Franken announced his resignation on Thursday after facing a series of sexual misconduct allegations, and Republican Representative Trent Franks also said he was stepping down as he too was hit with ethics charges.
Franken, buffeted for weeks by sexual harassment charges and under pressure from party colleagues, said on the Senate floor he would leave in a few weeks, although he denied some of the allegations against him and questioned others.
The 66-year-old former comedian from Minnesota had been seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party.
“I know in my heart that nothing I’ve done as a senator - nothing - has brought dishonor on this institution,” he said. “Nevertheless, today I am announcing that in the coming weeks, I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate.”
Hours later, Franks announced his resignation after two former staff members complained about discussions he had with them about his efforts to find a surrogate mother.
“I deeply regret that my discussion of this option and process in the workplace caused distress,” said Franks, who was first elected to his Arizona congressional seat in 2002 and is an outspoken opponent of abortion.
Franks said in a statement that he and his wife “have long struggled with infertility.”
The developments came with Congress already held in low regard by voters. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, only 20 percent approved of the way Congress was handling its job, with 70 percent disapproving.
In recent weeks, charges of sexual misconduct have taken down prominent people in the worlds of entertainment, media and politics.
It is somewhat rare for members of the Senate or House of Representatives to resign from office, but veteran Democratic Representative John Conyers also resigned earlier this week amid sexual harassment accusations that he has denied.
The House Ethics Committee said on Thursday it was investigating yet another lawmaker. Blake Farenthold, a Republican representative from Texas, faces allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation involving a former female staff member.
Franken has the highest profile of the lawmakers hit by allegations in the past few weeks.
Reuters has not independently verified the accusations against Franken, Franks, Conyers or Farenthold.
SENATE BALANCE OF POWER
Franken’s seat will initially be filled by a Democrat appointed by Minnesota’s Democratic governor, meaning the Republicans’ slim majority in the Senate will not change.
Allegations that Franken had groped and tried to kiss women without their consent began to surface three weeks ago.
U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) departs the U.S. Capitol with his wife Franni after announcing his resignation over allegations of sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
He initially said he was embarrassed and ashamed by his behavior but would not resign.
But the majority of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate called on Wednesday for his resignation after a new allegation, denied by Franken, hit the news.
“Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others I remember very differently,” Franken said on Thursday.
Striking a tone of defiance, he also sought to contrast himself with two prominent Republicans - President Donald Trump and Senate candidate Roy Moore.
“I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate, with the full support of his party,” he said.
Trump was heard bragging about kissing and forcibly touching women in a 2005 videotape that surfaced last year as he was running for the White House. He apologized for the remarks, but called them private “locker-room talk” and said he had not done the things he talked about.
Trump also denied allegations at that time by at least 12 women of sexual advances and groping in the past.
Moore, who is running for the Senate in Alabama in a special election on Tuesday, has been accused by several women of sexual assault or misconduct when they were teenagers and Moore was in his early 30s. Moore, 70, has denied the accusations, which Reuters has not independently verified.
Trump has backed Moore, but Senate Republicans have been cooler toward his candidacy.
SEEKING THE HIGH GROUND
In pressing Franken to step aside, Democrats have tried to capture the moral high ground and draw a distinction between their party and Republicans.
“In every workplace in America, including the U.S. Senate, we must confront the challenges of harassment and misconduct,” said Amy Klobuchar, Franken’s fellow Democratic senator from Minnesota.
Similarly, House Republican Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday he had told Franks that he should resign.
A special election will be scheduled to determine a replacement for Franks.
While a Democrat will be appointed initially to replace Franken, his departure could complicate the party’s efforts to maintain or build on the 46 Senate seats they hold. Two independent senators also vote with the Democrats.
Republicans are defending eight seats in the congressional elections in November 2018 but Democrats will be defending 26 if Minnesota holds a special election for Franken’s seat.
Slideshow (5 Images)
The election to fill Franken’s seat could be close. When he ran in 2008, the race was decided after an extensive recount, with Minnesota’s Supreme Court weighing in.
In the 2016 presidential election, Democrat Hillary Clinton won the state by less than 2 percentage points.Indiana's Democratic Lawmakers Imitate Wisconsin, Flee State
Enlarge this image toggle caption Darron Cummings/ASSOCIATED PRESS Darron Cummings/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Democratic "flu" (or should it be "flew?") is spreading.
The Indianapolis Star reports that Democrats in the Indiana state house have decamped the state to avoid voting on anti-union legislation just like their fellow Democrats in Wisconsin.
In Indiana, it's Democrats in the House whereas in Wisconsin it was Senate Democrats. The result is the same — stalling the legislative process.
From the Indy Star:
House Democrats are leaving the state rather than vote on anti-union legislation, The Indianapolis Star has learned. A source said Democrats are headed to Illinois, though it was possible some also might go to Kentucky. They need to go to a state with a Democratic governor to avoid being taken into police custody and returned to Indiana. The House came into session this morning, with only two of the 40 Democrats present. Those two were needed to make a motion, and a seconding motion, for any procedural steps Democrats would want to take to ensure Republicans don't do anything official without quorum.
As I'm sure others have pointed out, this is the kind of tactic that could come back to haunt Democrats elsewhere or even in the two states where it's already been deployed.
Obviously, Democrats control legislatures in a number of states where they could now be confronted with Republicans who choose to delay legislation or try to force further negotiations by similarly exiting their states enmasse.
In any event, whether it's Democrats or Republicans who use the tactic, it will ultimately be voters who decide whether or not they approve of this different sort of flight plan by either rewarding or punishing the lawmakers who resort to it.New Year's Eve: 'Most technologically advanced' Sydney fireworks show wows 1 billion people worldwide
Updated
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Fireworks wow Sydney crowds (ABC News)
With an estimated worldwide audience of 1 billion people, the Sydney fireworks spectacular wowed the crowds around the harbour which was jammed to capacity by midnight on Sunday.
About 1.6 million people attended the fireworks around the edge of Sydney Harbour where a rainbow waterfall off the Sydney Harbour Bridge celebrated the legalising of same-sex marriage.
Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the spectacular display would reinforce the city's position as the New Year's Eve capital of the world.
"The most technologically advanced fireworks display I'm told," she said.
"It'll promote Sydney to the world. There'll be a billion viewers out there watching."
Fireworks barge catches fire
Thousands were forced to evacuate Terrigal beach, on the New South Wales central coast, after a barge caught fire during a New Year's Eve fireworks display.
Police say two men operating the fireworks suffered minor injuries, when the barge caught fire about 9:00pm sending a large amount of fireworks into the air all at once.
Police said the two men were taken via ambulance to a nearby hospital for treatment, and the incident will be investigated by Safe Work New South Wales.
Meanwhile, Melbourne put on its biggest show of the year in the CBD, with 14 tonnes of fireworks launched from the top of 22 city buildings for New Year's Eve festivities.
Pyrotechnician Rusty Johnston said Melbourne put on a bigger show than Sydney.
"We've got a higher tonnage because we have so many firing sites where Sydney is a smallish area," he said.
Despite the heightened security presence, which included the deployment of more than 2,000 police officers, at least 500,000 people brought in the new year in Victoria's capital.
In the two biggest cities alone, more than 2 million people gathered for festivities.
Security was also beefed up in Sydney with police officers on patrol on the ground, in the air and on the water.
Police were out in force targeting anti-social behaviour
In Brisbane, despite earlier storms, crowds gathered at some of the best vantage points across the city to view the fireworks at South Bank and Kangaroo Point.
Thousands of revellers swarmed in to Elder Park, which is again the centrepiece of New Year's Eve celebrations in Adelaide.
In Hobart, people gathered on the waterfront to enjoy the Taste of Tasmania, with a number of live music acts bringing in the new year, such as Aussie rock legends, the Whitlam's.
Festival director Brooke Webb said the vibe was great.
"It's a beautiful night and it's really exciting there's a real hum and people have really got into the theme [of] a Midsummer Night's Eve," she said.
Police said they will be out in force across the state and will be targeting anti-social behaviour off the back of two reports of sexual assault at Falls Festival at Marion Bay.
A massive fireworks display was launched from Sullivans Cove in Hobart — with about $65,000 worth of pyrotechnics fired from a barge across two shows.
In Canberra, more than 30,000 fireworks were launched from City Hill as Art Vs Science rings in the New Year.
In Perth, which was the last state to reach midnight, more than a thousand police officers were patrolling the streets.
Thousands of families gathered on the foreshore in Rockingham, south of the city, while others welcomed in 2018 at City Beach, overlooking the ocean.
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, events, australia, brisbane-4000, sydney-2000, melbourne-3000, perth-6000, hobart-7000, canberra-2600, darwin-0800
First postedYesterday Obama played a new strategy:
Obama dismissed talk on Wall Street that Washington will solve its problems, warning that the fight this time is putting not only government operations at risk, but the debt ceiling as well. “I think this time it’s different,” Obama said in the interview. “I think they should be concerned.”
Usually political leaders don’t like to spook markets. Presumably Obama hoped to spook markets, which in turn would put pressure on Republicans sooner rather than later. The problem with waiting for “the spook” to come later is that there may not be enough time to put a deal together at the last minute, or trembling hands may make a last minute deal too risky.
But can Obama spook markets in this fashion? Obviously markets know that Obama has an incentive to talk up the fear for this reason. The market might thus remain unruffled, or at least it won’t be Obama’s words that are making things worse (the risk of short-term default is going up in the markets). Furthermore, let’s say that Obama’s strategy, if it could strike fear into the hearts of market traders, would work in pressuring the Republicans. Markets know that too, and so again the fear doesn’t get off the ground.
It is interesting to compare this to the standard game where a politician tries to talk the value of the domestic currency up or down on world markets. A president or central banker might, by saying a weaker currency will be tolerated, signal the future stance of fiscal or monetary policy. Since a leader who wants a stronger currency won’t try to talk down his nation’s money, this strategy (sometimes) succeeds, albeit with multiple equilibria. But here Obama’s cheap talk isn’t signaling his inner preferences about bond prices, but rather it is an attempt to manipulate trading strategies. If Obama sees his own talk as ultimately bullish (which is presumably the case if he is saying it), perhaps markets will too.
Would Obama’s strategy work if he blurted out the worries while evidently drunk? Studied Captain Queeg? Stated them “mistakenly” into an open microphone, of which he was supposedly unaware? What if he just begged everyone to believe that things were really, really bad?One of bitcoin’s biggest exchange, Bitstamp, has seemingly changed their tune after stating before the fork they were “not in a position to support BCC, nor will Bitstamp be liable for any BCC sent to Bitstamp.”
The exchange has now said Bitcoin Cash will be distributed to all those who held bitcoin before the first common block, with the exchange stating:
“We recorded their BCH balances for the timestamp of the last common block (block 478558), which is 1 August 2017, 13:16:14 UTC. These BCH balances will be made available to our customers as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Bitstamp might even list Bitcoin Cash, but that does not appear to be any time soon with estimates seemingly uncertain, although that may change. The exchange says:
“If and when the Bitcoin Cash system has been thoroughly tested and is sufficiently stable, we will then consider listing BCH. However, a series of technical, safety and regulatory requirements need to be met in order for this to occur, and it is still too early in the day to make realistic predictions about the timeframes involved.”
Their statement comes after Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, hinted yesterday they might be thinking of listing Bitcoin Cash in an apparent u-turn of sorts.
That might be due to strong demand for the currency, which rose to an all-time high of $811, before settling to around $450-$500 at the time of writing.
Bitcoin Cash has also found strong support from miners who have produced 14 blocks so far with the biggest being nearly 4.7MB, the biggest block ever produced for any digital currency.
That means at normal operations Bitcoin Cash can handle around 24-30 transactions per second, translating to 2.5-3 million transactions a day as opposed to Bitcoin Core which can currently handle only 300,000.
With the protocol planning further improvements, including sharding, which may considerably increase its capacity to potentially as good as unlimited.Taking a selfie with a loaded gun ended tragically in Washington, when a man accidently shot himself in the face while taking a picture. His girlfriend was next to him when the gun went off.
The man apparently had been greatly against Donald Trump, and many of his selfies included violence and profanities directed toward presidential candidate Donald Trump. According to his girlfriend the photo was supposed to be a joke about killing himself if Donald Trump were elected president.
As she told the police, this was not his first selfie with the weapon.
The fatal accident took place over the weekend, police in Skagit County said.
The man, whose name has not been released, thought the gun was unloaded and attempted to take a selfie while pointing the weapon at himself, the Skagit Valley Herald reported.
The man’s girlfriend said the couple had taken several selfies with the same gun on Sunday. Each time, he would unload the gun before taking a picture and then load the bullets back afterwards.
However, this was not the case with the man’s last selfie, as he apparently left one fatal bullet inside the chamber before the final photograph.I’ll admit, I have a very short attention span when it comes to painting. It’s how I knew early on I would never make comics; whenever I tried, I could never get past 15 pages or so. Always, after I’ve made a dent into a project, I get restless and have to switch to something else, probably painted in a different medium to boot.
So, I decided to challenge myself- 12 paintings, done in a relatively timely fashion, with one theme, and stylistically cohesive. Definitely a difficult task!
Well, here I am, half way through! I can feel some creeping restlessness, but I’m also excited to tackle the next constellation (Libra, for all you scale signs out there). Here are the first six signs:
As you could probably tell from the in-progress pictures I’ve been posting for the last few weeks, these guys were all painted in black ink, my favorite thing lately. That definitely makes it easier to keep going! Hopefully I’ll be posting the second set soon. In the meantime, keep an eye out for more progress photos!Commissioned for WoodLore’s new song, “Timberline Akimbo.”
Like with the last one, he tells me the character he wants, send me a rough of the song, and lets my imagination take me where it wants with total creative freedom. I wasn’t even originally planning for the art to be in color, but when this idea came to mind, it was a neat enough idea that I wanted to be brave and give it a go. Wouldn’t have been the same if done completely in pencil!
But yeah, I enjoyed the idea of the classic “cowboy in the sunset” type of scene, with his long cast shadow resembling a horseshoe, which he, of course, views as upside-down and unlucky. Not from our perspective, though.
Check out the song, though, it’s definitely one of my favorites!
tumblrMAMAMOO and VROMANCE’s agency RBW is kicking off preparations for their next boy group!
The agency announced that they are launching a new boy group debut project called “RBW Trainee Real Life – We Will Debut.” For this project, RBW will be sharing clips of the trainees’ daily lives, consisting of training, practice, and monthly evaluations, through their official channel on YouTube and Naver’s V App.
RBW further revealed that they have invited 100 people to be part of the audience at their first monthly evaluation held on November 11 at RBW Art Center.
Five male trainees, including Lee Gun Hee, Yeo Hwan Woong, Jo Young Sang, Shin Seung Joo, and Moon Jun Ho, and four female trainees, including Park Ji Eun, Na Go Eun, Kwon Bo Kyung, and Park Soo Jin will be performing on this day. After all the performances and evaluations, former “Produce 101 Season 2” contestants Lee Gun Hee and Yeo Hwan Woong will be holding a mini fan meeting with the audience members.
Source (1)For the first time in history, the total cryptocurrency market cap has reached an all-time high. By surpassing $150 billion, it has set a new record in crypto market.
Value of Cryptocurrency MarketCap
According to data from Market cap, many blockchain-based assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other currencies were close about $154 billion.
However, during last week Bitcoin and Ether prices were surging by crossing $4000 and $300 respectively. It has created huge demand and growth value for cryptocurrency among traders in large. Though Market Cap continues to reach a steady pace of success. Over the last seven days, the MarketCap was up 13% at a value of $154 billion and 67% over the last month and eventually 1240 percent as years continue adding up.
The emergence of Bitcoin Cash may also be considered as the biggest reason for such astounding surge in the value of Marketcap. Further, there were no such gain seen on other alternative cryptocurrencies like Monero, Dash, Litecoin etc.Intel Pushpin and Backplate Test
What is a backplate worth in temperature reduction?
In 2006, Intel released the Socket 775 (T) platform featuring the Land Grid Array socket. With each retail boxed processor, Intel sold its customers a CPU Cooler in each package that utilized so-called pushpins. Each pushpin consists of two pieces; a clear retaining portion that is "pushed" through the mounting holes of a motherboard, and a "pin" that is plunged into the clear retainer to expand it - forcing it to grab the backside of your motherboard PCB for pressure. The CPU Cooler included for current desktop processors have a copper core with a radial aluminum heatsink, and come standard with a preinstalled amount of thermal interface material that doesn't even cover the contact area completely.
The pushpin installation method on these CPU Coolers is just barely acceptable when users install it properly. For those that choose to use them, these two half-solutions combine into a massive migraine when installed improperly. Take the following complaint threads for example, here, here, here. Also this one, and here, and, well we could probably spend all day reading them. In spite of this, Intel has doubled down on this solution for its Sandy and Ivy Bridge processors as well as the fourth generation, Socket 1150, featuring the Haswell line. For the stock cooler, the Intel pushpin system has now been used for sockets 775, 1150, 1155, 1156, 1366 and perhaps others. Poor contact via half missing thermal interface material and a retention system that provides "just enough" pressure results in our 3770K processor throttling back within minutes on turbo mode even in a cool open-air ambient environment. Still, many installers do use this CPU Cooler, and if you are one of them, we explain how you can drop your temperatures simply by removing Intel's evil pushpins and using a sturdy spring retention system and backplate. For our non scientific test, we chose to use the Shinetsu PCS-TC-11T-13 35x35 millimeter square thermal pad. This allows for a consistent application of TIM to the processor, where thermal grease can be subjectively installed too thick or too thin from one install to the next.
Test Setup
Our purpose of this test is a comparative one. We want to see what, if any, benefit there is to using a backplate instead of Intel's pushpins. The monitoring software, Realtemp, offers a calibration mode to adjust core temperatures at idle based on recommendations above ambient. With our objective in mind, we did not calibrate Realtemp since we are not interested in the actual temperatures themselves, merely the temperature differences between a Pushpin and a Backplate installation.
Hardware
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-VLX
CPU: Intel I7-3770K Ivy Bridge Processor, SR0PL
CPU Cooler: Factory Intel
RAM: 32GB GSkill DDR 1866
HD: x1 OCZ Vertex 3 30GB
PSU: Silverstone 1000W
Bench: High Speed PC Top Desk Station
Bios: Default settings (Normal Performance mode)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 x64
Sensor Software: Realtemp 3.70 (uncalibrated)
Test 1: Pushpin Test
After installing the thermal pad and CPU Cooler, the system was set to run Prime 95 for 30 minutes. The maximum values recorded by Realtemp are shown below. Removal of the CPU Cooler produced the shown imprint on the pad. What matters not is the thermal material left on the CPU Cooler, but the imprint of the copper core on the processor. Here we can see that less than half of a circle imprint is evident. The reason for this is likely due to inconsistent and insufficient pressure exerted by our four pushpins.
Test 2: Socket 1150 / 1155 / 1156 Backplate and Spring Screws
After removing the stock cooler and cleaning our processor with Arcticlean, we reinstalled a new Shinetsu pad and removed the pushpins from the cooler. As a precaution, one should always test fit any backplate to make certain no solder joints will contact the plate when installed. On the Asus P8Z77-VLX there are two rows of leads that are relatively close, but not touching. Advanced users can choose to trim the leftover leads that the motherboard manufacturer didn't bother to. Electrical tape around areas close to solder joints is an added insurance.
Our Prime 95 torture test was repeated. Removal of the CPU Cooler shows a healthier, more circular imprint on the IHS from the Intel copper core.
Test Results
Factory Intel Heatsink with Pushpins Factory Heatsink, Backplate, Springs & Screws
The results show a consistent temperature reduction among all cores. Cores 0 and 1 show 10 degrees less while 2 and 3 show 9 degrees less.
Conclusion
This simple test shows how backplates can drastically improve performance when a thermal pad is used, by up to 10 degrees Celsius. In fact, mounting a cooling device to an Intel processor using any method other than Intel's plastic pushpins should be the goal of any user seeking to ensure his/her processor does not throttle back from extreme temperatures. If using an aftermarket CPU Cooler is not in your budget, the optimal configuration for using the stock CPU Cooler is with a good quality thermal grease and a backplate.
Products Shown
Intel Socket LGA 1150 / 1155 / 1156 Backplate Kit with Screws & Springs
Shinetsu 35x35mm Thermal Pad - AMD Approved!
ArctiClean Thermal Material Remover & Surface Purifier 60ml Kit
Other Backplates
Intel Socket 775 Backplate Kit with Screws & SpringsEarlier this year, nearly 400 patients’ groups signed onto two separate letters criticizing a recent Medicare proposal aimed at bringing down the cost of prescription drugs. Warning that there would be dire consequences for patients if the proposal moves forward, patients’ groups including the Partnership to Improve Patient Care and the Quality Cancer Care Alliance urged congressional leaders and the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medical Services to “permanently withdraw” what they viewed as “flawed policy.” In doing so, patients' groups had joined bottom-lined focused pharmaceutical companies in their opposition to the plan, a move that appeared to bolster the argument against the proposal.
But a recent Public Citizen report “Patients’ Groups and Big Pharma” suggests that the story is more complicated. The report shows that at least three-quarters of the 147 patients’ groups who signed on to the letters received funding from the pharmaceutical industry.
Public Citizen combed through websites and documents to determine which patients’ organizations had received pharmaceutical dollars. Some groups had websites emblazoned with pharmaceutical sponsors’ logos or featured specific companies listed as benefactors in reports, while others were featured in pharmaceutical companies’ public disclosures.
“When patients’ groups side with the pharmaceutical industry against proposed policy reforms, they lend credibility and a sympathetic voice to industry lobbying efforts,” the report says, going on to note that such groups’ reliance on industry money “should complicate the view that patients’ groups’ interest in such policy battles is categorically different from the industry’s financial interest.”
The patients’ groups had warned that discouraging medical professionals from prescribing more costly drugs is a “one-size-fits-all” policy that could force them to prescribe cheaper drugs that are also less effective. Such a policy could even lead to an “abrupt halt” in treatment altogether, they argued. One group also cautioned that the measure would particularly hurt patients with disabilities, who had more diverse treatment needs.
It’s not the first time the pharmaceutical industry and patients’ groups have worked together fight this Medicare plan. Last month, USA Today reported that the Community Oncology Alliance (a patients’ group that signed onto one of the Medicare prescription drug letters) used language nearly identical to talking points disseminated by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association in its public comments on the proposal. The pharmaceutical association is also one of oncology alliance’s corporate members.
The Public Citizen report notes that its findings are likely understated, since they are based largely on voluntary disclosures by drug companies and the groups in question. While the Affordable Care Act mandated that drug companies disclose their payments to physicians beginning in 2013, the law did not apply to health advocacy organizations.
The ties between the pharmaceutical industry and patients’ groups are well known. After Senator Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican, started investigating pharmaceutical companies’ links to these organizations in 2009, The New York Times reported that the National Alliance on Mental Illness took in around 75 percent of its donations, or about $23 million, from drug manufacturers from 2006 to 2008, a sum that even the group’s executive director admitted was too much.
Patients’ groups rarely talk about high drug prices, a possible consequence of their reliance on industry money. A 2006 study of the issue noted: “Just as gifts (monetary or in kind) may induce feelings of loyalty and indebtedness in physicians which can influence medical decision-making, one may expect patient groups also to be caught between two masters.” Smaller organizations that relied heavily on industry donations to help fund their operations were particularly at risk, the study found.
Public Citizen’s report comes less than a month after the watchdog group issued a separate report on the matter, which found that members of Congress who criticized the Medicare proposal had received significant contributions from the pharmaceutical industry.Toronto trustees like to have their say in the boardroom, but they do a lot of talking outside of it as well — racking up thousands of dollars worth of calls to and from the Virgin Islands, Panama, Cuba, Greece and Mexico.
A detailed internal audit of Toronto District School Board trustees found numerous examples when they were, mostly without question, reimbursed for unauthorized or dubious expenses, including conference costs six days after the end of a three-day conference, $100 for alcohol and a $250 parking violation — issued for either blocking a fire route or a fire hydrant.
Trustee John Hastings, chair of the audit committee, said he could not explain the claims but wants the board to move quickly to address spending.
“I think it’s a combination of training that has to be provided to trustees, plus clearer policies and procedures … we need to bloody well pull up our socks and get at it,” he said before heading into a meeting Monday afternoon to discuss the audit.
The board paid out an additional $3,500 in international texting and data roaming charges from September 2010 to last January. “There appears to be no monitoring of trustee’s board cellphone charges,” the audit notes.Prague, 13 January 2014 – Enjoy a view of the most interesting or commonly inaccessible parts of power plants by means of power plant virtual tours recently launched by the CEZ Group. Between January 13 and the end of February, a total of 7 power plants with 105 stops will gradually be open to virtual visitors. In the case of Temelín, it is globally the first presentation of such a tour solution among more than 430 reactors in the nuclear power plants operated all over the world.
Would you like to walk all the way to the reactor pit of the Temelín NPP? Did you know how the Tušimice power plant looks on the inside after its comprehensive upgrade? Or do you just want to enjoy the view from the gondola of a wind turbine near Litomyšl? All this and much more you can enjoy by means of the virtual tours of the CEZ Group’s power plants, which have been made available just recently!
Every Monday, starting on January 13, at the CEZ website, supported by the Facebook profile of ČEZ, you will findthe first virtual tour of one of the seven power plants. The first one in the series was Štěchovice, where visitors can virtually fly over the dam and then walk through the backstages of two types of power plants – the flow-through plant and the pumped-storage plant. In weekly intervals, virtual tours of other power plant types will follow (see the table below).
Every tour starts with a panorama view of the location taken from an airplane. Based on their own choices, every visitor may thenvisit the most important parts of the power plant. All that coming with descriptions, technical data and other interesting information. The seven power plants will offer a total of 105 visitor stops. The virtual tour of the Temelín nuclear power plant is globally the first presentation of such a tour solution among more than 430 nuclear reactors operated all over the world. The project, available in English as well, has been created as a cooperation between CDI.CZ and the CEZ Group’s operation and communication specialists.
Location Power plant type Launch date Štěchovice Hydroelectric flow-through and pumped-storage plant 13 Jan at 10 a.m. Temelín Nuclear 20 Jan at 10 a.m. Janov Wind farm 27 Jan at 10 a.m. Tušimice Coal plant 3 Feb at 10 a.m. Hodonín Biomass plant 10 Feb at 10 a.m. Číčov Bio-gas station 17 Feb at 10 a.m. Buštěhrad Photovoltaic plant 24 Feb at 10 a.m.
“The ever-growing public interest in tours of our power plants and in our information centres has made us decide to make the tours accessible also to those who, for various reasons, cannot come all the way to our power plants. But others may refresh their experiences and knowledge, too,” says Marie Dufková, ČEZ’ Education Programme Coordinator.
Nevertheless, the virtual tours of the currently scheduled seven power plants are by far not the end of the program. “Still this year we would like to invite all fans of and people interested in the energy industry to visit other beautiful places. We plan to use virtual tours, among other things, to open Dukovany, the first Czech nuclear power plant, to the world, and to do the same with one of the global wonders, the Dlouhé Stráně pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant, and also the comprehensively upgraded plant in Ledvice,” Marie Dufková lures the public.
For more information about the CEZ Group’s power plants in the Czech Republic, please visit http://www.cez.cz/cs/vyroba-elektriny.html
Did you know that …
The CEZ Group’s power plant portfolio in the Czech Republic includes 2 nuclear, 13 coal, 35 hydroelectric, 13 photovoltaic, 2 wind power plants and also one biogas station?
The subsidiary of ČEZ Energo operates some 70 co-generation units – small combined heat and power plants?
This year, ČEZ will see the amount of electricity generated in nuclear power plants exceed that coming from coal power plants?
The programme of comprehensively desulphurising our coal power plants in the 1990’s is now followed up by a comprehensive renewal and upgrade of selected coal power plants (Tušimice, Ledvice, Prunéřov)?
The currently ongoing upgrade efforts at our hydroelectric power plants, which will make them more environment friendly, will enable us
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aThe United States has agreed to fund a multi-million-dollar project to install an electronic security surveillance system on Tunisia's border with strife-torn Libya, the US embassy said Friday.
In a statement, the diplomatic mission said that the US was disbursing the first installment of the $24.9 million project to strengthen security along the frontier.
The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) awarded the contract to American construction group BTP and consulting and engineering firm AECOM, a diplomatic source told AFP.
According to the embassy, the project involves the installation of an integrated surveillance system using sensors and regular security equipment.
The project includes training Tunisian forces to use the system, the statement added, without giving a start or completion date.
Tunisia has built a 200-kilometre (125-mile) barrier that stretches about half the length of its border with Libya in an attempt to prevent militants from infiltrating.
A series of deadly attacks by ISIS on foreign holidaymakers last year, which have dealt a devastating blow to the country's tourism industry, are believed to have been planned from Libya.
Last Update: Saturday, 26 March 2016 KSA 08:30 - GMT 05:30Amid a struggle to determine religion’s role in Azerbaijan, a controversial movement led by Turkish theologian Fetullah Gulen is attempting to establish itself as the face of moderate, politically acceptable Islam in Baku. There are several factors, however, that are limiting the Gulen movement’s ability to achieve its goal.
The Gulen movement, which is also known as Nurcular in Azerbaijan, is most widely known in the Caspian Basin state for its educational programs. When it began operating in Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, the movement received a warm welcome from the officials, who at that time preferred to emphasize ethnic politics grounded in common Turkic cultural connections above the dawaa, or Islamic missionary activities.
Azerbaijan’s late president Heydar Aliyev saw the cultural component as a useful contribution to Azeri nation-building, and a way of cementing the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance. It helped that, back then, secular and Islamic actors in Turkey, whatever their domestic disagreements, cooperated in promoting closer ties between Ankara and the newly independent state of Azerbaijan, as well as those in Central Asia. To better understand this trend, it is beneficial to read Between the State and Islam, a work by Berna Turam, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston.
These days attitudes in Baku have changed. The administration of the incumbent president, Ilham Aliyev, the son of the former president Heydar, is much more circumspect when it comes to the Gulen movement.
One explanation for the shift is connected to political developments in Turkey. Aliyev’s secular administration felt much more comfortable dealing with Kemalist Turkish leaders who governed prior to the rise in 2002 of the religiously conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP). The AKP is reputed to have strong ties to the Gulen movement, and this makes officials in Baku nervous. The secular model in Turkey, a model that kept religion out of politics, has weakened during the AKP’s almost decade in power. Aliyev, accordingly, may be wondering how strongly Ankara will continue to support Azerbaijan’s own, secular political model.
In Baku, meanwhile, the government’s tolerance of different political points of view has steadily diminished. This has translated into a more restrictive attitude toward any kind of foreign religious influence.
In spite of the current trends, it is unlikely that Azerbaijani authorities intend to crack down on the Gulen movement, however. For one, given the movement’s rising influence in Turkey, a crackdown would endanger Baku´s strategic alliance with Ankara. Another reason is that the movement runs a highly successful network of schools, and the offspring of many influential Azerbaijani officials, including Ramiz Mehdiyev, the head of the presidential administration, are said to be attending these schools. Still another reason is the alleged business ties between Azerbaijani officials and Gulen-linked enterprises, although this, in the absence of free media in Azerbaijan, is hard, if impossible to ascertain.
Secularists and civil society advocates are divided in their attitude to the movement. Some, like Arif Yunus, believe that with its strong emphasis on modern education and inter-faith dialogue, the Gulenists should be supported as a counterbalance to more conservative and radical strands of Islam.
Others believe this aim is overly optimistic. While the movement’s public face is consistently tolerant and pluralistic, behind the scenes it seems less tolerant. For example, in dormitories operated by Gulen schools, and in Gulen businesses, there is strict gender segregation, and the subordination of women prevails. In its boarding schools efforts to educate youth in a rigidly pious Muslim way eclipses the concept of individual liberty and free choice of lifestyles. As reported by WikiLeaks, at least one case is known when an Azeri student left a Gulenist dormitory in Baku, because of the movement´s opposition to his choice of marriage partner.
Many Azerbaijani liberals also fret about what they see as the Gulen movement’s hypocrisy and opportunism: amid an Azerbaijani government clampdown on the freedom of expression and assembly in 2011, the Gulen movement´s flagship newspaper, Zaman, ran a number of stories praising Azerbaijan’s "visionary leadership." This struck civil society activists as incongruous, given the movement’s claims to support democracy in Turkey and elsewhere. In general, the articles were perceived as a cynical Gulen ploy to curry favour with the officials in Baku for the movement's educational and business projects.
Also giving liberals pause in Baku is the fact that the movement is helping to spearhead the controversial Ergenekon and Sledgehammer conspiracy cases in Turkey, which have seen hundreds of people, including journalists critical of the movement, languishing in jails for years, without trial and often on the basis of what appears to be a fabricated evidence.
Back in Baku, the Gulen movement´s relations with other major actors in Azerbaijan’s religious scene are tense. Radical Shiites, inspired by the example of the Islamic Republic of Iran, see the movement as passive and conformist. It is telling, for example, that the protesters against the hijab ban in schools were almost entirely Shiites, while Gulenists adopted a low profile. On the other hand, Salafis frown upon the movement for it enthusiastic embrace of technological and even theological innovations, deemed as forbidden by these Saudi-inspired Islamic puritans.
Last, but not least, the movement´s emphasis on Turkism and Islam alienates from it members of mainly Baku-based, Russian-speaking Azerbaijani intelligentsia, which, despite dwindling numbers, remains an influential opinion leader.
Despite occasional setbacks, the Gulen movement has succeeded in building an effective network comprising former alumni, friendly officials and sympathetic businesses. Its message of relatively moderate Islam and Turkic nationalism resonates with an increasing number of Azeris, particularly young people, who see in it an alternative to both the secularism of the Aliyev´s administration and Iranian-style Islamism. But the pluralistic nature of Azerbaijani society, which includes secular liberals, intelligentsia, Shiites, non-Turkic minorities, and, above all, the strong tradition of indigenous secularism, will put natural limits to the movement’s expansion in Azerbaijan.Warframe's Plains of Eidolon update is out now. We'll have more information and impressions in the coming days. In the meantime, here's what we learned from Digital Extremes back in July.
Warframe's second annual TennoCon convention is today, and developer Digital Extremes had some exciting news about its next big update. Titled Plains of Eidolon, it will add the game's first large, open world area called a Landscape. Unlike Warframe's regular procedurally generated levels, Plains of Eidolon will be a hand-crafted environment complete with a day-night cycle and an NPC town called Cetus where players can take on quests.
In a similar style to the first Guild Wars, an instance of Cetus will support up to 50 players, before you then venture out in the usual groups of one to four. Even still, this is a massive shift in the typical gameplay loop of Warframe. Staying loaded into an area to take quests wasn't possible before, making the game closer to a traditional MMO than it's ever been.
You'll even be able to seamlessly equip your Archwing and fly around to support allies from above, which you'll likely need to do come nighttime. While you fight the more traditional Grineer during the day, enormous creatures called Eidolons roam the plains at night—another first for Warframe. There's a lot going on in Plains of Eidolon (including a brand new weapon crafting system, as well) and Digital Extremes tells me more Landscapes could come if players end up liking them.
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I put some questions about both the intent and the specifics behind this update to Digital Extremes' Live Ops and Community Producer, Rebecca Ford. Read on to hear more details about Plains of Eidolon and the new direction Warframe is heading.
PC Gamer: How large is Plains of Eidolon relative to other Warframe maps?
Rebecca Ford: Something we worry about constantly is how to keep things fresh after four years, not fall into a comfort zone, and to continue to take risks. We built Warframe with a procedurally generated map system that encompassed indoor and outdoor closed environments to help elongate play and keep players entertained while we continue building new content.
Now, we're introducing Landscapes for the first time and in its first iteration in Warframe. Landscapes is what we call an open zone, not quite the size of what you'd expect of open world in other games but still sizable, that offers a new kind of player freedom through interaction with NPC characters, flying over the plains using your Archwing, encountering new enemies during the day and at night. It's our first introduction of this new mechanic so we're nervous but really excited to see how players react and will continue to build on it as it grows.
This sounds a lot like Warframe is becoming more like a traditional MMORPG, at least in part. Was that the intent behind it?
If I were to hop into a time machine and travel back to 2012 to tell my younger self that we'd be at a point of introducing content like this to a game that started out as a third-person shooter with cool parkour—well, I'd say you're just crazy! And sure, creating an open landscape like this could be compared to a lot of genres, adventure games, open-space action games, MMORPGs. But the intent since day one was to take leaps, create and add to the game in an organic way where we listen to and surprise our players, so in a way the game has evolved into a mash of genres that we didn't necessarily plan specifically but so far we've managed to make sense of.
What sort of missions or quests are there to complete, and what kind of rewards do they give?
Right now we are filling out the Landscapes with quests and mini-quests through NPC characters that you meet in the village of Cetus. There's a continuous day and night cycle, where you'll see the sun gradually go down at night and slowly rise in the morning, so it creates a feeling of being there, that’s also new to Warframe.
In the day, you will experience the Warframe you know and love—kill Grineer, get resources, build awesome stuff, get stronger. This could be an endless loot experience if you aggressively upgrade and customize and look to trade off your finds with others. But we’ve added something much deeper, surprising—we’re adding weapon crafting to Warframe’s first Landscape. While we've had great customization before, using our Mod system, this is an entirely new system where you build Ostron weapons from components! Each component allows you to create a new style of weapon—and of course, you'll get to give it your [own] name for once!
And that’s just the day. At night, this is when even the Grineer flee. This is. what we want to be, some of the hardest content in Warframe. At night, the Plain comes alive with massive, five-story high monstrosities that ascend from the water and roam the landscape in search of Warframes to destroy and consume. Where before you've battled one against many, these Eidolons will require a sustained, coordinated team approach if you have any hope of bringing one down at all.
Does it have any procedural generation, or is it all pre-made and the same each time you explore it?
Good question. There will be random combat encounters in Plains of Eidolon with the geographical layout remaining consistent. To give you a better sense of what I mean, enemy encounters and combat are randomized every time you play as well as a continuous day and night cycle that affects how enemies operate—adding even more variety and excitement to Landscapes.
How many players can be in an instance of the area at once?
The Ostron Town of Cetus is introduced to players in Plains of Eidolon and this first introduction can have 50 players in an instance. This town then leads to the Plains where combat and quests take place where you continue with your standard one to four-player squad.
Are there any load screens or other transitions when exploring or switching to the Archwing? Similarly, will players be able to see others flying around in the sky above them?
There are no load screens or transitions when calling on your Archwing to equip it to your Warframe. It’s a seamless process. Equip and fly! And, yes, absolutely, other players will see their fellow Tenno above them as they provide air support, or just fly off to investigate something!
Are Landscapes something you've been wanting to do for a while?
Very early this year there was a collective understanding we wanted to try something different. The fact that this has come together the way it has speaks to the craftsmanship among our extremely devoted team. Doing it now was important because Warframe has been developing a world with characters and experiences that matter through our previous lore-driven updates, and we needed to build up areas that speak to that. A town full of civilians is something that we have only heard about in the storylines, but never seen.
Is this a sign of things to come for Warframe updates? Should we expect open world exploration areas to become the norm from now on?
If our players like our Landscapes as much as we do, then YES, you can expect more!As Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain suspends his bid amidst allegations of sexual harassment and an affair, he leaves us with an entertainment-related (and, to some, probably entertaining) news nugget.
On Saturday, Cain announced that he was suspending his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, and his parting words included a quote from an unlikely source: A song from “Pokémon: The Movie 2000.”
The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza said this weekend as he has previously during his campaign, "Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, it's never easy when there is so much on the line. But you and I can make a difference.”
According to GQ, he's previously attributed the quote to "a poet."
In an interview with the men's magazine for its December issue, Cain said he'd heard the quote during the 2000 Olympics before he was informed of the real source behind his words: the lyrics from the “Pokémon” movie's theme song, "The Power of One," sung by Donna Summer.
Cain also cleared up the citation during this weekend's announcement: "I believe these words came from the Pokémon movie,” he said, noting, “the media pointed that out."
Cain continued, "I’m not sure who the original author is, so don’t go write an article about the poem. But it says a lot about where I am - where I am with my wife and my family, and where we are as a nation.”
Cain then delivered his favorite Pokémon quote again.The Rio Olympics continue to be an example of why more and more cities are wary of hosting the games.
Rio 2016 has essentially become a financial disaster, with the games costing $13 billion in a mix of private and public money, according to a June Associated Press report.
Much of the Olympic infrastructure is abandoned or underused, including the $700 million athletes village that was supposed to be turned into luxury condos once the games were over.
Stephen Wade of the Associated Press recently reported via Twitter that the athletes village was "shuttered" and that only 7% of the condos had been sold.
The vast emptiness of the Athletes Village from last year's Olympics. Shuttered. 3,600 apartments. Reports say 7 percent sold. pic.twitter.com/HAjnxzEOiU — Stephen Wade (@StephenWadeAP) July 16, 2017
Other areas aren't in much better shape. The Olympic Park has staged some events but is largely underused and wasn't sold because there was only one bidder, according to the AP report. Wade reported that the Olympic Park was also basically vacant.
Would IOC President Thomas Bach want to be seen in Rio's vacant Olympic Park? Billions squandered to help drive real estate deals. pic.twitter.com/I6XnUjQyWK — Stephen Wade (@StephenWadeAP) July 16, 2017
With no food or vendors, there's almost no reason to visit, Wade reported.
Rio's Olympic Park a year after: arenas shut, no shade, no food, few people. No planning after spending billions. Tokyo must not repeat. pic.twitter.com/xEKh07088l — Stephen Wade (@StephenWadeAP) July 16, 2017
Rio should serve as a warning to other countries about the costs of hosting the Olympics. The images of nearly abandoned venues have surfaced at a time when costs of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have reportedly doubled to $12.6 billion, up from the $6 billion that was projected when Tokyo won the bid in 2013.
NOW WATCH: A 12-time Olympic medalist reveals her eating habits during training
More From Business InsiderPolice say two people are dead and a third person wounded in north Alabama after shootings that involved police.
Huntsville police Lt. Stacy Bates says officers were responding to reports of a shooting on the city's northwest side Wednesday night when they encountered a man with a gun.
Bates tells WAFF-TV that police shot and killed the suspect. Bates said that after that happened, police found a second man dead of gunshot wounds, but that person wasn't killed by the officers.
Police also found a third man who had been shot by an unknown suspect and was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
Bates told the station late Wednesday that police had many unanswered questions.
No other information about the officers or suspects was immediately released.
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Information from: WAFF-TV, http://www.waff.com/Gifts for Gadget Geeks
Do you need gift ideas for a geeky gadget lover? Well, I think I’ve found some great gadgets for you. Some of these gadgets are for fun but most are not only clever but practical too and they won’t break the bank either!
I love the tin can robot – a self assembly kit you can work on with the kids and then have fun with afterwards. It does have some small fiddly bits though so younger children will need help and supervision. I’ve also seen the color changing LED showerhead around the internet and thought how much fun that would be – can you imagine keeping the kids out of the shower when that’s installed?
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I saw the Official BS Button and just had to include it! I’m not sure I’d risk it at the office but perhaps when your teenager is giving you excuses, you could bash it & let them know you’re smelling something! The Evil Genius project book is just one of many Evil Genius books, all highly rated and with various themes. These books are not for novices though, you will need some electronics and engineering knowledge but for the tech gadget geek, they would be perfect!
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I’ve seen the 3D pen being used and it looks like a fantastic geeky gadget for any creative geek in your home. You can make anything you can think of with a little bit of thought although keyfobs seem to be the beginners default item! And last but not least, a bluetooth waterproof shower speaker so now you can sing in the shower to music from your phone or iPod. It also has a button that will let you access your phone to answer a call or use Siri without having to drip water all over the bathroom floor!
3D Drawing PenCheck Price USB Dancing Water SpeakersCheck Price Kitchen Towel USB HubCheck Price Water Resistant Shower SpeakerCheck Price
I had a great time scouring Amazon to find these clever gadgets for your gadget lover and I may have slipped one or two into my shopping basket while I was there! Computer geeks tend to love gadgets too so don’t forget to check out my gift ideas for computer geeks post as well.
We have loads more gift ideas coming soon so if you need inspiration, sign up for the mailing list and then you won’t miss a post.Justin Clarke of the Lions and Jarryd Blair of the Magpies challenge for the mark during the 2015 AFL Round 01 match between the Brisbane Lions and the Collingwood Magpies at the Gabba, Brisbane on April 04, 2015. (Photo: Bradley Kanaris/AFL Media)
Brisbane Lions defender Justin Clarke has been ruled out of football indefinitely due to concussion.
Clarke suffered a head knock at training on January 18, falling to the ground heavily after a pack mark contest.
He was taken to hospital where scans revealed no break or fracture to his neck, and he was discharged from hospital the same night.
However, the 22-year-old has not returned to training since the incident, and has undergone regular concussion testing in line with the AFL's protocol.
Justin's symptoms have persisted and Lions medical staff have consulted concussion specialists in Brisbane and Melbourne.
Testing has not shown any damage to his brain but with symptoms continuing, the Club and Justin will take an ultra-cautious approach.
Lions Football Manager Matt Francis said the Club's overriding priority is Justin's long-term health.
"Justin has had concussions before and our duty of care to him is paramount," said Francis.
"Our medical staff and Justin are working through his symptoms on a daily basis and there is no timeframe set for his return.
"Justin has been completing a university degree during his time with the Club and he has very definite plans for his career post-footy - that will influence any decisions going forward."
The Club will provide updates on Justin's condition in coming weeks.A new 30-person unit at the Corrections Department will monitor food service and other contracts. (Photo: Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press)
LANSING -- The Michigan Department of Corrections, which was at the center of a recent controversy over problems with its former prison food contractor, is setting up a 30-person unit to monitor the department’s private contracts for the supply of food, medical treatment and other services.
Though privatization is on the rise in state government, officials say the corrections department is the first state department to set up such a unit.
Critics say the full cost of contract monitoring, highlighted by MDOC’s new 30-person unit, does not always get factored in when the state opts to replace state employees with private contractors in a bid to save money.
Department Director Heidi Washington told a House appropriations subcommittee on Oct. 29 that the department has contracted out a number of services in addition to the highly publicized food services contract, which was initially awarded to Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services but after much controversyswitched to Trinity Services Group of Florida. Those include certain health services, mental health services and pharmaceuticals, she said.
"We need to better coordinate our monitoring efforts" across all contracts, with uniform standards and training for staff who do the monitoring, Washington said. "We have some significant relationships with vendors."
All told, the department spent about $250 million last year on about 185 service contracts, including about 70 substance abuse contracts, more than a dozen sex offender related contracts and about a dozen prisoner re-entry contracts with community service agencies, spokesman Chris Gautz said.
In addition to monitoring the contracts, the new unit will conduct required audits under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, Gautz said.
Washington said the department is working with the Civil Service Department on establishing the new unit and identifying positions for it, which she said would be filled by realigning existing staff rather than hiring new employees.
A December report from the state auditor general said the Corrections Department spent about $2.1 million to monitor the Aramark contract between December 2013 and August 2015.
Roland Zullo, an associate research scientist who studies privatization at U-M's Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy, said the cost of monitoring a privatized state service can vary significantly, depending on the nature of the service.
When a municipality contracts out for garbage collection, the change is largely self-monitoring, because if the garbage doesn't get collected, officials will quickly hear about it from homeowners, Zullo said.
But with other types of services, such as those involving child protection or inmates, where those being served lack a strong voice, "that natural monitoring function by the public doesn't exist," there is greater potential for abuse and undetected contract violations, Zullo said.
When making the case to privatize a state service, officials typically estimate saving a certain percentage of payroll on administrative costs, such as processing of payroll, and also apply a fixed percentage of payroll for the cost of supervision, Zullo said. But there's little evidence either estimate is accurate and the cost of monitoring contracts is typically underestimated, he said.
Zullo said he doesn't think more monitoring or a different contractor will fix the problems associated with the prison food contract. The problems, he said, relate to trying to pay close to fast-food wages for important and stressful jobs, which have a security aspect, supervising inmate cooks.
Michael LaFaive, fiscal policy director for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which advocates for privatization of government services, said effective monitoring is essential to successful contracting, and he agrees the cost of that monitoring should be included when calculating the net cost or benefit of a privatization initiative.
"A contract can still save money with contract monitoring being part of it," LaFaive said. "The cost would be a lot higher if you don't have that monitoring."
The state said disagreements over billing led to a mutual agreement with Aramark to end the Philadelphia-based company’s three-year, $145-million contract in September, when it still had more than a year to go. The state didn’t cite a history of problems with Aramark, which included food shortages, maggots in the kitchen,smuggling of drugs and other contraband by Aramark employees, and Aramark workers engaging in sex acts with inmates.
During the height of the problems, the state moved some oversight functions for the Aramark contract to the Department of Technology, Management and Budget.
Trinity's three-year contract is costlier, at $158.8 million.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.
Read or Share this story: http://on.lsj.com/1OU5ceQA new flexible, sensing “skin” could allow robots to more accurately sense when objects are slipping out of its grasp, according to a new report.
Researchers from the University of Washington and UCLA say they ahve developed such a flexible sensor skin that can be stretched over any part of a robot’s body to allow it to gain information on shear forces and vibration that could help it more accurately grasp and manipulate objects.
A report on the skin was recently published in the journal Sensors and Actuators A: Physical.
The skin reportedly mimics the way a human finger feels tension and compression as it strokes a surface and interprets different textures, according to the report, and measures tactile information with precision close to that of skin.
“Robotic and prosthetic hands are really based on visual cues right now — such as, ‘Can I see my hand wrapped around this object?’ or ‘Is it touching this wire?’ But that’s obviously incomplete information. If a robot is going to dismantle an improvised explosive device, it needs to know whether its hand is sliding along a wire or pulling on it. To hold on to a medical instrument, it needs to know if the object is slipping. This all requires the ability to sense shear force, which no other sensor skin has been able to do well,” UW mechanical and chemical engineering professor and senior author Jonathan Posner said in a press release.
Traditional tactile skins have not provided a full range of sensory information, and often the ability of fully instrumented fingers on robots to detect touch is limited to just that appendage, according to the report.
“Traditionally, tactile sensor designs have focused on sensing individual modalities: normal forces, shear forces or vibration exclusively. However, dexterous manipulation is a dynamic process that requires a multimodal approach. The fact that our latest skin prototype incorporates all three modalities creates many new possibilities for machine learning-based approaches for advancing robot capabilities,” UCLA mechanical & aerospace engineering associate professor and co-author Veronica Santos said in a prepared statement.
The skin was manufactured at UW’s Washington Nanofabrication Facility and is made from the same silicone rubber used in swimming goggles. The material can be embedded with conductive liquid metal that can stretch with the surface without the fatigue associated with solid wires.
As the filled channels in the ‘skin’ changes in geometry, the amount of electricity flowing through it is altered and can be measured to correlate with shear forces and vibrations.
“It’s really following the cues of human biology. Our electronic skin bulges to one side just like the human finger does and the sensors that measure the shear forces are physically located where the nailbed would be, which results in a sensor that performs with similar performance to human fingers,” lead author Jianzhu Yin said in prepared remarks.
The skin has been shown to be sensitive enough for light touch applications including opening a door, interacting with a phone, shaking hands, picking up packages, handling objects and can detect vibrations at 800 times per second, according to the report.
“By mimicking human physiology in a flexible electronic skin, we have achieved a level of sensitivity and precision that’s consistent with human hands, which is an important breakthrough. The sense of touch is critical for both prosthetic and robotic applications, and that’s what we’re ultimately creating,” Posner said in a press release.In response to EFF's Freedom of Information Act request, the government released today the 2011 FISA Court opinion (redacted) that found part of the National Security Agency's "upstream collection" to be illegal and unconstitutional. Upstream collection is when the NSA gets a copy of Internet traffic as it flows through major telecommunications hubs, and searches through for "selectors," like an email address or a keyword.
In a press conference call on the newly declassified court opinion, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) revealed new information about the way the NSA treated what it calls "multi-communication transactions." Such MCTs were at the heart of the illegal collection that went on from 2008 to 2011, resulting in wholesale collection of tens of thousands of domestic communications without a warrant. But what, exactly, is an MCT?
Responding to a question from New York Times journalist Charlie Savage, ODNI gave the following example of one type of MCT:
... there's a certain kind of communication that is referred to in the opinion as a "multi-communication transaction," where there are several communications bundled together. I can give you one example of that, but I really don't want to talk in great detail because it can get into operational sensitivities. One example of this is if you have a webmail email account, like Gmail or Hotmail or something like that, you know that when you go and you open up your email program, you will get a screenshot of some number of emails that are sitting in your inbox. In the case of my server, what I get is the date of the email, the sender, the subject line, and the size of the email message. But I may get 15 of them at one time. Those are all transmitted across the Internet as one communication, even though there are 15 separate emails mentioned in them. And for technological reasons, NSA was not capable of breaking those down into their -- and still is not capable -- of breaking those down into their individual components. So if you had a situation where one of those emails may have referenced your targeted email in the subject line, for example, you'd nonetheless collect the whole inbox list together. It's like a screenshot. You don't get the whole email, you'd get what's ever popping up on your screen at the time, that comes as one communication. On occasion, some of those might prove to be wholly domestic. For example, if you are targeting a foreign person, and that foreign person is in communication with a U.S. person, you can get all of that U.S. person's screenshot. So there may be other communications that are between U.S. persons, which are wholly domestic communications, which we're not allowed to collect under section 702. So, that's the brief executive summary of the problem, which NSA discovered and brought to the court's attention. I'll go on to say that the court -- a brief summary of the court's ruling, they found that because it was technologically impossible to prevent this from happening, the collection of this communication was not problematic. But what was problematic was the fact that the court felt that NSA's procedures for identifying and purging wholly domestic communications needed to be beefed up. And that's what was done.
This is likely not the only type of MCT involved in the NSA spying program.
Today's call was on background, and the agency requested that the names of its representatives not be published. Several recordings have been posted online, and an excerpt from one audio recording, featuring ODNI's explanation but excluding the name of the speaker, is embedded below.ROME – It took him four years, but Pope Francis has managed to bury a hatchet in his country, appointing a bishop for the military in Argentina, the first one in over a decade. The previous one had been deauthorized by the Kirchner administration after comments he made on abortion.
On Tuesday, the Vatican announced the pontiff has appointed Bishop Santiago Olivera as Ordinary of the Military in Argentina, taking him from the diocese of Cruz del Eje, in the central province of Cordoba.
Among many things, Olivera was the man behind the canonization of Father José Gabriel Brochero, known as the “Gaucho priest.” He’s the second Argentine saint, canonized by Francis last year.
The post Olivera is set to fill has been vacant since 2007, two years after the government of Nestor Kirchner decided to reject the then-military Bishop Antonio Juan Baseotto, who presented his resignation in 2006, on his 75th birthday, as every Catholic bishop does.
Back in 2005, when the Health Minister of Nestor Kirchner announced his support for legalizing abortion and the government’s decision to distribute condoms, Baseotto sent minister Ginés González García a letter quoting a passage from the Gospel of Mark: “Our Lord affirmed that ‘those who scandalize little ones should have a stone tied around their neck and be thrown into the sea.’”
The country’s last military coup led to the disappearance of thousands of people, with low estimates being 9,000 with a high estimate of 30,000. One of the army’s methods for “disappearing” people were the vuelos de la muerte, “flights of death,” whereby prisoners of the last military regime were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean from planes.
Suffice it to say, the phrase wasn’t well received in Argentina.
News reports from the time speak of a letter from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger- who’d soon after become Pope Benedict XVI- supporting Baseotto.
Only months after the controversy began, Kirchner, who saw the Church, particularly Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, today Pope Francis, as one of the leading voices of the opposition, was one of the few heads of states to miss the funeral of Pope John Paul II in Rome.
The official excuse given was avoiding two trips to Italy, because the plan was for the president to attend the inaugural ceremony of the new pope, but at the time, observers saw it as a deepening of the tension between the government and the Church.
The Kirchner government eventually decided to withdraw its support of Basseotto, breaching an agreement reached by Argentina and the Holy See in 1992, which stated that the government had to pay the salary for the military ordinariate.
When the Vatican denounced this as an attack on religious freedom, the government argued that he could still be a bishop, just not in the army. The Church ignored the order from Kirchner, kept Baseotto in his post for close to a year after the mandatory retirement, and appointed the Vicar General Pedro Candia for the post on a temporary basis, that lasted 10 years.
Eventually the government threatened the Church with re-writing the 1992 agreement, allegedly to include other religions in the spiritual care of the military and to protect the division between Church and State. They never went through with the threat, perhaps because according to the national Constitution, the country’s federal government sustains the Catholic faith.
Kirchner was succeeded by his wife, Cristina Fernandez, who also saw Bergoglio as the leader of the opposition until he was elected pope. During the final years of her presidency, which ended in Dec. 2015, she bent over backwards to have a good relationship with Francis, coming to Rome several times and meeting with him during his trips to Latin America.
Yet the matter of the military bishop was not resolved until Tuesday, 15 months into the presidency of Mauricio Macri.House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) appeared on CNN for a town hall forum on Aug. 21. Here's what he said about President Trump and repealing the Affordable Care Act. (Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has not hidden the fact he disapproves of President Trump equating white supremacists in Charlottesville with counterprotest
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Tea party groups and fiscal conservatives wasted no time Wednesday in savaging a bipartisan budget agreement negotiated between House Republicans and Senate Democrats, drawing an unusually angry response from House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.
All sides were rating the winners and losers in the deal struck a day earlier between House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, Washington Democrat. The modest deficit-cutting deal had some sweeteners for defense contractors and oil drillers, while air travelers, federal workers and some corporate executives would take a hit.
But most of the passion focused on the politics of the deal, with Mr. Ryan, Mr. Boehner and the House GOP leadership defending their handiwork from attacks from conservative colleagues on Capitol Hill and from outside groups such as the Club for Growth, Heritage Action and Americans for Prosperity. Critics said the agreement effectively raised taxes in the form of higher fees, failed to restrain entitlement programs and permitted new spending in the short term in exchange for vague promises of long-term cuts.
Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said in an interview that Republicans sacrificed their biggest point of leverage — the tough “sequester” spending cuts that were already in force — in the rush to get a short-term deal that did not address the long-term costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
“I am against [the deal] from just a basic point that we embarked on a position at the beginning of the year that said, ‘We will keep the sequester in place unless we get to make changes on mandatory spending that will save those program and put the budget on path to balance within the next 10 years,’” Mr. Jordan said.
Added Chris Chocola, president of the fiscally hawkish Club for Growth, “Apparently, there are some Republicans who don’t have the stomach for even relatively small spending reductions that are devoid of budgetary smoke and mirrors. If Republicans work with Democrats to pass this deal, it should surprise no one when Republican voters seek alternatives who actually believe in less spending when they go to the ballot box.”
SEE ALSO: Rand Paul: Budget deal ‘shameful,’ ‘huge mistake’
Despite conservative unhappiness and tepid reviews from many House Democrats, the proposal could be voted on in the House as early as Thursday and Mr. Ryan said Wednesday on CNN that he is confident he has the votes to pass the bill.
Mr. Boehner used unusually pointed language in hitting back at conservative opponents of the deal, charging that critics opposed the agreement even before knowing what was in it.
“They’re using our members and the American people to their own purposes,” an angry Mr. Boehner said. “This is ridiculous.”
But several Republican senators, including Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn, immediately came out against the deal and many other Republican senators are expected to oppose the accord.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated Wednesday that the bulk of the plan’s deficit reduction would come in the final three years of the deal, while the new spending would happen over the next two years.
The estimate followed news that the U.S. government ran a $135.2 billion budget deficit through the first two months of the year — well short of the $226.8 billion deficit the nation had built up by this time a year ago. The Treasury Department said that more revenue was coming into the federal government thanks to higher tax rates and an improving economy.
The Ryan-Murray agreement increases spending in 2014 to $1.012 trillion and in 2015 to $1.014 trillion and restores more than $60 billion in sequester spending cuts.
The new spending is offset in part by lowering the cost-of-living adjustment for military retirees, requiring higher pension contributions from recently hired federal employees and raising fees on travelers collected by the Transportation Security Administration.
Some winners in the deal included the Pentagon and the defense industry, where much of the defense-related sequester cuts were restored, and the energy industry, which won expanded rights for joint drilling along the U.S.-Mexico border and in the Gulf of Mexico.
Industries and interests that emerged as losers in the final deal were quick to make their unhappiness known.
“As we have said consistently, airlines and our customers are already overtaxed, and we are disappointed that fees on air travel were increased, and believe those higher taxes will impact demand, jobs and our economy,” said Katie Connell, spokeswoman for Airlines for America, a Washington-based trade group representing U.S. airlines.
The National Treasury Employees Union launched a pre-emptive strike against the proposal, saying last week that federal employees had suffered enough under pay freezes and furloughs.
“We continue to believe that there should be zero cuts to federal pay and benefits in this deal and that federal employees are being asked to contribute a disproportionate share toward deficit reduction,” the group said Wednesday.
National Nurses United took issues with the cuts aimed at federal workers, especially nurses working in Veterans Affairs hospitals.
“There is no reason to cheer an agreement that requires unwarranted pension cuts for federal workers, including VA nurses who earned that pension, underfunds nutrition programs and fails to extend assistance for the long-term unemployed,” said Jean Ross, co-president of the nurses group.
Military members said they are also bearing more than their fair share of the government’s financial problems. Military retirees’ cost-of-living allowance will be decreased to 1 percent below the inflation rate, leading to a 20 percent cut to retirement benefits over their lives, according to a statement from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
“The budget agreement balances the budget on the backs of military retirees. It’s the latest example of how Washington is broken, forcing those who have sacrificed the most over the last 10 years to choose between this deal, sequestration or government shutdown,” said Paul Rieckhoff, chief executive officer of IAVA.
Many liberal lawmakers said the federal budget should not be balanced on the backs of federal workers and that the bill could have trouble passing if it does not extend unemployment insurance for the 1.3 million Americans who are set to get kicked off the rolls before the end of the year.
“That does put the overall effort at risk,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat and supporter of the plan, tried to ease some of the concerns coming from his side of the aisle by vowing to push for an extension of unemployment insurance and for an increase in the minimum wage when the Senate returns to Washington after the new year.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.The listing for Skyrim on Nintendo Switch at Best Buy Canada states that the version is the Special Edition which featured recently on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The interesting thing about this is that it includes PC-like mod support. Whether this particular listing has just been copy and pasted from the PlayStation 4 and Xbox versions is unclear as we know very little about the Nintendo Switch version, other than it’s confirmed for the platform. Here’s the product description:
This Special Edition of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been remastered and enhanced for the current generation of home consoles
Visual and graphical enhancements include remastered game art, effects, volumetric god rays, dynamic depth of field, screen-space reflections, and more
The Special Edition also brings PC-like mod support to the game, so you can continually refresh your experience with new quests, environments, characters, dialogue, armour, and weapons
Source
Thanks to N-Dub Nation for the tip!Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The phrase "violence against women" calls for comment. It names the victims but not the perpetrators. The fact that men are mainly responsible for violent and health-harming behaviours, not only against women and children but also against each other, is so taken for granted that it slips beneath the radar of commentators and policymakers.
Take the riots of August this year. As the suspects were charged, considerable detail was published by the Ministry of Justice. The press focused on the age, ethnicity, neighbourhood and employment status of offenders. Yet by far the most dramatic divergence the statistics revealed was gender: 92% of the first 466 defendants were male. Something yet more significant went unremarked: of the 124 individuals charged with offences involving violence, all were male.
When information on a further 1,715 people charged with rioting offences was issued by the MoJ a month later, the focus was on the fact that 73% of the defendants had a previous caution or conviction. Few noted that the MoJ had chosen to focus only on male rioters; females were absent from these "average" recidivists. What we saw was a palpable concern with the youth, class and race of rioters but a lack of analysis of the key fact the statistics illustrate: the culpability, and cost, of masculinity. As so often, masculine antisocial behaviour was just the wallpaper.
In 1959 the social scientist and policy activist Barbara Wootton looked at the crime statistics and remarked that "if men behaved like women, the courts would be idle and the prisons empty". Half a century later the British Crime Survey and police crime figures bear her out. In 2009-10, men were perpetrators in 91% of all violent incidents in England and Wales. The figures vary by type of incident: 81% for domestic violence, 86% for assault, 94% for wounding, 96% for mugging, 98% for robbery. MoJ figures for 2009 show men to be responsible for 98%, 92% and 89% of sexual offences, drug offences and criminal damage respectively. Of child sex offenders, 99% are male. The highest percentages of female offences concern fraud and forgery (30%), and theft and handling stolen goods (21% female).
The MoJ publishes an annual report, Women and the Criminal Justice System, whose purpose is to fulfil the "equality" provision in the 1991 Criminal Justice Act. But looking at statistics on women conceals the obvious: a comparable report on men and the criminal justice system would be policy dynamite.
On the road, men commit 87% of all traffic offences and 81% of speeding offences. More people are killed and injured in road accidents than anywhere else, and Home Office data reveal the bearing of masculinity here too: men are responsible for 97% of dangerous driving offences and 94% of motoring offences causing death or bodily harm. A World Health Organisation report in 2002 on gender and road traffic injuries cautiously broke the code of silence by remarking that masculinity "may be" hazardous to health.
Some of the costs of masculinity are paid individually. Boys are "permanently excluded" from school at a rate four times higher than for girls and attain fewer GCSE and A-levels than girls. But what of the overall costs to society?
Take prison costs alone – an estimated £45,000 per prisoner a year, 95% of whom are male. If men committed crimes leading to custodial sentences at the rate women do, the exchequer would save about £3.4bn a year.
Zoom out to the overall cost of crime, calculated by the Home Office at £78bn a year in 2009, including not only criminal justice system costs but lost productivity, service costs, and impact on victims. If men committed as few crimes as women, the overall number of incidents would fall by 54%. This creates an annual saving of £42bn, equivalent to almost a third of last year's public sector budget deficit. However, the most masculine crimes are the most expensive. A homicide, a sexual offence and a serious wounding cost £1.4m, £31,438, and £21,422 respectively (2003 figures). The most feminine crime, theft, is the cheapest, at £844 per incident. Thus the real saving to the UK of such a change in male behaviour would be vastly greater.
As the British Medical Journal recently pointed out, this life-damaging gender difference must be challenged by addressing the culture of masculinity that sustains them. How men and women behave is socially shaped. Popular understandings of masculine characteristics play up biology. Testosterone, the male hormone, the "metaphor of manhood", is portrayed as driving men inexorably towards aggressive behaviour. Yet studies show that testosterone is related to status-seeking but not directly to aggression. Many other factors are influential. Testosterone levels are increased or diminished in both males and females by diet, activity and circumstance. The opportunity to interact with guns, for instance, appears to increase testosterone, while men's testosterone levels fall when they are involved with the care of children.
The case we are making is that certain widespread masculine traits and behaviours are dangerous and costly both to individuals and society. They are amenable to purposeful change. The culture of masculinity can be, and should be, addressed as a policy issue.
• This article was amended on 1 December 2011. The original said an annual saving of £42bn a year would wipe out the current public sector budget deficit three times over. This has been corrected.Real estate mogul Donald Trump has broadened his lead over his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, a new poll shows, as more Republican voters begin to see the bombastic billionaire in a favorable light.
The Morning Consult survey shows Trump leading among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents with 37 percent of the vote, compared with just nine percent for the second-place finishers, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) are tied for the next spot with six percent. Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) claims 5 percent of the vote, barely ahead of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) at 4 percent.
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Ahead of next month’s second Republican debate, to be aired by CNN, the poll finds former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina edging Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) for the 10th and final position on the debate stage. Fiorina’s campaign has taken issue with CNN’s methodology, which would, for the moment, leave her out of 10th place.
Though earlier polls have shown Trump building a broad coalition, a slight gender gap is beginning to emerge. More male voters, 41 percent, say they back Trump than female voters, 32 percent. Trump also gets a disproportionate amount of support from those without a college education, from Republicans in urban areas and from voters who say national security is their most important issue.
(See full crosstabs here)
Trump is almost universally known among registered voters, though just 42 percent say they have a favorable opinion of him. But among self-identified Republicans, 66 percent say they view Trump favorably, markedly better than any other candidate seeking the party’s nomination. By contrast, just 52 percent of Republicans say they view Bush favorably.
Bush’s unfavorable rating among Republican voters, 36 percent, is higher than the 32 percent who say they see Trump unfavorably.
Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears to have arrested her summer slump. Clinton leads the Democratic field with 52 percent of the vote, 29 points ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
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Clinton’s lead, which stood at 43 percent at the end of July, slipped precipitously during August, as Sanders gained traction among liberal voters. Clinton leads Sanders among self-described liberals by a 52 percent to 31 percent margin, though Sanders is far less popular among moderate and conservative Democrats. Clinton also boasts much bigger leads among African American Democrats (49 percentage points) and Hispanic Democrats (31 percentage points).
Among all registered voters, Clinton continues to lead all of her potential Republican rivals, though narrowly. She leads Bush by only a 43 percent to 41 percent margin, and she has just a one-point edge — 43 percent to 42 percent — over Trump. Clinton leads Paul, Walker and Rubio by wider margins.
But amid a rising crime rate and a stumbling global economy, voters are in a pessimistic mood, one that could harm Democrats’ chances of maintaining control of the White House. Just 42 percent say they approve of the job President Obama is doing, compared with 55 percent who disapprove.
Only 29 percent of registered voters say the country is headed in the right direction, while 71 percent say the country is headed off on the wrong track. That’s higher than the 65 percent who said the country is on the wrong track in a July Morning Consult survey.
The new Morning Consult survey polled 2,015 registered voters between August 28-30, including subsamples of 769 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents and 913 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. The full sample carried a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent. The margin of error for the Republican sample is plus or minus 3.5 percent, while the Democratic sample carried a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent.The blockbuster deal that Netflix and Disney reached all the way back in 2012 will soon take effect. Beginning in September, Netflix will be allowed to stream all Disney films — including Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm titles — in the same window that they'd typically be made available to HBO, Starz, and other paid TV networks. That's still after the Blu-ray and digital releases, but it's much, much sooner than the long and often unpredictable wait that Netflix customers had to put up with before. All Disney films released theatrically in 2016 and beyond are included in the agreement, for which Netflix is reportedly paying hundreds of millions per year.
The Netflix / Disney exclusivity pact blocks subscription networks like HBO and Starz from procuring Disney's latest hits — at least during that first-run pay TV window — and it also keeps them off Amazon Prime, Hulu, and other streaming services. Netflix gloats about this a little in a new blog post meant to stir excitement about new movies and shows that'll be hitting this summer. "From September onwards, Netflix will become the exclusive US pay TV home of the latest films from Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar," said Ted Sarandos, the company's content boss. It's no doubt a significant boost in the ongoing exclusivity wars between these big streaming companies.
Netflix's plan for world dominationYes, Malcolm Tucker and Alan Partridge go head to head on Brexit. Churchill, Paul Hollywood, balloon animals... the HDP (heavy-duty politics) is all here!
Our Armando Iannucci guest edited Big Issue broke the internet, broke sales and nearly broke Alan Partridge! It’s no longer on sale from vendors, but you can read the full Alan Partridge vs Malcolm Tucker Brexit debate in all its sweary glory below – or buy the magazine from The Big Issue Shop!
Politics and the media come together to settle the Brexit debate once and for all. Representing politics, Malcolm Tucker, former communications director at No. 10 Downing Street, and now on the board of negotiations and conflict-resolution company Off The Table. Representing the media is local, national and international (online) broadcaster Alan Partridge. The following is their full debate via email…
The return of the nation’s favourite, sweariest, scariest spin-doctor, locking horns with Radio Norwich’s finest over Brexit, set the news agenda in the week the magazine came out. From The One Show to BBC2’s Daily Politics, to any number of radio talk shows, newspapers and august titles like the Radio Times and NME covered the story.
Armando’s editorial turn also caused raptures on social media. Our cover and extracts of #TuckervPartridge were shared tens of thousands of times, bringing a host of new readers to The Big Issue (you’ve very welcome!) and attracting some very nice words from some other very funny people.
The @BigIssue is always a great read-this week it's extra special. Make sure you buy one. Bravo @Aiannucci and co pic.twitter.com/ur9uAZfPKe — Dave Berry (@daveberry_tweet) October 18, 2017
Alan Partridge/Malcolm Tucker Brexit debate in The Big Issue is not unsurprisingly proper lols — ed simons (@eddychemical) October 19, 2017Former Georgia Bulldog Reshad Jones was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the fifth-round of the 2010 NFL Draft, Seven years later, another former Bulldog will hope to leave his mark with the organization.
Maurice Smith was one of 14 undrafted rookie free agents the Dolphins signed immediately after this year’s draft. Despite the depth in their secondary, Smith has made an impact early on with the Dolphins.
During OTAs and minicamp, Dolphins defensive coordinator Matt Burke said Smith’s play stood out to him.
“This might be like recency bias but ‘Mo’ (Maurice) Smith has done a pretty solid job,” Burke said. “He’s a headsy player and he’s another guy where we’re moving around a little bit and he’s been able to sort of take to that to some extent.”
Smith began his career with the University of Alabama but transferred after not playing a lot during his first three collegiate seasons. SEC allowed Smith to move to Georgia for his senior season in 2016.
In his final year of eligibility, Smith recorded 32 tackles, two interceptions and three pass breakups. Smith played cornerback and safety while in college, so his versatility works in his favor.
Outside of Jones and Michael Thomas and Nate Allen, the Dolphins won’t have a lot of experience at the safety position to begin the 2017 season (T.J. McDonald will be suspended for the first eight games of the season). So Smith will have an opportunity to remain with the Dolphins organization in some capacity after training camp.Typhoon Haima, which on Tuesday became the planet's seventh Category 5 storm of the year, is slamming northern Luzon in the Philippines with damaging winds, storm surge flooding and heavy rains.
Fortunately, Haima lost some of its punch shortly before striking land, coming ashore at about 10:30 p.m. local time, or 10:30 a.m. EDT, packing maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). The storm is known locally in the Philippines as Typhoon Lawin.
The weakening trend can be primarily traced to a phenomenon known as an eyewall replacement cycle, known to meteorologists by the acronym "ERC."
During such cycles, which typically occur in the most intense tropical cyclones, the storm's inner eyewall — where the worst winds and some of the heaviest rains tend to be concentrated — collapses, while an outer eyewall forms and gradually contracts inward toward the storm's center. During such a process, the storm's maximum sustained winds tend to diminish slightly, while the area of strong winds expands overall.
Eventually the outer eyewall replaces the inner eyewall, and the storm's maximum wind speed increases once again.
As Typhoon Haima showed, such cycles are unpredictable, and can take 12 hours or more to complete. The storm had been forecast to make landfall as a Category 5 storm.
The replacement cycle that occurred within Super Typhoon Haima was fortuitous, since it spared areas of northern Luzon from a truly catastrophic blow.
Satellite loop showing the outer and inner eyewall structure within Typhoon Haima as it approached Luzon on Oct. 18-19, 2016. Image: university of wisconsin/cimss
The storm's biggest threats to the Philippines come in the form of heavy rains, flash flooding, landslides, coastal flooding and wind damage. While central and northern Luzon is not densely populated, this area has a varied topography, with mountains that could help wring out more than a foot of rain from this storm.
Since Super Typhoon Haima comes less than one week after a weaker typhoon hit the same area, the region is primed for flooding. As Hurricane Matthew recently demonstrated in the U.S., water is how these storms kill, not wind.
After the storm exits the Philippines on Thursday, local time, it is forecast to emerge as a Category 1 typhoon, moving south of Taiwan toward mainland China.
Computer model projections and official forecasts show the most likely landfall location to be the city of Shantou, to the northeast of Hong Kong, on Oct. 21. As the remnants of the storm move inland, more flood risks will arise in China.(CNN) When CNN published a report revealing widespread sexual abuse and assault in nursing homes, many people asked the same question: Why isn't more being done to stop it?
The multi-part investigation revealed disturbing cases of rape and sexual abuse by nursing assistants and found that more than 1,000 nursing homes had been cited for mishandling suspected cases of sexual abuse. It also documented the trail of one aide who is accused of being a serial abuser -- moving from facility to facility despite a history of allegations against him.
In response, the National Association of Health Care Assistants pledged to take action. The organization said it was "saddened and sickened by the CNN investigative report" and that it planned to immediately ramp up its education and training efforts. It said it especially wants to ensure that nursing assistants know how to spot potential abuse and report it promptly.
CNN also heard from family members who say they believe their loved ones were victimized, nursing home employees who say they were forced out of their jobs after reporting abuse and advocates for the elderly and industry insiders who say immediate change is needed.
6. To view older citations, download archived reports here or file a public records request here. Some states may also offer detailed information. A list of state websites is here.
5. From the main profile page for the facility, click on "Penalties" to see if an inspection resulted in fines or payment denials.
4. From here, click on "View all health inspections." For details, go to a specific date and click "View full report."
2. On the first page of results, you will see a star rating for the facility based on factors such as staffing levels. A history of abuse or other inspection problems will typically be reflected in the "health inspection" rating.
1. Go to the federal Nursing Home Compare website to look up facilities by name or location.
There's no way to know about abuse that goes unreported. But you can look up the name of a nursing home in federal inspection data and see whether it has been cited for sexual abuse or other issues in the past three years. Here's how:
"We have been advocating for quality care for more than four decades, yet the findings of the CNN investigation are among the most shocking and frightening we have ever encountered," Lori Smetanka, executive director of the nonprofit group Consumer Voice, said in a public statement, one of several issued by advocacy groups in reaction to the report. "The sexual abuse of defenseless, vulnerable residents who can't remove themselves from harm, often can't communicate what has happened, and are frequently not believed even when they do, is reprehensible."
Other advocates called for action, noting that legislation currently being considered could offer potential solutions -- while others could make the issue even worse. In Missouri, for instance, a bill introduced in January by Republican state Rep. Andrew McDaniel would allow hidden cameras in facilities across the state, mirroring laws already in effect in a handful of other states.
But federal legislation introduced two days after CNN's investigation was published could make it far more difficult to hold problematic nursing homes accountable for abuse, according to elder abuse attorneys. The bill, submitted by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, would limit the legal liability of nursing homes, among a wide variety of other doctors, medical facilities and companies. Proponents of the bill say it is aimed at cutting health care costs.
But if passed, critics say the law would not only apply to medical accidents but also to egregious cases of sexual and physical abuse. As a result, the costs of litigating a case against an accused abuser or nursing home -- like many of the horrific examples detailed in CNN's investigation -- likely would outweigh the amount of money a victim could recover. The measure also could result in abuses by caregivers going unchecked -- especially given the already paltry penalties facilities cited for abuse often receive from the government.
"Without the threat of litigation, companies can do whatever they want," said Kathryn Stebner, an elder abuse attorney in California who represented a woman who claims that she contracted an incurable sexually transmitted disease after being raped in a nursing home at the age of 88.
Many of the readers who contacted CNN about the investigation said it confirmed their worst fears, while others with firsthand experience in nursing homes said they had long seen these problems go unaddressed. Among their messages:
"I just read your incredible piece on elder rape on my iPhone...Now I can't breathe. This happened to my dearest Mother at 91...I found out.. saw something.. she told me, then she stopped speaking... and died. It was horrific, unbelievable, impossible. Worse, just as you said, neither the nursing home or police showed any interest at all in following it up. Because she had died...And he is still out there." — Reader from New York
"Thank you for bringing hope to those who suffer silently during a time in their lives they are the most vulnerable." — Former nurse who says she was fired after speaking out against sexual abuse in the facility where she worked
What should we investigate next? Email Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken
"This excellent report is long overdue and one that sickens me to the core. I too, had a grandmother in a facility years ago when this was definitely not a topic of conversation." — A reader from Tennessee who believes her grandmother was sexually assaulted in the facility
"My grandmother was in a nursing home where an aide was arrested for sexually abusing two other women. My grandmother had passed away before he was arrested, but I always wonder if she was also a victim." — Reader from North Carolina
"There are people who are gifted at being a caregiver and love doing it. We need to acknowledge this work as the skilled labor it is, and the enormous impact either good, or God forbid bad, these individuals have on patients' and families' lives, and pay them accordingly. For real change and better honor towards our precious sick and elderly, start here." — Reader from Texas
"Elderly abuse is an epidemic and it is an issue that deserves much more attention. It is shocking how management in these horrible places shamefully ignores abuse." — Hospice nurse from Florida
"The nursing home administrator sought my agreement that we all should hope this never happened." — Reader who says a nurse was caught sexually assaulting his mother
"This story horrified me. I am sickened to think these types of things happen in our society. We should require that every nursing home must have cameras in every room and monitoring 24/7. It won't solve the problem but it would be a strong deterrent. How can the public help?" — Reader from Texas10PM: Appeals court declines to issue stay that would halt gay marriages in Utah Read more at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=28138627#TcsLZv40YfzPVC2F.99
6:30PM: Appeals court declines to issue stay that would halt gay marriages in Utah
6PM: Appeals court declines request for issuing stay that would halt gay marriages in Utah
SALT LAKE CITY — A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that gay marriages can continue in Utah, denying a request from the state to halt same-sex weddings until the appeals process plays out.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the state's request for an emergency stay on a federal judge's ruling that struck down Utah's voter-approved constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. U.S. District Judge Richard Shelby ruled that it violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The appeals court said in its short ruling that a decision to put gay marriage on hold was not warranted, but said it put the case on the fast track for a full appeal of the ruling.
Shelby refused the state's first request to put a halt to the marriages Monday.
Utah's last chance to temporarily stop the marriages would now be the U.S. Supreme Court. That's what the Utah Attorney General's Office is prepared to do, said spokesman Ryan Bruckman. "We're disappointed in the ruling, but we just have to take it to the next level," he said.
Gov. Gary Herbert's office declined comment on the decision.
Amendment 3 reactions before and after latest ruling by Sam Penrod
Provo — As of Tuesday morning, 25 of Utah's 29 counties have begun issuing marriage licenses to gay couples — Box Elder, Piute, San Juan and Utah were the holdouts. Before the ruling denying the emergency motion to stay came out late Tuesday afternoon, Utah County Clerk Bryan Thompson said in a written statement that he was waiting for further clarification from the state and the county attorney and a ruling from the 10th circuit court of appeals before issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. But the attorney general's office said they had advised county clerks to confer with their county attorney to make sure they are in compliance with Judge Shelby's ruling to avoid being in contempt of court. The office closed at noon for the holiday. To protest the County Clerk's refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, a few people were out in Provo to publically show their support for Judge Shelby's ruling and the gay couples who are now allowed to marry in Utah. "I'm just really excited since Friday when I heard the news. A lot of people have been waiting many, many years, and we all thought this would be the last state," said supporter Zeldy Zabriskie. "So we're out here to show our support." About a dozen protestors stood on University Avenue for a couple of hours — some said they are straight but want to support their gay friends who want to be married in Provo. "I'm here to support my brothers and sisters and my neighbors in this valley that want to be married that are LGBT people," said supporter Rebecca James. "I'm here to support my brothers and sisters and my neighbors in this valley that want to be married that are LGBT people," said supporter Rebecca James. In its ruling, the court explained the four factors it considered when deciding whether or not to issue the stay: 1. The court considered the likelihood of the state's success in its appeal. 2. The threat of irreparable harm if the stay is not granted. 3. The absence of harm to opposing parties if the stay is granted. 4. Any risk of harm to the public interest. After considering those four things, the appeals court concluded that a "stay is not warranted," saying "we deny … emergency motions for a stay pending appeal and for a temporary stay." The court did put the state's appeal on the fast track stating, "We direct expedited consideration of this appeal." A spokesman for the attorney general says his office will file an appeal with Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor first thing Thursday morning. Meanwhile, Governor Gary Herbert's office declined to comment tonight on this latest ruling.
The appeals court ruling means county clerks can continue to issue marriage licenses to gays and lesbians. About 700 gay couples have obtained marriage licenses since Friday, with most coming in Salt Lake County.
"Until the final word has been spoken by this Court or the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of Utah's marriage laws, Utah should not be required to enforce Judge Shelby's view of a new and fundamentally different definition of marriage," the state said in a motion to the appeals court.
Shelby's decision to strike down a law passed by voters in 2004 drew attention given Utah's long-standing opposition to gay marriage.
In court Monday, assistant attorney general Phil Lott repeated the words "chaotic situation" to describe what has happened in Utah since clerks started allowing gay weddings. He urged the judge to "take a more orderly approach than the current frenzy."
"Utah should be allowed to follow its democratically chosen definition of marriage," he said of the 2004 gay marriage ban.
That confusion stretched to county clerks in Utah, some of whom were refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, even though they could face legal consequences.
The Utah Attorney General's Office warned counties they could be held in contempt of federal court if they refuse to issue the licenses.
Bruckman said the office was not giving legal guidance to clerks' offices.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said prosecution of county clerks is unlikely. The holdouts wouldn't face sanctions unless the plaintiffs who sued Utah asked the judge for a contempt finding, said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney David Barlow.
In the meantime, state agencies have begun trying to sort out how the gay marriages may impact state services.
Herbert's office sent a letter to state agencies Tuesday afternoon advising them to comply with the judge's ruling or consult the attorney general's office if the ruling conflicts with other laws or rules.
The Utah Department of Workforce Services, which administers programs such as food stamps and welfare, is recognizing the marriages of gay couples when they apply for benefits, spokesman Nic Dunn told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
It's unclear whether Utah will allow married same-sex couples to jointly file their state income tax returns next year, as they will be able to do for federal returns.
Charlie Roberts, a spokesman for the Utah State Tax Commission, said the agency still needs to consult the Utah Attorney General's Office about the issue.
In October, the commission stipulated that because Utah did not recognize same-sex marriages, same-sex couples who had married out of state could not file jointly in Utah.
The state income tax forms do not currently require filers to specify gender, so it's possible same-sex couples could have already filed jointly in previous years, but Roberts said the commission has never been aware of such as case.
Utah is the 18th state where gay couples can wed or will soon be able to marry. The legal wrangling over the topic will likely continue for months. The 10th Circuit will likely hear a full appeal of the case several months from now.
Contributing: Michelle Price and Sam Penrod
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Nearly half a million people have switched smoking tobacco for e-cigarettes in the last year as they try to kick the habit, research shows.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said there are now 2.6 million vapers in Britain, up from 2.1 million in 2014, with nearly all of this increase attributable to a rise in the number of ex-smokers using electronic cigarettes.
The campaign group said the figures showed the “value” of e-cigarettes in helping smokers give up tobacco but also warned of a “worrying” increase in people falsely believing they are as harmful as or even more dangerous, with nearly a quarter (22%) believing this compared to 15% last year.
ASH said analysis by researchers at King’s College London shows that electronic cigarette use increased among ex-smokers from 4.5
|
Wild. Better yet, the payoff for scaling sheer cliffs, or diving off one, is almost always worth the hassle. Whether it's a treasure chest, a hidden Korok, or some rare minerals. There's rarely a clifftop of cavern that doesn't have at least some kind of reward for you to reap.
This isn't like Skyrim where you spend an hour scaling a mountain only to realise your only option was a designated path. Is your destination on the other side of the huge cliff face? Take the high road, my friend. You will almost certainly find something worth seeing up there.
Don't obsess over certain side-quests
There are two kinds of side quests in Breath of the Wild: The kind where you travel to a mountain top and free an ancient dragon spirit of its woes, rewarding you with a powerful new weapon and a place to pray; and the kind where you travel for miles to take down a gang of sheep-thieving marauders to be rewarded with a purple rupee.
It's often hard to tell which side-quests are more important than others, to the point that I feel some side-quests should have been lumped in with the main quests. A good rule of thumb is considering whether you're doing something epic and self-serving or just helping some creep catch noisy crickets for his love interest.
Horse early, horse often
Early on, there is a whole lot of walking in Breath of the Wild. This isn't made any easier by the fact that you start life with a minuscule stamina bar. However, it is made easier if you have a trusty steed. This is something I missed out on early in the game.
When you first leave the Great Plateau, follow the only road out between two big cliffs (Duelling Peaks). Just beyond that, you will cross a bridge called Big Twin Bridge which will lead you almost directly to Duelling Peaks Stable and, close by, a herd of wild horses. Mounting a horse is as simple as sneaking up on it and mounting it with the A button, but if you want more tips on taming there are two helpful little chaps who will show you the ropes at Duelling Peaks Stable.
It's also worth chatting to the stable owner from the outside (the orientation that you engage with someone can influence the conversation in many cases) and getting him to register your new mount. This will allow you to summon it at any other stable you find across Hyrule's many regions.
Doomsday prepper levels of food and elixir hoarding
From the very first tower you scale in the Great Plateau you will notice the smouldering Death Mountain and several snowy peaks. Breath of the Wild's harsh climates take their toll on Link without the right armour, elixirs and food. The types of environments are pretty self-explanatory. The area surrounding Death Mountain is burning hot, the air on mountain-tops will chill you to the bone.
Food items like Sun shrooms boost your heat resistance when cooked in a dish, others herbs and mushrooms raise your cold resistance. Then there's monster parts and critters. Slaying a monster native to these environments will reward you in monster parts that help create heat/cold resistant elixirs e.g. killing a Keese from Death Mountain will grant you Fire Keese parts.
You should always be foraging but you should always be getting the most out of your resources by cooking up stat-boosting meals and elixirs before entering a dangerous area. There's nothing worse than getting to the centre of Death Mountains region, so close to your objective, only to run out of heat resistant meals and elixirs. Once you're out, you health drains within moments and your only option is to fast travel back to a safe space. So stock up.
Bonus pointer: Eyes on the clock
When playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild it is scarily easy to forget there is a real world outside of the wild and wonderful Hyrule. I've not slept much this week and it's not thanks to intentionally staying up past Big Dog's bed time. Instead, I've glanced up from the entrancing vivid glow of my Switch to realise it's... 3am? No, that can't be right. Remember, you can't continue your journey through Hyrule in handheld mode if you're involuntarily falling asleep on your short commute to work.
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Purchase 1-2-Switch for Nintendo Switch from Amazon AU Bring the action and fun into the real world today! Buy 1-2-Switch from Amazon. View detailsTurkey’s new presidential palace in Ankara - which boasts “at least” 1,150 rooms, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – is guarded by 1,150 policemen, the Istanbul-based Hurriyet Daily News reported on Friday.
In contrast, 450 guards stand at Cankaya, the former presidential palace. With a $20 million security system in place, and 3,000 surveillance cameras around a five-kilometer fence, the new palace is guarded against any possibility of wiretapping – a priority for Erdogan, whose office was wiretapped in 2013 when he was prime minister.
Erdogan opened his hugely controversial new presidential palace on the outskirts of Ankara in October. It has 1,150 rooms and was built at a cost of around $615 million.
He says that the palace is a symbol of a resurgent Turkey which he is building. But opponents decry it as an extravagance in an increasingly authoritarian state.
Last month, Erdogan said he would soon re-name the new presidential palace adopting the name of the complexes surrounding imperial mosques.
In the future, the palace would be known as the Presidential Kulliye and will contain a mosque, convention center and a gigantic new national library.
Last Update: Friday, 20 February 2015 KSA 11:41 - GMT 08:41Don Peebles, CEO and chairman of The Peebles Corporation, also gave Trump high marks when it comes to international relations.
"He's sending a message that we're not going to tolerate any aggression, for example, and also that we want a fair trade system," he told "Closing Bell."
"That's, I think, what's destroyed our manufacturing industry here in this country … these unfair trade agreements," he added.
Wednesday marked the first anniversary of Trump's election, although he's only been in the White House for 10 months.
Rensi called Trump's first five months a "disaster" as the new president tried to get his staff in place. However, he praised Trump as a strategist who is not playing "silly" political games.
"He's learning the job, and the thing I love about him the most is he's not a politician," he said.
Peebles, on the other hand, gave Trump a "C" for his management style.
"I would give him a higher grade if he would lead by example and if he would sometimes roll his sleeves up and force some action, and I think he's going to have to do that to get tax reform passed," he explained.
Rensi said it's lawmakers who must make tax reform happen.
"They need to start doing the right thing instead of worrying about getting re-elected. You can't satisfy everybody. There's going to be pain in that tax bill for a lot of people, and there's going to be benefit for more people," he said. "It's going to create jobs. That's what we've got to focus on."Oakley, Inc., based in Lake Forest, California, and a subsidiary of Italian company Luxottica based in Milan, designs, develops and manufactures sports performance equipment and lifestyle pieces including sunglasses, sports visors, ski/snowboard goggles, watches, apparel, backpacks, shoes, optical frames, and other accessories. Most items are designed in house at their head office, but some countries hold exclusive designs relevant to their market. Oakley currently holds more than 600 patents for eyewear, materials, and performance gear.[2][3]
History [ edit ]
Oakley was started by James Jannard in 1975 out of his garage with an initial investment of $300. The name "Oakley" came from Jim's English Setter, "Oakley Anne." Jannard began by selling what he called 'The Oakley Grip' out of the back of his car at motocross events. His motorcycle grips were unlike other grips available at the time. The material is still used to make the earsocks on Oakley glasses, and many of the nose pieces and now the bands of their watches. Oakley went on to produce number plates, gloves, grips, elbow guards, chin guards, and goggles for the BMX and motocross communities.[4] After selling Oakely Inc. to Italian Eyeware company Luxottica Group in 2007, founder James Jannard went on to found Red Digital Cinema.
In 1980, Jannard released a pair of goggles called the O-Frame. With the 'Oakley' logo present on the strap, the brand garnered increasing recognition and prominence throughout the sports industry.[5] In 1983, Oakley began selling ski goggles.[6]
The first Oakley sunglasses; Factory Pilot Eyeshades, were sport-oriented, resembling goggles and were released in 1984. These were followed in 1985 by the Oakley Frogskin, a casual sunglass style that was made in Japan.[4]
The company went public in 1995, raising $230 million.[7]
In early 1996, Oakley had a pricing dispute with Italian company Luxottica, the world's largest eyewear manufacturers and retailers. Luxottica stopped carrying Oakley's products in their stores, including Sunglass Hut, and Oakley's stock market value declined 33%.[8][9]
In 2001, Oakley bought Iacon, Inc., operator of mall-based sunglasses stores Sunglass Designs, Sporting Eyes, and Occhiali da Sole.[10]
Oakley signed a four-year agreement to manufacture eyewear designed by themselves and Fox Racing in September 2004.[11]
Starting in 2004, Jannard bought large quantities of Oakley stock: $2 million in 2004, $16 million in 2005, and $4.6 million in early 2006, bringing his personal stake in the company to 63%.[12]
In 2006, Oakley acquired the Oliver Peoples group, a manufacturer of high-end fashion branded eyewear (under the Oliver Peoples, Mosley Tribes, and Paul Smith brands) for $55.7m,[13] and Optical Shop of Aspen, a luxury eyewear retailer with fourteen stores.[14]
On June 21, 2007, Luxottica announced a plan to purchase Oakley in a cash deal worth $2.1 billion, paying a 16% premium over the extant share price.[15] The deal was completed on November 15, 2007, making Oakley part of a portfolio that includes brands such as Ray-Ban, Persol, and Vogue.[16][17]
During the preparations for the ultimately successful rescue of thirty-three miners trapped for ten weeks in a Chilean mine in October 2010, a journalist covering the story contacted Oakley about donating sunglasses to the rescue effort, aware that the miners would need eye protection after having spent weeks in darkness. Oakley donated 35 pairs of its Radar sports glasses, fitted with specially selected tints.[18]
A pair of Oakley sunglasses
Oakley sponsored members of the US Olympic Team in 2012.[19]
In August 2013, Oakley sold its REVO brand to Sequential Brands for $20m.[20][21][22]
Technical innovation [ edit ]
Most of Oakley's technological designs, fashion pieces, gear, etc. were developed with extensive athlete input and testing in the field – including extreme conditions. Oakley also maintains US Standard Issue, which provides U.S. military and law enforcement eye protection. Oakley M Frame sunglasses are included as part of the U.S. Army's Authorized Protective Eyewear List (APEL), and have been assigned a National Stock Number (NSN) for ordering through military supply channels.[23] The company has also built at least one 'golf hovercraft', intended as an all terrain replacement for conventional golf carts, in partnership with the professional golfer, Bubba Watson.A challenge by some local residents to Dublin City Council’s decision allowing a former parish hall in the Liberties to be used as a hostel for homeless people has opened before the High Court.
The action concerns the former parish centre at Carman’s Hall, Francis Street, which opened before Christmas as emergency temporary accommodation for rough sleepers with a capacity of 65 beds.
If the residents win, the hostel, run by the Simon Community and the Salvation Army, may face closure.
The residents want the building, owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, to be used as a community centre. They claim the hall was used as a community centre for many years before it was closed in 2013 over accessibility and fire safety concerns.
The case, against the council, has been taken by Carman’s Hall Community Interest Group, Michael Mallin House Residents Association and community worker Elizabeth O’Connor.
They allege the council’s decision of October 28th last authorising change of use and refurbishment of the building is unlawful and in breach of the planning laws and should be quashed.
Opposing the action, the council argues the hostel was opened to deal with the “humanitarian crisis” of rough sleepers in Dublin.
Serious homeless situation
Opening the case for the applicants, Declan McGrath SC, with Niall Handy BL, said they accepted there was a serious homeless situation, have every sympathy with those sleeping rough and had first-hand experience of homelessness.
There was much anger in the locality over the “underhand way” in which the council went about converting the hall into homeless accommodation, he said.
The council was in talks about using Carman’s Hall as accommodation for the homeless as far back as last May and a lease was signed in September, he said. The first local people and public representatives for the area knew about it was in late October when work had started on the building.
The council knew there would be public opposition to the facility, counsel said. His clients’ argued their area is “over saturated” with such facilities and services for the homeless and the failure to have a public consultation process in regard to change of use of the building rendered the council in material contravention of the Dublin city development plan.
The residents were also concerned about assurances from the council the building is to be used as a temporary facility because other such facilities “turned out to be anything but temporary”.
Voted unanimously
In its statement of opposition, the council, represented by James Connolly SC and Stephen Dodd BL, denies the claims and pleads the hall was offered to the council for use as accommodation for the homeless in May 2016.
In a letter read to the court, the local parish priest, Fr Martin Dolan, stated the building was never a “community centre” and was primarily used for Catholic members of the parish of Francis Street and any group whom they decided to share it with.
Fr Dolan stated he and the local parish council voted unanimously to lease the property to DCC with “the specific purpose of housing people who are forced to sleep rough on the streets of the city”. As a Catholic community, they felt “a moral imperative to fully support this project”.
The action was launched in early December, when the applicants got an interim stay preventing the hostel opening. Following another hearing before Christmas, the stay was lifted allowing the hostel to open.
The hearing continues on Thursday before Mr Justice Donald Binchy.Richard Shotwell/Associated Press
Caitlyn Jenner is reportedly set to appear naked on an upcoming cover of Sports Illustrated to honor the 40th anniversary of her 1976 Summer Olympics decathlon gold medal.
Dana Rose Falcone of Us Weekly reported Wednesday a source confirmed the former track and field superstar will appear on the cover wearing "nothing but an American flag and her Olympic medal." It's the first time she'll pose with the medal since completing her gender transition in 2015.
The source told Us that Jenner, who's called the medal her "most prized possession," is happy about the opportunity: "She's excited about that."
Jenner set a new world record with 8,618 points in the decathlon during the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal. It's a feat that traditionally comes with the label of being the world's best all-around athlete.
The 66-year-old New York native made the transition to become an openly transgender woman last year, a decision originally announced last April. She was honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2015 ESPYs and asked for a greater level of acceptance for transgender individuals, per ESPN.com.
"Trans people deserve something vital; they deserve your respect," Jenner said. "From that respect comes a more compassionate community."
ABC News provided more of her acceptance speech:
Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated noted Jenner's selection for the award didn't come without criticism, however. Bob Costas of NBC Sports called the choice "a crass exploitation play, a tabloid play" on the Dan Patrick Show before wishing her "all the happiness and peace of mind in the world."
SI's reported decision to feature Jenner on the cover with nothing but a flag and her medal is probably going to generate similar backlash. But clearly, she's decided that isn't going to prevent her from continuing to use her influence to promote the rights of transgender people.It may have been over a year since Frozen hit UK cinemas but the brand is “showing no signs of slowing down at retail,” claims Disney.
A follow-up short film, Frozen Fever, debuted ahead of Cinderella screenings back in March and as a result, Disney believes the brand is all set to enjoy its second successful summer.
“Frozen is now gearing up for its second summer and is showing no signs of slowing down at retail,” Mike Stagg, general manager of retail for Disney UK & Ireland told ToyNews.
“The release of Frozen Fever in cinemas ahead of Disney’s Cinderella was certainly a fan pleaser and product based on the short has been in high demand since first hitting shelves.
“It’s really a continuation of the Frozen success story and as we look ahead to seasonal opportunities at retail this year such as back to school and Christmas, Frozen remains a priority.”
Frozen is the sixth highest grossing film of all time, the highest grossing animated film ever and became a titan in the toy space last year.
This year has already seen the release of a LEGO Frozen set and when Frozen 2 was announced, Mattel and Hasbro both reported a jump in their share price.
“Frozen has truly become a part of people’s everyday lives, it’s a cultural phenomenon and children love to continue the storytelling at home with the wide range of merchandise available,” continued Disney’s Stagg.The finance chiefs of Britain's biggest companies are feeling very gloomy.
A new survey by Deloitte found that about 80% of CFOs expect hiring and spending to slow over the year following Britain's vote to leave the European Union. And more than two-thirds think leaving the EU will lead to a deterioration in the U.K. business environment in the long term.
The consultancy said the slump in confidence was worse than during the financial crisis.
"The spike in uncertainty has had a toxic effect on business sentiment with optimism dropping to the lowest level since the survey started in 2007, lower than in the wake of the failure of Lehman Brothers in late 2008," said the authors of the quarterly survey.
Related: Delta cutting flights due to Brexit
"The referendum vote has triggered a strong, negative reaction from the U.K. corporate sector," the consultancy said. The survey of 132 top finance executives from FTSE 350 companies was taken between June 28 and July 11, the two weeks following the Brexit vote.
Britain's decision to leave the EU initially sparked a wave of global market turmoil. The pound plunged to a 31-year low against the dollar, and is still trading 12% below pre-referendum levels.
The Bank of England said last week that some businesses are already delaying investment projects and postponing hiring decisions because of the Brexit uncertainty.
Related: Bank of England signals August rate cut
According to the Deloitte survey, the referendum result has forced corporate number crunchers to focus on safety first.
"For the first time in more than a year the top two balance sheet priorities for major UK corporates are defensive - reducing costs and increasing cash flow," it said.
The survey also showed that the overwhelming majority think the number one priority for the new U.K. government should be setting a clear plan for its negotiations with the EU.T&D networks are growing rapidly, causing demand in the power infrastructure market sector to grow. This NRG Expert market research report has been written to accompany the database, to provide an analysis of the global power infrastructure market, with a particular focus on electrical power transformers, electric switchgear and electrical substations. It provides insightful analysis and forecasts on the transmission and distribution market, electrical supply industry and T&D companies. This analysis is essential for identifying the opportunities in this sector.
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>> View the Global Power Infrastructure Report Table of Contents
The Database
The Global Power Infrastructure database contains important forecast information and current figures on this sector. It consists of a global data set with the following sections:
Annual Demand
Capex
MVA Capacity
What’s in the Global Power Infrastructure Market Database?
The Annual Demand section includes 2012 actual figures and forecasts for 2013-2017 in 2012 United States Dollars (USD) for:
All Power Infrastructure Equipment
Electrical Power Transformers
Electric Switchgear
Electrical Substations
The Capex section includes 2012 actual figures for the entire T&D section, 2012 actual figures for the Infrastructure market and 2013-2017 forecast figures for the infrastructure market. Data is presented both by regions and by individual nations.
The MVA Capacity section includes 2012 actual figures and 2013-2017 forecast figures. Data is presented both by regions and by individual nations.
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The Report
The Global Power Infrastructure Report provides valuable context and additional insight into this market and consists of several sections. A detailed historical overview discusses the origins of the electrical supply industry, which provides the basis for a discussion of today’s market factors and the future of the infrastructure sector. Our definition of the infrastructure sector is also included, along with an illustration of our annual demand data (forecasted to 2017) and intelligence on infrastructure companies.
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Presented in the Global Power Infrastructure Report:
Sector historical overview
Definition of sector
Charts of database information
Company intelligence
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This NRG Expert Report and Database allows you to make key business decisions based on our forecasts and analysis of the transformers, switchgear and substations sector. Reasons to purchase the database include:
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Background to this Market Research
T&D networks are growing every year and new infrastructure is required to keep pace as old technology is replaced
Different market forces are at work in the world’s developed and developing nations
The market for retrofitting old technology is expanding rapidly
Highlights from this Market Research
As systems mature, in many cases in countries with static or even declining populations little expansion takes place except for housing rebuilds. In these countries there is a growing market for replacement, retrofit and refurbishment. In developing countries different dynamics are operating. Although expansion in developing countries, notably in large countries such as India, continues and there has been fast growth in recent years; major distribution systems installed in the 1960s are now in need of replacement reaching the end of their design lives.
Investment in transmission has lagged in recent years except in developing markets, especially China. In the process of market liberalization, T&D are subject to more regulation than generation and supply and the effect has been to divert investment from distribution and to an even greater extent form transmission to other more profit-driven sectors of the industry.
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>> Download the NRG Expert Terms & ConditionsThis is a preview for a town hall tonight on MSNBC where Ted Cruz sits down with Chuck Todd in Buffalo, NY.
Todd asks Cruz if he regrets calling McConnell a liar on the Senate floor, given that it hasn’t sat well with his Senate colleagues.
Here’s what he said:
He’s absolutely right! Nobody in DC cares that McConnell lied, rather they are only upset that Cruz pointed it out to everyone. How ridiculous is that!
Not to compare Ted Cruz to Jesus, but it does remind me of something Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.”
That is perfectly analogous to Washington DC, exactly what Cruz is talking about.Homeless people are being targeted by violent gangs of drunken men who throw their victims' belongings into the Yarra River, according to the free medical clinic that cares for Melbourne's rough sleepers.
Youth Projects' Melanie Raymond said staff at the centre regularly saw assault wounds on their clients. She said every day they helped a homeless person replace their stolen identity card.
Former mechanic Ricky Miller has made a place to sleep under a bridge in Southbank. Credit:Pat Scala
''The mindless attacks on homeless people are more common than you would think by gangs of men from the suburbs that are far from homeless,'' she said.
''Every client would have an account of being bashed and robbed. They're an easy target. Having their belongings thrown in the Yarra is a common experience.''A Milpitas man with a long history of violence was sentenced Friday to more than 25 years in prison for beating his former girlfriend’s cocker spaniel to death with a hammer, a third strike for Alex Castro.
Castro, 48, begged the court for mercy, saying such a long sentence was too much for killing a dog, but the judge said he could not ignore the violence Castro inflicted in his life, according to the prosecutor.
“I am appreciative that not only did a jury take this case incredibly seriously, as evidenced by their verdict, but also that the judge did,” said Deputy District Attorney Kevin Smith. “Despite the defendant’s claims he was getting too much time for ‘only killing a dog,’ he is getting this sentence for the violence in his past.”
Castro, a drywall worker, was sentenced to 25 years to life. Because of enhancements to his sentence, the earliest he’d be eligible for parole is 33 years, Smith said.
In an interview for a probation report prepared for the judge, Castro said he believed the most time he should receive for killing Copper in July 2007 was three years, the maximum allowed for felony animal cruelty.
Copper’s owner said she was “satisfied” by the verdict.
“The way he did it was horrible,” said Joanie Gonzalez, of San Jose, who had owned Copper since he was a puppy. “There was no reason for it; that dog didn’t do anything wrong.”
Castro’s attorney did not return phone calls Friday.
During his trial, Castro denied killing the 10-year-old dog, asserting the small pools of Copper’s blood found by investigators stemmed from him moving the dog several times after finding the dog dead near the trailer he shared with Gonzalez at the Main Street Mobile Home and RV park in Milpitas, next to the Ooh La Lodge. Castro said he couldn’t decide how to tell Gonzalez her dog was dead, likely hit by a car, and didn’t want to see her cry.
Prosecutors successfully sought to have Copper’s murder counted as a third strike for Castro because he had two previous violent felonies. In his probation interview, Castro said his first two strikes “are old” and he is not a habitual criminal.
In 1994, Castro and a friend went to pick up a refrigerator at his estranged wife’s house and got into a fight with her then-current boyfriend. The two entered without knocking and teamed up for the fight, with his friend standing on the boyfriend’s legs while Castro choked him. Castro choked the man until he turned blue and finally stopped when his friend said “Alex, he’s almost dead, he’s blue,” according to the probation report.
In 1982, Castro and his father had been at a bar when Castro grabbed a tire iron from his truck and struck two men his father had been fighting with multiple times.
In addition to the two felony batteries with serious bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm, Castro had 20 misdemeanor convictions, including driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license.
Castro is due back in court Monday for the setting of a trial on charges of soliciting to prevent a witness from testifying in the trial over Copper’s death. While in county jail, he managed to have a letter sent to a Milpitas motorcycle club, asking that a key witness in the case, a member of the club, not be allowed to testify in court, testimony that would have included his statements to a friend about killing Copper. That member did testify.
Gonzalez said she was initially torn that Castro was facing such a long sentence. She had just lost her mother, then her dog — and her boyfriend.
“I really didn’t think that life was the right sentence for killing an animal,” she said. “But as someone said, who knows, it could have a been a child the next time.”
Contact Linda Goldston at 408-920-5862.Via Breitbart, deep thoughts from BR on (a) how insulting our politics has become, and also (b) how Ted Cruz is a phony Latino. Skip to 2:15 for the key bit. Actually, I think Ramesh Ponnuru’s right that the question is arguably more revealing than the answer:
I think you can just barely, with charity, read Richardson’s comment on Cruz to mean, Don’t think of him primarily in terms of ethnicity. — Ramesh Ponnuru (@RameshPonnuru) May 6, 2013
The ABC question on the other hand was no good. “Do you think he represents most Hispanics with his politics?” — Ramesh Ponnuru (@RameshPonnuru) May 6, 2013
Ever ask that about Mitch McConnell and whites? — Ramesh Ponnuru (@RameshPonnuru) May 6, 2013
If you strain hard, you can read Richardson’s comment as simply challenging the premise. I.e. “No, he doesn’t represent Hispanics well, but he’s not supposed to. Texas elected him, not ‘Hispanics.'” Whatever he meant, though, this clip demonstrates what the left would call a Larger Truth: If Cruz ends up on the ticket in 2016, the media will spend lots of time (at Democrats’ urging) exploring his racial authenticity, specifically in terms of whether someone who opposes a path to citizenship for illegals can “really” qualify as Latino. That’s the obvious counter to the threat that Cruz, by becoming the first Latino presidential or VP nominee, might complicate the left’s “Republicans hate Latinos” narrative. (Which will, rest assured, exist in some form in 2016 whether or not immigration reform passes with bipartisan support.) Rubio’s candidacy is harder because he’s taken the pro-amnesty position that the media thinks Latino pols are “supposed” to take. How do you challenge his authenticity? One possible answer: Accuse him, surreally, of being too hawkish about border enforcement. It’s already happening:
Rubio is also taking criticism from the other end of the political spectrum, with Hispanic advocacy groups singling him out for being overly punitive. “We see Rubio as increasingly representing all that is wrong with comprehensive immigration reform as it’s currently proposed, and we see him as a politician that has big aspirations, but still no pull with Latinos outside of the very small right-wing groups” in the Miami-based Cuban exile community, said Arturo Carmona, executive director of Presente.org, a Latino advocacy group.
Another possible answer: Don’t challenge his authenticity. Instead, concern-troll him and the GOP about conservatives maybe possibly conceivably staying home in the general election due to outrage at his work on the Gang of Eight bill. (They won’t, but you’ll hear a lot about it before election day.) Cruz will be treated as not Latino enough, in other words, and Rubio will be treated as “too Latino” in order to sustain the “racist Republicans” narrative somehow. Politicians come and go but media filters are forever.The district hospital of Muzaffarpur, 100 km north of Patna, Bihar’s capital, is struggling with a shortage of doctors.
With 160 beds and an estimated inflow of 500-600 new patients each day, the hospital should have 48 full-time doctors and 52 nurses, said one of its administrators. What it has, instead, is 12 full-time doctors, 24 part-time doctors and 28 nurses. The Intensive Care Unit should have four doctors but has just one. The unit for newborn babies, which should have four pediatricians, is managing with just one.
Given such understaffing, the hospital doesn’t meet the district’s healthcare needs.
When Madina Begum, a resident of Ratnauli village, took a neighbour with a temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit to the hospital, she said, “All the doctors did was give her a bottle of saline. Nothing else. No medicine.” The woman’s companions had to put wet clothes on her all night to cool the fever down.
That is the story across Bihar. Seventy years after Independence, the state’s healthcare infrastructure continues to be grossly inadequate. Seventeen of the 38 districts in the state have no more than three government doctors for every 100,000 people. One district, Siwan, has just one doctor for 100,000 people. The highest, Sheikhpura, has eight doctors per 100,000 – or one for every 12,500 people. To put that in perspective, the WHO-prescribed level is 1:1,000.
In the same way, while the Right To Education law mandates student-teacher ratios at 30:1 in primary schools and 35:1 in upper primary, the ratio in Bihar districts hovers between 43:1 and 96:1. As a result, learning outcomes are poor in the state.
The paradox
In the last 12 years under chief minister Nitish Kumar, Bihar has notched up improvements in law and order, road connectivity and electricity supply. But its performance on issues crucial for the poor – like health, education and land redistribution – remains weak.
A light bulb in a Dalit home in north Bihar.
Underperformance on these fronts till 1990 is easy to explain. Bihar was ruled by politicians and bureaucrats from the so-called upper castes, which were both socially and economically powerful by virtue of controlling the state’s land and resources. Their hegemony, as this article will elaborate, resulted in the state avoiding pro-poor projects like land redistribution.
But from 1990, Bihar’s political spaces began to get more democratic. First came the government of Lalu Prasad Yadav of the Janata Dal, later rechristened Rashtriya Janata Dal, which gave political power to the backward castes, also known as Other Backward Classes. The situation improved further in 2005 when Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) stitched together an alliance between the upper-caste support base of its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the extremely backward castes.
In 2015, Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar came together to fight the assembly elections. Their victory consolidated the power of the backward castes in the state.
Despite more than 25 years of rule by backward caste leaders, who have risen to power by appealing to the poor, why is Bihar’s track record on crucial issues that most affect the poor underwhelming?
In states like Punjab and Mizoram, Scroll’s “Ear To The Ground” project traced poor healthcare back to weak state finances. That is not the case in Bihar. The state’s financial condition has improved since 2005. “As the national economy improved, Bihar found itself getting more money from the Centre,” said Shaibal Gupta, the founder of Asian Development Research Institute in Patna. The size of the state budget rose from Rs 28,944 crore in 2006-’07 to Rs 1.6 lakh crore in 2017-’18.
As a result, unlike Punjab, which spends most of its revenues on debt-servicing, Bihar now has a revenue surplus. But, even with debt-servicing, Punjab’s per capita healthcare spend is higher than that of Bihar – Rs 1,189 as compared to Rs 831. This is partly explained by the fact that Bihar is more populous than Punjab. But population alone does not account for the paradox of a pro-poor government failing to deliver services to the poor.
The baggage of history
Bihar’s underdevelopment is rooted in its colonial history, said Gupta. The British used different tax collection mechanisms in India. In southern and western India, under the ryotwari and mahalwari systems, they conducted regular surveys to set the annual tax that peasants would pay them directly. But in eastern India, including Bihar, they worked through local zamindars who would collect taxes, maintain law and order, and pay the British a fixed tax each year.
It was a consequential choice that has shaped how people in these areas experience the state till today. In post-Independence Bihar, the landowning elite – Bhumihars, Rajputs, Thakurs and Brahmins – came to control both the state unit of the Congress and the bureaucracy. Unsurprisingly, land redistribution did not take off, despite both peaceful movements like Bhoodan and violent uprisings like Naxalism.
The arrival of Lalu
This phase ended in 1990 when a great subaltern assertion swept Lalu Prasad Yadav to power. It
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data demonstrated how the bacterial sensor reacts right away after light absorption. The team observed them by focusing on the light-sensitive section of the protein dubbed “photoactive yellow protein” (PYP), which works as an eye in purple bacteria. This helps the bacteria “feel” blue light and avoid excessively energetic, likely harmful light.
Using the Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray (LCLS) Free Electron Laser situated in California, the group fired extremely bright pulses at the protein, capturing images every few femtoseconds during the photon reaction’s progression.
X-ray pulses of the LCLS are very short and last a mere couple of femtoseconds, thus allowing the team to investigate processes on that timescale. Tweaking an earlier experiment, the scientists replaced optical laser with a new one boasting of being 100,000 times shorter than earlier and better approximates the length of the X-ray pulse.
They applied more efficient timing tools as well in order to measure the relative time of arrival between the optical and X-ray laser pulses. This enhances the capacity to track mega-fast events.
The findings were published May 5 in the journal Science.
ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.A Hollywood Hills homeowner is fighting back against allegations made about an Airbnb rental tent on her property. Gadi Schwartz reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on July 2, 2015. (Published Friday, July 3, 2015)
A Hollywood Hills homeowner is fighting back and calling accusations from neighbors "lies" after they claimed to see people openly drinking and having sex on a "campsite" being rented out on her property.
Advertised through the Airbnb website, the site was marketed as a "Hollywood Hills Camping Retreat" on La Punta Drive, but sits in the middle of a multimillion-dollar neighborhood. For the cost of $35 per night — or $800 a month — people get a tent, spectacular views and are within short walking distance of the Hollywood sign.
The listing appeared to have been taken down as of Thursday morning.
But people living in the well-heeled locale are unhappy at the way they claim renters are behaving during their stays — smoking, having sex and drinking — within view of the surrounding mansions.
Hollywood Hills Airbnb Property Owner Speaks Out
The owner of a Hollywood Hills property being sold as a campsite on the popular Airbnb website is fighting back against those allegations. Gadi Schwartz reports for the NBC4 News at 5 and 6 p.m. on July 2, 2015. (Published Thursday, July 2, 2015)
"People buck naked, people doing sex out in open. Drinking," resident and father Sanjeeb Kumar told NBC4. "Our own backyard, it's scary. Scared to come out."
"I think it's really hard when a lot of us have children and we are driving by and the kids see strange things and ask, 'Why is that going on there?'" another neighbor said.
A woman who identified herself as the homeowner, an actress named Dita de Leon, told NBC4 on Thursday those accusations are lies and that her security cameras "never captured anything like that."
"They're fabricating lies that people are having sex in public, that's not true," she said. "That's false. Unless they can produce proof that happened, that's false, and they were not my guests."
"Maybe somebody was trespassing and decided to have sex — if it even happened. I have no firsthand knowledge of it," de Leon continued.
De Leon said that when she first posted her ad on Airbnb, she did so because she loved her home so much, she wanted to share the experience of being there. That, she says, is not breaking any rules.
Hollywood Hills Residents Angered by Tent Rental
Hollywood Hills residents are angered by a $40-per-night tent rental in a dirt lot in their neighborhood. Gadi Schwartz reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Wednesday, July 1, 2015. (Published Wednesday, July 1, 2015)
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm not breaking any laws by sharing my property with my guests that I invite to visit up here and to enjoy my dream home," she said.
"I put an ad out on Airbnb to rent out a tent so what was being rented was an actual tent, not the property. So there is no property rental," de Leon added. "I rented out a tent. the people that came here were staying as my guest, as my visitor, for free. That was the misconception, that I was renting out this piece of dirt."
De Leon said she's been at the home since January and was sad to hear that her ad was no longer on the Airbnb site.
Airbnb gave the following statement to NBC4:
"The listing is no longer on the site. Airbnb guests expect unique and authentic travel experiences and in turn communities rightfully expect considerate visitors. We have had more than 40 million guests stay with Airbnb. Problems for hosts, guests and neighbors are extremely rare but when they happen, we work fast to make things right."
Neighbors also voiced concerns that a fire could be sparked as campers have been seen smoking, even though a sign in front of the property, which is surrounded by dry brush, says smoking is not allowed.
2015 Southern California Images in the News
"We have a major drought situation, that could go up, take the whole hillside and take the houses with it," a resident said.
De Leon said she has a no-smoking policy, and she later showed NBC4 the tents pitched on her property,
According to the now-offline campsite listing, campers may use the mansion's bathrooms during their stay for an extra fee.
Neighbors are hoping to have the campsite closed down, and are working to have the city check for any possible zoning violations.
The city issued a statement Thursday saying that it is "in the preliminary stages of an investigation on this property."
De Leon told NBC4 that she has no plans to take the tents down, which makes some of her own tenants uncomfortable.
"It's supposed to be a safe place and you don't know who you are inviting up there," said Tess Roussin, who rents a home from de Leon. "I don't think it's appropriate but I'm just a renter."
Michael Larkin contributed to this report.According to Mikael Wallentin Åström, who works for the Swedish Armed Forces in organization development and defence logistics and procurement, the military’s current gear fails to take into consideration the fact that all bodies are different.
“Everyone should have a uniform or workwear that allows him or her to function as a soldier,” he told the Swedish news agency TT.
But military equipment has historically been based on a soldier who is male, 185 centimetres tall and who tips the scales at 80 kilos.
That is set to change. The Swedish Armed Forces and the Defence Material Administration are now working to ensure that gear fits a greater variety of people than before. The goal is to achieve equality in design – from uniforms and boots to body armor and tents.
“We have tents that are difficult for someone to put up if they under 172 cm tall,” Wallentin Åström said. “And it’s not safe if helmets start falling over soldiers’ eyes because they don’t fit well.”
In addition to uniforms, weapons will be looked at anew. Their size and weight should be appropriate for different levels of strength.
“A more equality-based design is good for everyone,” Wallentin Åström said. “Lighter and better balanced weapons are more effective and easier to carry for longer, regardless of gender.”
The equipment overhaul is set to be complete within five years. As the new designs are created, they will be tested by soldiers, especially women.
“It’s a question of fairness,” Wallentin Åström added. “All of our personnel should be able to operate safely with the equipment that we give them.”The Palestinian Authority reportedly plans to give White House envoy Jared Kushner an ultimatum when he visits Ramallah on Thursday: deliver Israeli concessions in 45 days, or we blow up the peace process and go to the UN.
The ultimatum marks a stunning reversal in negotiating postures since Kushner officially took up the task of negotiating a deal between Israelis and Palestinians on behalf of his father-in-law, President Donald Trump.
At the start of the administration, the Palestinian leadership was so shocked by Trump’s election victory that they did not even know whom to call in the White House. They were fearful of the incoming administration, which was stacked with pro-Israel advisers and appointees, and which was determined to upset the Beltway consensus about everything, especially the Middle East. Trump, and Kushner, had virtually unprecedented negotiating leverage.
That leverage was enhanced when Trump set aside the two-state solution, accepted existing settlements in Judea and Samaria, and made a regional alliance with Arab states a higher priority than satisfying the Palestinians.
Had the U.S. embassy in Israel been moved to Jerusalem right away, that would have cemented Israel’s sovereignty in its historic capital, and forced the Palestinians to offer concessions to avoid losing any foothold in the city altogether.
An embassy move may still happen. But in the interim, it was delayed to appease the Palestinians, who offered nothing in return for Trump’s delay except vows to continue using U.S. taxpayer money to pay terrorists and their families.
Trump prioritized the goal of a peace agreement, as every administration before him had done, signaling to the Palestinians that they could once again make demands in exchange for their mere participation in peace talks.
The new tone was signaled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who attacked the Trump administration earlier this week, ahead of Kushner’s visit. He is also clearly emboldened by the American media’s treatment of the president, and the pervasive belief among Democrats and some Republicans that Trump will not be in office long.
A report in Al-Monitor details the ultimatum that Abbas plans to present to Kushner:
A senior Palestinian source who spoke on condition of anonymity said a decision had been reached after lengthy negotiations at top PA levels, including consultations with its team of Trump experts, to present Kushner and Greenblatt with a clear ultimatum: Unless progress is made within 45 days on launching talks with the Israelis, the Palestinians will consider themselves no longer committed to the US channel and will turn to an alternative plan on which they have been working for the past two years.
The Trump administration had hoped to use pressure from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other Sunni states to force the Palestinians to make concessions. But Kushner will not be able to draw on those allies, either — not after the Trump administration cut aid to Egypt over human rights concerns. Earlier, the administration had put national security objectives first. No longer — and Kushner knows it, after being snubbed by Egypt’s foreign minister on Wednesday.
Now, barely half a year after Kushner began his Sisyphean task, the Palestinians are dictating demands to the U.S. Meanwhile, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster — whose support for Israel is in doubt, and who reportedly nixed the idea of Netanyahu accompanying Trump to the Western Wall — is exerting more control over Kushner’s mission. Trump’s “biggest deal of them all” is far from reach — and a chance to secure Israel’s future is being lost.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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UX-radio, Inc. was created by Lara Fedoroff out of a love for user-centered design, information architecture, content strategy, interaction and design. Her background is in marketing, Information Architecture, and user experience design. The show is designed to inspire, educate, share resources and to expand the conversation about IA, UX and design.
UX Discovery Session
…by Gerard Dolan. Every discovery session here is an opportunity to learn about a relevant topic, generate ideas that expand a new technique or practice, or brainstorm concepts and ideas for the next new thing. One of the best UX podcasts to tune in.
User Defenders
In our highly accelerating world of technology, wearables and the connected life, there’s never been a better time to be a great UX Designer.
For those more recently diving in and gaining experience, it can be quite daunting to stay inpired and enlightened in this ever-changing/evolving landscape.
This podcast is aimed at highlighting those leading the way in their craft by diving deeper into who they are, and what makes them tick/successful, in order to inspire and equip those aspiring to do the same.
Design Edu Today Podcast
Design Edu Today is the podcast series discussing topics concerning the state of interactive design education at institutions of higher learning.
Sprint – A UX podcast
Each week Michael Dusing, Cody Moiseve and Kyle Coberly sit down for the Sprint, a UX podcast. Listen as they drink and converse their way through user experience design, web design and tech news.
Did we miss out your favorite UX podcast? Share with us in the comments and we will probably add it to our post 😉
The makers of DebugMe hope that you like this post and would love it if you follow us on Twitter. We are tweeting about web design, UI/UX, and development related topics multiple times a day. DebugMe is an issue tracking, project management and screenshot tool for every website project. Get visual feedback right away and solve front-end problems faster. Try it now for free.This week, the film The Most Hated Woman in America comes to Netflix, with Melissa Leo playing Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the atheist who campaigned against the church’s influence in public and political life (the title comes from the headline on a 1964 interview with her in Life magazine). While Murray O’Hair is not widely known outside of the US, she had an extraordinary life. Long before the likes of Richard Dawkins, she gained notoriety for helping to push bible readings out of schools, and in 1963 she founded American Atheists. It’s a group that is still going today, campaigning against Donald Trump’s plan to abolish the rule that forbids religious institutions, among other charitable organisations, from getting involved in political activity and funding). For the next few decades, Murray O’Hair devoted her life to campaigning against the church’s power. She was a contentious figure, and when she disappeared in 1995, along with her son and granddaughter from their home in Austin, Texas, that too was controversial.
People wondered whether there could be a sinister explanation. With still no sign of the family eight months on, a piece in the New York Times suggested that there were “two widely discussed explanations about the disappearances”. The first was that the trio had gone on the run with money they’d embezzled from the organisation. “The other,” they reported, “is that Mrs O’Hair, 77, diabetic and in declining health, was taking action on her desire to die without others praying over her corpse.”
Neither proved to be true: in 2001, their bodies were found, dismembered and hidden on a ranch in Texas, not murdered by one of the many enemies Murray O’Hair had made (death threats were common and she had been physically attacked), but by a former employee at American Atheists and two accomplices. It was a horrific end for one of the most interesting women of the second half of the 20th century.
In life, Murray O’Hair was funny, foul-mouthed and abrasive; she once said her favourite pastime was “thinking and beer drinking”. She described herself as a “militant feminist” (in, ironically, an interview with Playboy; she also wrote articles for pornographer Larry Flynt’s Hustler magazine, and wrote speeches for his presidential bid). She went on to call herself “an anarchist … and an integrationist and an internationalist – and all the other ‘ists’ that people seem to find so horrible these days. I embrace all of them.” She wasn’t a communist, although she was regularly accused of being one. Her response? She named her dogs Marx and Engels.
Later, she was criticised for being a self-publicist, money-hungry, and was disowned by her older son who became an evangelical Christian. But, although her fame dwindled, her victories were lasting. The requirement for prayers in schools had been ended in 1962 after a supreme court decision, but the following year another case Murray O’Hair was involved in led the supreme court to rule that bible readings were unconstitutional. In God-fearing America in the 1960s, this was a big deal (in schools in the UK, there is still a requirement for daily “collective worship” which should be “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character”). The landmark ruling made her famous, and she regularly appeared on TV and the radio, pushing her subsequent campaigns, which included attempting to sue the pope and trying to get the words “In God we Trust” removed from US currency.
She was ridiculed, dismissed as a crank and then largely forgotten about, but she often talked sense. “There’s an absolute steady retreat,” she said in an interview in 1989, “into what I call neofascism – but it’s really old-time fascism – into a robber-baron society and a religiously dominated society, and that’s not cyclical because they have new weapons at hand now, mainly communications technology with which they can rapidly disperse ideas.” You might call Madalyn Murray O’Hair prophetic, if that wasn’t a word she would have hated.
The Most Hated Woman In America is available on Netflix from 24 MarSlidin' Dirty is among the trucks scheduled to be there.
The first -- and aptly named -- Food Truck Festival is May 4 in Troy's River Front Park from noon-7 pm.
The festival's website lists 12 trucks so far, promising more to be announced. Food will be priced by the trucks. The festival will be selling beer -- a $5 token for a 16 oz beer. Among the rules: no coolers, no outside alcohol, no dogs.
You might recognize at least a few (or more) of the trucks lined up so far. Among them: Slidin' Dirty, the Wandering Dago, and Sweet Temptations. Organizers are still looking to add vendors.
You might also be thinking, "Wait, wasn't there something about this a while back and it was supposed to be in Albany's Washington Park?" And the answer is: yes. The word we got from festival organizers was that they weren't able to work things out with the city -- so they headed to Troy.
Also in the mix: music from High Peaks Band, Funk Evolution, and the Chris Dukes Band.
The festival is organized by a group connected with Townsquare Media, which owns a group of radio stations in this area.
Earlier on AOA:
+ The Wandering Dago food truck
+ Slidin' DirtyProgramming. What exactly is it? To influence the new generation of innovators to learn such a skill, we must first define it in a way that truthfully illustrates the possible outcomes that stem from it. If you were to look up the definition of ‘programming’ on google right now you would end up reading something along the lines of “the process of assigning a code to something for the purposes of classification or identification”. How would that definition stimulate a child reading it to want to begin actively learning the process? Instead, we must provide a more accurate representation of the skill and what it achieves. Imagine if the definition of coding was something along the lines of “the ability to make your idea’s a reality; A skill that allows you to create your own games and become the producer rather than the consumer”. Now that would have inspired me as a kid to want to learn the art of programming.
If we truly want to get more children to learn programming starting at a young age, we need to change the environment in which we talk about it. In this sense coding can, and must, take a lot of notes from sports. Children are encouraged to participate in sports by today’s society because it will build connections and provide a goal or expectation to strive for. Going back to the example of definitions, the definition of sports even has the words ‘entertainment’ and ‘skill’ in it.
If a kid were to read todays definitions of coding and sports side by side, it’d be safe to assume that the kid would choose sports over coding 9 out of 10 times. We as the public must change the stigma that labels programing as a ‘nerdy’ and ‘lonely’ pastime and show kids the true potential of programming when people collaborate and explore ideas. Showing children the unrestricted potential at their fingertips and the satisfaction that comes with creating your first program is key in making this transition. Coding cannot be displayed as a chore but rather an outlet to openly express and bounce ideas off with friends, a playground for problem-solving and a store of possibilities.
Programming needs to be integrated in elementary school’s curriculum’s in a similar fashion as sports. Make a coding class with an open environment such as a P.E class where kids are free to try new things without judgement and learn off each other’s successes through collaboration. Perhaps the most important factor, make it fun. Inspire kids to make a video game of their choice or design an app that fits their passion. Let them discover for themselves the joy that comes along with programming by allowing them to work on what they find interesting. Treat coding like a sport, let the kids play. Ending the stigma that pairs both ‘nerdy’ and ‘programing’ in the same sentence is vital in increasing the number of little programmers to come in the coming decades.The term Back Door Man has several connotations. In the original blues song written by Willie Dixon, it refers to a man having an affair with a married woman, using the back door to flee before the husband comes home. During the Gerald Ford Presidency, Back Door Man was applied to Dick Cheney as Ford’s White House Chief of Staff and his “skills” at getting what he wanted through opaque means. More and more as Cabinet choices are named, it looks like the entire Trump Presidency project is emerging as Henry A. Kissinger’s “Back Door Man,” in the Cheney meaning of the term.
Long forgotten is Trump’s campaign rhetoric about draining the swamp. In October during his campaign candidate Trump issued a press release stating, “Decades of special interest dealing must come to an end. We have to break the cycle of corruption…It is time to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C…That is why I am proposing a package of ethics reforms to make our government honest once again.”
So far, the President-elect has already named more billionaires to cabinet and other top posts than any other president in US history–Betsy DeVos of the AmWay fortune as Education Secretary, Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary, Linda McMahon as Small Business Administrator, and Vincent Viola, as Army Secretary. That’s not including Trump himself as a putative billionaire.
Then in terms of the vested special interests of Wall Street, Goldman Sachs has a huge power in the new Administration. Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin is Trump’s nominee for US Treasury Secretary. Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn will be his top White House Economic Adviser. Anthony Scaramucci, Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee member, is a former Goldman Sachs banker as well as Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist and Senior Counselor.
We add to that assemblage no fewer than four US military generals representing the most corrupt military industrial complex in world history: as Secretary of Defense retired General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, Board member since retiring of major defense contractor General Dynamics; retired Lt. General Mike Flynn, with his own consulting firm, as his National Security Adviser and retired General John F. Kelly as Secretary of Homeland Security.
Add to this collection the naming of Rex Tillerson the CEO of ExxonMobil, the largest oil multinational of the United States, as Secretary of State; the ex-Governor of Texas, America’s largest oil producing state, Rick Perry, as Secretary of Energy, along with pro-shale energy Oklahoma Attorney General, Scott Pruitt to be head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and certain dramatic economic policy flips begin to emerge compared with the previous hapless Presidency.
Back Door for Kissinger Geopolitics
What emerges is not pretty and, sadly, more than confirms my earlier piece on the Trump Deception.
However, all this misses in my view one essential component, namely the shadowy role of former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, who is emerging as the unofficial and key foreign policy adviser of the Trump Administration. If we follow Kissinger’s tracks in recent months we find a highly interesting series of meetings.
On December 26, 2016 the German daily Bild Zeitung published what it said was a copy of an analysis by members of the Trump Transition Team which revealed that as President Trump will seek “constructive cooperation” with the Kremlin, a dramatic contrast to Obama confrontation and sanctions policies. The newspaper went on to discuss the role of 93-year-old former Secretary of State, Henry A. Kissinger as Trump’s leading, if unofficial, foreign policy adviser. The report stated that Kissinger is drafting a plan to bring Putin’s Russia and Trump’s Washington to more “harmonious” relations that includes US official recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and lifting of US economic sanctions that Obama imposed in retribution for the Crimea annexation in 2014, among other steps.
The kicker in this otherwise sensible-sounding US policy change is Kissinger’s sly geopolitical aim in “gettin’ Putin back in the (NATO) tent,” as late Texan President Lyndon Baines Johnson might have elegantly put it.
What is the aim of Kissinger? Not any “multi-polar world” that respects national sovereignty as he claims, of that you can be certain. Kissinger’s aim is to subtly erode the growing bilateral axis between China and Russia that threatens US global hegemony.
The trend of the last several years since Obama’s ill-fated coup d’etat in Ukraine in early 2014, threatened to jeopardize Kissinger’s lifetime project, otherwise called David Rockefeller’s “march towards a World Government,” a World Government in which “supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries,” to use Rockefeller’s words to one of his select groups during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Bild Zeitung Trump-Kissinger memo states that the idea of warming up to Russia is aimed at offsetting China’s military buildup. In other words, a different game from Obama’s, but a game of power nonetheless.
Real Balance of Power
Kissinger is one of the few surviving practitioners of historical British Balance of Power geopolitics. True British Balance of Power, as practiced in British military and diplomatic history since the Treaty of Windsor of 1386, between England and Portugal, always involved Britain making an alliance with the weaker of two rivals to defeat the stronger and in the process, to afterwards loot the exhausted weaker power as well. It was extraordinarily successful in building the British Empire down to World War II.
British Balance of Power is always about what power, in this case a Kissinger-steered United States, does the “balancing.” Following the defeat of Napoleon’s France at the Congress of Vienna peace talks in 1814, British Foreign Secretary, Viscount Castlereagh, architected a treaty that insured no Continental European power could dominate over the others, a strategy that lasted until 1914 and the First World War. What many political historians ignore is that that Continental Balance of Power was essential for creation of the British Empire that dominated the world as the leading naval power for a century.
In his 1950’s Harvard University PhD dissertation, Kissinger wrote what became a book titled, “A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812-1822.” That study of British Balance of Power is at the heart of Kissinger’s Machiavellian machinations ever since he took his first job with the Rockefeller family in the 1960’s. In A World Restored Kissinger states, “Diplomacy cannot be divorced from the realities of force and power. But diplomacy should be divorced…from a moralistic and meddlesome concern with the internal policies of other nations.” Further, he states, “The ultimate test of a statesman, then, is his ability to recognize the real relationship of forces and to make this knowledge serve his ends.”
Since his relationship began in the 1950’s with Nelson Rockefeller and the brothers Rockefeller–Laurance, David, Winthrop– Henry Kissinger has been the core strategist of the Rockefeller family’s globalization or World Government above nation states as David called it in 1991. That included Kissinger’s role with the Bilderberg Meetings, with David’s Trilateral Commission and right down to the present. It was Secretary of State Kissinger who asked his good friend David Rockefeller to facilitate Nixon’s “China opening” to the West in 1971. Then the geopolitical aim of Kissinger’s rebalance was to seduce China, then the weaker of Washington’s two great adversaries, into the Western alliance against the Soviet Union, then the stronger adversary, at least in military and geopolitical terms.
Today, as the year 2017 begins, the roles have turned and clearly China has emerged after more than three decades of unbridled industrial and economic expansion, as the stronger challenger of David Rockefeller’s so-called World Government. Russia, following the economic savagery and deindustrialization of the post-1991 Yeltsin years, is in Kissinger’s view, clearly the weaker of his two adversaries. Both China and Russia under Xi Jinping and Putin, are, together with Iran, the most formidable defenders of national sovereignty–the main obstacles standing in the way of David Rockefeller’s (I use him as the template) World (fascist) Government.
Kissinger’s strange diplomacy
If we perceive Kissinger’s recent actions from this perspective–how to break the emerging Eurasian threat to a Western-dominated One World Order–it makes much sense. He has been shockingly fulsome in his recent praise of the political neophyte casino mogul Trump. In an early December CBS TV interview, Kissinger said that Trump, “has the possibility of going down in history as a very considerable President.” He added that because of perceptions that Obama weakened America’s influence abroad, “one could imagine that something remarkable and new emerges” out of a Trump administration. “I’m saying it’s an extraordinary opportunity.”
The more we look under the rocks and at the key foreign policy choices of neophyte Trump, we find the pawprints of Henry A. Kissinger. The choice of General James “Mad Dog” Mattis to be Secretary of Defense intersects Kissinger. Mattis and Kissinger both served until early 2016 on the Board of Directors of a bizarre and very controversial California medical technology private partnership, Theranos, together with (until recently) former US Secretary of State George Shultz, former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry, retired U.S. Navy Adm. Gary Roughead, former Wells Fargo Bank chairman Dick Kovacevich.
Mattis, whom Trump compares to General Patton, in August, 2016 wrote a report attacking both Obama, Bush and Bill Clinton administrations’ foreign military policy, blasting the last three administrations for a perceived lack of national security vision, by ignoring threats posed by Russia, China and terrorist groups worldwide.
As well, the pawprints of the sly Kissinger appear with the surprise naming of ExxonMobil head Rex Tillerson to be Secretary of State. ExxonMobil is of course the original core of the Rockefeller family wealth. Kissinger issued a decisive and strong recommendation of Tillerson, stating that because Tillerson has strong personal relations with Russian President Putin and Russian state oil company, Rosneft, it is no reason to disqualify Tillerson: “I pay no attention to the argument that he is too friendly to Russia. As head of Exxon it’s his job to get along with Russia. He would be useless as the head of Exxon if he did not have a working relationship with Russia.” As with Kissinger and Mattis, Kissinger also serves on a Board of Trustees with Tillerson. Both Tillerson and Kissinger are Trustees of the very influential Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), along with such as Zbigniew Brzezinski and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
In true Kissinger secret diplomacy style so skillfully applied during his role in triggering the October, 1973 Yom Kippur war, Kissinger has apparently won the respect of Vladimir Putin as a “world class politician.” In February, 2016 Kissinger went to Moscow to privately meet with Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called that meeting a continuation of “a friendly dialogue between President Putin and Henry Kissinger, who are bound by a long-standing relationship.”
And on December 2, Kissinger was personally invited by China President Xi Jinping to meet in Beijing to discuss the prospects for China of the Trump presidency. Kissinger is regarded since 1971 as uniquely trusted by the Chinese to serve as a mediator of US policy intentions.
With Kissinger now in a unique relationship with President-elect Trump as shadow foreign policy adviser, with Kissinger allies Tillerson as Secretary of State and Mattis as Secretary of Defense, it is beginning to appear that the heavy hand of Kissinger and his version of British Balance of Power political manipulations is about to target China, as well as Iran, and to try to use Putin and Russia to destroy the genuine possibility of a counterweight to Western One World delusions, by fostering mistrust and bad blood between China and Russia and Iran.
There is simply too much coincidence in the recent emergence of the Kissinger–world statesman of peace–to not think that in truth, from the outset, Donald Trump was designed to be Henry A. Kissinger’s Back Door Man, in order to re-tilt global geopolitics back to a US leading role as Domina über Alles.
F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Saturday that he will not appear before open congressional appropriations subcommittee hearings this week and will send his deputy instead. (Susan Walsh/AP)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had agreed to testify this week before the Senate and House appropriations subcommittees about the Justice Department budget, wrote the chairmen of the committees Saturday and said he was sending his deputy to testify instead.
Sessions was scheduled to testify before Congress on Tuesday for the first time since he was confirmed as attorney general in February. In light of former FBI director James B. Comey’s testimony last week, Sessions was expected to get many questions from lawmakers about his contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 election campaign.
Sessions wrote to the two chairmen that he would testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday instead. A Justice Department official said that committee hearing probably will be closed to the public.
In early March, The Washington Post reported that Sessions twice met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign and did not disclose that to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing in January. The next day, Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation and said it would be overseen by his deputy attorney general, who last month appointed a special counsel to handle the probe.
[ Sessions recuses himself from Russia investigation probe]
(Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)
Sessions also was expected to get questions about his involvement in the firing of Comey and the news that he offered his resignation to President Trump at one point recently.
“I previously accepted an invitation to testify on behalf of the Department of Justice before the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees about the department’s FY18 budget, which funds the department’s efforts in several important areas such as combating the opioid crisis and violent crime,” Sessions wrote to Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, science and related agencies, and Rep. John Abney Culberson (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, science and related agencies.
“In light of reports regarding Mr. Comey’s recent testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, it is important that I have an opportunity to address these matters in the appropriate forum,” Sessions wrote. “The Senate Intelligence Committee is the most appropriate forum for such matters, as it has been conducting an investigation and has access to relevant, classified information.”
Comey testified Thursday that the bureau had information about Sessions — before he recused himself from overseeing the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election — that would have made it “problematic” for him to be involved in the probe.
[Comey said FBI information about Sessions would have made his involvement in Russia probe problematic]
Sessions wrote the chairmen that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein will take his place before both the House and Senate subcommittees to testify about the Justice Department’s budget.
Sessions said he was “pleased to accept” the invitation to appear before members of the Senate Select Committee on Tuesday. Spokesmen for the chairman and ranking minority member of the committee could not be reached to confirm whether the hearing will be open or closed to the public.TL;DR: Next week, Synereo will officially announce the first application of the Attention Economy Layer (AEL) toolkit, employing real AMPs and distributed storage technology to establish a decentralized content market on top of existing Internet services. This post seeks to explain the context in which the AEL is deployed.
As our long-time followers know, Synereo’s primary mission is placing the value generated by Internet denizens in their own hands. In the long term, our vision entails assigning full ownership and control of social networks to users themselves, on a technologically-decentralized platform. The race towards decentralized infrastructures, however, as important as it undoubtedly is, is meant to serve a higher goal; for Synereo and its community, decentralization is first and foremost a means
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enough calories for our people, first because we export lots of them out of the state and second because we waste 90% of the calories from field crops converting them into meat and dairy. Even with two-thirds of the irrigated acreage in the state, we can grow plenty of calories for direct human consumption as soon as prices tell farmers to do so.
However, I would like us to retain the capacity to do that. I have never understood the argument that we should specialize in something else that makes more money and use the extra money to buy food from elsewhere. That may be rational in average or good years, but it leaves us fundamentally vulnerable when things go bad. First, when food is scarce, it become infinitely valuable; even if we are relatively wealthy, what would we have to spend to extract it from another country? If they have barely enough (which is when we’d need it), they won’t sell it at any price and what? We take food from another hungry country by force? This is morally untenable and not practically do-able. Besides all that, why? Why let ourselves get into the position of ever depending on some one else for the most immediate and powerful of necessities. Money itself is not exchangeable enough in famine, and you can’t eat it. I’m sure this sounds like a straw man but I have had economists earnestly promote this notion to me, so you begin to understand the source of my scorn for them.
Working landscapes can also support wildlife.
Farms can support biodiversity, if they are managed to do so. More farmed acres might be managed to do so if farmers’ livelihoods didn’t depend on pure industrial production.
Improves my urban quality of life.
Having small agriculture nearby increases my quality of life, primarily by offering me greater diversity of produce than I’d otherwise have. There are plenty of food-porn sites that will rhapsodize about farmers’ market shopping and fresh food, so I don’t have to do that here. Besides, supermarkets have pretty good produce departments these days. Nevertheless, I find shopping at farmers’ markets to be a nicer experience with a greater variety of produce over the course of the year, especially when a cute market Betty offers me samples. Those markets are only possible when there are farmers nearby growing produce for local consumption.
Building on comparative advantage.
California has fantastic natural advantages for agriculture, in climate and soil. We’ve invested heavily in infrastructure to develop that further. You probably think I mean the water projects, but I’m actually thinking of our ag colleges. It sounds silly to say the self-evident out loud, but it is important to produce food and fiber; places that are good for that should do so. This is likely true of agriculture in the rest of the country, and Vilsack should have been able to say specifically why, but we all know that I don’t care about those other places.
Overall:
It is hard to argue that we should support (essentially) small truck farms, because what we would be getting in exchange is largely abstract. We would be maintaining food-production capacity. We would get the view of small farms. Urban dwellers would get some qualitative experiences, like shopping at farmers’ markets or having intricate ag-based towns in the state. We would also get resilience, since complex systems with diverse elements do better under stress than simplified systems. So it is hard enough to say that the collective state should buy these abstract things. It is even harder to make the case when economists offer specious counter arguments.
The counter argument from traditional economics is that the market itself has proved that people don’t want those abstract things as much as they want cheap food. This is why I have severe doubts about markets; markets only let people express choices for narrow economic efficiency. It is difficult to express any other choice in a market; if I deliberately pay more because I want to support boutique agriculture, is it clear that I’m doing that so they’ll pay laborers decent wages and clean up their ag run-off? Or will some middleman snag those extra dollars, and the grower never gets that information from me. But in a market, you can always send the signal that you want cheap food. Purchasers’ ability to signal their preferences is asymmetric in a market, perpetually biased towards economic efficiency. I won’t address incomplete information, because it is patronizing when advocates say that “if the public really knew, they’d support what I think.” But I add that people have inconsistent time preferences. They may want the abstract things I mentioned on an on-going basis, but sharply prefer to spend less on groceries in the moment. This is why I doubt that markets reflect people’s true feelings.
Finally, direct payments to farmers (to be the kind of farmers I want) are necessary because they consistently work with very high risk. They absorb climate variability, which will become even more volatile. If they are not perfectly resilient, we’ll lose a few with every shock. Since I value their capacity, I think we should pay them to bridge them through disasters. (I know insurance could handle this, but humans are not very good about risk and insurance, so handling that should not be left to the individual (in any context, car or health or crop failure).)
I don’t know what structure payments like that could have. But if the vision were clear, direct subsidies could be shaped to deliver that.** If we were buying the type of ag we want, we could also include ways to help new farmers enter the ag sector. I know a fair number of people who think they want to farm. I don’t believe most of them, but none of them get to try, because it is so hard to buy large farms (to compete at the economically efficient scale) and they can’t afford health insurance.
Those are my reasons to subsidize some forms of agriculture, and none of them have anything to do with inherent awesomeness of country folk. They are self-interested reasons urban people should spend money to stabilize and promote ag. Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack can thank me later.
*This, btw, is why I have no truck with farmers who argue that their way of life is precious and endangered and Californian. Yes, well, that is equally true of some cool ethnic community in Los Angeles. But there are many, many more of the Los Angeles precious communities. I don’t accept the premise that one is better than the other, so I go by volume.
**Which is why I was so disgusted with the outcome of the Ag Vision process. It didn’t come up with a vision. It said, what we’re doing now, plus some strategies that will presumably get us to a nebulous better ag sector later. I want a clear vision (6 million irrigated acres on the east side and Sac Valley, with locals in stable complex towns that sell produce and grains to me), and then strategies to get from here to specifically there.The GIMP is an image manipulation program suitable for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It is extremely useful and we use it on daily basis, especially for creating graphics for web pages.
In this tutorial we'll show how to create a social media icon with GIMP image editor.
We're going to crate an social icon for Randez.com. Randez is a social network that we own and it's very popular in countries of former Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia...)
Creating icon background
1) Start Gimp > File > New...
2) Enter values as follows
You can enter any other size if you want, but icon with size 256x256 can easily be resized to any smaller size (and you'll be able to see more details)
3) Blank canvas will be displayed (note that it's transparent as we configured in the previous step)
4) Select Bucket Fill Tool in the toolbox (or press Shift+B) and then pick desired color. We're going to work with red color for Randez social icon background.
Click on the image and canvas will changed color to red.
Round corners
The next step is to round the icon's corners.
5) Press Ctrl+A to select the whole layer
6) Select > Rounded Rectangle...
7) Enter value in the new screen. We'll enter 30 for this purpose.
8) Our image will look like this:
9) Select > Invert in order to select corners themselves (and not the working part of the image)
10) Edid > Cut will delete the corners and the image will be:
Create border
Our icon will have border darker than the rest of the image so let's create it.
11) Reverse selection back to the working part of the image: Select > Invert
12) Shrink the selection: Select > Shrink...
13) Enter the shrink value as we did on the screen below (eight will be enough) and click OK.
The idea is to copy the selection and make it's color lighter than the margin. You can do this is many ways but we chose this one.
14) Copy the selection into new layer: Ctrl+C to copy and then Ctrl+V to paste it. New floating selection in the pasted layer will be displayed in the layers window:
15) Click Create new layer button and you'll get the following screen
16) While new layer is active press Ctrl+A to select it
(You can now pick some lighter red and change the layer's color but we suggest to follow our instructions further)
17) Click again Bucket Fill Tool and pick white color
18) Click on the image and new layer will turn to white
19) Change the layer's opacity (i.e. transparency) to 10
Our image will be like this:
Add simple glossy effect
Almost all web 2.0 icons have glossy efect so we'll add it to the Randez icon, too.
20) Create new transparent layer for glossy part
Layer > New Layer... > Choose Transparency option and click OK button
21) Choose Ellipse Select Tool in the toolbox and create a selection like this one:
22) Choose Bucket Fill Tool, pick white color and click on the selection. It will get white color, so change the color's opacity to 10 as in the one of the previous steps; the image will look like:
Add logo
22) You can draw your own sign or letter but we'll paste the Randez logo as new layer
and the image will be
23) Here is the final result of Randez social network iconAn altered county and state: The back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s brought an influx of laid-back residents to Mendocino County, about a two- to four-hour drive north of San Francisco.
Enlarge By Laura Bly, USA TODAY Splendor in the grass: Tim Blake, a longtime marijuana grower near Laytonville, sponsors the annual Emerald Cup for the best locally grown organic pot. IF YOU GO IF YOU GO Getting there: Mendocino County's closest major airports are in San Francisco and Sacramento; count on three to 3 1/2 hours to the village of Mendocino from SFO, and another hour to the northern part of the county, which encompasses nearly 4,000 square miles. Where to stay: Most lodgings (more than two dozen B&Bs in Mendocino alone) and vacation rentals are located along the Pacific Coast or along Highway 101. In the heart of Mendocino, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Blue Door Group's Packard House and J.D. House offer a sleek, Restoration Hardware-esque ambiance for $130-$275 per night (888-453-2677; innsofmendocino.com). Near tiny Booneville, along the Anderson Valley wine trail, try the newly renovated, four-room Toll House Inn (rates $150-$250; 707-895-2572 or tollhouseinn.com). What to do: Along with hiking through redwood groves in preserves like Hendy Woods State Park and beachombing along the Pacific (Glass Beach near Fort Bragg is a favorite), many visitors head for the Anderson Valley wine trail. It's a throwback to what Napa was like 40 years ago, with most of the wineries offering free tastings and a chance to hobnob with the owners. More information: 866-466-3636 or visitmendocino.com Murder She Wrote.) MENDOCINO, Calif. Swap the Dungeness crab cakes and peasant skirts for lobster rolls and L. L. Bean khakis, and this snug seaside hamlet a few hours north of San Francisco could be a dead ringer for a New England village. (It was a stand-in for Cabot Cove, Maine, in the long-running TV series.) But if California voters approve a controversial ballot proposition in November to tax and legalize marijuana for recreational use — and it's ahead in several polls — some local growers say Mendocino, pop. 900, might become better known as the tourist capital of a "Napa Valley of cannabis." The notion of opening marijuana-tasting rooms, meet-the-grower tours and ganja-friendly "bud and breakfasts" in Northern California's pot-farming "Emerald Triangle" is like "tearing down the Berlin Wall. It's not going to happen overnight," says Matthew Cohen of MendoGrown. His 12-member association promotes a "sustainably grown medical cannabis industry" in the county, where legal and illicit pot — sanctioned for medical use by California residents since 1996 — fuels an estimated half to two-thirds of an economy once anchored by fishing and timber. PHOTO GALLERY: This bud's for you? MEXICO: California pot vote shows hypocrisy in drug policy Still, he says, passage of Proposition 19 would mobilize entrepreneurs and help jump-start a sluggish tourism industry by putting "Mendocino County on the map as a vision of what cannabis country could look like. The vibration is already here, and if you love (marijuana) enough to smoke it in a coffeehouse, why wouldn't you want to come out and enjoy it at the source?" Efforts to prevent legalization "are like trying to put your finger in a 100-foot wave," adds longtime resident Tim Blake. Host of an annual Emerald Cup cannabis competition that drew 100 entries last year, the medical marijuana producer wants to turn Area 101, his 150-acre "spiritual and retreat center" near Laytonville, into a springboard for hemp burgers and public hayrides through his heavily guarded (and legal) collection of OG Kush and Sour Diesel plants. 'Entering uncharted territory' Hemp shakes and cannabisseries? They're pipe dreams, counter many Mendocino tourism promoters, law officials and business owners. While 14 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana use in some form, California's groundbreaking Prop 19 would authorize any adult 21 and older to possess, share or transport up to 1 ounce regardless of jurisdiction, and let each city and county decide whether to approve and tax commercial sales. Proponents say legalization would weaken criminal activity by Mexican drug cartels and funnel as much as $1.4 billion a year into the state's dangerously depleted coffers. But opponents, including most state officeholders and candidates, the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Police Chiefs Association, argue it would create a hodgepodge of enforcement, boost the ranks of impaired drivers and keep cartels underground to avoid paying taxes. What's more, they say, it would be in direct conflict with — and superseded by — federal law. Famous for its dramatic headlands, redwood groves and down-home wineries producing world-class Pinot Noirs, Mendocino County draws about 2 million visitors a year, mostly from Northern California, to an area that's bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined but home to just 90,000 residents. Despite its reputation as a refuge for "back-to-the-landers" who took advantage of the rugged terrain and skimpy population to grow high-quality and highly profitable strains of pot, "I'd hate to see people coming up here because of what they think we are, instead of who we really are," says Lark Melesea. She sells hemp clothing at a Mendocino shop called Twist and wants the "sacred herb" used for healing rather than "getting blotto." If Prop 19 passes, Melesea adds, "the last thing we want to be is a pot-based Disneyland." Marijuana "is part of the social fabric of our nation, one way or another," says Sheriff Tom Allman, and "the days of sending people to prison for a seed are over. It's the green rush of the new millennium." But he says Prop 19's inconsistencies and loopholes doom it to failure, and it wouldn't stem a growing wave of cartel-related violence that has included multiple armed raids in the vast, deceptively scenic reaches of Mendocino National Forest. "We're entering uncharted territory," says Visit Mendocino County's Scott Schneider, digging into a Thai burrito with organic tofu at the Mendocino Café. "But we're certainly not going to promote something that's still illegal at the federal level." Weed aficionados "are not our target audience," he says. Pot at the end of the rainbow? Right on cue, diner Matt Kotlarczyk lowers his fork to join the debate. A Cincinnati-based sculptor who's winding his way up the California coast, Kotlarczyk didn't choose Mendocino for its counterculture, ganja-friendly ambience. But, he says, "it's definitely an enhancement." Mendocino isn't the only California destination calculating whether, and how, to attract similar-minded travelers. Joey Luiz, a winery sales manager who's running for city council in neighboring Lake County, says marijuana tourism could be a plus: "We've struggled to find any kind of industry, and the more bodies you can bring in, the better." Farther north in Siskiyou County, Dunsmuir Mayor Peter Arth has been nicknamed "Mayor Juana" for his support of a downtown pot garden, across from the sheriff's substation, to draw visitors and provide organic marijuana to patients. And in a hardscrabble swath of downtown Oakland dubbed "Oaksterdam," Segway tours already cruise by Oaksterdam University (a trade school that has trained more than 12,000 students in how to grow marijuana), medical dispensaries stocked with pot-laced Belgian chocolates, and a souvenir store that peddles ganja-themed boxer shorts. But marijuana doesn't always translate to a tourist pot of gold: Though Amsterdam's laissez-faire coffeehouses have drawn smokers for decades, the Dutch border city of Maastricht recently voted to ban sales to foreigners in a bid to stave off an influx of weed-seeking backpackers. Along Mendocino County's Anderson Valley wine trail, Raul Touzon of Miami and Andree Thorpe of Bermuda sip glasses of Pinot Noir rosé on a sun-dappled lawn at Goldeneye Winery. Would they return for a few tokes along with their liquid relaxers? Not likely. "There's a mystique to sitting here, enjoying the experience: the land, the scenery, the grapes," Touzon says. "No one is going to come here to smoke a joint." Adds Milla Handley, owner of the nearby Handley Winery: "How do you deal with driving and smoking? We try to be conscientious (in limiting wine samples) because our kids are on these roads. You add another drug, and it's a cause for concern." But Mendocino County fisherman, construction worker and pot grower Tyler Kidwell begs to differ. "When I went to Hawaii," says Kidwell, "I got two questions: Have you ever surfed Point Arena (a famous county break), and did you bring us any pot?" Whether or not it's legalized for recreational use, "Mendocino is known around the world as a pot mecca," adds Kidwell. "And if you're going to get stoned, the redwoods are a great place to do it." 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 moreFaced with a stubborn slide in sales at its U.S. stores, Best Buy Co. Inc. announced Thursday its steepest round of cuts: closure of 50 big box stores and elimination of 400 positions at corporate headquarters in Richfield.
The closings include five stores in the Twin Cities area, leaving 301 workers without jobs. Nationally, layoffs will likely be in the thousands since each store employs roughly 100 workers, including so-called Blue Shirts and Geek Squad technicians.
Best Buy, once known as the undisputed discount king of consumer electronics, has been struggling to find its place in a world dominated by flashy high-end brand temples like Apple Stores and low-cost Internet retailers like Amazon. Customers have been increasingly migrating online, where they often find better deals, forcing Best Buy to figure out a reason why shoppers would need to visit an actual store.
Last year, Best Buy lost a staggering $1.2 billion as it deeply discounted merchandise to keep pace with rivals Amazon and Wal-Mart.
All in all, Best Buy hopes to shed $800 million over the next three years, savings the company plans to use to fund its new "connected" store remodels, international expansion and digital services. But even CEO Brian Dunn admits the company's efforts to remake itself are fraught with frustration and uncertainty.
"I'm not satisfied," Dunn told the Star Tribune.
"We have a long [history] of transforming ourselves to be where the customers need to be," he said. However, "I need more information."
For example, the company plans to reduce its retail square footage in the Twin Cities and San Antonio by 20 percent this year. Instead, Best Buy will remodel its big boxes with smaller "connected stores" that focus more on high-level service. Will Best Buy customers like the new format, shop more online, or simply go to Wal-Mart or Target? Dunn wants to know.
Given the severity of Best Buy's problems, however, some experts wonder how long it will take Best Buy's strategies to work, if they do.
Things are not going to get easier in 2012, said Jeremy Brunelli, an analyst with Consumer Edge Research, a firm based in Stamford, Conn. He noted Best Buy now expects sales at stores open for at least a year, a key growth number for retailers, to fall between 2 and 4 percent this year, compared to its earlier estimate of a 1 percent decline.
Brunelli said he believes there is a growing disconnect between Wall Street and Best Buy. While Dunn believes the company should prepare for the future, investors believe Best Buy is better off just returning that $800 million in cost savings to shareholders, not exactly a vote of confidence in the company's prospects, he said.
Indeed, Best Buy stock fell nearly 7 percent, or $1.85, to close Thursday at $24.77.
But Dunn remains optimistic, noting that Best Buy still boasts plenty of cash and a highly trained workforce.
"When I see our Blue Shirts talking to customers, I like our chances very much," he said.
What Best Buy needs to figure out is how those Blue Shirts will operate in the fast-changing retail environment Dunn calls the "new normal."
In truth, Best Buy's plan to close 50 big-box stores this year is probably only the beginning. The company operates about 1,100 stores in North America. Most debuted in the mid-1990s when Best Buy went on its growth spurt, said Flora Delaney, a retail consultant and former Best Buy executive. Since leases typically run 15 to 20 years, Best Buy could simply let those leases expire, she said.
In their place, the retailer wants to build more of its highly successful Best Buy Mobile stores and test its "Connected Store" concept.
In developing the format, Best Buy appears to be borrowing heavily from Apple's playbook. The connected store features a "Central Knowledge Desk," similar to Apple's Genius Bar, where customers can receive technical support and even take classes.
But Best Buy will face a daunting challenge replicating Apple's retail success, Delaney said. The company must shift its store employees away from a numbers-driven sales culture to one that offers patient, high-level service.
Whereas Apple can afford to wait for customers to eventually buy an iPad or iPhone, Best Buy faces relentless pressure to generate quarterly sales, Delaney said.
"Best Buy can't drive that enthusiastic loyalty" that Apple commands, she said.
But the company has no choice but to try. Its stores generate most of its $50 billion in annual sales so Best Buy must find ways to reinvent them, experts say.
Best Buy also wants to speed up its digital sales, one of the company's fastest-growing businesses, but a relatively small unit compared to revenue from the company's physical stores. Earlier this month, the retailer hired former Starbucks chief information officer Stephen Gillett to oversee its digital operations, including online and mobile offerings.
But in the end, Best Buy's fate rests with its stores.Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (R) and husband Bill Clinton (L) wave to a cheering crowd after winning the Nevada democratic caucus at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 20, 2016. (Photo: JOSH EDELSON, AFP/Getty Images)
The race was called at 2:15 p.m. With 76.3 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton has 18 delegates and Sanders has 14.
Hillary Clinton has won the Nevada caucus, according to the Associated Press.
For live results of the race -- including a county by county breakdown -- click here:
Election Results
Watch Sanders' concession speech here, via NBC News:
3:17 p.m. update
Multiple caucus-goers reported lack of accommodations for people who are disabled, while Craig Ayres-Sevier found Wi-Fi overloaded at Mount Rose Elementary causing computer slowdowns. An extremely slow registration process was also reported at Virginia Palmer Elementary. For these problems and a roundup of more, visit on.rgj.com/caucus-problems.
2:28 p.m. update
The data website FiveThirtyEight reports, "Hillary Clinton is on track to win between 18 and 20 of Nevada’s 35 pledged delegates, and Bernie Sanders is on track to win between 15 and 17. That’s not good news for Sanders, who needed roughly 19 Nevada delegates to be “on track” for the nomination, according to the Cook Political Report scorecard."
CLOSE Alex Solano talks about the Nevada Democratic caucus on Saturday. Seth A. Richardson/RGJ
1:56 p.m. update:
The predominantly minority caucus site at Rancho High School in Las Vegas appeared to favor Clinton slightly, but a final delegate count was not available as of 1:45 p.m.
The results could prove troubling for Sanders, who's campaign has had trouble courting minorities.
But young Latinos, like other young people around the country, did gravitate toward Sanders' progressive message, with many citing his plan for free college as a main reason they were supporting him.
"Right now it's so hard just to go to school and work at the same time," said Vanessa Vasquez, a 21-year-old first-time voter. "When college is affordable, so many more people will be able to go to school."
Others like Alex Solano, 25, of Las Vegas, said while he liked Sanders' message, he supported Clinton because she is more electable.
"I thought about it for a while and couldn't make up my mind, but I remember last time it was easier for me because Clinton had more experience," Solano said. "In the end, she's more electable than Bernie Sanders."
CLOSE Sarah Tate-Crowder, 28, talks about the Nevada Democratic caucus on Saturday. Anjeanette Damon/RGJ
1:35 p.m. update:
At Hillside Elementary, caucus-goers voted to reject multiple ballots because they were turned in before a "permanent chair" was chosen. Read more here.
1:17 p.m. update:
Democratic caucus-goers in Northern Nevada are reporting a wide range of problems from long lines and chaos to being turned away and too few paper ballots.
Jessica Sferrazza tweeted that paper ballots ran out at Caughlin Elementary, while Antoinette Jacobs said in her caucus room at Shaw Middle School, only two people were allowed to speak for one-minute each and then the undecideds had to make a decision based on that.
Computer glitches led to pre-registration names being lost at Melton Elementary, Lenita Powers reported.
For more problems at the caucuses today, visit on.rgj.com/caucus-problems.
CLOSE Heather DeAngeli-Drew, 26, talks about the Nevada Democratic caucus on Saturday. Anjeanette Damon/RGJ
1:10 p.m. update:
The initial results in today's Democratic caucus in Nevada shows a tight race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sander, according to the results reported by the Nevada State Democratic Party.
So far, Clinton and Sanders are tied at 50 percent with 14 percent of the precincts reporting.
Up to 12,359 precinct-level delegates will be awarded on Saturday. So far Clinton has 472 delegates and Sanders has 481.
CLOSE Chaffetz shows up to Democratic caucus site in Las Vegas on Saturday. Seth Richardson/RGJ
12:15 p.m. update:
Michael and Diana Jones were turned away from participating this morning in the caucus in Gardnerville despite being registered Democratic voters in Douglas County.
This is because they registered as “confidential voters,” meaning their names are not available as a public record to the Democratic Party, which runs the caucuses.
Michael Jones said he talked to multiple volunteers and Democratic Party staff who were unfamiliar with the issue until he was finally turned away.
“I was told I had to reregister (not confidential),” he said. “The whole point is not to put up with the 30, 40, 50 robocalls and three pounds of campaign literature in the mailbox.”
He said his wife spoke with someone in line who was a confidential voter but planned to reregister so he could participate.
They have run out of official ballots at my caucus location at Caughlin Elementa
Jones is not willing to give up the confidentiality. “We’ve gotten virtually no robocalls and very little campaign literature,” he said.
He pointed out that Democrats can do same-day registration and so its party’s confidential voters have an option to participate, but unless confidential Republican voters have already reregistered, they have no way to caucus now because they require registering about a week before caucus day.
Pretty evenly split pic.twitter.com/ZF838al9J3mdash; Anjeanette Damon (@Anjeanet
12:13 p.m. update:
At several locations in Reno, turnout at caucus sites was larger than expected.
Robin Ames, who is caucusing at Wooster High School, said the line there was still wrapped around the building at noon.
“Line is really long, it’s wrapped around the building,” Ames said. "The ETA is two hours as of right now.”
Ames is married to RGJ reporter Ben Spillman.
RGJ reporter Jenny Kane said computers for processing voters at McQueen High School went down and organizers ran out of ballots.
“Pretty hectic,” she reported.
CLOSE Two friends caucus together, but one likes Bernie and the other likes Hillary Anjeanette Damon/RGJ
11:54 a.m. update:
Voters are still signing in at Rancho High School in Las Vegas, a caucus site with a large Latino population. Doors close at noon, but people in line by then will be allowed to participate.
Both Clinton and Sanders supporters are out in full force. The Clinton camp set up a food stand out front of the school full of Mexican food while the Sanders campaign brought a loudspeaker to encourage chanting.
Many of the voters were wearing Clinton paraphernalia, possibly showing a strong outing for the former secretary of state. Tania Ruiz, 42, of Las Vegas, said she planned to support Clinton hoping for a “third term” of sorts for the family.
“I liked her husband. When he was the president, everything was really, really good and she has the same ideas.”
However, Sanders wasn’t without his supporters, including Clairessa Almendarez, a 17-year-old first-tim voter from Las Vegas. She said Sanders would be able to make inroads with the minority community.
“Most people will eventually realize he’s better in terms of he’s more consistent with what he says,” she said. “He’s more reliable than the other candidates.”
CLOSE Kayla Wagner, 22, a student, expresses support for Bernie Sanders. Jenny Kane/RGJ
11:38 a.m. update:
More than 31,000 Nevadans preregistered for the Democratic caucus today.
Those who preregistered can enter their caucus site through an express line.
According to the Nevada State Democratic Party: "Users who successfully pre-registered today received their caucus location and updates about the caucus via email and were also able to enroll in text message alerts. For voters who have pre-registered, they will see a special phone number posted near the entrance line. When they text their unique code to that number from their mobile device, they can proceed to the express check-in lane."
People caucusing at Libby Booth Elementary School may have trouble getting to the location. It is at 1450 Stewart St., Reno, NV 89502.
CLOSE Kamil Shankar, 25, a student adviser at UNR, explains why she is voting Democrat in 2016. Jenny Kane/RGJ
11:29 a.m. update:
Google Maps lists the address as 425 E. Ninth St., which is the district's official address for the school but not the physical location of the building.
Click here to open a form to let us know if you're having any problems caucusing today.
11 a.m. update:
Doors to caucus locations are officially opened. Registration runs until noon, but anyone in line by then will be allowed to participate.
CLOSE Lona Harris speaks about her support for Sanders in Las Vegas on Saturday morning. Seth Richardson/RGJ
Original post:
It’s time.
The Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses are today. The race between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is close.
Doors to caucus sites open at 11 a.m. Voters must be registered with the party, but Democrats have same-day registration.
CLOSE Raw video: Caucus-goers line up at Huffaker Elementary School in Reno. Anjeanette Damon/RGJ
Anyone who needs to know where their caucus site is can use the Nevada Democratic Party’s caucus locator tool.
CLOSE Rep. Dina Titus expresses support for Hillary Clinton and offers her take on the Nevada Democratic caucus. Seth A. Richardson/RGJ
Having problems at your caucus site? Please report them here.
CLOSE WATCH: Live updates from Las Vegas during the Democratic caucus Seth A. Richardson/RGJ
Read or Share this story: http://on.rgj.com/1XDTyLK(Editor’s Note: Scott Laughton has been sent back to the Oshawa Generals today. 10/3/13)
When the Flyers opened their 2013-2014 season last night, the fanfare was incredible. As I watched it on TV, I could feel the intensity of the building as each player was announced. There was one part of the pregame introductions, however, that made me cringe. Hearing the name Jay Rosehill announced as an active player, and subsequently hearing Scott Laughton announced as a healthy scratch, was difficult to process.
Scott Laughton was drafted by the Flyers in the first round (20th overall) of the 2012 NHL Draft. He is a two-way center who is listed at 6’1”, 177lb (although he has gained considerable muscle since being drafted). In the abbreviated training camp that took place prior to last years’ lockout shortened season, he was able to earn a spot on the Flyers opening night roster. It is important to note that he had been competitively playing for his OHL team, the Oshawa Generals, during the lockout while some players did little playing during that time. Laughton played in five NHL games before returning to the Generals and posting a career high 56 points in 49 games.
This year Laughton once again made the Flyers roster out of training camp, but he was scratched in the season opener. His stay with the big club may only last nine games (at which point the Flyers can send him back to Oshawa without losing a year on his entry level contract) and many believe that Rosehill got the nod last night because of his fighting ability, which was necessary against the gritty Maple Leafs. Even though Laughton was a high draft choice, there are a few reasons why Laughton may have trouble settling into a full-time job with the Flyers in the future.
The Flyers are as deep at center as any team in the NHL. Claude Giroux is unquestionably the top line center and will most likely be filling that role for many years to come. With the signing of Vincent Lecavalier to a five year contract, which included a full no-movement clause, the second line center job is also locked up for the foreseeable future. Sean Couturier, the current third line center, is a young, skilled two-way player. Couturier is bigger than Laughton and has more offensive upside than Laughton. If anyone will be displacing Lecavalier on the second line in the near future, it will be Couturier. Couturier is also under contract through the 2015-2016 season.
This leaves the fourth line center spot open in the years to come. Currently, the best players to fit into that role on the Flyers roster are Adam Hall and Max Talbot. This season Talbot seems to have won himself a job as a third-line winger, while Hall looks to be playing center on the fourth line. Although I believe both Talbot and Hall are better suited to a fourth line role than Laughton is, Laughton could benefit from being a fourth line center in the NHL during his rookie year. He cannot, however, stay on the fourth line forever. Hall will be a free agent after this season, but prospect Nick Cousins is also going to be competing for a roster spot. Although Cousins may not be an ideal fourth-line center either, he is much more suited to that role than Laughton is.
Laughton projects to be either a second or third line center. Which role he fits into will depend upon his offensive development. In the 2012-2013 OHL coach’s poll, Laughton was voted as the second best defensive forward in the OHL’s Eastern Conference. Laughton plays a solid defensive game that is ideal for third line players and penalty killers. As has already been discussed, Laughton plays a very similar game to that of Couturier, but Cout
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bucks said Friday it would soon add porn-blocking filters to its public, in-store Wi-Fi. The move follows McDonald's, which disclosed this week that it had blocked the hamburger-eating public from accessing Wi-Fi-enabled porn at its restaurants.
"Once we determine that our customers can access our free Wi-Fi in a way that also doesn't involuntarily block unintended content, we will implement this in our stores," Starbucks said in a statement. "In the meantime, we reserve the right to stop any behavior that interferes with our customer experience, including what is accessed on our free Wi-Fi."
The group Enough is Enough and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation have been putting pressure on companies that provide free Wi-Fi to the public to block porn sites.
"This is a huge victory," Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough is Enough, told CNN. "We're proud of Starbucks and McDonald's for stepping up to the plate. Internet pornography is a public health crisis. Parents need to know which family restaurants are safe from online threats."
Dawn Hawkins, the executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said an online petition was partly responsible for the changeover.
“This change came after thousands of concerned citizens signed a petition asking for #PornFreeWiFi from McDonald’s and Starbucks, which was part of a larger campaign conducted by Enough is Enough in partnership with the National Center on Sexual Exploitation," she said.
Other major food outlets that have porn-banning, "family friendly" Wi-Fi include Chick-fil-A, Panera Bread, and Subway.Study underlines that economics dominates at question time, while women MPs appear more likely to ask about local issues
Who and what makes the most noise in the Australian parliament?
Economic issues dominate social issues in question time in Canberra, according to a wide-ranging analysis of politicians’ performances in parliament. The study also found women MPs were more likely to ask about local issues than men were.
The House:Divided project is a large-scale data-driven project by Bond University students, which attempts to quantify political performance to see who is working the hardest in the halls of parliament – and who has barely shown up.
The project analysed the activities of all 150 MPs in the lower house, across the bulk of the current election term (166 sitting days, between 12 November 2013 and 1 January 2016), and graded them on their political performance across four categories: attendance in parliament, committee work, participation in question time (by asking or answering questions, in person or in writing) and parliamentary speeches.
The exercise is published by UnipollWatch, a project involving 28 Australian universities working with Guardian Australia during the federal election campaign.
Question time
Analysis of the question time data shows almost 40% of question time concerned questions on the budget, the economy, government roles and businesses, foreign affairs, trade and carbon pricing.
In contrast, social issues and services – including same-sex marriage, unemployment, farm finance and family planning – comprised 1.3% of questions.
An even smaller 0.2% of question time was dedicated to discussion of Indigenous affairs, which was raised only seven times – a figure that prompts questions about Indigenous representation in parliament.
The majority of Indigenous affairs issues were posed by Ken Wyatt, the country’s first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives, who became a minister in September 2015, and the opposition leader, Bill Shorten.
The analysis also demonstrates the extent that “Dorothy Dixers” are used in question time, with one-third of the questions directed at the government coming from their own party.
However, the Liberal party has not asked as many own-party questions as the 2010-13 Labor government, which asked itself 47% of questions during its term in government.
Local advocacy
The House:Divided project also examined which MPs advocated for their electorate in speeches most frequently. Local, electorate-specific issues are usually raised in one of two ways in parliament: as statements by members or as constituency statements. The strength of an MPs local advocacy was assessed by tallying the number of speeches made in these categories.
The Labor member for Canberra, Gai Brodtmann, advocated for her local electorate 164 times during the parliamentary term, more than any other politician.
Other MPs who ranked in the top 10 for local advocacy were: Lisa Chesters (Bendigo), Cathy McGowan (Indi), Joanne Ryan (Lalor), Jill Hall (Shortland), Sharon Claydon (Newcastle), Andrew Giles (Scullin), Melissa Parke (Fremantle) and Jane Prentice (Ryan).
Although all but two of the top 10 local advocates were ALP party members (McGowan is an independent and Prentice is an LNP member), when considering the entire cohort of politicians there was no significant difference in the way the two major parties performed in this category.
However, analysis of data did reveal a gender difference. The 40 female parliamentarians (with a mean of 58.33 local issues speeches) were more likely to speak about electorate issues than male parliamentarians (with a mean of 32.42 local issues speeches). Women were also more likely to make speeches than men.
MPs from rural or provincial electorates were also more likely to advocate for their electorate than metropolitan MPs (a mean of 42 speeches, versus the metropolitan mean of 37).
Attendance and committee work
Once again, Clive Palmer has has been identified as having the worst attendance in parliament, followed by Andrew Robb and Bob Katter.
Gary Gray, Julie Bishop, Steven Ciobo, Alan Tudge, Louise Markus and Anna Burke also made the top 10 worst attendance list.
Some MPs’ absences may be attributed to their ministerial portfolios.
Campaign tracker: where have Shorten and Turnbull been and what have they promised? Read more
For example, Robb’s 63 absences may be linked to his former role as minister for trade and investment and Bishop’s 25 absences were likely related to her duties as foreign affairs minister. Ciobo is also the current minister for trade and investment — although his 22 absences predate his appointment to the position in February this year.
Palmer was absent 66 times — almost 40% of the sitting days analysed — while Katter was absent 34 times, Gray 31 times, Markus and Tudge 21 times each and Burke 20 times.
In terms of length of time served on committees, Liberal party MP Dan Tehan (who served on four committees) was the most active committee worker, followed by Tim Watts (eight committees), Graham Perrett (six committees), Tony Pasin (seven committees) and Andrew Giles (six committees).
Committees investigate specific matters of policy or government administration or performance, and committee work is more likely to be done by those who don’t have a ministerial or shadow ministerial role.
You can find the report cards for your member of parliament here.
Data collected and stories compiled by Bond University journalism students: Freya Bidwell, Aydée Bigaton, Jessica Bristow, Gracie Clough, Isabella Domhoff, Taylor Eveleigh, Lauren Fenwick, Ashley Gaden, Chyna Hayden, Lily Hoffmann, Lucy Kinbacher, Jessica Lamb, Gary Muller, Sal Pellone and Chlöe Thomas.
Research design: Caroline Graham and Dr Roger Patching
Data analysis: Dr Donna Henson and Caroline Graham
Extended versions of these stories are being published on UniPollWatch, Australia’s biggest student journalism project. Guardian Australia is collaborating with UniPollWatch during the general election campaignAfter gracing our cover last September, the wait for Dragon Age: Inquisition has been eating away at fans eager for their next-gen return to Thedas. Game Informer's Joe Juba and Kimberley Wallace traveled to Bioware Edmonton last year for the cover story and recently Joe returned to finally gets his hands on the game. After playing for hours and writing a large feature for the new issue of the magazine, Joe sat down with Kim to discuss how the game feels and his overall impressions of the experience.
Watch the video preview below to learn what Joe thinks of playing with the combat and exploring the world of Dragon Age: Inquisition and how it compares to previous entries.
Click on the banner below to enter our hub of exclusive content for Dragon Age: Inquisition, including a writer roundtable discussion and multiple video features on the development of the game.Dialpad, a cloud-based business communications platform announced a new Amazon Echo integration this week that enables you to perform a number of business phone tasks by asking Alexa.
So for example you could ask, “Alexa, do I have any messages on Dialpad?” or “Alexa call Liz Green with Dialpad.”
Dialpad sees this integration as part of a general push to make phone functionality available anywhere. It starts with having a phone number in the cloud, a cloud telephony platform and a set of APIs that allows the company to transform any device including the Echo into “a phone,” Brian Peterson, co-founder and VP of Engineering at Dialpad told TechCrunch.
That flexibility has allowed them to turn the computer, tablet or mobile phone into the company phone, giving employees access to the company phone system wherever they are, even when they aren’t physically in the office. Peterson says this approach is really about extending the mobile worker by giving them access to the company phone systems from anywhere.
“The fact is we talk about the anywhere worker with more people working remotely. They aren’t sitting at a desk from 9-5. No matter where they are, they can control [their business] phone system,” he said.
The Echo and similar devices are the next logical step, according to Peterson. Being able to connect to a system like Alexa, truly removes a level of friction from using the phone system. You don’t have to pick up a handset, take out your mobile phone or even open your laptop. You simply say the commands and it connects you via the Echo.
He says that this ability to access the phone system without accessing a physical device is a major leap forward and shows the power of providing phone service via a cloud-based system.
You can ask Alexa to make a call in your contacts list or add the current caller to your contacts list, transfer or place a call on hold, record a call and check for voicemail messages. You can also ask for reports about the phone activity across the Dialpad system at your office.
The company was started by two former Google engineers who helped develop Google Voice. They recognized that if you could put the phone system in the cloud, you could treat phone functionality like email and access it anywhere.
“I can access my email from everywhere. The thing that was missing is that I couldn’t access [the office] phone from anywhere,” Morgan Norman, VP of marketing at Dialpad explained. As the Internet of Things expands to a set of connected devices, they could extend that phone functionality anywhere including the car, your connected TV or any other connected device.
The company plans to offer this functionality on Google Home later this year.Well colour me shocked! Nita Ambani has just become the first Indian woman to be nominated to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). She has been nominated, and will be officially appointed during the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Yes, you read that right. Nita Ambani, whose claim to fame is being the wife of the India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani. What are her sporting credentials, you ask? She owns an Indian Premier League cricket team, the Mumbai Indians. Along with that, she is the founder and chairperson of Football Sports Development, which operates the Indian Super League. Besides her stellar work as a promoter of sports in this country - and I say sports because the Olympics encompass a number of them - not much else is really known about her. Going by Wikipedia, that most reliable of sources, she's an art collector and has performed frequently as a bharatnatyam dancer. Who would've thought. Sadly, that's all the information one can find on the lady that will be the pride of India at the Rio Olympics and in the years to come. Given how high-profile she is, it's a surprisingly thin page.
Reactions to the news
Before Mrs Ambani, India's previous representative on the International Olympic Committee was a six-time Olympian and an Asian Games gold medalist in shooting. His name is Raja Randhir Singh. He held the position from 2001-2014, thereafter becoming an honorary member.
On the news of her appointment came out, Randhir Singh told Catch: "We welcome the move to nominate Mrs Nita Ambani. She can potentially be of great help by becoming the face of the Olympic movement in India."
But the mood of sports lovers was summed up best by India's lone individual Olympic gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra.
First, at 5:44 PM, Bindra took to Twitter to offer what looked like a tongue in cheek comment:
Mrs Nita Ambani to be an IOC member from India? How about sponsoring the Indian Olympic Team as a good will gesture! — Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) June 3, 2016
Then, 20 minutes later, came the 'goodwill' tweets:
Congratulations To Mrs Nita Ambani for her nomination to the IOC In "recognition of passionate work in education and sports" — Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) June 3, 2016
Really look forward to her passionate involvement in the better meant and development of Indian Olympic Sport! — Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) June 3, 2016
Finally, at 7:04 PM, he welcomed in a new era in Indian sports:
Lovely to see Bollywood coming out in full force felicitating Mrs ambani. Unprecedented love for the Olympic Movement! #new era — Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) June 3, 2016
Around the time Bindra was tweeting, the pinnacle of worship in our cricket-obsessed nation, Sachin Tendulkar tweeted a nice, congratulatory note. Tendulkar has spent nine years in close association with Nita Ambani and the Mumbai Indians, first as a player and then a mentor.
Congratulations #NitaAmbani on nomination to #IOC. Her passion for sports development is laudable. Proud moment for India & Women Power! — sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) June 3, 2016
That's all well and good, till one takes a look at the list of people who have retweeted it, which, by the way, is 666 people long at the time of publishing this.
Scroll down a couple of times, and you will be hard pressed to miss the name of a wilful loan defaulter we all love to hate. Yes, none other than Vijay Mallya.
Will it serve any real purpose?
What else does one say about this appointment? One can only hope that it somehow helps in the development of sports in the country.
But who are we kidding? After all, the nation was divided upon finding out that beloved Bollywood actor Salman Khan was made India's goodwill ambassador to the Rio Olympics. When his press conference was happening, a lot of people outside the Indian Olympic Association didn't even know what it was all about. They just simply assumed it was another movie.
So, just wait for another round of 'nation wants to know' to add fuel to the debate on whether or not Nita Ambani deserves to be appointed to the International Olympic Committee.
Edited by Shreyas Sharma
More in Catch:
Rio Olympics 2016: AR Rahman is India's 4th Goodwill ambassador after Sachin Tendulkar, Abhinav Bindra & Salman Khan
Sachin Tendulkar roped in as India's goodwill ambassador for Rio Olympics
Indian Olympic Association: we don't profit from sports ministry's aidEven the hardiest, most vocal psychedelic enthusiasts recognize that trip experiences can be intense and sometimes difficult. Especially when taken in unfamiliar surroundings — such as crowded music festivals or in the desert heat of Black Rock City — psychedelics can cause untimely emotional meltdowns.
Now there’s an excellent guide for handling psychedelic crises, produced by some of foremost experts on harm reduction techniques. It’s called “The Manual of Psychedelic Support,” and its laundry list of contributors includes the Erowids, Rick Doblin, Jon Hanna (the founder of Mind States), Linnae Ponté (who runs MAPS’ excellent Zendo harm reduction tent), five members of Kosmicare UK, Dave King (co-director of Breaking Convention), and too many more to list. Featured artists include Alex and Allyson Grey, Fred Tomaselli, Luke Brown, Robert Venosa, and more.
This free guide is full of insight, and not just for festival organizers. Anyone who uses psychedelics will find immense value in this sleekly-designed manual. Whether you’re hosting a big party or just dropping acid with an old friend, it’s wise to prepare for any unpleasant surprises. Anything that fine-tunes your sense of compassion is a good thing, right?
From the website, PsychSitter.com:
The Manual of Psychedelic Support is a comprehensive guide to setting up and running compassionate care services for people having difficult drug experiences at music festivals and similar events. The Manual grew out of the work of its original creators at KosmiCare, the psychedelic care service at the iconic Boom Festival in Portugal. Whilst psychedelic care services have been in operation for decades, and have grown in number and in scope in the past few years, a general guide on how to establish and run them did not exist in the public domain, nor indeed—beyond training manuals for specific organisations—at all. We envisaged a work that would address all aspects of such a project, containing material to guide the care service leader, team leads and care givers, and those fulfilling vital supporting roles (such as psychiatrists and nurses) through the entire gamut of preparation, training, logistics, operations, and the wrap-up of a care service. What started off as a small project grew into something much larger, involving over fifty people from around the world. These people came from all walks of life – psychiatrists, therapists, scholars, psychonauts, artists, and many more – all united by a common love and interest. Some brought deep knowledge and rich experience gained from work with KosmiCare in Portugal, with the Burning Man organisation in the United States, and from other groups worldwide. A core principle, from the beginning of this project, was that the Manual should be independent of any external organisation, its content open to adaptation (for example, utilised in training manuals for particular care services), and never to be used directly for commercial purposes. To this end, the work has been published under a Creative Commons License, and is freely available as a PDF download.
You can download the free PDF here.The California state Senate confirmed Rep. Xavier Becerra Xavier BecerraOvernight Health Care: Drug execs set for grilling | Washington state to sue over Trump rule targeting Planned Parenthood | Wyoming moves closer to Medicaid work requirements Washington state to sue Trump administration over rule targeting Planned Parenthood NY, California and Washington threaten to sue over Trump rule to restrict abortion referrals MORE (D-Calif.) as the state’s next attorney general Monday, paving the way for the state to potentially challenge the policies of President Trump.
The 12-term congressman will take his oath of office on Tuesday. Becerra was tapped for the position by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) in early December, less than a month after Trump won the presidential election.
Becerra will replace former California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D), who won a U.S. Senate seat in the November elections. Brown’s move to install Becerra as the deep-blue state’s top lawyer is largely seen as an effort to set up a bulwark against the Trump administration and policies potentially targeting civil rights, environmental issues and immigration.
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"As Attorney General, Xavier will be a champion for all Californians," Brown said in a statement obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE won California by nearly 4.5 million votes in 2016. The state has gone blue in every presidential election since 1988 and is widely considered a Democratic stronghold.Hey friends, as some of you have heard Scott has developed a rare form of cancer. This is my first time setting up a fund like this but I was hoping for your help. My goal is to collect some money for their daily expenses such as groceries, etc and for all of the medical visits him and Carrie both have to endure. Every little bit helps, and I'm certain there will be ab outpour of love and support. Please, I also ask for prayers for him and his family as its something very difficult to deal with especially during the holidays. My plan is to deliver a check or groceries to them when I have collected enough. I'm personally going to see him Saturday, tho I know its soon, I plan to be a chronic visitor and I'm sure he will welcome several people when he's not tired and grumpy. Any little bit helps. Thank you!!
Help spread the word! Share Tweet 346 total shares total sharesThis week, Infowars—the website of radio host and triangle-noticer Alex Jones—published a series of "shocking images out of a classroom in Jacksonville" supposedly showing "how 11-12 year olds in 6th grade are being taught how to use strap-on dildos."
According to the post, the pictures were taken by a student of Clinton Middle School in Duval County, Florida and led to the suspension of instructor and "proud member of the LGBTQ community" Sharon Mercer after they were shared online.
A number of right-wing sites soon picked up the story, including TeaParty.org and neo-Nazi forum Stormfront, and by Monday the conspiro-sphere had entered a full-scale meltdown.
First I verified this story! Second let me say this if this were my kids school heads would be rolling! This is... http://t.co/T5c1EscJTm — Americanpride (@Americanpride4) September 16, 2014
Naturally, the story is utterly false. The pictures attributed to the nonexistent "Clinton Middle School" actually come from a 2012 event put on by Ontario's Brock University. Hosted by the university's "Brock Pride" club, the talk by sex educator Carlyle Jansen aimed at teaching safe practices to gay-sex-havers, a group often ignored by high school health curriculums.
Of course, the fact that the presentation was given to gay adults in an entirely different country did little to dissuade homophobes of the story's fundamental truthiness. As The Daily Sheeple announced in their arrow-filled analysis of the photos, "Explicit & NOT Debunked: Yes, This Lady IS Teaching School Kids Sex Ed with a Strap-on Dildo."
Sadly, this isn't the first time the photos have been used to drum up anti-gay hysteria. Previous rumors have attributed the pictures to classrooms in France and Slovakia, proving that as different as we all might seem, we're really all the same when it comes to weird, dildo-inspired bigotry.
[ Image via Imgur]
Antiviral is a new blog devoted to debunking online hoaxes. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.Racial Profiling And Body Scanners Target Civil Liberties But Not Necessarily Terrorists
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; [email protected]
NEW YORK – The Obama administration announced Sunday it will subject the citizens of 14 nations who are flying to the United States to intensified screening at airports, including being subjected to full-body pat downs or body scanners. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the government should adhere to longstanding standards of individualized suspicion and enact security measures that are the least threatening to civil liberties and are proven to be effective. Racial profiling and untargeted body scanning do not meet those criteria.
"We should be focusing on evidence-based, targeted and narrowly tailored investigations based on individualized suspicion, which would be both more consistent with our values and more effective than diverting resources to a system of mass suspicion," said Michael German, national security policy counsel with the ACLU Washington Legislative Office and a former FBI agent. "Overbroad policies such as racial profiling and invasive body scanning for all travelers not only violate our rights and values, they also waste valuable resources and divert attention from real threats."
According to the ACLU, the government's plan to subject citizens of certain countries to enhanced screenings is bad policy, because there is no way to predict the national origin of a terrorist and many terrorists have come from countries not on the list. For instance, the "shoe bomber" Richard Reid is a British citizen, as were four of the London subway bombers, and in 2005 a Belgian woman launched a suicide attack in Iraq.
"Singling out travelers from a few specified countries for enhanced screening is essentially a pretext for racial profiling, which is ineffective, unconstitutional and violates American values. Empirical studies of terrorists show there is no terrorist profile, and using a profile that doesn't reflect this reality will only divert resources by having government agents target innocent people," said German. "Profiling can also be counterproductive by undermining community support for government counterterrorism efforts and creating an injustice that terrorists can exploit to justify further acts of terrorism."
In addition to racial profiling, some have called for the across-the-board implementation of full body scanners, which present serious threats to personal privacy and are of unclear effectiveness. According to a UK Independent report on Sunday, British officials have already tested the scanners and were not persuaded that they would be effective for stopping terrorist threats to planes. And according to security experts, the explosive device used in the attempted attack on a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day would not have been detected by the body scanners.
"We shouldn't complacently surrender our rights for a false sense of security, and we should be very leery of being sold a device presented as a cure-all, especially when the evidence shows just the opposite," added German. "If scanners and other intrusive procedures are used, it should be with their limitations in mind and only when there is reason to believe that an individual poses an increased risk to flight safety, not as blanket measures applied to millions of innocent travelers."The prime minister is under cross-party pressure to allow a vote on membership as a decision to back fiscal integration threatens to 'fundamentally change' Britain's relationship with Europe
David Cameron is under mounting pressure to pledge a referendum on UK membership of the EU after overturning decades of British foreign policy by backing full fiscal union for the 17-nation eurozone.
Tory and Labour MPs believe that if the eurozone moves towards a single tax system – as chancellor George Osborne advocated again – then the EU will become a fundamentally different organisation to the one the UK joined in 1973. Many also fear that Britain will come under intense pressure to adapt its tax and regulatory policies to conform more closely with the eurozone once fiscal union is under way, even if the UK remains out of the single currency.
Steve Baker, the Tory MP for Wycombe and a member of the fiercely eurosceptic 2010 Conservative intake, said: "It is very clear that the EU is heading at full speed towards being one country. As that is the case there is absolutely no doubt that the British people should be offered a vote on whether to be a part of that."
Like other Tory and Labour MPs, Baker has signed up to an In/Out referendum being championed by fellow Conservative Zac Goldsmith, the MP for Richmond Park & North Kingston. The campaign will redouble its efforts during the party conference season.
The Observer has also learned that the European scrutiny committee, a select committee of the House of Commons, is to conduct its own inquiries into the effect that fiscal union for the eurozone would have on the UK's economic independence. Its chairman, the veteran Tory MP Bill Cash, said: "Allowing the other member states to go ahead towards fiscal union is a disaster. We must have a referendum in the light of such a profound change in our political relationship with Europe."
For decades the Foreign Office and Treasury have resisted –and said the UK would veto – any moves towards a "two-speed" or "multi-speed" Europe, believing it would lead to pressure on those outside the central core to cede more sovereignty over time. But with the eurozone in crisis, Osborne and Cameron have abandoned that resistance and now believe the euro's only hope of survival is if the EU backs more co-ordination of tax and spending policies. Osborne told Radio 4's Today show: "I think we have to accept that is going to happen. It is in our interest that it happens because an unstable euro is very bad news for us."
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will meet in Paris on Tuesday to discuss how to beef up "economic governance" across the 17-member single currency zone, amid rising fears about the euro's future.
Jean-Claude Trichet, the outgoing boss of the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, has called for a euro-wide finance ministry as the only way to prevent a recurrence of the debt crisis which has seen Greece, Portugal and Ireland receive emergency aid.
The ECB was forced to rescue Italy and Spain last week by buying up their bonds, after interest rates for the two countries hit record highs. But it has demanded radical economic reforms and a fresh wave of austerity measures in return. Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi announced a controversial package of tax rises and spending cuts.
As the crisis deepened, Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King made clear at his quarterly inflation report last Wednesday that events in the eurozone posed the greatest threat to Britain's economy, and called for Europe's politicians to get a grip on the situation. "The ECB has gone to the outer limit of what a central bank can do," King said. "Any further action has to be carried out by governments themselves."
One radical solution – backed by Osborne – is to issue "eurobonds", with all 17 countries sharing the responsibility for paying them back. This idea is highly controversial in Germany, where voters fear they would be left paying the bill.
Merkel would be likely to demand tight control over the tax and spending policies of weaker members as a quid pro quo, and France has long favoured more economic co-ordination, but analysts say this "fiscal integration" would fundamentally change the nature of the EU. That could make it harder for Britain to sit outside the eurozone but continue to drive European policy in other areas.
"George Osborne and David Cameron are taking another political gamble, as they did with the cuts," said Olaf Cramme, of the Policy Network thinktank. He believes further fiscal integration among euro members could alter decision-making across the whole EU. "The big difference now is that the euro has become the overriding interest – everything else will be subject to the euro."
Issuing eurobonds could also require a change in the EU's founding treaty, which would have to be approved by all members, including the UK. Many Tory backbenchers hope that would provide an opportunity for renegotiating our relationship with Brussels.I used to write about politics.
There's a scene filled with vitriol and awfulness. But at least it's always---or nearly always---pretty easy to tell which side most people are on, even those largely claiming to not take sides.
Even so, after enough time spent in those trenches one can easily become disillusioned with the available options. The game is about winning, and if you're mostly interested in ways to make the world a little less cruel, pretty soon you realize that all the teams are rotten.
I'm too free market for a lot of liberals, too socially progressive for conservatives, too sympathetic to things like government healthcare for the libertarians, too anti-war for either of the major American political parties. I don't like being defined by a term that's designed to place me in a box, like "liberal" or "conservative" or "leftist" or whatever. It speaks to what I am supposed to believe, not who I am or what I do with my life.
So maybe I should be happy with all the recent proclamations from various video game writers in the past few days that "gamer" as a term and as an identity is, miraculously, dead and irrelevant now.
But I'm not, actually.
Gamer has always been one of the more positive tags I've used for myself, along with "musician" and "writer" and "lover" and "father" and so forth. Unlike terms like "liberal" or "Democrat" being a gamer or a musician isn't about what you believe, it's about what you do.
To be a gamer is to play games. If anyone tries to define it further, to place some cultural significance on the word, all they're doing is playing politics. Dragging the culture wars into everything.
Both "sides" do this.
It takes two to go to war.
I, Gamer
I'm a gamer. It's one thing I do. I don't accept it as the core of my "culture." Some of my friends are gamers; many are not. My life is defined by lots of things, as is my community. Gaming is part of it but not the epicenter.
Of course, there are gamers who identify more deeply with the term, in a way that some motorcycle bikers identify strongly as "bikers" and as a part of biker culture, or some people self-identify as "nerds" and members of nerd culture. And it is likely these gamers that have drawn the ire of the gaming press in the wake of this latest inside-baseball scandal.
Some of this group of self-identifying gamers are indeed bad apples. As video games and other hallmarks of so-called nerd culture have gone mainstream, some of the most die-hard occupants of the culture have circled the wagons. Some even issue death threats or rape threats to female developers and writers, or engage in other types of harassment, because they see feminism and its proponents as an existential threat to not just their hobby, but their identity.
Some of these gamers really do hold deeply sexist viewpoints, which makes writing what I'm writing now somewhat precarious. I am not an ally to misogynists, but I'm not impressed by many of their critics either.
But bad apples do not create an identity for an entire group of people, and critics and journalists who attempt to destroy a word in the name of politics are not furthering some noble goal, some cultural evolutionary step. As if by proclamation anyone could declare a word dead to begin with.
I stopped writing about politics because I got to a point where all I wanted to say in every post is "You're all wrong! All of you!"
After all, how can liberals defend Obama's use of military force in Libya after electing him largely as a symbolic rebuttal of Bush's wars? When I spoke up against it, team Obama was up in arms. And how can libertarians really ever write about anything other than an end to violence? How can they concern themselves with any issue beyond violence and war? Until those issues are tackled none of the rest of the anti-big-government crusade matters. At all. And so on and so forth.
But I believe in ending cruelty first and foremost. And politics is a machine that all too often thrives on cruelty and deception.
I thought writing about games would be different, but it's not. It's the same cultural politics that exist everywhere else, only the lingo is changed, the battle lines are vague and poorly defined. Half of the problem in this debate is blurry definitions.
And now in this latest scandal I just want to say the same thing: "You're all wrong! All of you!"
Because it's true.
You are all wrong.
So about these journalists proclaiming the end of "gamers." It's quite reminiscent of the Mass Effect 3 days, when "gamer" was still an okay word but only if you prefaced it with "entitled." Somehow a bunch of game writers decided it was okay to blanket judge wide swaths of readership.
I'm not above critiquing my readers. I think they deserve critique just as harshly as the press and the industry itself. But it is odd when you see nearly a dozen articles within a 24 hour period pop up declaring the annihilation of an identity. It reeks of the worst sort of identity politics.
Video game writer Leigh Alexander writes that the term gamer "isn’t just a dated demographic label that most people increasingly prefer not to use. Gamers are over. That’s why they’re so mad."
Writes Alexander: "‘Games culture’ is a petri dish of people who know so little about how human social interaction and professional life works that they can concoct online ‘wars’ about social justice or ‘game journalism ethics,’ straight-faced, and cause genuine human consequences. Because of video games."
Beyond the inflammatory rhetoric here, Alexander is making some good points about the shifting industry and culture, and a move toward greater diversity and tolerance, and a broader definition of what it means to be a game writer in the first place.
But she's doing it in a weird way---attacking the idea of being a gamer just because a minority of those people engage in harassment and misogyny. I'd be willing to bet that most gamers, most people who consider themselves gamers, don't even read most gaming websites. A majority are likely unaware of the culture war being fought in this space. These are gamers. They are part of this nebulous culture. So why do we continue to only focus on the worst elements of our hobby, and why do we allow them to define it for us?
Is it to perpetuate the war?
Critic Dan Golding echoes Alexander, writing that "When videogames changed, the gamer identity did not stretch, and so it has been broken" adding that while "the ‘consumer king’ gamer will continue to be targeted and exploited while their profitability as a demographic outweighs their toxicity, the traditional gamer identity is now culturally irrelevant."
Kotaku's Luke Plunkett clarifies what these critiques mean to him: "Note they're not talking about everyone who plays games, or who self-identifies as a "gamer", as being the worst," he writes. "It's being used in these cases as short-hand, a catch-all term for the type of reactionary holdouts that feel so threatened by gaming's widening horizons. If you call yourself a "gamer" and are a cool person, keep on being a cool person."
Just be careful if you use the term gamer because, you know, guilt by association.
Language is powerful. Language is the source of power in any culture, and writers of all people should know this. Using the term "gamer" this way as a "catch-all term" for "reactionary holdouts" invariably casts too wide a net. It sounds disdainful. It perpetuates a stereotype. And it perpetuates the war.
Gamers are guilty, too.
Then again, plenty of gamers perpetuate this stereotype on their own without any help.
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much the same thing. Trouble is, they're not. And the media's insistence on reporting these largely meaningless figures means the public is regularly misled about the extent of differences between the state economies. State final demand and gross state product would be pretty much the same thing if the states' shares of Australia's exports and imports never changed and, more to the point, if there was no trade between the states. It shouldn't surprise you there's a lot of trade between the states. Nor should it surprise you the mining states import a lot more from the other states than they export to them. The other side of the coin is the other states - particularly NSW and Victoria - export more to the mining states than they import. This trade between the states spreads the benefits of the resources boom around the continent. In consequence, the much-quoted state final demand figures tend to overstate how well the mining states are doing and understate how well the other states are doing. That's how the recession furphy got started. Consider this. According to the latest figures for 2011-12, WA state final demand of 13.5 per cent turned into gross state product of 6.7 per cent, while Queensland's final demand of 8.6 per cent was more than halved to 4 per cent. By contrast, Victoria's final demand of 2.2 per cent was increased a fraction to gross product of 2.3 per cent, while NSW's final demand of 2 per cent was increased to 2.4 per cent.
SA's final demand and gross product were the same at 2.1 per cent (meaning it neither wins nor loses from the inclusion of international and interstate exports and imports), while Tasmania's final demand growth of zero was increased to gross product growth of 0.5 per cent. You see how misleading those quarterly state final demand figures are. They exaggerate the true extent of the differences between the states. So why do the media make so much of them? Because, at a time when the resources boom is doing so much to change the industry structure of our economy, there's much interest in what this is doing to the respective sizes of the state economies. The quarterly state final demand figures don't give reliable answers to this question, but they're the best that regularly come our way. But also because the ever-intensifying competition between the news media has prompted them to select their news on the basis of all care but no responsibility. If some information is interesting or controversial it will be published, even if the journalists know or suspect it's dodgy. After all, if I don't do it, my competitors will. The relative sizes of the six state economies have been changing since federation, partly - but not solely - because of their differing rates of population growth. But, though it's possible to exaggerate the extent to which the resources boom is causing the mining and non-mining states to grow at different rates, the states' relative sizes have been changing particularly rapidly in recent years.
Those recent figures no one bothered to report, known as the State Accounts, showed how the states' shares of overall gross domestic product have changed over the eight years to 2011-12. In that time, NSW's share has dropped 3.8 percentage points to 30.9 per cent. Victoria's share has dropped 2.6 points to 22.3 per cent. By contrast, Queensland's share has increased 1.7 points to 19.3 per cent, while WA - which long ago overtook SA in the pecking order - had its share increase a remarkable 5.4 points to 16.2 per cent of overall GDP. That leaves SA's share falling 0.8 points to 6.2 per cent and Tassie's falling 0.3 points to 1.6 per cent. Its share is now less than the ACT's (2.2 per cent) and only a fraction greater than the Northern Territory's (1.3 per cent). Whether we like it or not, the shape of our economy is changing. Twitter: @1RossGittinsJalen Ramsey has announced that he will forgo his final year of eligibility at Florida State to enter the upcoming 2016 NFL draft. A year removed from being voted onto the All-ACC and USA Today first team defense teams, Ramsey had 52 tackles this season to go along with a fumble recovery. Despite not recording an interception, the Tennessee native had a team leading 10 pass breakups this year.
The emergence of other defensive stars such as Derwin James and Josh Sweat have retracted from Ramsey's statistics, however the defensive back's game impact and skill has not fallen. In total, the junior led a Florida State defense that was ranked 16th nationally in total yards and sixth in scoring defense during the regular season---No team had scored more than 24 points against them until the Peach Bowl.
According to mock drafts from around the web, Ramsey is a consensus top-10 pick thanks to his leadership and athletic ability. Just yesterday, Rotoworld projected Ramsey to get drafted sixth overall to the Baltimore Ravens. He has always had a great health record, starting every Florida State Football game while on the roster.
Here is his full statement via Seminoles.comFrom Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video Games
Far Cry 3 (2012). Some versions of this box art show Vaas' Glock with slanted cocking serrations and, bizarrely, a cocked hammer. (2012). Some versions of this box art show Vaas' Glock with slanted cocking serrations and, bizarrely, a cocked hammer.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (2013) (2013)
Far Cry 3 is the 2012 sequel to Far Cry 2, developed and published by Ubisoft for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC, using an updated form of the proprietary "Dunia" engine from its predecessor. As with Far Cry 2, it is a sequel in name only and has no real connection to any other Far Cry game, instead taking place on a fictional Pacific archipelago collectively known as Rook Island. The player takes the role of Jason Brody, a rich young American thrill-seeker who finds himself in mortal danger after he and his friends are abducted by a band of ruthless pirates under the deranged command of Vaas Montenegro. After escaping Vaas' camp, Jason finds himself involved in an ongoing war between Vaas' pirates and the native Rakyat people, and is tested to the limit as he attempts to free his friends and escape the island.
A version for the Xbox One and PS4, Far Cry 3: Classic, is set to be available for free to Far Cry 5 season pass holders starting May 29th 2018, with a release as a standalone title planned four weeks later. It is essentially a straight port of the PC original running at close to maximum settings, with some minor graphical changes such as lighting engine tweaks and depth of field blur. PC owners of the Far Cry 5 Season Pass simply receive a copy of the original game.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a stand-alone expansion to Far Cry 3 released in May 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Seemingly originating as an April Fools' joke, Blood Dragon is an homage to 1980s cartoons and action movies, starring Michael Biehn as rebuilt soldier Rex Power Colt who must face down an army of evil cyborg soldiers in the toxic ashes of Vietnam War 2.
For emphasis: this is a real game.
The following weapons appear in the video games Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon:
Overview
Far Cry 3 uses an unusually complex system for handling weapons, with RPG elements such as crafting and experience. By default the player character, Jason Brody, has one weapon slot which he can equip any weapon in; further slots, along with additional carrying capacity for ammunition, are gained by hunting local animals and using their skins to make bandoliers, pouches and belts in the game's Crafting menu. In this way he can ultimately equip up to four weapons at once. Unlike the previous game these can be any four weapons, with no preset classes for the slots. Ammunition is determined by weapon subtypes, not by what the weapon would actually fire, so the 5.56mm assault rifles share ammunition with the 7.62x39mm AK-103 and 7.62x51mm Galil ACE and SOCOM 16. Jason can also carry supplies of mines, C4 packs, hand grenades and molotovs. The former are treated as the fifth and sixth weapon slots, while the latter are thrown with a hotkey with a key to switch between them.
Weapons are gained from stores, and can be acquired in one of three ways; either bought with currency, unlocked by picking them up from enemies (which appears subject to some limitations), or unlocked by deactivating scramblers on the radio towers scattered across the two islands. Once a weapon is purchased or unlocked, it can be equipped an unlimited number of times for no further fee. Guns no longer degrade, jam or explode as they did in Far Cry 2, so weapons only need to be re-acquired if the player wants to alter their loadout. Accessories and paint schemes for weapons can also be bought, and unlike weapons there is no way to get these for free; they must be bought for each weapon and are not interchangeable between them, and each weapon has a set number of upgrades which can be applied to it at the same time. Any weapon with an "extended magazine" upgrade will not change visually to indicate its presence.
In addition to regular weapons, special "Signature" weapons with unique paint schemes, attachment combinations and bonuses can be made available for purchase by completing various prerequisites; these are always better than the basic weapon they are modifications of. Like accessories, they must always be bought and are never unlocked for free.
Jason starts out with minimal abilities, but can gain more using an experience point system based on a mystical tribal tattoo, the "Tatau," on his left arm. These include general boosts like extra health slots, but also combat-based abilities such as the ability to cook grenades, reload while running, use one-handed weapons on ziplines, and so on.
Blood Dragon uses the same inventory system but a streamlined version of the other systems, with Rex Colt starting with many of the abilities Jason would have to unlock and unlocking more as he levels up, with no choice as to which ones are given. The crafting system is not present, and all weapon upgrades including the previously crafted ammo capacity upgrades are unlocked by completing side missions and bought with currency.
Handguns
IMI Desert Eagle Mark XIX
The Desert Eagle Mark XIX, called the "D50," is the last handgun unlocked and the most powerful. It is only available once the South island is unlocked, and is never encountered in the North. Predictably, it cannot use a suppressor. The custom colours for the Desert Eagle allow it to have a black, chrome or two-tone finish, as well as the standard selection of camo patterns. It features an incorrect eight-round magazine, which is only present on the.44 Magnum version of the Desert Eagle; the correct capacity for a.50AE is seven rounds. This increases to ten rounds if the extended magazine option is used, which is not correct for any Desert Eagle.
Jason will pull a Desert Eagle from an enemy's holster when using the Gunslinger Takedown ability, which is strange since enemies never use it themselves. Once there are no valid targets, the gun will run out of ammo and Jason will discard it.
Desert Eagle Mark XIX -.50AE
Desert Eagle in the store menu. Note the ridiculously large damage bar.
Determined to out-silly the previous game, Jason Brody uses a scoped, chrome-plated.50AE Desert Eagle one-handed as he hangs from a zipline.
His work accomplished, he celebrates by reloading; note the barrel lock is no longer left-handed, and no trademarks are present on the slide, either made-up or otherwise. Note also that the scope is attached to only one of the barrel's two scope rails, using an unlikely-to-work RIS quick release switch, and the hammer is barely at the half-cock position.
Jason uses the "Gunslinger Takedown" with no other enemies around, discovering the slide of the Desert Eagle is apparently motorised since it instantly locks open without the gun even being fired.
In the "Badtown" settlement, the arms dealer's gun cabinet rather strangely contains three Desert Eagles, even though the weapon is not actually available to buy at this point in the game.
Kimber Warrior
A Kimber Warrior, simply called the "1911," is the first weapon encountered in the game; it is bought after Jason escapes from Vaas' camp with money given by Dennis Rogers, in order to introduce the shop system. It is a very common pistol, especially in the hands of NPCs; both Dennis and Vaas are frequently shown with it.
The Kimber Warrior features an eight-round Kimber KimPro Tac-Mag magazine; since the weapon's capacity is always eight rounds whether it is loaded mid-mag or empty, his Kimber presumably digests any chambered round when it is reloaded. Despite the game saying it can mount a suppressor, it actually has no accessories; however, the Signature version, "Shadow," has a suppressor, extended magazine and open reflex sight. This version is unlocked for purchase by clearing seventeen enemy strongholds.
Kimber Warrior -.45 ACP
Kimber Warrior in the store menu.
"Shadow" Signature version in the store menu.
Per the grand traditions of the previous game, Jason's first reflex on arriving in a tropical paradise is to accidentally set fire to it.
During a widely-trailered escape sequence, Jason uses a Kimber Warrior to threaten a helicopter pilot as he attempts to make his getaway. Note that the Kimber is equipped with a rail...
...which vanishes when the player is given control of Jason as he fails to shoot an RPG gunner on the ground. This is ultimately handled by removing the aiming crosshair and disabling iron sights; it is unlikely the RPG gunner can even be hit here.
Jason empty-reloads his Kimber Warrior, impressing one of Vaas' henchmen with his reloading technique and his being-shot technique at the same time.
Jason holds the custom "Shadow" variant as he ponders in what way jumping into a cenote is not a horrifyingly bad idea.
In the land of not-terrible ideas, Jason reloads his "Shadow."
Dennis Rogers holds a Kimber Warrior as he helps Jason up; while Jason's own Warrior is shown without a rail, NPCs always have one on their Warriors even though they never have an accessory mounted on it.
Vaas holds his own Kimber Warrior on Jason.
Makarov PB
The Makarov PB appears as "6P9", which is the weapon's GRAU designation. Strangely it does not come with the front of its integral suppressor by default, and if a suppressor is equipped it will use the generic suppressor model instead of the correct one for the PB. It is a rare sight in the game; the boyfriend in the mission "Juliet" has one, and in a hallucination Jason can be seen holding one to his own head. As well as the obvious ability to use a suppressor, it can also be customised with illuminated sights and an extended magazine, and can accept up to two attachments at a time. Like the Kimber and unlike the other semi-automatic pistols it has the correct magazine capacity of eight rounds, though this is tempered by the spontaneous nonexistence of the chambered round if it is reloaded mid-magazine.
Makarov PB with secondary suppressor - 9x18mm Makarov
Makarov PB in the store menu.
Jason holds a Makarov PB with no accessories as he takes a stroll down by the river. In this state the PB is basically useless, having no real advantage over the Kimber Warrior.
The integral suppressor also does rather less than one might think it would.
Realising this, Jason soon has it outfitted with a suppressor and illuminated sights. Note the suppressor model does not match the one in the real gun image above, and is the same one used by every other weapon.
After refusing to let the peace and quiet push him around, Jason empty-reloads his PB; the model is more or less correct in terms of the relationship between the non-detachable suppressor and the slide.
While hallucinating, Jason sees an image of himself holding a PB as he attempts to rid the world of his haircut. Note the disembodied magazine floating at his waist.
Orion Flare Gun
A 12-gauge Orion Flare Gun is available as the "Flare Gun" from the start of the game. Flare guns are used by enemies to summon reinforcements, but cannot be picked up from them as they only drop their normal weapons when killed. In Jason's hands, the Orion can be used to start fires, can distract enemies if fired into the air, or can fired directly at them; the flare gun is an instant kill if it hits an enemy or animal directly, and a flare will severely damage or destroy a vehicle it lands on. It has a gold finish and no custom options.
Orion flare gun - 12 gauge
Orion flare gun in the store menu.
Jason holds his randomly gold Orion flare gun as he studies a waterfall, attempting to figure out a way to set fire to it.
"Perhaps if I set fire to the sky first?"
different unfired round. His ambition thwarted, Jason reloads his flare gun. As is common in shooters, there is no model for a spent flare round and so Jason swaps an unfired round for aunfired round.
Realising water and air will not catch fire, Jason decides to try setting fire to earth, with considerably more success.
He's soon happily sharing this knowledge with the local pirate population, who do not appreciate his generosity as much as he might have hoped.
Jason soon finds that boats also count as earth.
Smith & Wesson Model 629
The ".44 Magnum" is a Smith & Wesson Model 629 resembling a Performance Center "Stealth Hunter." By default it has a 4-inch barrel, but can be upgraded; the barrel length upgrade replaces the option to mount a suppressor. The unlockable Signature "Cannon" pistol, a reward for using the uPlay service, has a 6-inch barrel, a tube reflex optic and enhanced damage.
Smith & Wesson Model 629 Stealth Hunter -.44 Magnum
Model 629 Stealth Hunter in the store menu.
"Cannon" Signature variant in the store menu. Note the strange listing of the "6 round chamber" among the customisations; putting six rounds in one chamber of a revolver would certainly be worth seeing (preferably from a very, very long way away), and even if the terminology error is ignored, the regular 629 has a six-round capacity as it is.
Far Cry 2 can be used three times before being depleted. Jason holds a black Model 629 Stealth Hunter with a long barrel and reflex sight as he looks over an ammo crate. These crates provide ammunition for all weapons, and as with the ammo stockpiles incan be used three times before being depleted.
Aware that his hunting must be stealthy, Jason waits until dark to reload. While the animation vaguely acknowledges the extractor rod, the spent casings fall out before Jason even touches it, and the rod itself is fixed on the model and does not move when he presses it, his thumb simply clipping through it. All six casings are shown empty no matter how many had been fired, and the casings themselves appear to be the entire length of the cylinder, which leads to certain questions about how they fit when they have bullets in them.
Soon bored with the regular version, he reloads the special "Cannon" variant. Note that both versions have a six-round cylinder, so the "Cannon" is customised to be exactly the same.
In both cases he then brings in a speedloader with the new rounds, wondering how exactly they fit into the cylinder. After twisting it to remove it, Jason makes wheelgun fans wince by flicking the revolver to snap the cylinder back into position.
Type 10 Flare Gun
A Japanese Type 10 flare gun can be used in multiplayer with one of the pre-order bonus packs. The flare gun has apparently been converted to fire shotshells instead of flares, which would presumably have to be handmade since 35mm is not a standard shotgun calibre (being slightly above the 33.67mm 2-gauge used by smaller punt guns; for perspective, 12 gauge is 18.53mm). They would presumably result in the shooter's hand being remade if they were fired one-handed from a 2.6 pound flare gun. The version shown in the game is a very rare variant with a frame-mounted safety, which was eliminated on later Type 10s when it was found the heavy double-action trigger pull rendered it unnecessary. Only about 150 guns were produced with this feature, of which only around five examples are known to survive.
Japanese Type 10 flare gun with safety - 35mm
Type 10 flare gun on the multiplayer loadout screen. Note that the serial number on the weapon is 519, which is incorrect; the highest known serial number of a Type 10 with a safety is 453, and by 519 the feature had been deleted.
The player character in multiplayer holds a Type 10 flare gun; note that it uses the same circle reticle as the shotguns. Note also that the Type 10 is far too small, being not much bigger than the Orion despite that it should be almost double the calibre.
Iron sights of the Type 10; apparently multiplayer player characters all have reinforced steel giga-wrists which can stand the strain of firing a 35mm shotshell one-handed.
Reloading; there is no model for a spent cartridge, so the fired model is shown unfired and with an unstruck primer.
Having disposed of the old unfired round, it's time to add a new one.
Blood Dragon Handguns
Beretta 93R "Auto 9"
The first weapon drawn following the opening mounted gun section is a Beretta 93R "Auto 9" called the "A.J.M. 9," the description saying the letters are "in honor of a fallen DPD cop" meaning they stand for "Alex J. Murphy." It is a close replica of the movie weapon which fires in 3-round bursts, and can be upgraded with an extended magazine, a fantastically enormous suppressor and an underbarrel laser. The reload has Rex insert the magazine partway into the well, with some strange 80s force drawing it the rest of the way inside automatically.
Beretta 93R "Auto 9" - 9x19mm
Robocop. Research entry for the Auto 9. Note the scanlines are authentic; the game uses this filter in menus and gameplay to mimic the cyborg vision effect used in
An Omega Force cyborg finds himself ill-equipped to deal with Rex Colt's Auto 9.
Submachine Guns
Agram 2000
The Agram 2000 is called the "A2000," and is a middle of the road weapon with no particular advantages or disadvantages. The Agram in the game is modified with a receiver-top rail and aperture rear sight, the former allowing it to mount optics unlike the cheaper Skorpion. All snipers on both islands carry an Agram 2000 as a backup weapon.
Agram 2000 - 9x19mm
Agram 2000 in the store menu.
Jason holds an Agram 2000 as he looks over a GIAT VAB armoured car which the Privateers have for some reason.
Taking a moment to reload his Agram 2000, Jason finally levels up enough to learn that magazines with actual bullets in them are more effective in combat. A bullet is still visible in the discarded magazine regardless of whether there were any rounds left in it, so Jason has still not quite mastered this.
Heckler & Koch MP5N
The MP5N is the most expensive of the SMGs available on the North island, and is not used by any enemies. It mounts a scope rail for optics, and a very odd open rear sight replacing the standard diopter drum. This is similar to the rear sight of early MP5 prototypes or early G3s, but is quite likely to have been based on the rear sight of Homefront's QBZ-03 rifle. It is an accurate and useful weapon, with no real shortcomings, and can mount two accessories. The "old school" paint scheme gives it green furnishings, presumably to match the G3 from Far Cry 2. The player character performs an "HK slap" when reloading this weapon, with the charging handle obligingly locking back by itself at the start of the animation rather than waiting for them to do it. The charging handle also incorrectly reciprocates when the weapon fires.
Heckler & Koch MP5N - 9x19mm
MP5N in the store menu. Note the aftermarket ventilated handguard.
Jason holds an MP5N with a reflex sight, suppressor and the "old school" paint scheme as he discovers the dreaded carnivorous shoes have killed again.
Later on his way to rescue one of his trapped friends, he proceeds to forget everything he learned with the Agram 2000 and reloads his MP5 with thirty rounds of 9x19mm air.
Izhmash PP-19 Bizon-2
The "BZ19," an Izhmash PP-19 Bizon, is one of the two SMGs which are held over until the South island is unlocked. The most expensive SMG in the game to make up for its enormous helical magazine, it is able to mount a suppressor, tube reflex sight or one of two open reflex sights. The 64-round magazine shows it is a 9x18mm Makarov version, while the ejection port shows it is a left-handed version. It is customised with a slightly extended barrel and a rail-top receiver with an aftermarket flip-up aperture rear sight rather than the normal AK-style open rear sight. It is used by Privateers on the South island, and is fairly common among them.
PP-19 Bizon-2 with side-folding stock in folded position - 9x18mm Makarov
Bizon-2 in the store menu.
Jason holds a suppressed Bizon as he makes his way to an enemy radio tower. Note the left-handed ejection port and aftermarket rear sight.
He soon tires of its dull appearance, and reloads it after adding a tube reflex optic and camo which will be very useful if he has to hide among a group of severely diseased tigers.
Skorpion Vz. 61
The Sa. Vz.61 Skorpion is the cheapest of the SMGs and the only one which can be fired on a zipline (provided Jason has the relevant skill) since it is the only one held with one hand. It is a very limited weapon with only high fire rate and low recoil to recommend it; damage is puny and range and accuracy both mediocre, and it is only capable of mounting one accessory, with the choice of an extended magazine or a suppressor. By default it has a rather strange capacity of 24 rounds.
Vz. 61 Skorpion -.32 ACP
Skorpion in the store menu.
Jason holds a Skorpion as he starts one of the Rakyat hunting trials, which are performed with a weapon seemingly specified by someone Jason wronged in a past life.
Having surprising success in his attempts to murder three bears with an extremely weak submachine gun, Jason fires his Skorpion; note that the wire folding stock actually pops out of its grips and rides up slightly when the Skorpion is fired, which would only be possible if they had been bent inwards to the point there was nothing holding the stock in position at all.
Failing to defeat the second bear, Jason backs up and swaps the nothing in his magazine for a completely fresh set of nothing.
TDI Vector
The TDI Vector is called the "Vector.45 ACP," and is used at the very end of the last mission in the North, but is only available from stores in the South. The Signature version, the "Shredder," is unlocked by locating ten memory cards, and has a suppressor, extended magazine, tube reflex optic and enhanced accuracy and damage. Both versions mount an unusable tactical light above the barrel, with a cable run down to a switch on the foregrip. For some reason, both iron sights are shown mounted backwards.
TDI Vector SMG -.45 ACP
TDI Vector in the store menu.
"Shredder" Signature variant in the store menu.
Jason holds the first standard Vector in the game, which is used during an odd hallucination sequence where he is accosted by knife-wielding clones of villain Vaas.
Out in the (relatively) normal world, Jason holds the "Shredder" Signature version of the Vector. Note the folded-down iron sights despite the store menu still showing them raised, and the cable leading from the useless flashlight to the foregrip.
Jason reloads the "Shredder," hoping he doesn't encounter those meddling turtles. His trigger discipline remains consistently appalling throughout the game.
Blood Dragon Submachine Guns
Calico M960
The "Fazertron" is a Calico M960 with a bulked-up stock which also contains the well for the large curved magazine. The weapon's name is a reference to the Westinghouse M95A1 Phased Plasma Rifle from Terminator 2, which was built around an M960. It always mounts a reflex sight, and by default fires standard rounds in 3-round bursts; upgrades allow it to fire energy beams (while still ejecting spent casings) and change the fire mode to fully automatic, by adding a fire selector which is actually not set to "safe."
Calico M960 - 9x19mm
Research entry for the Calico M960.
Rex uses his Calico M960 to defeat a cyborg in a suitably impressive spray of cyber-fluids. This is the introductory mission, where Rex's Calico has most of its modifications already; he then loses these via plot contrivance and has to unlock them again.
Shotguns
Baikal MP-133
The cheapest shotgun in the game is a Baikal MP-133 called the "M133." It is a custom version with synthetic furniture, a forend from a Remington 870, a vented rib barrel, and an accessory rail mounted atop the receiver. It has an extended 6-round magazine tube and the capacity is 7 rounds; interestingly the empty reload actually shows Jason insert one shell, pump the action and then load the other six, meaning it is correct. The basic model has no customisation options, but the Signature version, the "Bull," comes with a reflex sight and has an extended magazine, though as with all weapons this is not shown on the model. This version is unlocked by collecting ten Relics.
It is used by shotgun soldiers on both the North and South islands, making it a very common sight, and is one of the weapons commonly given for hunting side-missions.
Baikal MP-133 with extended magazine tube - 12 gauge
Baikal MP-133 in the store menu.
"Bull" Signature variant in the store menu.
Jason warily holds a Baikal MP-133 as he tries to remember if crocodiles can disguise themselves as inflatable boats.
Giving up, he returns to bear blasting because he is too extreme for normal sports.
Franchi SPAS-12
The Franchi SPAS-12 goes by its real name of "SPAS-12," and is the short-barrel version. The last shotgun unlocked, it is only available on the South island, and is the only semi-automatic shotgun in the game. It is shown with no stock, a left-handed ejection port, and a strange, bulky pistol grip, and has a rail over the receiver and the top of the rear sight cut off.
Franchi SPAS-12 with short barrel - 12 gauge
SPAS-12 in the store menu.
Jason holds a SPAS-12 as he takes a moment to admire the beautiful sunrise, or more likely to determine which things in his field of view are most likely to catch fire.
Remembering what man is supposed to do if he's in the forest that day, Jason loads his SPAS. Notably without pressing the carrier latch button, which would mean the loading gate would stay locked shut.
Winchester Model 1887
A Winchester Model 1887, simply called the 1887, is available from the store as soon as it is unlocked. In a rare case of an 1887 in a videogame not being based on the one from Terminator 2, it is shown with a full-length barrel; it also mounts an accessory rail, and can use an open reflex optic. Unlike the MP-133, the weapon has no extra step of operating the action to explain how it chambers a round when reloading from empty.
Winchester 1887 shotgun - 12 gauge
Winchester Model 1887 in the store menu.
not looking for. Jason holds a Model 1887 with the second type of reflex optic, a C-More scope, as he discovers precisely what he waslooking for.
Having escaped the perils of giant evil lizards, Jason operates the action of his Model 1887 as he gives his beached jetski a proper Viking funeral.
A trip out at night shows off the diamond reticle of the C-More optic.
Jason reloads his 1887, certain in the knowledge that if his approach to conservationism is wrong, he doesn't want to be right.
Blood Dragon Shotguns
Sawed-Off Winchester Model 1887
Making up for the full-length version in the main game, Blood Dragon's Winchester Model 1887 is an almost exact replica of the Terminator 2 prop, with the only differences being a slightly smaller loop on the lever, no metal handling plate, and a sling attachment point on the back of the stock. Called the "Galleria 1991" in reference to the arcade in Terminator 2 and the year the movie was released, by default it is flip-cocked and features a more than slightly impossible 8-round capacity, together with a phenomenally silly reloading animation where Rex flips shells into the action with his thumb. Upgrades grant the 1887 semi-automatic fire with a mechanically suspicious rotating hammer, going on to saw down the barrel while turning the magazine tube into a second one (while retaining the same capacity anyway) and then adding two more barrels to the sides for good measure.
Airsoft replica Model 1887 with sawn-off stock, barrel, and cutaway trigger guard, as seen in Terminator 2: Judgment Day - (fake) 12 gauge replica Model 1887 with sawn-off stock, barrel, and cutaway trigger guard, as seen in- (fake) 12 gauge
Far Cry 3's own Jason Brody. Research entry for the Model 1887. The twentysomething guy trying to save his grody friends is, of course, a shot atown Jason Brody.
Rex rests his Model 1887 on his cyber-arm as he takes aim at what is almost certainly a cyber-tiger.
Assault Rifles & Battle Rifles
AK-103
The AK-103 appears in the game incorrectly labelled as an AK-47; it is identifiable due to its 90 degree gas block, AK-74 type muzzle brake, and use of 7.62x39mm AK-47 magazines. Oddly, though the magazine is proportioned like an AK mag, it is "plum ribbed" like the 5.45mm 10- and 45-round magazines made by Molot Arsenal respectively for the VEPR hunting rifle and late-model RPK machine gun; it is shown with a metallic finish rather than the dull black of these magazines, however. It is a common weapon among Vaas' thugs, and is the cheapest assault rifle in the game. The in-game AK is fitted with an accessory rail on the top of the receiver attached via the mounting bracket on the left side of the lower receiver, an AKM / early AK-74 ribbed receiver cover, wooden AK-74 stock and handguard, and an early AK-47 pistol grip, complete with an earlier, thicker reinforcement plate.
There are no accessories available for the AK in singleplayer, but in multiplayer and co-op it can be equipped with an extended magazine, open reflex sight or tube reflex sight.
The store menu might call it an AK47, but the weapon itself clearly has other ideas.
Jason holds an AK-103, having claimed both it and a boat from a man who was so excited to be of help that he had to have a lie down.
During the traditional "mission where you lose all your weapons," Jason is forced to acquire a new set, and vents his frustrations on the local miscreants.
Jason reloads his AK, once again not learning the vital lesson of using ammunition to do so.
FAMAS F1
The FAMAS F1, called the "F1," is second most expensive weapon in the assault rifle category available on the North island, and one of only two in the game which can mount a suppressor. While it is shown with a curved STANAG magazine inserted, the weapon's actual magazine well is the F1 proprietary version; this and the trigger guard and grip make it pretty clear it is an F1 with the wrong magazine. Correct for this incorrect magazine, it has a capacity of 30 rounds as opposed to 25 for the F1 proprietary magazine, increasing to an impossible 45 with the extended magazine mod. It features an added rail on top of the carrying handle, which mounts raised iron sights if the weapon is not fitted with an optic.
While the game claims the weapon fires in 3-round bursts, it is more correct to say it has a 3-round burst limit; tapping the fire button can produce single shots, while holding it will make the weapon cease firing after three shots.
FAMAS F1 - 5.56x45mm
FAMAS F1 on the store menu. Note the incorrect curved magazine and that the developers seemingly thought the FAMAS had no iron sights and so added some. Well, it's the thought that counts.
Jason holds a FAMAS F1 equipped with a tube reflex sight as he prepares to enter the jungle.
However, he quickly realises he does not have enough nothing in his gun and so swaps for a new magazine full of it.
Galil ACE 53
The Galil ACE 53, simply called the "ACE," is one of the two assault rifles which do not unlock until the second island. The game makes direct comparisons between the ACE and the AK which are only really true of the ACE 32, but the weapon clearly has a straight 7.62x51mm magazine, and damage is similar to the 7.62mm SOCOM 16. The ACE uses a 20-round straight STANAG magazine instead of the 25-round magazine
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, Schofield says, it will deputize every transphobic resident as a member of the “bathroom police.”
“Anybody who has been politicized by these bully politicians now has a license to commit the very kinds of assault that these bills try to prevent,” he said.
That is the ultimate, gut-wrenchingly cruel irony of anti-transgender bathroom bills: They are likely to create the problem they are purportedly meant to solve.
Far from protecting residents’ privacy, they will encourage invasions of privacy in public restrooms. A proposed law in Kansas, for example, would allow students to sue their schools for $2,500 if they see someone in their bathroom who should not be allowed to enter based on their “chromosomes” and their “anatomy” at birth. That is a direct financial incentive to scrutinize someone’s physical appearance in a bathroom. What could possibly go wrong?
And instead of keeping men out of women’s bathrooms, they will require men to use them. But transphobic lawmakers are too busy demonizing transgender women to think this requirement through.
After Gov. McCrory signed the anti-LGBT law, for example, he wrote in a statement that the Charlotte non-discrimination ordinance that it was intended to target “defie[d] common sense and basic community norms by allowing, for example, a man to use a woman’s bathroom, shower or locker room.”
That is always the example, never the inverse. When Houston was voting to overturn its own non-discrimination ordinance last fall, former Astro Lance Berkman said that it would “allow troubled men who claim to be women to enter women’s bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms.” It is the mantra and the lie, as Jay Michaelson wrote for The Daily Beast, that now fuels the passage of anti-LGBT legislation after the legalization same-sex marriage.
But this legislative attack is not about protecting women and girls from predatory men. It’s about lawmakers exerting so much energy to keep a certain group of women out of women’s bathrooms that they are also explicitly ordering a certain group of men into women’s bathrooms.
Whether or not those men obey the law is another story. Schofield says that he, like many transgender men, will continue using men’s restrooms when in North Carolina.
“We’re just going to break the law a few times a day and use the same bathrooms that we’ve been using,” he said.
But others, especially young transgender students, may not be willing to test that limit depending on how—or if—the law is enforced in the public facilities they use.
“I fear for the safety of all trans and gender nonconforming people,” said Rev. Hero. “Using the restroom is one of the most basic rights a person should have.”
The full effects of the terrifying legislation remain to be seen. One thing is clear: If North Carolina lawmakers truly want to keep men out of women’s restrooms, they have failed spectacularly. And it is transgender people who will pay the price for their mistake.I watched Star Trek Beyond last week, and I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. It’s just a great adventure film, punctuated by a particularly moving birthday party for Kirk at the end. I’m sure many other people have discussed how Kirk’s words “To absent friends” mirror his statement in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. It’s touching to see Kirk reminisce about the father he lost the day he was born. And it’s even more poignant when you consider that Star Trek Beyond is dedicated to the memory of the two members of the old and new Star Trek casts (Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin) who lost their lives between the last film’s release and this one’s.
I know the filmmakers didn’t intend to be quite so literal in their choice of words, but I can’t help hearing Kirk’s statement as, “Two absent friends.” I’ll probably always hear it that way as I rewatch the film in the coming years. That’s all I want to share about the sad loss of these two fine actors. May they live long and prosper in the undiscovered country beyond the veil.
AdvertisementsMake-up artist John Caglione Jr. has posted some never before seen pictures of the late Heath Ledger, including one of his last day on the set of The Dark Knight.
In 2009, John recieved an Academy Award Best Makeup nomination for the iconic "Joker" makeup on Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.
Heath Ledger will always be remembered as a terrific actor, but it was his acclaimed performance as The Joker inthat cemented his legend. A performance that transcended the comic book movie genre, and earned him one of the highest honors, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Now we can enjoy those moments once again with these wonderful behind-the-scenes images.hits theaters July 20th 2012 and stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Garly Oldman as Jim Gordon, Tom Hardy as Bane, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake and Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate.The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will sport one of the NFL's youngest offenses this season, with Jameis Winston at quarterback, two rookie starters on the offensive line and second-year wideout sensation Mike Evans.
Don't forget about running back Charles Sims, drafted in the third round a year ago.
The coaching staff remains "very high" on Sims, ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas wrote Friday.
Similarly, the Pewter Report blog has noted that the Bucs have "big plans" for Sims and plan to feature him in their attack this season.
As a rookie, Sims managed just 2.8 yards per carry in eight games. Our game notes point to subpar vision, burst and tackle-breaking ability. His film called to mind a slow-motion C.J. Spiller, lacking the explosive lateral agility and breakaway speed while showing nothing between the tackles.
Buccaneers coaches would point out that Sims was battling a severe case of rust after missing most of August and the first half of the season with an ankle injury. He was just starting to hit his stride by the season finale, when he totaled a season-high 75 yards on 19 touches.
"You can see each week he's getting a little more explosive," former offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo said in late December. "You'll see him now and say, 'I haven't seen that step since the first week of camp,' or, 'Oh, that's something new.' It's just such a freak dynamic out of the backfield with him."
To Arroyo's point, Sims did show obvious instincts and skills as a receiving back, averaging 10.0 yards on 19 catches.
The passing-down role is the one to which he's ideally suited. Unless the Bucs can get Doug Martin to recapture his 2012 form as an early-down hammer, they are likely to be disappointed in their backfield production this season.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast discusses Geno Smith and the Jets' QB position and much, much more with special co-host Colleen Wolfe. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.One of the most exciting areas of science is the emerging field of spacetime analogues. This is the discipline in which physicists play around with systems that have a formal mathematical link with general relativity.
For example, changes in the way electrons move in graphene as it is cooled are identical to the changes that may have occurred in the universe soon after the big bang. So physicists can use cool graph to test theories about the universe’s earliest behaviour.
Another example is the formal mathematical analogy between the behaviour of light in electromagnetic space and in spacetime. That’s interesting because physicists have recently learnt how to manipulate electromagnetic space using metamaterials. That has allowed them to create the electromagnetic equivalents of quantum foam, the big bang and even the entire multiverse.
All of these experiments are jaw droppers (imagine making black hole in the lab). That’s why it’s hard to top them.
But Igor Smolyaninov at the University of Maryland likes to have a go. Today, he explains how he’s created an experiment that models the end of time.
The idea is straightforward (no really!). Metamaterials can be made to behave like ordinary space with two dimensions of space and one of time. But they can also be made to behave like other types of spaces, with two dimensions of time and one of space, for example.
Smolyaninov points out that an interesting situation occurs when these two materials are place end on. If a time dimension is perpendicular to a space dimension, it simply hits a dead end. In other words, time runs out.
“This situation (which cannot be realized in classic general relativity) may be called the “end of time”,” he says in a paper with a couple of colleagues.
Not content with merely thinking about such a scenario, these guys have gone ahead and built it using a plastic called polymethyl methacrylate or PMMA deposited in stripes onto gold film. The light takes the form of plasmons moving across the surface.
So what happens at the end of time? Smolyaninov says that the electromagnetic field simply diverges, which is something of an anticlimax in an experiment so pregnant with sci-fi potential.
But interesting stuff nevertheless.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1107.4053: Hyperbolic Metamaterial Interfaces: Hawking Radiation From Rindler Horizons And The “End Of Time”Haitian Massacre Location Haiti Date January 1804 ( ) – 22 April 1804 ; 214 years ago ( ) Target White population, i.e. the French and French Creoles Attack type Massacre Deaths 3,000–5,000
The 1804 Haiti massacre was carried out against the remaining white population of native French people and French Creoles (or Franco-Haitians) in Haiti by Haitian soldiers under orders from Jean-Jacques Dessalines. He had decreed that all suspected of conspiring in the acts of the expelled army should be put to death.[1]
The massacre, which took place throughout Haiti, occurred from early January 1804 until 22 April 1804, and resulted in the death of 3,000 to 5,000 men, women, and children. Squads of soldiers moved from house to house, torturing and killing entire families.[3] Even whites who had been friendly and sympathetic to the black population were imprisoned and later killed.[4] A second wave of massacres targeted white women and children.[4]
Throughout the early-to-mid nineteenth century, these events were well known in the United States, where they were called "the horrors of Santo Domingo". In addition, many refugees had come to the U.S. from Saint-Domingue, settling in New Orleans, Charleston, New York, and other coastal cities. These events polarized Southern U.S. public opinion on the question of the abolition of slavery.[5][6]
Background [ edit ]
Henri Christophe's personal secretary, who was a slave for much of his life, said about the treatment of slaves in Saint-Domingue:
Have they not hung up men with heads downward, drowned them in sacks, crucified them on planks, buried them alive, crushed them in mortars? Have they not forced them to consume faeces? And, having flayed them with the lash, have they not cast them alive to be devoured by worms, or onto anthills, or lashed them to stakes in the swamp to be devoured by mosquitoes? Have they not thrown them into boiling cauldrons of cane syrup? Have they not put men and women inside barrels studded with spikes and rolled them down mountainsides into the abyss? Have they not consigned these miserable blacks to man eating-dogs until the latter, sated by human flesh, left the mangled victims to be finished off with bayonet and poniard?[7]
These stories most likely arose from terror visited on the Haitian rebels by Charles Leclerc in the 1801–1803 war.
The Haitian Revolution [ edit ]
"Burning of the Plaine du Cap - Massacre of whites by the blacks." On August 22, 1791, slaves set fire to plantations, torched cities and massacred the white population.
In 1791, a man of Jamaican origin named Boukman became the leader of the enslaved Africans held on a large plantation in Cap-Français.[8] In the wake of the revolution in France, he planned to massacre all the whites living in Cap-Français.[8] On 22 August 1791, the blacks descended to Le Cap, where they destroyed the plantations and executed all the whites who lived in the region.[8] King Louis XVI was accused of indifference to the massacre, while the slaves seemed to think the king was on their side.[9] In July 1793, the whites in Les Cayes were massacred.[10]
Despite the French proclamation of emancipation, the blacks sided with the Spanish who came to occupy the region.[11] In July 1794, Spanish forces stood by while the black troops of Jean-François massacred the French whites in Fort-Dauphin.[11]
After the defeat of France and the evacuation of the French army from the former French colony of Saint-Domingue, Dessalines came to power. In November 1803, three days after the French forces under Rochambeau surrendered, he caused the execution by drowning of 800 French soldiers who had been left behind due to illness when the French army evacuated the island. He did guarantee the safety of the remaining white civilian population. However, his statements, such as: "There are still French on the island, and still you considered yourselves free," spoke of a hostile attitude toward the remaining white minority.
Rumors about the white population suggested that they would try to leave the country to convince foreign powers to invade and reintroduce slavery. Discussions between Dessalines and his advisers openly suggested that the white population should be put to death for the sake of national security. Whites trying to leave Haiti were prevented from doing so.
On 1 January 1804, Dessalines proclaimed Haiti an independent nation. Dessalines later gave the order to all cities on Haiti that all white men should be put to death. The weapons used should be silent weapons such as knives and bayonets rather than gunfire, so that the killing could be done more quietly, and avoid warning intended victims by the sound of gunfire and thereby giving them the opportunity to escape.
The massacre [ edit ]
An 1806 engraving of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. It depicts the general, sword raised in one arm, while the other holds the severed head of a white woman.
During February and March, Dessalines traveled among the cities of Haiti to assure himself that his orders were carried out. Despite his orders, the massacres were often not carried out until he visited the cities in person.
The course of the massacre showed an almost identical pattern in every city he visited. Before his arrival, there were only a few killings, despite his orders. When Dessalines arrived, he first spoke about the atrocities committed by former white authorities, such as Rochambeau and Leclerc, after which he demanded that his orders about mass killings of the area's white population should be put into effect. Reportedly, he ordered the unwilling to take part in the killings, especially men of mixed race, so that the blame should not be placed solely on the black population. Mass killings took place on the streets and on places outside the cities.
In parallel to the killings, plundering and rape also occurred. Women and children were generally killed last. White women were "often raped or pushed into forced marriages under threat of death."
Dessalines did not specifically mention that the white women should be killed, and the soldiers were reportedly somewhat hesitant to do so. In the end, however, the women were also put to death, though normally at a later stage of the massacre than the adult males. The argument for killing the women was that whites would not truly be eradicated if the white women were spared to give birth to new Frenchmen.
Before his departure from a city, Dessalines would proclaim an amnesty for all the whites who had survived in hiding during the massacre. When these people left their hiding place, however, they were killed as well. Many[quantify] whites were, however, hidden and smuggled out to sea by foreigners.
In Port-au-Prince, only a few killings had occurred in the city despite the orders. After Dessalines arrived on 18 March, the number of killings escalated. According to a British captain, about 800 people were killed in the city, while about 50 survived. On 18 April 1804, Dessalines arrived at Cap-Haïtien. Only a handful of killings had taken place there before his arrival, but the killings escalated to a massacre on the streets and outside the city after his arrival.
As elsewhere, the majority of the women were initially not killed. Dessalines's advisers, however, pointed out that the white Haitians would not disappear if the women were left to give birth to white men, and after this, Dessalines ordered that the women should be killed as well, with the exception of those who agreed to marry non-white men. Contemporary sources claim that 3,000 people were killed in Cap-Haïtien, but this is considered unrealistic, as only 1,700 white people remained in the city after the French evacuated.[original research?]
One of the most notorious of the massacre participants was Jean Zombi, a mulatto resident of Port-au-Prince who was known for his brutality. One account describes how Zombi stopped a white man on the street, stripped him naked, and took him to the stair of the Presidential Palace, where he killed him with a dagger. Dessalines was reportedly among the spectators; he was said to be "horrified" by the episode. In Haitian Vodou tradition, the figure of Jean Zombi has become a prototype for the zombie.
Aftermath [ edit ]
By the end of April 1804, some 3,000 to 5,000 people had been killed and the white Haitians were practically eradicated. Only three categories of white people, except foreigners, were selected as exceptions and spared: the Polish soldiers who deserted from the French army; the small group of German colonists invited to the north-west region before the revolution; and a group of medical doctors and professionals. Reportedly, also people with connections to officers in the Haitian army were spared, as well as the women who agreed to marry non-white men.
Dessalines did not try to hide the massacre from the world. In an official proclamation of 8 April 1804, he stated, "We have given these true cannibals war for war, crime for crime, outrage for outrage. Yes, I have saved my country, I have avenged America." He referred to the massacre as an act of national authority. Dessalines regarded the elimination of the white Haitians an act of political necessity, as they were regarded as a threat to the peace between the black and the free people of color. It was also regarded as a necessary act of vengeance. Dessalines' secretary Boisrond-Tonnerre stated, "For our declaration of independence, we should have the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull for an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet for a pen!"[23]
Dessalines was eager to assure that Haiti was not a threat to other nations. He directed efforts to establish friendly relations also to nations where slavery was still allowed.
In the 1805 constitution, all citizens were defined as "black," and white men were banned from owning land. The massacre had a long-lasting effect on the view of the Haitian Revolution. It helped to create a legacy of racial hostility in Haitian society.
Effect on United States society [ edit ]
At the time of the U.S. Civil War, a major pretext for southern whites, most of whom did not own slaves, to support slave-owners (and ultimately fight for the Confederacy) was fear of a genocide similar to the Haitian Massacre of 1804. This was explicitly referred to in Confederate discourse and propaganda as a reason for secession.[27][28] The torture and massacre of whites in Haiti, normally known at the time as "the horrors of St. Domingo," was a constant and prominent theme in the discourse of southern political leaders and had influenced U.S. public opinion since the events took place.
Kevin C. Julius writes:
As abolitionists loudly proclaimed that "All men are created equal", echoes of armed slave insurrections and racial genocide sounded in Southern ears. Much of their resentment towards the abolitionists can be seen as a reaction to the events in Haiti.[5]
In the run-up to the U.S. presidential election of 1860, Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote "I remember the horrors of St. Domingo" and said that the election "will determine whether anything like this is to be visited upon our own southern countrymen."[6]
Abolitionists recognized the strength of this argument on public opinion in both the north and south. In correspondence to the New York Times in September 1861 (during the war), an abolitionist named J.B. Lyon addressed this as a prominent argument of his opponents:
We don't know any better than to imagine that emancipation would result in the utter extinction of civilization in the South, because the slave-holders, and those in their interest, have persistently told us... and they always instance the "horrors of St. Domingo."[29]
Lyon argued, however, that the experience of emancipation in British colonies in the 1830s showed that an end to slavery could be achieved peacefully.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ]A Collection of Weird Tales
Foreword by Laird Barron
Cover artwork by Santiago Caruso
ISBN: 978-1-61498-083-4
308 pages
May 2014
EPUB e-book available
“The stories of Simon Strantzas exemplify a style of horror that might be compared to the novellas of T. E. D. Klein.”—Thomas Ligotti
“I gather Thomas Ligotti finds similarities in Simon Strantzas's style and my own. I don’t really see it myself -- but considering the source, and considering Strantzas's beautifully crafted stories, I must say I consider it a compliment.”—T. E. D. Klein
“Burnt Black Suns demonstrates Strantzas’s remarkable narrative skills, his unerring, feverish sense of pace, and his absolute willingness to hurl himself into the darkest ranges of his excellent imagination.”—Peter Straub
“In Burnt Black Suns Strantzas casts far into time and space to find the alien, and what comes back wriggling inside his net is ghastly.”—Adam Nevill
“With Burnt Black Suns, Strantzas continues a trajectory into deeper darkness... and in some respects the odyssey has brought him closer to the primal core of the tradition and its rawest, purest essentials.”—From Laird Barron’s foreword
In this fourth collection of stories, Simon Strantzas establishes himself as one of the most dynamic figures in contemporary weird fiction. The nine stories in this volume exhibit Strantzas’s wide range in theme and subject matter, from the Lovecraftian “Thistle’s Find” to the Robert W. Chambers homage “Beyond the Banks of the River Seine.” But Strantzas’s imagination, while drawing upon the best weird fiction of the past, ventures into new territory in such works as “On Ice,” a grim novella of arctic horror; “One Last Bloom,” a grisly account of a scientific experiment gone hideously awry; and the title story, an emotionally wrenching account of terror and loss in the baked Mexican desert. With this volume, Strantzas lays claim to be discussed in the company of Caitlín R. Kiernan and Laird Barron as one of the premier weird fictionists of our time.
Simon Strantzas is the author of the story collections Beneath the Surface (2008), Cold to the Touch (2009), and Nightingale Songs (2011). His stories have appeared in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, the Black Wings series, and elsewhere. He resides in Toronto, Canada.Leif Hans Larsen Tronstad DSO, OBE (27 March 1903 – 11 March 1945) was a Norwegian scientist, intelligence officer and military organizer. He graduated from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1927 and was a prolific researcher and writer of academic publications. A professor of chemistry at the Norwegian Institute of Technology from 1936, he was also among the pioneers of heavy water research, and was instrumental when a heavy water plant was built at Vemork.
During World War II Norway was invaded by Germany and Tronstad conducted domestic resistance for one year before fleeing the country for England. There, he gathered valuable intelligence from Norwegian sources, both on the development of the V-2 rocket and the growing German interest in heavy water. In 1943 Tronstad planned Operation Gunnerside, in which the German access to heavy water processing at Vemork was severely impeded. His information about the V-2 rocket contributed to the massive Allied bombing of Peenemünde.
For a long time Tronstad had wanted to return to Norway to organize resistance work, however he was prevented by the Norwegian military authorities in Britain. In 1944, however, he did travel to Norway, to organize Operation Sunshine, for the defence of Norwegian infrastructure. After five months in the country, he was killed in action after his team had taken the local bailiff hostage.
Early life [ edit ]
Tronstad was born in Bærum; the son of Hans Larsen and Josefine Amalie Tronstad,[1] Hans died three months before Leif was born. Leif thus grew up in Sandvika with his mother and four siblings. He graduated from middle school in 1918, with top grades in mathematics. He then embarked on thirty months of professional practice in two local electricity companies, which was a requirement to enrol at Kristiania Technical School, a predecessor of the Faculty of Engineering at Oslo University College. When he enrolled in 1920 he chose technical chemistry instead of electronic engineering. He graduated in 1922, the best chemistry student; a fellow student recalled that he "did not have to read anything more than once" in order to remember it. In the spring of 1923, he also took the examen artium after attending the Haagaas School for one year.[2] He was ready to enroll at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, but waited one year, possibly wanting to strengthen his personal finances. In the meantime, he started on his compulsory military service.[3]
He was an accomplished athlete and helped his hometown club Grane SK to two Norwegian 4 × 1500 metres relay records. The records were set in 1921 and 1923, but broken by the team IL i BUL in 1926.[4] His brother John, a bronze medalist in 1500 metres at the 1917 Norwegian championships,[5] was on the relay team as well.[4] Both brothers used their father's name Larsen at the time; Leif took up his mother's name Tronstad later.[3]
In 1924 Tronstad moved to Trondheim to study at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, graduating in 1927. His graduation paper was deemed exceptional and as such was reported to King Haakon of Norway.[3] Regarded as a fully-fledged academic work,[6] it was published scientifically in 1928. Tronstad had taken various stray jobs while studying,[3] and also finished his military service, reaching the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Norwegian Army Corps of Weaponry in 1927.[7] From 1927 to 1928 Tronstad worked briefly as an assistant at the Norwegian Institute of Technology as well as in a private company in Kristiansand. In 1928 he returned to the Norwegian Institute of Technology as a research fellow.[6] In the same year, Tronstad married Edla Obel, who was nine years his junior, in Trondheim. The couple had two children.[1]
Academic career [ edit ]
Tronstad spent the first year of a research period as an assistant to Herbert Freundlich in Dahlem, Berlin. He studied the passivity of metal surfaces, and made a breakthrough when he managed to measure extremely thin oxide surface coatings, thus solving a problem dating from the time of Michael Faraday.[6][7] He continued to Stockholm to study metallography under Carl Benedicks, and to elaborate further on his results from Berlin. The work was completed in 1931 and his thesis, spanning 250 pages, was published in German as Optische Untersuchungen zur Frage der Passivität des Eisens und Stahls. For it, he received the doctorate degree. He was hired at the Norwegian Institute of Technology as a lecturer in the summer of 1931, although he spent the first year at the University of Cambridge, conducting further research with a scholarship from a memorial fund of Christian Michelsen. The research at Cambridge was a continuation of his thesis work, but this time he tested his method on mercury.[6]
Following the death in 1934 of a professor of technical inorganic chemistry at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, Tronstad was appointed his successor on 17 April 1936, effective from 1 May.[6] At the time, he was one of the youngest professors in Norway. He was a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, and in early 1940 he became vice president of the Norwegian Chemical Society. During his short scientific career, Tronstad penned about eighty scientific publications, including fourteen on heavy water-related topics.[7]
Vemork in 1935.
Vemork power station in 2008. The electrolyzing plant no longer exists.
The properties of heavy water had been discovered in 1932 by Harold Urey. In 1933, Leif Tronstad and Jomar Brun, the head of Norsk Hydro Rjukan, created a plan for industrial production of heavy water in Norway. As Norsk Hydro were already producing ammonia for nitrogen fertilizer, Tronstad and Brun had realized that large amounts of electrolyzed water were available.[7] Tronstad was paid by Norsk Hydro as a consultant. Already in 1934, Norsk Hydro had opened a plant near the power station at Vemork. This was the world's first plant for industrial mass production of heavy water.[6] Both French and German scientists expressed interest in the project.[8]
World War II [ edit ]
German invasion of Norway [ edit ]
Tronstad, holding a military rank, had a standing order to report to the Norwegian military headquarters in Oslo in the face of a military peril. When Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940, he first informed his students of the situation, and then drove towards Oslo. He brought his wife and children with him, but having no intention of taking them to a possible theatre of war, he left them in the Drivdalen valley. He continued alone but shortly after, upon learning that Oslo was the first city to fall to the invaders, he stopped at Dovre. The family had a cabin in the vicinity. Here, he helped organize volunteers from local rifle associations to form a line of defence meant to repel any advancing German forces.[7][8] German Fallschirmjäger paratroops did land at nearby Dombås, but were surprised by a contingent of regular Norwegian forces already in the area, who ensured a tactical victory for Norway in the ensuing Battle of Dombås.
Resistance [ edit ]
When the Norwegian Campaign ended and the German occupation of Norway was a reality, Tronstad became involved in resistance work,[7] largely based around the Norwegian Institute of Technology.[9] He was associated with the radio agent group Skylark B, which had regular contact with London from January 1941.[10] Among other things, he sent reports on the interest shown by German authorities in the heavy water plant at Vemork. One source of this information was Tronstad's old companion, Jomar Brun, still in charge of the plant,[7] who also helped people to flee the country by sea, via the Møre coast.[8] After exposure of the group in September 1941, Tronstad himself had to flee the country.[11] Another resistance member, who had already been jailed, managed to warn Tronstad, who travelled from Trondheim to Oslo by train. The following day, the Gestapo visited his house to arrest him. After a few days in hiding, Tronstad was driven by car to Østfold, and then travelled on foot to Töcksfors via Ørje.[8] From there he continued by plane to England,[10] rejecting an offer of a civilian job in Sweden.[8]
He reached England in October 1941. He already had a broad network of contacts there, stemming both from his academic career as well as from his radio operations.[8] He also maintained several contacts abroad, including scientists whom he knew from the Norwegian Institute of Technology: Harald Wergeland and Njål Hole.[7] The opportunity to work directly for the British was presented to Tronstad, but instead he chose to aim his efforts towards disrupting the German occupation of Norway and improving the Norwegian resistance work. He even wanted to enrol in active duty, but was stopped by the Norwegian military command, who considered him "too valuable" for the war theatre.[8] Tronstad's foremost skill was that of organization, which he owed to his experience in science.[1] Thus, Tronstad became a part of the staff of the Ministry of Defence, and later of the Norwegian High Command.[8] From 1943, he headed a section in department 4 (FO IV). This had been established in December 1942 under the leadership of Colonel Bjarne Øen, and Tronstad was brought in as a reinforcement as the work burden increased.[12] Also, he had recently been promoted from Captain to Major. Tronstad's section was responsible for the special operation towards industry and shipping; training of the Norwegian Independent Company 1 (Kompani Linge); technical advice on sabotage, and towards the end of the war also the protection of Norwegian industry.[12] He established the Norwegian High Command Technical Committee, which included other Norwegian scientists-in-exile such as Svein Rosseland, Helmer Dahl and Gunnar Randers. The Technical Committee is considered as the precursor to the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, established in 1946.[8]
Heavy water sabotage [ edit ]
Already in 1941, Tronstad was aware that heavy water production at Vemork had greatly increased.[7] In the beginning, Tronstad had not been aware of the connection between heavy water and atomic weaponry,[8] but it eventually became clear that Germany could be running a nuclear energy project, especially after Harold Urey visited the United Kingdom in November 1941. Tronstad later learned from Jomar Brun that further expansion of heavy water production was being discussed. Brun had been a part of a small conference on the issue, hosted by Kurt Diebner in Berlin, in January 1942. Brun would later communicate with England through Einar Skinnarland, a covert Special Operations Executive agent hailing from Rjukan. In October 1942, Brun was summoned to England, reportedly at the request of Winston Churchill.[7] Instead, a team of agents were parachuted into the area to gather more intelligence, under the codename Operation Grouse.[13]
The idea of subjecting the heavy water facility at Vemork to heavy air bombing surfaced, but Tronstad was a staunch opponent of such an idea, which he saw as too hazardous. He warned of the presence of civil housing, and argued that bombing was not even guaranteed to succeed, given that the heavy water facility was located in the armoured basement of the electrolyzing plant. The first attempt to take out the facility, in November 1942, had consisted of British personnel using gliders to land near Vemork.[8] The operation, codenamed Freshman, was a catastrophe, as all units except for one towing aircraft perished, either due to crash landings or in German captivity.[13]
Tronstad then organized the next attempt. He had wanted to take an active part in the sabotage mission, but again he was stopped by his commanders, who regarded him as inexpendable. Tronstad and Brun supplied the would-be saboteurs with extensive knowledge of the facility, and organized the training. The operation, codenamed Gunnerside and led by Joachim Rønneberg, was carried out successfully between 27 and 28 February 1943.[8] However, after three months, Germany managed to resume production.[13] Against the will of Tronstad,[8] in July 1943, an American-led raid by 161 aircraft[13] bombed Vemork as well as the shipment yard at Herøya. The two bombings claimed the lives of 76 people, many of whom were civilian.[8] The heavy water plant was not directly affected by the bombing, nevertheless production was halted due to a damaged generator. The Germans then tried to disassemble the production facility, followed by a retreat from Vemork with the remaining stock of heavy water. This resulted in the sinking of SF Hydro by Norwegian saboteurs, halting the heavy water transport, but again claiming many civilian lives.[13] Tronstad had given his consent to the latter operation, reportedly with a "heavy heart".[8]
Concealed listening posts at Rjukan and Notodden also revealed high-level German discussions of long-range weaponry. The place name Peenemünde was frequently mentioned. As this intelligence reaching Tronstad's ear via his contacts in Norway, he forwarded it to the British. As a result, the Royal Air Force bombed the Army Research Center of Peenemünde in August 1943. Further raids were made by the US Army Air Force in July and August 1944. The bombing halted the weapons program there, which centered around development of the V-1 flying bomb and the V-2 rocket. Fellow scientists Rideal and Evans later wrote that Tronstad "contributed directly to the speedy victory of the Allied Nations, besides saving the region which came to be known as 'Southern England' from an even longer and more severe ordeal than it actually endured".[8]
Operation Sunshine [ edit ]
In 1944, when the tide of war was turning against Germany, the German forces started to retreat from Northern Norway. However, they used scorched earth tactics as they retreated. Consequently, Tronstad started to plan how to organize a defence of industrial sites in Southern Norway. The
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all of their lines were improvised and almost all of the events in the film were unheard of to the three actors. On-camera surprises were commonplace during the filming of the movie.
5. Since the handheld camera movements played a significant role in the filming of the movie, some people in the theaters experienced nausea and actually left their seat to vomit. This prompted theaters in Toronto to warn patrons prone to motion sickness to choose aisle seating and try not to 'throw up on other people.'
6. During the promotion of the film, producers advertised the footage as real, which to this day, some people still believe is true.
7. In the movie, Heather Donahue supposedly finds what is presumed as the tongue and teeth of Joshua Leonard wrapped in his handkerchief. This part of the film is comparable to the Washington Irving tale, "The Devil and Tom Walker" where Tom's wife searches for the Devil in the swamp and never comes back home. Later, Tom goes looking for her and only finds her apron covering up her heart and liver.
8. One of the video cameras used in the filming of the movie was purchased at Circuit City and after production finished up, the producers returned the camera for a refund, which adjusted their overall budget total even lower.
9. The movie made its way into the Guinness Book Of World Records for 'Top Budget Box Office Ratio' in the category of a mainstream feature film. The film only cost $22,000 to make and brought in $240.5 million.
10. It took a total of eight days to shoot the film.
11. To enhance the intensity of being upset with one another, the actors were deliberately given less food each day of shooting.
12. In the scene where the actors are sleeping in a tent at night and are startled by the movement of their tent, the director violently shook the tent as a scare tactic. This was unscripted and the actors were genuinely scared.Fifty of the world’s 500 largest companies are responsible for nearly three quarters of the group’s 3.6 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to the CDP Global 500 Climate Change Report 2013.
Most of the top 50 carbon-polluting companies operate in the energy, materials and utilities sectors, the report says. The carbon dioxide emitted by these companies has risen by 1.65 percent to 2.54 billion metric tons over the past four years — equivalent to adding more than 8.5 million pickup trucks to the streets.
The report, co-written by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and professional services firm PwC, is based on the climate and energy data of 389 companies listed on the FTSE Global 500 Equity Index collected by CDP at the request of 722 institutional investors representing $87 trillion in invested capital.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide recently surpassed a record high of 400 parts per million, which has compelled a number of investors to turn to CDP for insight on corporate environmental performance. However, CDP says that companies still are not doing enough to mitigate climate.
The report looks at what is driving climate change action in the world’s largest companies. Industry-specific analysis shows that the five highest-emitting companies from each sector have seen their emissions increase by an average of 2.3 percent since 2009.
"Clear scientific evidence and increasingly severe weather events are sending strong signals that we must pursue routes to economic prosperity whilst reducing emissions of greenhouse gases,” said Paul Simpson, chief executive at CDP. “It is imperative that big emitters improve their performance in this regard and governments provide more incentives to make this happen.”
While the biggest emitters present the greatest opportunity for large-scale change, the report identifies opportunities for all Global 500 companies to help build resilience to climate and policy shocks by significantly reducing the amount of carbon dioxide they produce each year.
For example, the emissions from nearly half (47%) of the most carbon intensive activities that companies identify across their value chains are yet to be measured. The lack of detailed reporting and information of GHGs from sources related to company activities (Scope 3 emissions), as opposed to those from sources owned or directly controlled by them, may lead companies to underestimate their full carbon impact.
Likewise, companies that demonstrate a strong commitment to managing their impact on the environment are generating improved financial and environmental results, according to the report. Some of the corporations leading on climate progress include BMW, Nestlé and Cisco Systems. Additionally, businesses that offer employees monetary incentives related to energy consumption and carbon emissions are 18 percent more successful at accomplishing reductions.
Members of the G20 recently agreed to use the resources of the Montreal Protocol to initiate a global phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a significant group of super greenhouse gases (GHGs). According to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), HFCs are primarily used in refrigeration and air conditioning and are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. However, climate-friendly alternatives are already widely available.Adam Klein closes out my long day speaking with the cast of Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X, with only hours to go before shipping out to Fiji. If Adam had it his way, this conversation would have happened sooner.
The 25-year-old homeless shelter manager has been actively trying to get on Survivor for three years, and dreaming about it for much longer than that. After coming close a few seasons ago, Adam is finally at the edge of the real Survivor deal, and with much more on the line than he expected.
“My mom, who is the healthiest person in the entire world, worked out every day and is all organic and never smoked a day in her life — you name it — has stage four lung cancer,” he tells me. “It’s just been the greatest nightmare of my life. Now to have the greatest dream of my life alongside that? Everything feels so surreal right now.”
Click here to read Adam’s bio, and read on for our conversation about Adam’s longtime fandom, his strategy ahead of the game, and the stakes back home.
Adam: Mr. Wigler!
Wigler: That is me! Who do I have?
Adam: This is Adam Klein.
Wigler: Adam Klein, what’s going on?
Adam: It’s kind of crazy listening to your voice and being able to talk to you, because I listen to your voice every single week.
Wigler: Too much.
Adam: Is this our personal Wiggle Room?
Wigler: I don’t have any songs ready for you. But if you have suggestions for me, I’ll happily take them.
Adam: Got nothing for ya.
Wigler: Fair enough. Adam, how’re you feeling?
Adam: I am so excited. This is wild to me. I’m one of the guys that listens to you and Rob and is on the Survivor Reddit for way too many hours of the day. I’ve dreamed about this moment for way, way, way longer than is healthy. (Laughs.)
Wigler: How long have you been trying to get on the show?
Adam: Three years. This was my third time applying. But I’ve been thinking about it since I was nine years old, and eventually, I decided that since I’d been talking the talk for so many years, let’s see if I can walk the walk. Let’s apply, and if I’m going to apply, I’m going to go all out and make sure that this happens. I never half-ass anything. And it worked. Here we are!
Wigler: What did you do to get yourself noticed?
Adam: I don’t think this really helped at all, but I did everything that all of the people have been dying to get on for years have been doing. The Facebook group: “Help Get Adam Klein Get on Survivor.” I looked into seeing what contacts and connections I might have. Every little thing, and just applying normally, doing everything I possibly could.
Wigler: So what is it about you, Adam Klein, that makes you think you’re going to do well out on Survivor?
Adam: I think I have a good combination of one, knowing and understanding the game, but I know that that alone does not make a good Survivor player. So on top of that, I feel I have a good understanding of the way people work and interact with each other. I’m not just a super nerd super fan, but I’m a person who gets out there and engages in the community and works with people. I was homecoming king and student body president. I have a little bit going on for me on the social side. I think I have a good combination of skills that would be good for me on Survivor. But what’s really going to push me through this season is that I’m playing for more than just myself.
Wigler: Let’s hear more about that.
Adam: Two years ago, I almost got on with my mom for the Blood vs. Water season. We went through the process on that, and ultimately didn’t get on the show. But Survivor has been a huge part of my family. We’ve watched it together every single season, and when I was in college, I would call home every week. It’s something that brings us closer together, and we’re already a close family. You probably know from my bio that my family is going through some nightmarish circumstances right now. My mom, who is the healthiest person in the entire world, worked out every day and is all organic and never smoked a day in her life — you name it — has stage four lung cancer. It’s just been the greatest nightmare of my life. Now to have the greatest dream of my life alongside that? Everything feels so surreal right now. My life doesn’t feel real. It’s crazy! But at the same time, I’m playing for so much more than my own dream. There’s a lot riding on this. I work well under pressure, and I think it’s going to motivate me more than bring me down.
Wigler: How hard is it going to be to be away from your mom while you’re out here?
Adam: That is the single hardest part of this that I anticipate, just being gone for six and a half weeks and not being able to communicate with my family. Normally, six and a half weeks is nothing. But to me, it seems like an eternity right now. But what I’m going to look forward to is every episode that we get to watch together. The better I can do on the show, the more of that time we’re going to be able to spend together, and that’s the dream. That’s the goal: to be at the finale and hand my mom the million dollar check and give her a big hug in the audience. That’s where I want to be. The better I can do and the more I can focus, the more of those moments we’ll get to have on the couch, just like always, except this time, we’re watching a Klein on Survivor.
Wigler: That’s the goal.
Adam: It is. But it won’t be easy. It’ll be doubly hard because I don’t necessarily want the rest of the cast to know what it is I’m going through. If they know all of these things — that I work for a homeless shelter non-profit, that I’m a huge super-fan and this has been my dream, that my mom has stage four lung cancer — would you want to take that person to the end?
Wigler: (Uncomfortable laughter signaling a “nope.”)
Adam: Exactly! So I have to be a little bit careful about how much I reveal about how big of a fan I am and how well I know the game, and what’s going on with my family. I’m not saying I’m not going to tell anybody what’s going on with my mom and her cancer, but I’m really going to have to feel like I trust someone before I start talking about any of the kind of stuff. So it’ll make it doubly hard, since I’ll be trying to hold it all in for the most part.
Wigler: What do you think people’s impression of you will be, and how accurate will that impression be?
Adam: You know, I think they’re probably going to… I’m not the biggest guy in the world, certainly. I’m not the most attractive person in the world. I’m sort of middle-of-the-road for everything. I’m hoping to blend in and lay low, especially at the beginning. I don’t think people will suspect that I work in nonprofit. It’s not a profession you see very often on Survivor. It’s certainly not associated with being cutthroat or mischievous. But I worry a little bit that they might not believe that I do what I do. People have certainly lied about their professions in the past, and while I’m going to be telling the truth, that I work for a homeless shelter nonprofit…
Wigler: Right, they’re going to think you’re a spy or something.
Adam: I have no idea. I’m just going to try and make as many friends as possible and enjoy the experience. One, because that seems like the most fun way to do it. And two, people say, “I’m not here to make friends.” And that’s a bad idea! No one has ever won Survivor without making good connections and friendships. So I hope to do that.
Wigler: But it’s a delicate balance between making positive relationships and having to sell those relationships down the river at some point. What’s your comfort level with that?
Adam: So, what I do in my day to day life… it’s why I work for a homeless shelter nonprofit and why I’ve supported candidates — I’ve worked for Barack Obama’s campaign, I’m working for an organization called Represent Us trying to get corruption out of politics — and all of those things are about giving a quality of opportunity to people. That’s where I live in my day to day life. But the beautiful thing about this show is that as soon as you hit the beach, equality of opportunity is a gift that’s already been given to everyone out there. You don’t know anything about the other 19 or 17 or whatever it is people that are out there. Everyone has an equal chance to get the million dollars, to do well, to create their own story. I have no problem about now taking those opportunities away from them. They have their chance, and now I’m going to snag it from them.
Wigler: In your bio, you say you would bring a fake hidden immunity idol, because the threat can be just as powerful as the real thing. Can you talk me through your philosophy on that?
Adam: We’ve seen a lot of people in the past use hidden immunity idols to their advantage without actually using them. They can certainly bring people together. We’re seeing it now in the current season with Tai and Scot, who united over that idol. I think Tai and Jason will probably build a bit of a bond because of the idols they both have. You saw it with Yul, when he used it to bring Penner on board, and never had to actually use that idol. So it can definitely help you with relationship building and coalition building, and it can scare people away. Rupert put a rock in his pants on Heroes vs Villains, and that was enough to shift the votes away from him. There are definitely a number of uses stemming from the idea of having an idol, let alone actually having one.
Wigler: What are you thinking in terms of twists? Any thoughts on what’s in store for you?
Adam: I’ve been really trying to put that together. During casting, they asked a number of political questions. That might just be because I’m a political kind of person, but my running theory was that they’re going to divide the tribes up in some way by politics. Especially considering this is going to air in September and the election is in November. But then I found out that I’m on the red tribe, so that went out the window. I highly doubt that I’d be on the red tribe, if that’s how they were doing it. And the color scheme for my tribe seems wide enough that I think it’s going to be two tribes, at least initially, and I don’t know how they’re going to divide it or what twists might be coming, but I think they liked all the swaps and switches that happened in Second Chance, where we start at 20 and swap into three tribes at 18. Maybe they’ll go down to four tribes at 16, or swap it up again back to two tribes at 14. I think there will be a lot of switches and things to mix up the game. That’s the best I got right now.
Wigler: And how would you feel about a fluid social structure like that?
Adam: I definitely think I can thrive in that. I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t have just one solid social group. Even in high school, I was kind of the floater. I was friends with the jocks and the theater geeks and everyone in between. That part doesn’t scare me so much. But there is certainly an element of luck to those swaps. You can put yourself in a good position, like what Anna did on the Beauty tribe, and then end up in a situation where there isn’t a whole lot that you can do. So I’m absolutely worried about getting screwed by a swap, and everyone should be at least a little bit. But there are certain parts of the game that some people are going to get lucky, some people are going to get unlucky, and that’s just the way it falls.
Check back on Monday for more Survivor 33 coverage.
PREVIOUSLY: Jessica Lewis
Josh Wigler is a writer, editor and podcaster who has been published by MTV News, New York Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Comic Book Resources and more. He is the co-author of The Evolution of Strategy: 30 Seasons of Survivor, an audiobook chronicling the reality TV show’s transformation, and one of the hosts of Post Show Recaps, a podcast about film and television. Follow Josh on Twitter @roundhoward.
Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X premieres on September 21.
Continue to the next page to read Adam’s bio.I like Chrome. It’s a great browser. But it’s not so good that it deserves to be the only browser. And that’s the unfortunate opportunity we, people browsing the web, are opening for Google by so overwhelmingly choosing to use it in face of the alternatives.
And this is what we get by doing so: DirecTV just announced that they’ll be turning their website into a Chrome desktop app on June 1st. They don’t actually say that, but that’s what they mean. You can’t call directvnow.com a website if it only works in a single browser.
You don’t have to be that old to remember the dark days when Internet Explorer strangled the web by its utter domination. When large swaths of the web was only accessible through Redmond. Those were not happy days.
Ironically, it was Google’s Chrome that helped fight back the scourge of Internet Explorer’s monopoly. Well, that plus the utter neglect and contempt Microsoft showed the web in those years after they had cut off the air supply to Netscape. Would you believe they even disbanded their browser team after they had conquered the competition? Yup.
Why on earth would we want to go back to such arid times? Nobody wins when the beancounters at companies like DirecTV can eye the browser market shares and justify turning their back on the open, standards-backed web to embrace a few cents on the dollar supporting only the victor.
But you can stop it. By balancing the browsers, choosing to use not just what’s convenient, but what’s lesser used, you can make the business case for monopoly plays a bad deal. Consider it your civic duty as a fan of the open web.
It’s never been easier on web developers to support evergreen browsers. You no longer have to cover every variation of every flavor. Good browsers update automatically. And good browsers support open standards to a degree a developer in 2005 would have cried to have.
So please, if you’re using Chrome, take a moment to download another browser and incorporating it into your routine. I personally love Safari and use it for the bulk of my browsing (with Chrome as a pair for development). But the good folks at Firefox deserve your usage just as much.
Oh, and if you’re a customer of DirecTV, please tell them what you think about their short-sighted move on Twitter. I hear they just love to get feedback!Jon Huntsman, former Utah governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate, said on Thursday that Mitt Romney showed a lack of leadership with his response to Indiana GOP Senate nominee Richard Mourdock's controversial comments on rape and abortion. Romney has refused to withdraw his endorsement of Mourdock and declined to have the campaign ad he filmed for him pulled from TV.
"[If I were Romney] I simply would have said I'm withdrawing my support," Huntsman said in an interview with HuffPost Live. "Until [Mourdock] proves otherwise, either you lay out an apology, do something else, but as of right now I would withdraw support."
Asked by The Huffington Post's Howard Fineman if he would have had the ad taken off air, Huntsman responded, "I would do exactly that."
"I'm here to tell you that there are some independents and swing voters in the middle that I think would respect a candidate who goes against the grain," Huntsman continued. "They're looking for leadership during a time that these kinds of statements are made, as opposed to just the go-with-the-flow kinds of statements we always hear."
Huntsman condemned Mourdock's comments, saying they "don't deserve to be part of our political discourse right now."
"I cringe -- it's like fingers on a chalkboard every time I hear men talk about women's health issues," he said.
Romney has not directly responded to Mourdock's remark, made during the final Indiana Senate debate Tuesday night, that pregnancies caused by rape are "something that God intended to happen." Democrats immediately seized on the comment, tying it to Romney, his running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and other GOP candidates.
Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, said on Wednesday that the Republican presidential nominee "disagrees" with Mourdock but continues to support him and has not requested that the ad be taken down. The Republican presidential nominee himself refused to answer any questions on the subject from his traveling press corps on Thursday.
Huntsman does not agree with Romney's approach. "You should always be driven by the right thing to do," he said. "And I think the right thing to do is to drop support and ask for the ads to be removed and to move on."
Asked why Romney isn't showing better leadership on the issue, Huntsman replied, "You'll have to consult Boston on that."
Huntsman also criticized Romney for not identifying the tax loopholes he would close -- a question that both Romney and Ryan have repeatedly dodged in recent months.
"I would've laid out all of the loopholes and deductions that were part of my tax plan," Huntsman said, adding that specifying those loopholes would counteract attacks from President Barack Obama and his campaign that the Romney tax plan "doesn't add up."
"I'm not in a position to say mathematically if it adds up or not," he continued. "We'll have to leave that to the American people. [But] how do you make the numbers add up in the end if you're not going to specify the loopholes and deductions?"
When the conversation turned to last month's terrorist attack in Libya, Huntsman seemed satisfied with the Obama administration's response thus far and called it a "disservice" to jump to conclusions.
"We do ourselves an enormous disservice, certainly [in] our political discourse, by jumping to conclusions before we have any expert opinion or analysis," Huntsman said, adding that he had been "quite critical" of Romney's move to politicize the attack on the day after it happened.
"Presidential leadership would suggest that these kinds of events do happen," he went on. "We have diplomats who wear a different kind of uniform overseas and the work they do is inherently dangerous, and we sometimes don't remember that. We're reminded of that in Libya, but when these things happen as they do from time to time, let's let the experts do the analysis and we'll figure out later what happened."The picture was generated by the satirical Facebook group, Virgona Finiamola Fate Girare (Shameful, let's put an end to this, please share), which makes comedic memes expressing mock-political outrage.
Last week, the group published a rare black and white picture of a bearded, long-haired Jim Morrison taken after he was arrested in Miami following a fight in 1970, with the following caption above the photo:
"This is Goran Hadzic, he has committed more that 50 robberies in the northeast of the country but every time he is caught he is released."
Beneath it, they wrote: "ENOUGH! SEND HIM HOME!! RENZI OUT!!"
One member of the Facebook group, Piero Merola, then tweeted the picture to Gasparri on Saturday evening, asking him,"What do you think of this, the latest Italian scandal? Please save us from this government."
Missing the irony of the post, the politician for the Forza Italia party, responded: “That is an embarrassment,” a response which was extensively shared and ridiculed across the Twitter-verse.
"The Vice-President of the Senate thinks Jim Morrison is a Slavic thief," wrote an incredulous Nicola Chiappinelli.
Tutto normale: secondo il vice-presidente del Senato #Gasparri, Jim Morrison è un rapinatore slavo via @pieromerola pic.twitter.com/2aBjldFsTD — Nicola Chiappinelli (@NicKiappa) January 10, 2016
The creator of the Facebook group responsible for the image, Claudia Vanco, said in a post via her LinkedIn page that the group's aim is to “poke fun at the creation of political memes and show how easy it is for people to be taken in by them because of culture gaps and a lack of investigation".
The group was quick to thank Gasparri for falling for the image in a satirical message which they published on Facebook.
"At least all of our politicians aren't indifferent. Thanks to the Honorable Member of Parliament Gasparri!"Socialist Faces In High Places: Syrizas Fall From Grace And The Elusive Electoral Road
greece / turkey / cyprus | the left | feature Thursday August 20, 2015 18:11 Thursday August 20, 2015 18:11 by Enrique Guerrero-López and Adam Weaver - Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra (BRRN) by Enrique Guerrero-López and Adam Weaver - Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra (BRRN)
Tsipras and Iglesias
Syrizas rise to power elicited widespread praise from the left internationally, inspiring renewed enthusiasm for the possibilities and promise of mass left party building in and outside the United States. At a rally celebrating Syrizas electoral victory in Spain, Pablo Iglesias, secretary general of the Spanish anti-austerity party Podemos, declared that the sun of hope rose over Greece.
Yet the sun of hope began to set on Greece almost as quickly as it rose. Shortly after taking office, Syriza, the Coalition of the Radical Left, formed a coalition government with the right-wing, anti-immigrant Independent Greeks (ANEL) party, followed only months later by the predictable surrender of the government to a new round of harsh austerity imposed by Greeces creditors.
Socialist Faces In High Places: Syrizas Fall From Grace And The Elusive Electoral Road
As various segments of the US radical left begin planting their flags in the electoral arena, Syrizas recent fall from grace should serve as a stark reminder of the unfulfilled promise of the electoral road to socialism.Syrizas rise to power elicited widespread praise from the left internationally, inspiring renewed enthusiasm for the possibilities and promise of mass left party building in and outside the United States. At a rally celebrating Syrizas electoral victory in Spain, Pablo Iglesias, secretary general of the Spanish anti-austerity party Podemos, declared that the sun of hope rose over Greece. Yet the sun of hope began to set on Greece almost as quickly as it rose. Shortly after taking office, Syriza, the Coalition of the Radical Left, formed a coalition government with the right-wing, anti-immigrant Independent Greeks (ANEL) party, followed only months later by the predictable surrender of the government to a new round of harsh austerity imposed by Greeces creditors.Syrizas precipitous fall from grace echoes a long line of dashed hopes and broken promises on behalf of the Greek left in parliament. In 1981, seven years after the collapse of military dictatorship, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) rose to power in a landslide victory, capturing 48 percent of the vote, with the motto National Independence, Popular Sovereignty, Social Emancipation, Democratic Process. Under the charismatic leadership of Andreas Papandreou, Pasok established a modern welfare state raising wages, improving union rights and creating a national health system. After two consecutive terms in office, however, the popularity and left character of Pasok dwindled as it passed a series of austerity measures. Today, after multiple terms in power, Pasok is a shadow of its former self, widely blamed for the current economic crisis, rampant clientelism and political corruption.The inevitable degeneration of the left in political power is often couched as a betrayal, as a sell out narrative of politically compromised leaders and parties falling victim to forces outside of their control. But the problem isnt that an individual politician or party has sold out; its that theyve bought into a project of political alchemy the quixotic quest for the right mix of key ingredients that can magically transform the state into a vehicle for socialism.However revolutionary the party, program or politician may be, no matter who you vote for, the capitalist state always gets in. To maintain their legitimacy and control, those who take state power effectively assume the role of general manager of capitalism.The ability of the state to carry out its activities whether its a socialist state, neoliberal democracy or a dictatorship depends on the health of the economy, where the state draws its revenue through taxation. In other words, the state makes sure the right conditions are in place for capitalism to thrive, protecting and preserving private property, regulating capital flows, incentivizing certain businesses over others, and so on.For those who dare disrupt this social order, the state also maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, both domestically and internationally. Syrizas deployment of riot police to quell protesters only a month after taking office is one of many examples of the left using state violence to maintain social order. As Mikhail Bakunin once noted, When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called the Peoples Stick.'Socialist parties and politicians are not immune or exempt from fulfilling this role of the state. Greece is not a historical anomaly. In fact, the historical record is rife with socialist forces taking state power by ballot or bullet with high hopes and big promises, only to replicate many of the conditions they so adamantly opposed.Once in power, socialist governments are particularly vulnerable to the disciplining forces of international monetary bodies and capital flight (as took place in Greece and other countries ), an internal military coup, outside intervention by imperial powers or all of the above. These forms of power are unelected and generally operate independently of whomever happens to be in government.Yet, despite the glaring limitations of taking state power, the lure of electoralism has not lost its luster on the radical left.In the wake of Occupy and amid the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, a growing chorus of US leftists is beginning to sing the familiar song of electoralism, albeit in different keys. Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain and the election of Kshama Sawant to Seattles City Council have sparked a new round of calls for an independent mass party of the left in the United States, with some calling for a tactical engagement with the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign.Advocates for a mass party of the left often point to the ability of electoral campaigns to shift public discourse. Yet recent history shows that our resources would be better spent influencing the terms of public debate through social movements. Within a matter of months, both Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter radically transformed public debates on capitalism, white supremacy and state violence something decades of third party campaigns have failed to achieve.Promoters of electoral strategies also claim that third party campaigns can and should complement social movements. While certain issues and movements are elevated by third parties that would otherwise be ignored by establishment parties, the demands of running left candidates tend to funnel limited resources from social movements into fleeting and mostly unsuccessful bids for public office. Also, what little infrastructure gets built on the campaign trail tends to dissipate quickly after Election Day.For those who manage to win, the reality is that the vast majority, if not all, left parties that take state power become increasingly reformist, bureaucratic and ultimately concerned with preserving their position in power, which typically has the effect of demobilizing, defanging and developing a dependency relationship with social movements, not strengthening them While we need to struggle on many fronts, not all sites of struggle are created equal. The state is a shifting and contested site of power, one that plays a critical role in shaping the conditions under which we all fight, but ultimately it is a bureaucratic structure of top-down rule over society, not a vehicle for liberation.The dismal record of putting socialist faces in high places shows that there are no shortcuts or quick fixes on the long road to liberation. Only by building power from below in our schools, workplaces and communities do we create the building blocks of a new world.Enrique Guerrero-López and Adam Weaver are both members of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra (BRRN) and participants in Solidarity Networks in their respective cities of Austin, Texas and San Jose, California.Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University and the author of eleven books, including, most recently, of The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s.
It may have been Hillary Clinton’s most revealing moment on the stump since that time she choked up in New Hampshire in 2008, after a sympathetic supporter asked, “How do you do it?” When one of the moderators at Wednesday night’s debate in Miami, Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post, asked Clinton why so many voters find her untrustworthy, the candidate hemmed a bit and then admitted: “I’m not a natural politician, in case you haven’t noticed, like my husband or President Obama.”
Actually, Hillary is pretty politically savvy, and she’s been playing the game most of her adult life. She also possesses many appealing assets other politicians don’t, including the discipline and Washington savvy Bill lacked when he became president in 1993. But the woman cruelly nicknamed Sister Frigidaire in high school, whose mother dreamed of her being America’s first female chief justice of the Supreme Court, does lack Bill's magnetism and smooth charm. And that is a problem for her, if for no other reason than he will be by her side for the duration of the campaign—and she is hardly the only one to note that, next to him, she's no "natural."
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If she were Mrs. John Smith—or any of the Mrs. Bushes—the problem would be less glaring. But as Mrs. Bill Clinton, Hillary bears a burden no other candidate has ever had—to be constantly measured against one of the great political talents of modern times. No matter where she campaigns, the built-in comparison to her famously fluid husband helps makes Hillary look even stiffer, even less authentic–despite Bill’s infamously hot-and-cold relationship with the truth. It’s a husband problem for the ages: Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi never worried about their spouses upstaging them; Thatcher’s was self-effacing, Meir was divorced and Gandhi’s was dead. And who gives Mr. Angela Merkel of Germany a second thought? (Professor Joachim Sauer, a German quantum chemist, is her second husband).
This how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-Bill-Clinton problem emerged vividly at Coretta Scott King's funeral in 2006, as Hillary was gearing up for her first presidential run. Then-Senator Hillary Clinton’s speech was lovely. But her husband, who preceded her, rocked. He had 10,000 mourners laughing and crying and clapping and amen-ing and remembering his presidency with a rush of nostalgia that blotted out any unpleasant moments. As Bill riffed, Hillary stood by his side, looking like the gawky brainiac sidekick in a teen movie cheering on her cheerleader frenemy in mid-handspring.
Hillary Clinton isn’t the first presidential candidate, of course, to be shadowed by a presidential mentor. Many Democrats believe Vice President Al Gore could have become president in 2000 had he run for a third Clinton term rather than away from his controversial but popular president. Other vice presidents also faced Hillary’s “Gorey dilemma,” wondering how to benefit from a popular predecessor without being upstaged by him. In 1960, the polarizing pol Richard Nixon was humiliated when his well-liked boss Dwight Eisenhower ended a news conference brusquely by asking for “a week” to “think about” what Nixon contributed to the administration. Theodore Roosevelt so dominated the 1908 campaign of his hand-chosen successor, Secretary of War William Howard Taft, that wags claimed the candidate’s last name stood for “Take Advice From Theodore.” And in 1836, the wily Martin Van Buren was cast as a partisan manipulator in contrast to his equal wily but more discreet boss Andrew Jackson.
But Hillary Clinton’s problem is surely unique. More than most presidential couples, the Clintons’ individual fates have been remarkably intertwined. Since most Americans first met the Clintons, during their famous post-Super Bowl interview in January 1992 denying the now-confirmed truths about Bill’s affair with Gennifer Flowers, they have been both each other’s chief asset and great liability. Her role as Mrs. Bill Clinton has made Hillary one of history’s most famous women—and most humiliated spouses. Hillary helped Bill lose the Congress in 1994 by botching health care reform and helped save his presidency four years later by vouching for him during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Sometimes, the two soared together. During the 1992 campaign’s final surge they seemed to be falling in love yet
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, the statement stressed that passage of the military vessels participating in the war games through Iran’s territorial waters will not be allowed at all.
It further warned Saudis not to even sail through the international waters near the Iranian waters.
“The IRGC Navy and the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army are fully prepared to maintain sustainable security in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz and will properly and rapidly confront any move, attempt and measure to disturb tranquillity and security in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman,” the statement added.
The Saudi media had reported late September that the country’s navy will hold exercises in the Persian Gulf and the strategic Strait of Hormuz soon, as repored by Al Manar.
Exercise “Gulf Shield 1” will also take place in the Sea of Oman, with ships, planes, marines and other personnel taking part, said Royal Saudi Navy commander Abdullah Al Sultan.
Gulf Shield 1 is part of a series of exercises the fleet has carried out in the area, Sultan said in comments cited by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The manoeuvres aim to “raise combat readiness” and improve skills for defending the country’s borders, protecting sea lanes “and to deter any aggression or potential terrorist operations”, the SPA report said.A shooting near the USC Upstate in Spartanburg led to several buildings on the campus being placed on lockdown Tuesday afternoon.The lockdown was lifted just before 2 p.m., officials said in a tweet.The lockdown followed a tweet by college officials just before 1 p.m. that said, “Alert: Possible shots fired. Police on scene.”Student life administrative assistant Melissa Perry said campus police confirmed a shooting at Campus Edge apartments near the college. Lt. Kevin Bobo said when deputies got to the apartments on Pinegate Drive at about 12:20 p.m., they found a man with a gunshot wound to his arm.Bobo said the man initially said he was meeting someone at the apartment complex, and when he asked a man for directions, the man pulled out a weapon and started firing.Bobo said after the wounded man was taken to the hospital, he changed his account of what happened, and he is not cooperating with investigators.During the lockdown, USC Upstate sent a tweet that said, "USC Upstate suspect is black male wearing khaki pants and grey hoodie carrying an automatic weapon," but Bobo said that description was not accurate, and the first time investigators heard that information, it came from a reporter.Tammy Whaley, with USC Upstate, said the victim has not-life-threatening injuries. She said the victim is not a student."Our investigation continues, but at present, we don’t feel there was or is any active threat to the students and staff at USC-Upstate," Bobo said.
A shooting near the USC Upstate in Spartanburg led to several buildings on the campus being placed on lockdown Tuesday afternoon.
The lockdown was lifted just before 2 p.m., officials said in a tweet.
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The lockdown followed a tweet by college officials just before 1 p.m. that said, “Alert: Possible shots fired. Police on scene.”
WYFF Students sheltering in place at USC Upstate after a shooting near campus
Student life administrative assistant Melissa Perry said campus police confirmed a shooting at Campus Edge apartments near the college.
Lt. Kevin Bobo said when deputies got to the apartments on Pinegate Drive at about 12:20 p.m., they found a man with a gunshot wound to his arm.
Bobo said the man initially said he was meeting someone at the apartment complex, and when he asked a man for directions, the man pulled out a weapon and started firing.
Bobo said after the wounded man was taken to the hospital, he changed his account of what happened, and he is not cooperating with investigators.
During the lockdown, USC Upstate sent a tweet that said, "USC Upstate suspect is black male wearing khaki pants and grey hoodie carrying an automatic weapon," but Bobo said that description was not accurate, and the first time investigators heard that information, it came from a reporter.
Tammy Whaley, with USC Upstate, said the victim has not-life-threatening injuries. She said the victim is not a student.
"Our investigation continues, but at present, we don’t feel there was or is any active threat to the students and staff at USC-Upstate," Bobo said.
USC Upstate is on lockdown. All buildings are on lockdown. Shooting confirmed at Campus Edge Apartments. Suspect on foot near campus. — USC Upstate (@USCUpstate) November 7, 2017
USC UPSTATE Alert:Possible shots fired. Police on scene. Lockdown for Library, Smith, CLC, HPAC — USC Upstate (@USCUpstate) November 7, 2017
USC Upstate suspect is black male wearing khaki pants and grey hoodie carrying an automatic weapon. — USC Upstate (@USCUpstate) November 7, 2017
AlertMeGenre and anti-genre, satisfaction and subversion. Why Community is so much fun for me as a geek, why TBBT isn't, and why I'm actually into that, (but you don't have to be.) I'm going to try and defend TBBT too, but defending TBBT turns out to look a lot like trashing TBBT, so something here for everyone.
I don't want to generalize about Science Fiction and Fantasy, because they're very big genres with a lot of different and interesting things going on in them, but I'm going to do it a bit anyway. I think Community speaks not just to a certain classic, basic genre narrative - the band of outcasts who come together in the extraordinary place for a story of personal growth - but also to a certain genre ideology, if you will - an ideology of change and possibility.
What makes a genre work for me (cue ponderous pontificating, "but what is Science Fiction?") is worldbuilding - genre stories are always consciously about places that are different, somehow, from this one. Different world, different times, different technologies, different social structures. Inherent in that, therefore, is the notion that this is interesting. That different, changed circumstances have some meaning to impart to stories about people, even if it's only that people pretty much stay the same no matter what.
Greendale Community College might nominally exist on this planet, but it's hardly a real place. What it reminds me most of is one of those SFF superstructures with their own personalities, a terrific sense of place and a strange, inscrutable and yet oddly consistent internal logic. Houses or castles or space stations that are pivotal to the story and often all-encompassing of the lives of their characters. Hogwarts, Gormenghast, Babylon 5, OASIS.
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Greendale is a bottomless pit of weird classes, eccentric professors, strange rules, hidden corners, allies and villains and mentors and foils. It's not just in-story - the show itself is endless mutable, totally without restrictions. Community will reshape it's universe to be a mystery, a cop drama, heist movie, science fiction thriller. It can becomes animated, claymated, 8 bit, puppets - whatever the story or the characters need. It looks like a sitcom, but it's bigger on the inside.
TBBT, on the other hand, has awful worldbuilding. It's a small, boring little world, one that appears sometimes to consist entirely of a couch and a staircase. Even for a multi-cam sitcom, it looks artificial, theatrical. The lights are too bright, the colors are too bright, the sets haven't changed in 7 seasons. There are few secondary characters and the episodes almost always play out in the same straightforward, traditional way. The characters all wear the same clothes all the time, like cartoons. And that obnoxious, omnipresent laughtrack! It never allows you to suspend disbelief and really enter the story.
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TBBT is like watching a story set in a snowglobe, somehow smaller on the inside. It's weird, but it is also oddly coherent. There's a cumulative effect there that creates something consistent, and in that way, interesting. It's not just bad worldbuilding, it's anti-worldbuilding. It's a show that simply refuses to allow the sense of discovery and adventure that most stories - particularly genre - try to deliver.
I think that lack of worldbuilding is also part of something even more irritating and subversive on TBBT's part: it's largely devoid of any intellectual pleasure.
One of the things genre works tend to do is to make us feel smart. Science fiction has explanations of science and technology or puzzles to solve. Fantasy requires putting together the clues and details the of the world to understand where we are and what's going on. It isn't only that genre works often have thinky stuff, they also have the solutions to the thinky stuff. A good genre story doesn't just deliver some intellectual challenge, it also gives us the opportunity to conquer it - because the explanation of the scientific concept is fun and comprehensible, because the technological puzzle is solved, because the secondary world comes together and becomes engaging and immersive.
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Then there are references. I admit I wouldn't quite classify recognizing references as an intellectual challenge, but it is awesomely satisfying in rather the same way. References work in putting us in a place to feel in on the joke and solidly at home with the show's syllabus, so to speak, and there's also the sheer, nerdy, slightly OCD joy of collecting them all.
Community does both types of things, sometimes simultaneously. Often understanding what's going on in any given episode or scene is based on spotting, knowing and putting together the various references and allusions it throws at us, working out how it's parodying or deconstructing (or straight-playing) them, and then applying it to what's actually going on with the characters. (Not to mention just understanding the joke. It is a comedy, after all.) It's an incredibly fun sort of storytelling, and keeping up with it is immensely gratifying.
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TBBT is mostly devoid of this kind of thing - it has references, but it's all at face value. They're almost entirely in-world, just things the characters talk about. Instead of reaching out to the viewer and giving us the fun of recognition, the references are often didactically explained and actually made more mundane, less interesting, stripping all the delight of doing our own legwork out of it.
Then there are it's frequent science monologues.
One of the things I find weirdest about TBBT is it's decision to make it's cast of geeks actual scientists. Why couldn't they just have been regular geeks, really into science fiction and working in tech support or the library or something? You know, like me.
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The thing is, I have absolutely no idea what anyone on TBBT is saying when they break out talking science. (Calculus: failed thrice. FTW.) I'm used to thinking of myself as reasonably smart (I am a geek, right? That's kind of our thing.) Wherever my sympathy in the show lies, my main identification is still always going to be the geeks - and in a comic scene that is based on clearly delineating a smart one and a dumb one, I think anyone's would be. But then the show's sciencey bits force me, like it or not, to identify with the "dumb blonde" instead. I find that momentary and inescapable twist of identification both more uncomfortable than it has any right to be - and totally fascinating.
I'm not disparaging the value of feeling smart, not in the slightest. I work with kids with learning difficulties, and I spend as much time working to convince them they are capable of understanding the material as I do actually teaching it. Being confident of one's own capabilities, is an incredibly valuable tool that we carry around with us. I wish I could find a magic way to give them that feeling, rather than the nail-pulling process of navigating them past esteem-crushing reefs of failure for years on end, but I can't...because I can't turn their lives into an adventure SFF story.
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Along with the extraordinary place in SFF usually comes the extraordinary journey. Characters start out with issues of some kind - they're lonely or immature or innocent or shy, and over the c0urse of the story stuff happens to make them confront that. Adventures are had, friendships made, enemies defeated, insights achieved, challenges overcome, and flaws fixed, or even better - accepted and even loved.
To Community's undying credit, it doesn't indulge much in that self-pitying Ender's Game thing about the travails of the poor outcast. There is no 'chosen one'. It's much more interested in exploring the potential of friendship than it is in whining about loneliness. It is firmly about people coming together - and growing and healing together.
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TBBT seems like it's setting up something similar - and then fails completely to go through with it. The story unwinds incredibly slowly. Seemingly major events manage to twist to come back around so everything stays the same. Howard gets married, only for Bernadette to turn into his mother. Raj learns to talk to women only to discover he can't talk to women. A trip to the north pole becomes a meticulous, fussy recreation of the place they left behind.
If Community is an almost-genre work all about the possibilities of change, TBBT is like its evil counterpart. It's a story about stasis. A show obsessed with the power of habit and inertia, a show about stillness and limitation. It's people sitting on couches together, and being alone. People that have nothing stopping them from reaching out, except that it would require them to be a little braver than they are, a little more insightful, a little kinder. In short, it would require them to change, and TBBT turns that into the hardest thing in the world.
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On Community, change is everywhere. Greendale is a wild, ever-shifting, fantastical landscape, rife with catalysts and possibilities. All people need to do is step out and follow that path. When Abed needs to deal Troy's departure, Community can become a post-apocalyptic movie to help him work through it. When Pierce's father dies, the show turns into an 8-bit game to explore it. On TBBT, change is a rare and strange commodity, one that can be mined out of the pitiful ordinariness of the human condition only with a great deal of time and effort.
And yet. The rare moment of growth TBBT allows it's characters stand out with a certain hard-earned grace. Community sometimes questions the value of its own flights of fancy and delivers a harder, darker edge that undercuts what would otherwise be an insufferable sentimentality. Both shows circle around questions of engagement, immersion and obsession.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I find all that rather riveting. I enjoy Community's validating exhuberance and cleverness, but I equally I enjoy TBBT's mockery, sadness and subversion. I don't think the two shows are deliberately bouncing off of each other, but they fit together in my head, and it makes both of them that much more interesting. The contrast reminds me of what it is I love about genre in the first place, but also why.CLOSE One Saturday in November, Kaveh Kamooneh drove his Nissan Leaf to Chamblee Middle School, where his 11-year-old son took was playing tennis, but was later arrested because police say he stole electricity when he plugged in his car at the school.
CHAMBLEE, Ga. -- One Saturday in November, Kaveh Kamooneh drove his Nissan Leaf to Chamblee Middle School in Georgia, where his 11-year-old son took was playing tennis.
Kamooneh had taken the liberty of charging the electric car with an exterior outlet at the school. Within minutes of plugging in the car, he says a Chamblee police officer appeared.
"He said that he was going to charge me with theft by taking because I was taking power, electricity from the school," Kamooneh said. Kamooneh says he had charged his car for twenty minutes, drawing about a nickel's worth of juice. Don Francis of Clean Cities Atlanta, an electric vehicle advocacy group, says the estimate of five cents is accurate.
"I'm not sure how much electricity he stole," said Chamblee police Sergeant Ernesto Ford, but he added: It doesn't matter. "He broke the law. He stole something that wasn't his."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1cW6VPAHere are some soldiers of the AAP Lok Sabha 2014 brigade:
This man needs no introduction. He is the debutante politician of the year 2013, who will contesting head on against the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.(16 August 1968) is a former civil servant who served as the 7thfrom 28 December 2013 to 14 February 2014. He is the leader of the(AAP). Kejriwal is a graduate of the. He worked for the(IRS) as ain the. He is known for his efforts to enact and implement the(RTI) at the grassroots level and his role in drafting a proposedIn 2006, Kejriwal was awarded thefor Emergent Leadership recognizing his involvement in a grassroots movement using right-to-information legislation in a campaign against corruption. The same year, after resigning from the IRS, he donated his Magsaysay award money as a corpus fund to found the, a(NGO). In 2012, he launched the, and he defeated Chief Ministerin the. Following the election, he took office as the Chief Minister of Delhi on 28 December 2013. He resigned 49 days later, on 14 February 2014, stating he did so because of his government's inability to pass his proposed anti-corruption legislation due to a lack of support from other political parties.For the first time in many years, someone has had the courage to confront and put up a strong challenge against Gandhis in their strong hold. That is Dr. Kumar Vishwas, AAP Amethi candidate who is taking the fight against dynasty politics head-on. While other parties raise up the issue of Congress's dynasty politics which has eroded our democracy, but no leader of other major parties challenges Congress dynast directly.Kumar Vishwas is a Hindi poet, a professor of Hindi literature and politician. Vishwas has participated in poetry recitations and functions abroad including the USA, Dubai,Singapore, and Japan. Vishwas supported the anti-corruption movement led byand on 16 August 2011 this support caused his arrest. He is a member of the national executive of the Aam Aadmi Party.The most soft spoken guy you will ever get to know in your life!He is a well-known social scientist and Political analyst of the country. He is the Senior Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. Yogendra Yadav is also associated with many National and International forums. For rolling out law for Right to Education, Yogendra Yadav was made a member of National Advisory Council in the year 2010. Yogendra Yadav will take on Congress MP Rao Inderjeet Singh, who’s contesting on a BJP ticket this time.Shazia Ilmi is an Indianand. She was previously aand anchor at. She was a spokesperson for themovement led byinand. She led a media campaign for an(to institute an Ombudsman popularly known as) which caught the imagination of millions of Indians and became a widespread protest across the nation. She is a member of theNational Executive.Ilmi spent 15 years in varied aspects of television news and documentary production. She has been an anchor on Star News, where she hosted and produced the popular prime time news show. She has produced several current affairs shows and documentaries focussing on gender issues and rights of Indian minority groups.Ilmi has been a member of the. Her film titled, concerning the struggle for survival of annewspaper, was screened at the IAWRT film festival in 2011.Mayank has been the founder of the India Against Corruption movement and the leader of AAP in Maharashtra. An activist for over 10 years he has regularly confronted local administration on civic issues, an expert on infrastructure issues, he was a member the team that drafted the Nagar Raj Bill and has also contributed in large measure to the formation of the RTI Act. A member of the National Executive of the Aam Aadmi Party, Mayank is spearheading the Lok Sabha campaign in the State and is proving to be a veritable crowd puller, with his gentle demeanour and profound insights on life and on the lack of conviction in public representation. Mayank Gandhi will take on Congress MP Gurudas Kamat.Medha Patkar is a name that needs no introduction, a social activist who has led the struggle for the people affected by the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project on the Narmada River in Gujarat, India. She founded the Narmada Bachoao Andolan and National Alliance of People's Movements and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Goldman Environmental Prize, Amnesty International's Human Rights Defender's Award and the BBC's Green Ribbonadvocate of human rights, Patkar founded her campaigns on two basic tenets in the Indian constitution: the rights to life and to livelihood.Anoop Nautiyal is a Dehradun based social and corporate leader with extensive global and national leadership experience in the social, for-profit and government sectors. He is well known for his participative and integrity driven leadership style with a high degree of passion for improving lives and giving back to society. He has a strong social orientation and successfully established and led the free 108- emergency services in PPP mode for the government of Uttarakhand.Anoop is the India Trustee for the combined global efforts of American India Foundation and Uttarakhand Mandal of America focused on providing long-term rehabilitation and relief to the victims of the 2013 Uttarakhand disaster. He appears and writes regularly for national and local media and is also the Chairman of Indian Media Centre (IMC), a think tank of media professionals, intellectuals and socially active individuals for the Uttarakhand chapter. Anoop has a distinguished corporate background and held the leadership position of Country Manager for the global clothing giant H&M in India for five years before stepping into the not for profit sector. He lived abroad for many years. Anoop is an alumnus of SRCC, Delhi University and NIFT, New Delhi.Work Experience: Anoop Nautiyal is the former health advisor to Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank’s government.With a distinguished career that ranges from investment banking and micro finance, Meera recently quit her assignment as CEO and Chairperson with the Royal Bank of Scotland to join politics and work towards the best practices and policies that India should adopt to alleviate many of it's problems and challenges. She has formerly worked with ABN Amro, Lazards and Grindlays and in each of her stints, she found herself engaging actively with community programmes. Her work with children and disadvantaged communities she says, has given her valuable insights into lapses in policy and she is hopeful her experience in banking and finance will find expression as a solution provider for the nation. Meera will take on Union Minister Milind Deora.Harvinder Singh Phoolka, commonly known as H. S. Phoolka, is a senior advocate of Delhi High Court, politician, Human Rights activist, and author. He is known for spearheading one of the longest and most tortuous legal "crusades" to gain justice for the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots and fighting individual cases on the involvement of Congress-I leaders H. K. L. Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler despite the government cover-up. He received threatening letters for unearthing involvements of ruling political party leaders in what the Asian Age called "the Mother of all Cover-ups" in a front-page story. The special anniversary edition of the Outlook (magazine) included Phoolka in its list of 50 people that make a difference in India, alongside Amartya Sen and Abhinav Ghosh. He is contesting 2014 Lok Sabha Polls as an AAP Candidate from Ludhiana.As a child, she saw her father who was caught in a property dispute being brutally beaten up.The police refused to register an FIR. That moment, she decided to be a police officer. She was the first women to become DGP of a state, the second to join the I.P.S. in 1973 and the first women IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh Cadre.Uddan,the popular TV Series of 1980, was inspired by true story of her.Balakrishnan, who joined Infosys in 1991 and later became its chief financial officer, was said to be a top contender to the post of Chief Executive Officer. In a surprise move, V Balakrishnan, who stepped down as Board member of software behemoth Infosys recently creating ripples in the corporate circles, has joined the Aam Admi Party.Convenor of AAP Maharashtra, Anjali blew the lid off the 70000 crore perpetrated by the NCP led Irrigation Ministry. She then exposed the complicity Nitin Gadkari, RSS strongman and BJP party president with other parties and their business interests. 45 year old Patholgist, Anjali born and brought up in Mumbai, married and has two children. She is confident that the poster boys of corruption will see their downfall in Maharashtra. This Maharshtrian'mulgi'has toured the state extensively in the past year, drawing huge crowds at rallies in every district and it is her efforts that AAP has become a household name in the state. Anjali will take on former BJP President Nitin GadkariPioneer of the prestigious National Law School in Bangalore is AAP candidate from Bangalore North. A track record of delivery, institution building and fighting for justice, & labour reforms.Education- BSc, LLB,LLM, M.Phil from National Law School of India, Bangalore, gold medallist.Occupation- Former Law ProfessorFormer Professor of LawChair, Juvenile Justice, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India,Former Registrar of National Law School of India University, BangaloreBabu Mathew is committed to provide his expertise to citizens of Bangalore to reclaim their city, make it safe and address (and solve India’s third largest city’s) civic, social, developmental and human rights related issues.Nina Nayak is a child rights activist from. She is fighting for rights of children over the years. She has also authored several articles and a book, and given a talk on the role of children in governance in a TEDx event in Bangalore on 6 April 2012. She is a former Chairperson for. Previously, she was also the Vice-President of the Indian Council for Child Welfare and member of the sub-committee on children in theRajmohan Gandhi (born 1935) is a biographer and grandson of, and a research professor at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies,, USA. He is also a Scholar in residence atHe contested theagainstinin 1989 but was defeated. He served (1990–92) in the(the upper house of the Indian Parliament) and led the Indian delegation to thein Geneva in 1990. In the Indian Parliament he was the convener of the all-party joint committee of both houses addressing the condition of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.Dayamani Barla is also known as the "Iron Lady" of Jharkhand! She is anjournalist and activist from thestate of. She came from very humble backgrounds and worked as a maid to pay her way through the University. She became notable for her activism in opposing's steel plant that tribal activist say would displace forty (40) villages. She has won a number of prestigious awards for journalism.Having served in the Army, Devinder Sehrawat left the job and started working for farmers’ issues such as land acquisition.An IIM-Ahmedabad alumnus,Devinder Sehrawat is a multi-faceted personality. Through each of his roles as soldier, journalist, social activist, and farmers’ leader, he has been serving the nation with dedication. His patriotic spirit was nurtured in childhood, born as he was into a family of patriots, with his father and grandparents also having served in the armed forces.It was after 20 years’ service in the army that Devinder Sehrawat decided to take up the cause of the weaker sections of society, particularly impoverished farmers who have been victimized by unfair laws.On behalf of the farmers, Devinder Sehrawat has been taking up cudgels with government authorities at the highest levels. He has also been throwing light on farmers’ problems through his hard-hitting articles in the media. Apart from initiating several campaigns to restore farmers’ rights, it is to his credit that amendments were made in the Land Acquisition Bill.Today he is recognized as a mentor and leader by farmers not only in the Delhi-NCR region but across India. Backed by AAP, he intends to continue his fight to restore dignity and honor to a long-neglected community.Tiliya Devi, in her early 50s, will contest from Jhanjharpur. Tiliya belongs to Musahar community and was one of the 1000 women who were nominated together for Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. She has also been working for women rights, party leaders said and added she earlier won a panchayat samiti election.Jaaved is anknown for his work in severalfilms and Indian television shows. Jaaved co-founded and judged India’s first dance reality showwhich has broken records and is the longest running dance show, covering 15 years. He has repeatedly hosted top award shows likeand. Furthermore, he has performed in over 200 live shows in India and abroad, and shared the stage withandand the top Bollywood stars likeetc. He has been associated with advertising since 1980 as a, copywriter, producer and director. The Maggi Sauce commercials, which he writes and co-directs, have won most of the advertising awards over the past 25 years (one of the world's longest brand associations). He has been honored with the life membership of International Film And Television Club ofOne of the best known faces of the Hindi News Television Ashutosh was deeply influenced by agitation for Janlokpal under Anna Hazare’s leadership. While extensively covering the agitation Ashutosh wrote a book “Anna: 13 days that awakened India”. He’s the only non English TV journalist to get prestigious UN scholarship. Ashutosh will take on Union Minister Kapil Sibal, who represents Chandni Chowk in Lok Sabha.Gul Panag is anactress, voice actress, model, and former beauty queen who competed in thepageant. Gul Panag runs the Colonel Shamsher Singh Foundation, anthat works towards a variety of causes including gender equality, education and disaster management. She served on the advisory board of theFoundation. She also participated in themovement. She joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014. She is a candidate for the for 2014 Lok Sabha Elections from the Chandigarh constituency.Former Inspector General of Police. He’s the hunter of brigand and ivory-smuggler Veerappan. He led the effort to release Karnataka’s hero Dr.Rajkumar from the captivity of the dreaded bandit. Karnataka knows Sri K. Arkesh as a simple man with a tough resolve to deal with violators of the law.His law-keeping credentials include several important operations. Be it hostage rescue situations, the Kashmir valley, naxal infested Andhra or the western deserts of India – Arkesh has seen it all. It was under his leadership that the police force eventually located and shot dead the notorious bandit Veerappan.In recognition of his achievements Arkesh received the President’s Police Medal for distinguished service, and for meritorious service. He’s also won the Parakram Medal and the Director-General’s commendation disc with three stars.The Aam Aadmi party recognizes Arkesh’s tremendous leadership skills and his ability to deal with the corrupt and criminals. We take great pride in announcing his candidature from the Chikaballapura Lok Sabha constituency. Arkesh takes on of Petroleum minister M.Veerappa Moily - one of the people we hold responsible in the Reliance Gas Pricing Scam.Soni Sori, a young adivasi teacher from Chhattisgarh, has been in police custody since October 2011.She was arrested in Delhi on October 4, 2011 and charged with being a conduit between the Essar Group and Maoists.She was taken to the Dantewada police station, where she was allegedly raped and tortured with stones inserted into her vagina and rectum.Source:DNA, March 8, 2013Here is the long interview of her after she got bail from jail in 2014:Ashish Khetan, former Tehelka journalist and founder of, which had done a sting operation on Gujarat Police tailing a woman allegedly at the behest of Narendra Modi, has been given ticket by Aam Aadmi Party to contest from New Delhi Lok Sabha seat in the coming election.Shefali Misra, a former “international civil servant” at UN, human rights activist and writer, has been fielded from Sitapur. Shefali, who has studied at Delhi University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and London School of Economics, said, “There are many issues in Sitapur, with poor delivery of services being the major one.” 14 years of development sector experience with specialization in partnership development, programme management and communications/advocacy in India, Bangladesh and BhutanAjit Joy is a former IPS officer who will contest for the Aam Aadmi Party from Thiruvananthapuram constituency for the 16th Lok Sabha elections. Joy was a former superintendent of police at Chapra, Bihar. He had been in the limelight after the AAP was launched in the state. He was actively involved in social issues. His candidature was recommended to the leaders in Delhi after conducting an SMS poll. He managed to garner 60% of votes against his nearest contenders. "Our manifesto will mainly focus on employment of the youth, thereby eradicating poverty from the society. We will also focus on women safety and education." Joy told a newspaper.Social activist Sarah Joseph, popularly known as Sarah Teacher, is an award winning novelist and short story writer. She was the harbinger of feminist movement in Kerala and the founder of ‘Manushi – organisation of thinking women’, the first of its kind. She is the AAP candidate from Thrissur, Kerala.She believes that AAP is the party of the future and has opened a new path, the potential of which should be fully used.The youngest recipient of the President’s award - Vishist Seva Medal in 2013 and a qualified doctor, he will contest from Sikar constituency in Rajasthan. He was involved in counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir and had first hand exposure to the happenings in Kashmir. He was inspired by the Jan Lokpal Andolan and retired from the army to dedicate himself to the service of the nation.Social activist Rachna Dhingra who works for the survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy will contest the Lok Sabha election from Bhopal as an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate.He uses the surname Jaihind to oppose the caste system. The surname Jaihind was suggested by freedom fighter Lalti Ram, who came to inaugurate a blood donation camp on the MDU campus in 2005. He was in Class 12 when he staged a protest before his school principal for underpaying stipend money to National Cadet Corps students deputed at a village on election duty during 1999.Though he had to face suspension, the sit- in paid off as he and his partner were paid their due amount. Taking up the cause of flushing out outsiders from the hostel of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), where he studied from graduation till PhD in physical education, he formed a student body, Jaihind Chhatra Morcha. The chief job of their morcha was to organize blood donation camps on martyrs’ anniversaries and gherao MDU authorities to press for students’ demands.After working for a few years with Kejriwal, he was entrusted with the responsibility of providing security to social activist Anna Hazare in 2012. It was his morcha’s volunteers who undertook the task of securing the stage for Anna’s rally at Ramlila Maidan.A very famous journalist who was the India bureau chief for CNN. She won the George Polk award for TV reporting. In 2013 she was presented with the Shriratna Global award by the Kerala Kala Kendram, an organization associated to Kerala Sangeetha Natak Academy. She worked with Indian Express, India Today and Time magazine. She is very highly admired in the media fraternity in Kerala and her candidature will bring a lot of media support. A wide media coverage on AAP is very much possible, which will help all the candidates of AAP across Kerala.Anand Kumar is a sociologist and professor in Delhi’s Jawaharlal university.He has completed his M.A from BHU, M.M. Phill from JNU and Ph. D. from University of Chicago. As a professor he spent 11 years in BHU and 19 years in JNU. Since his students days he had to go to jail several times for fighting for the causes related with education reforms, farmer's issues, youth unemployment and corruption.He began his political journey in 1964 with the inspiration from eminent socialist leader Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia and in the 70s received guidance from Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan.Maya came from a humble background who completed her schooling in a village and yet she could move out to do her Masters in BioChemistry. Further she earned junior research fellowship from AIIMS. Migrating to the United States in 2009, she had briefly pursued doctoral studies at the South Dakota School of Mines and, before moving to the Silicon Valley area where she was part of a team involved in developing new AML vaccines and bone marrow gene therapy. Later she started working as a Senior Research Associate with University of California and was voluntarily working with Stanford Hospital. Inspired by Anna movement, she came back to her village and has been an active member of AAP. Also add the profile of Anil Trivedi from Indore, who is a well known social activist and best known for his best known for his(PIL) challenging Government’s anti-people policies.. His parents were actively involved in freedom struggle and during the Emergency movement in 1975. An IIM
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a base workforce of at least 500 people. Its parent company, Coca-Cola Amatil, contributed a further $78m.
Managing director Reg Weine told the ABC last month that SPC was investing $100m in new technology in order to make it “more efficient and innovative”, and ruled out asking for another taxpayer-funded bailout ever again.
The manufacturer has been contacted by email.
Pyne reiterated in his statement the federal government’s commitment to a strong and robust anti-dumping system.
Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce agreed that the result was an example of the government “looking after Australian growers”.
But not everyone is as pleased by the government’s announcement as ministers are, with Crikey’s “Pollytics” blogger Scott Steel, for one, seeing red over the fact that his “favourite” brand of tinned tomatoes would be increasing in price by six cents.
Possum Comitatus (@Pollytics) Getting irrationally angry over my favourite tins of Italian tomatoes increasing in price by 6 cents
He agreed with another Twitter user that Italian tinned tomatoes were of higher quality than those from Australian producers: “I’ve seen Australian tinned tomatoes on sale for less than the Italian, and still no one would buy them!”
“Every time I’ve tried them they had green stem ends,” replied Steel’s correspondent. “They could at least wait until they are ripe before canning.”
Lucy Cormack (@LucyCormack) No more cheap tinned tomatoes!? But I live for the 89c can! https://t.co/fxFXPyFzrU via @smh
And another: “Problem is Australian tinned tomatoes are not really ripened before processing. Cooks will continue buy Italian ones, even if more expensive.”
The announcement follows concerns raised in the United Kingdom about working conditions in the Italian tomato processing industry.
UK shops urged to look at Italian tomato sourcing over exploitation concerns Read more
The Ethical Trading Initiative, a body that works to improve conditions at retail suppliers, found “massive exploitation” of migrant workers picking and packing tomatoes in Italy in its December 2015 report.
It found that migrants from outside the EU tended to work very long hours with wages 40% lower than the legal minimum, and that employment laws were being routinely ignored in a bid to boost profits.
The ETI did not single out any retailers for criticism.
The official number of foreign agricultural workers in Italy is estimated at 116,000, but estimates including regular and irregular migrants exceed four times that.OAKLAND — About 150 demonstrators converged Wednesday night on the office of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to protest the death of an Oakland man they allege died from an asthma attack in Santa Rita Jail because of inadequate health care.
Mario Martinez, 29, was being held on attempted murder and drug charges when he collapsed on July 15 after complaining of difficulty breathing.
Martinez’s mother, Tanti Martinez, said her son would still be alive if he had received court-ordered treatment for nasal polyps that obstructed his breathing. She also alleged that deputies were slow to respond to Martinez’s cries for help.
“My son died as a result of not getting the medical attention he needed,” Martinez said at the rally.
Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed that there had been a court order issued for Martinez to be seen by a physician but said he didn’t know whether it was related to nasal polyps.
Nelson denied that the response of prison guards was delayed or substandard.
He said that within three minutes of when either Martinez or other inmates in his cell pressed an emergency call button, a nurse was on the scene and guided Martinez to an open-air area. There, he collapsed about 11:10 a.m., 12 minutes after deputies were first notified of the emergency, Nelson said.
At the protest, demonstrators railed against both the Sheriff’s Office and Corizon, the health care provider responsible for medical care at the jail.
A spokeswoman for Corizon said in a statement that the company had reviewed the incident and “determined that this patient was provided medically appropriate and necessary care.”
The company added that Martinez had previously seen an outside specialist.
The company is no stranger to controversy and has faced hundreds of lawsuits across the country from inmates alleging substandard care. It was recently booted from New York City’s Rikers Island complex after an investigation by the New York Department of Justice.
Corizon in February settled an $8.3 million lawsuit with the children of an Oakland man who died after being beaten and tased by deputies at the jail. Lawyers for the family of Martin Harrison said that Harrison was suffering from hallucinations from alcohol withdrawal and should have been hospitalized.
Corizon has a $250 million, eight-year contract to provide health care at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and Glen Dwyer Correctional Facility in Oakland through 2016.
At Wednesday’s protest, demonstrators laid a memorial for Martinez outside the office of county supervisors.
They said they wanted Corizon’s contract canceled and the deputies present at the time of Martinez’s death to be suspended.
Martinez’s 15-year-old son, who goes by the same name, said he was reeling from his father’s death.
“My heart’s been broken,” he said.
Contact Dan Lawton at 925-847-2123. Follow him at Twitter.com/dlawton.For more than two and a half weeks now Bulgarians have been taking to the streets, demanding their newly appointed socialist government step down.
The protests were originally sparked by the controversial appointment of businessman and MP Delyan Peevski as the new head of the State Agency for National Security. Public anger eventually led to his removal but the demonstrations have continued, with the people demanding reforms that will bring greater transparency to Bulgarian public life, which they claim is fraught with corruption.
Bulgarians argue it is these dubious links between parliament and businessmen that deter foreign investment, and thus deprive the country of higher living standards.
The people of Bulgaria have been taking to the streets daily, in numbers that they believe have been grossly under-reported by their government and the world’s media. The government, which has been in power for just over three weeks, only holds half of the seats in parliament and relies on the support of a nationalist party to stay in office.
These photos and videos, taken over the last few days, suggest that the movement shows no signs easing.
Bulgarians for the 18th consecutive day, demading an end to mafia influence and corruption of government. #ДАНСwithmepic.twitter.com/jh3RZet5Sc — Revolution News (@NewsRevo) July 1, 2013
Is the world watching?
Frustration is growing among many people in Bulgaria. They are angry at their government and they are angry at the world’s media, who they believe are ignoring the message of the people. Some are saying that the media are not as interested in their peaceful protests, in comparison to those going on in Egypt and Turkey.
Using the hashtag #ДАНСwithme people have been taking to social media to voice their anger.
Why did it take so long before some minor attention came in the #msm for #ДАНСwithMe Is Cyrillic really that hard to understand? — Maarten Vonk (@MaartenVonk) July 2, 2013
"The general population doesn’t know what’s happening, and it doesn’t even know that it doesn’t know." – Noam Chomsky #ДАНСwithme — maestross (@maestross) July 2, 2013
It takes 15 days of at least 20-40000 people protesting in order to be mentioned by NYT. #ДАНСwithmehttp://t.co/2h7XIUZwuS — Stefan Dimitrov (@Stefan_Dimitrov) June 28, 2013
Some photos of the recent demonstrations sent to Euronews from our viewers.From yesterday: Intro, and a breakdown of Cory Joseph.
Moving along to part two, focusing on a couple of point guards with a Houston Rockets flavor...
Patrick Beverley
As a Chicago native, and just 26, Beverley fits the age profile of the team for both the now and then. A sensational defender, his ability on defense will complement the second unit (and Rose) perfectly. Unlike Aaron Brooks, who is as hot and cold as they come, if things are not working out offensively for Beverley, he is still a playable option for Coach Hoiberg within a rotation on a consistent basis. The tenacity and effort he brings to his on-ball defense is something only few guards in the league can rival, and with less required from him offensively, he can focus his energy on defense, which is the end of the court where he can truly be a game changer.
Though a point guard - and weirdly enough – the 2015 Taco Bell Skills Challenge winner, we shouldn’t be expecting much playmaking or dribble penetration that forces defences to collapse, leading to passing lanes for his teammates. Averaging only 3.4 assists per game in 2014-15, he will not floor anyone with his vision. To be fair, playing next to James Harden, who acted as a pseudo point guard within the Houston offense, the volume was not there for him to showcase this side of his game. Nevertheless, he is not someone who should be expected to come in and run set pieces or create good offense off pick and rolls.
What we can expect offensively is an above average three-point shooter. In his three seasons in the league, he has made 243 total buckets from deep, and in the process, sporting a very respectable 36.1% on the long ball. This makes Beverley a legitimate ‘3 & D’ option at point guard, something which is rare in this league giving the amount of guards that are more than comfortable giving minimal or inconsistent play on that end of the floor.
Outside of the three point shot, his offensive game is quite limited. To date, he has attempted 1,202 field goals in his short career. Over half of that number (56.1%) has come from behind the arc. Now, the Houston Rockets are known for their willingness to chuck away from deep, so perhaps this number is slightly inflated and doesn’t truly highlight what other skills he may have, though his field goal percentage from 3-16 feet (38.1%) suggests he is not comfortable working closer to the basket outside of clear line drives.
Another random and underrated skill Beverley possesses is his ability to rebound as a guard. Often the smallest man on the floor, height did not offer any constraints. With 4.2 rebounds per night, Beverley would rank twelfth amongst all point guards. This is certainly a notable achievement, and further proof that he can offer a team an unorthodox option that will bother opposing squads.
Currently a starter with the Rockets, one would have to imagine he would like to remain as one. It will be interesting to see what contract the Rockets are prepared to offer Beverley. Daryl Morey is prone to chasing the big names, so cap space will be imperative for the Rockets if they want to land a big name, therefore trading pieces and letting guys walk may happen. It already has begun with rumors doing the rounds on draft night about Terrence Jones being made available. Another thing that could hurt the Rockets is timing. In pursuit of the bigger names, will other teams swoop in and prioritize Beverley before Morey does?
One would have to imagine he remains a Rocket given the aging back-ups on the roster in Jason Terry and Pablo Prigioni. I also have reservations about the Rockets landing a name like Love or Aldridge, so they may bring the band back. Should the unlikely occur, and the Rockets do get a big name, another potential suitor would likely be a Texas rival. The Dallas Mavericks will have cap space, and with the Rajon Rondo experiment failing miserably, they’re in the market for a point guard. There clearly is an obvious connection between Beverley and Parsons, with the free agent already on record stating his former Rocket teammate had been in contact with him about a potential reunion.
Of course, there is also our friends in New York. The groupies of the NBA, they will take anything with a name. Good luck to them.
Is Beverley a realistic option for the Bulls? Probably not. We would need to find a way to convince him to accept a lesser role, and likely far less in both annual and total contract value.
The fit would be great, though I wouldn’t bank on it. That said, we're interested...
Dallas, New York, Chicago, Cleveland and, of course, Houston are among the teams interested in Patrick Beverley (@patbev21), per sources. — Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) June 30, 2015
Jeremy Lin
The name Jeremy Lin carries a lot of stigma with NBA fans.
People are not over Linsanity. It reached annoyingly epic levels, none of which Lin himself could control, which unfortunately, he bears the brunt of.
The Houston experiment didn’t work. He couldn’t co-exist with James Harden. As someone who likes to dominate and own the ball at point guard, he was never going to win that battle internally and often found himself spotting up at the three point line, which clearly wasn’t his game.
On an inflated deal given to him by Daryl Morey, Lin would find himself traded to the Lakers in order for the Rockets to create cap space. He would go on to team up with a former Bull who shall not be named, play in a system where defense was optional, and where gaining a relationship with Byron Scott would be difficult.
Now a free agent, it is clear that Lin’s role in this league is as a reserve guard, meaning he is going to need to accept a pay cut. That’s the type of statement that makes Bulls management very happy.
Despite public perception, Lin is actually a good NBA player. In a crappy situation in L.A, he put up some very solid numbers. 11.2 points per game, 4.6 assists per game, and he made 36.9% of his threes.
As mentioned, Lin likes the ball in his hands. Linsanity became an actual thing because of that very fact. Anthony missed games. Stoudemire missed games. Once they returned, opportunity was diminished, so was the hype.
With this very basic thought in mind, if Lin is going to be your key ball handler, you’re not going to be a good team. He isn’t good enough to be that guy. As your back-up point guard, a role he needs to accept, he is more than suitable to run a second unit.
Though turnover prone, they come from his willingness to get into the paint and create passing lanes. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but something that needs improvement. Perhaps at times he forces the issue and bites off a little too much, so that part of his game needs to be managed closely. All you have to do is stop him from watching Steve Nash YouTube highlights pregame and it should be all right.
As a willing passer and someone who likes challenging the big men of the game at the rim, Lin can run an offense within a pick and roll, a skill that shouldn’t be undervalued. With more of this basketball expected in Chicago under Hoiberg, that could certainly be a weapon if harnessed correctly.
Lin has a very basic offensive game. That is meant as a compliment. He is either going to try and get to the hoop, or he is taking a jump shot from 20 feet or further out. That’s his game. Perhaps he takes too many mid-range shots at the rate he hits them at (31.9%), but at the age of 26, with an improving three-point shot, you would hope that would be something he could be influenced to improve under Hoiberg and his system requirements.
The pitfalls with Lin will be two things; his willingness, or more accurately, his ability to play defense, as well as his ability to keep improving off ball and to be an option to put next to Derrick Rose.
Do not expect good defense. Based on his physical characteristics, he likely will never be good on this end. His new team needs to accept that, and with the Bulls going backwards on defense last season, fit will be a point of consideration. The positive? Surely he couldn't be any worse than Aaron Brooks?
Working and playing off the ball will also be a hurdle. The best we’ve seen from Jeremy Lin has always been when he owns the ball. It’s often been on bad teams when this has occurred. That is not overly encouraging. It didn’t go well with Harden, so will it work with Rose & Butler?
Lin will come cheap, or at least cheaper than his previous $8.4 million price tag. Does that mean he will be in our price range?
I would expect the point guard to find a new home well after the main moves have been signed, sealed and delivered. The mini mid-level still may be too low, but with the Knicks and Kings being the main suitors for his services to date, perhaps he would take a flyer on a team that isn't completely clueless?
He may be an option for the Bulls. Time will tell. From a pure contract perspective, $3.4 million is a reasonable deal. This may be the case, but why do I still sit here, with several questions around fit and role, and worry that it may become a problem?
Stay tuned for part three, where I look at the remaining point guard options for the Bulls. Spoiler alert - it's not pretty.Last Wednesday was historic for Qualcomm. In one day, the company jumped beyond its comfort zone of mobile chips and entered the PC and server markets.
With the expansion, Qualcomm now has chips for most computing products. It wants to outcompete even Intel, which dominates in PCs and servers but gave up on markets like smartphone CPUs earlier this year.
Qualcomm on Wednesday announced its Centriq 2400 server chips, which started shipping to test customers. Later that day, Microsoft revealed that first PCs based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 chip would come next year. The chip will also be used in high-end smartphones.
In some ways, Qualcomm and Intel are heading in the opposite direction. Qualcomm has grown and is now what Intel used to be -- a chipmaker dabbling in all the major computing products, from wearables to servers.
Intel, on the other hand, has left some markets after tough lessons learned through unabated chip expansion and throwing billions of dollars at products that ultimately failed. This year it downsized and cut unprofitable products like mobile processors -- a market Qualcomm leads -- to focus on growth areas like IoT, data centers, and machine learning.
Qualcomm's goal of joining the PC and server markets is clear: to challenge Intel's areas of strength. But trying to unseat an incumbent is easier said than done, and Qualcomm faces many challenges of its own. The jury is still out on whether Qualcomm will succeed, but the company is the first legitimate competitor to Intel in the server, PC, and IoT chip markets.
Qualcomm's first jab at the PC market was doomed with the failure of Windows RT, a version of Windows 8 for ARM-based tablets and PCs. But the re-entry into PCs with Windows 10 is better organized, and the ARM-based Snapdragon 835 will be able to run popular Win32 apps that typically run on x86 chips. Qualcomm's chips could pave the way for Windows 10 into the 5G era, an area where Intel is at a competitive disadvantage.
But it won't be easy for Qualcomm, which faces compatibility challenges with 64-bit applications, drivers, and peripherals. The Snapdragon 835 will run x86 apps through emulation, which limits hardware acceleration.
In the last two decades, only AMD has threatened to Intel's lead in PCs, but even that didn't last too long. AMD is mounting a new challenge with its upcoming Zen processors, and Qualcomm's ARM-based chips could take on Intel's Celeron, Pentium, and Core i3 chips in low-end PCs.
Qualcomm has no plans to give up on PCs anytime soon. The company's success with cellular PCs could take off when deployments for 5G -- which combines long- and short-distance wireless communications -- take shape in 2020. Qualcomm has already introduced the Snapdragon X50 5G modem, but it's not yet known if the Snapdragon 835 will have an integrated 5G chipset.
It's a different competitive landscape in servers, despite analysts calling Centriq 2400 the best ARM server chip to date. Intel dominates servers with Xeon chips, and companies won't easily change over from x86 to ARM because it would require wholesale changes in the hardware and software infrastructures.
Moreover, ARM servers haven't caught on despite being around for more than three years. Qualcomm could rekindle some interest in ARM servers with Centriq 2400, which has 48-cores and high levels of I/O and networking interface integration.
Qualcomm has said it will take a wait-and-watch approach with server chips. The goal is to avoid mistakes made by other ARM server makers like Calxeda, which folded, and AMD, which is re-focusing on x86 after putting ARM on the back burner. Other ARM server chipmakers Cavium and AppliedMicro are struggling.
The server chip is targeted at large cloud server installations, and Qualcomm is working with a few unnamed customers. If cloud companies believe custom software and Qualcomm chips will cost less than Intel Xeon chips, they may switch over. The competition could also provide bargaining power to Intel's server customers, who could acquire chips at cheaper prices.
But a few server installations won't be enough to dent Intel's server dominance. Qualcomm will also compete with IBM's Power9, which is aiming for a double-digit market share in servers by 2020.
The market for ARM chips has also declined with applications like machine learning, which require brawnier processor cores like x86. ARM is considered a "wimpy" core that provides strength in numbers. Intel has a wide lead over Qualcomm in machine learning with an assortment of deep-learning chips like the Xeon Phi and FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) in its arsenal.
There is a separate competition brewing in the IoT market, in which Qualcomm has a big advantage over Intel. Qualcomm dominates in telematics, and is spending US$47 billion to buy NXP Semiconductor, which provides circuitry for cars, IoT devices, and other low-power devices. Intel is trying to grow its profile in the market and has made numerous acquisitions.
The mobile market should be a long-term strength for Qualcomm, but it is facing competition from MediaTek and companies like Samsung and Apple that design chips internally.Mydaily via Naver1. [+810, -100] It's really noisy right now with people claiming sajaegi, I don't think they'd be too comfortable with their win right now. They should hurry up and clarify the issue.2. [+549, -73] It's a mess right now because of sajaegi, why isn't their company saying anything?????????3. [+928, -574] I knew this album would do well ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Congratulations ㅠㅠㅠㅠ Thank you ㅠㅠㅠㅠ ♥4. [+774, -429] Congrats! Thank you, I love Lonely! Fighting~5. [+369, -38] People are in a riot over their album sajaegi, the company needs to put out clear proof that it's not true or this is just going to grow out of control. CEO, put out your receipts or something.No Cut News via Naver1. [+3,580, -645] This is not B1A4's fault but the fault of the company, of course, but don't act like we (TVXQ fans) instigated this first when there is enough proof to keep you from denying any of this. Bring the proof if you're so adamant on proving your innocence. Where are your receipts?2. [+3,210, -370] Their receipts are 'Lonely'3. [+2,795, -425] Everything about this screams sajaegi, I really want to hear a Bana try to explain how these are all just rumors. You ask a Bana this and they shut up ㅋ It's unfortunate for B1A4 but the victims in this are TVXQ and their fans being shafted out of a win.4. [+2,501, -333] Don't try to shield this if you don't have clearcut proof proving otherwise ㅋㅋㅋ5. [+2,158, -189] The only reason this is a controversy is because the company isn't saying anything.*Sajaegi is basically like buying back your own albums. How it's done is companies will take one CD, replace the barcode, record the barcode as sold, replace the barcode again, record it as sold again, and rinse and repeat with the same single CD.)- B1A4 sold 22,000 copies of their previous album in its first week but sold 67,000 copies of their new album in its first week with only 1,000 people attending their fan signing (to compare, TVXQ sold 73,000 copies in their first week with 8,300 people attending their fan signing).- Sold 3,600 copies in Daegu alone.- No receipts released (agency claimed they will show them after they assessed the situation)- Their album sales ranking rose to #2 only at night with a random spike of 8,000 copies sold in the span of two hours (1/19).- Fans retorted that the spike in sales between this album and last album is due to the album being divided into six different styles and the increase in fans. However, people argued back that Super Junior had an album with 10 different purchaseable styles (5th album) which sold 79,100 copies in its first week. Their 6th album had even less styles but sold 80,781 copies, showing that the album variety has no impact on first week sales.- Fans also retorted that 5,000 copies were sold through a group order and 3,000 copies were sold through their fan signing. That still leaves 32,000 copies in the air, which fans claimed were bought by international fans. There has yet to be proof or receipts shown on this, however.- It is impossible for B1A4 to have reached even 40,000 in sales in their first week according to Hot Tracks' offline sales. (Hot Tracks recorded about 620 copies sold per day throughout their five record stories, making it impossible for the rest of the 32,000 to be sold in the span of three days).- Proof gathered on the side of B1A4 accounts for 1,000 in domestic group orders, 3,500 in international group orders, and 3,000 in fan signing (Hanteo Charts confirmed that the max limit is 1,000 copies for group orders), which means 32,500 copies (81.25% of their sales) are still missing in the air and unaccounted for.Numbers and all of that jazz can be found on this blogThe Riot Grrrl movement exploded in the 1990s, bringing feminist perspectives to the forefront of punk culture. Using zines, music and a general flair for the DIY aesthetic, icons like Kathleen Hanna and Allison Wolfe tackled not only the sexist sentiments infiltrating punk and art scenes, but the violent and homophobic attitudes that surrounded them.
"Rebel girl, you are the queen of my world," Hanna recites in a well-known Bikini Kill song, one of the many anthems of the Riot Grrrl movement. "When she talks, I hear the revolutions."
Untitled (Lesbian Bed #8), Tammy Rae Carland, Inkjet prints (AP), 2002. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco.
A new exhibit at Carnegie Mellon's Miller Gallery is paying homage to this revolutionary movement in "Alien She," the first ever exhibition to explore the legacy of Riot Grrrl on contemporary culture. Through sculpture, film, photography, drawing, printmaking, music and performance the show highlights the work of seven visual artists whose art practices have been indelibly influenced by the '90s feminist phenomenon.
From Ginger Brooks Takahashi to Miranda July, "Alien She" rips through 20 years of archival material, including new and rarely before seen pieces that illuminate the lasting effect of Riot Grrrl axioms. Taking its name from a Bikini Kill song, the collected artworks reflect on, challenge and continue feminist critiques of the '90s, evoking the diversity of identities and senses of self-determination that have sprung forth in the years since.
Some contributions are extremely personal, such as July's performance, "The Swan Tool." Dating back to 2000-2002, the work tells the story of woman who grapples with her will to live or die, eventually deciding to bury herself in a hole, only to intensify her personal confrontation with life and death. Others focus on collectives and shared ideas that branch well beyond a strict feminist perspective, like Faythe Levine's "Time Outside of Time," an ongoing documentation of various alternative, "off-the-grid" communities across the United States.
The varied projects reflect the idea that, to these artists, feminism is hardly just an end to bias and discrimination against women. "I’m more interested in a feminism that ends discrimination for all people," Hanna once explained in an interview with A.V. Cub. "It’s connected to racism and classism and gender issues that go beyond the binary. It can’t be pulled apart from those issues."
The Swan Tool, performance by Miranda July, 2001, photograph by David Nakamoto.
Collaboration stands out as an important theme in the show as well, a practice viewed by many of the artists on view as a mode for connecting and encouraging the exchange of information across groups. Self-publication and platform-building have been key to the Riot Grrrl's zine persona since the '90s and artists like Stephanie Syjuco have built on these ideas in the years after. In "An Open Source Reading Room," Syjuco created what is part physical archive, part public reading room, where individuals interested in digital copyright issues and creative commons can peruse free digital texts and discuss access to cultural resources. Compared to the analog, word-of-mouth age of only two decades ago, the installation shows how the feminist consciousness has evolved and grown.
The exhibit features a historical section as well, devoted to DIY relics like zines, hand-printed posters and music playlists. Plucked from Riot Grrrl scenes across the U.S., Canada, South America and Europe, the cassettes and t-shirts provide an impressively far-reaching portrait of what it meant to be part of the "boy-girl revolution." Together, the pieces on view form an open-ended image of the past and present face of Riot Grrrl, from the sounds of Bratmobile to the pages of A Girl's Guide to Taking over the World to newer incarnations of the movement like Pussy Riot and Rookie magazine.
From the series Time Outside of Time, by Faythe Levine, photograph, 2010-ongoing. Inkjet prints (AP). This project documents various off-the-grid, alternative and intentional communities in the U.S.
I’m With Problematic / Women’s Studies Professors Have Class Privilege, from the series Creep Lez, Allyson Mitchell, 2012. Altered t-shirts with iron-on transfer and vinyl letters. Courtesy of the artist and Katharine Mulherin Gallery, Toronto.
I'm Dying Up Here (Glitter Drapes), Tammy Rae Carland, 2011; color photograph; 30 x 40 in. Courtesy of the Artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco.
FREE TEXTS: An Open Source Reading Room, Stephanie Syjuco, free downloadable PDF files of texts found online and tear-off tab flyers, 2011-2012. Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco. This project was updated for Alien She, and includes texts selected by the artists in the exhibition.
Film still from Sign Painters, a documentary film (2013, 80 min.) and book (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012), by Faythe Levine & Sam Macon.
projet MOBILIVRE BOOKMOBILE project, one of the collaborative projects of Ginger Brooks Takahashi, 2001-2006.
Mom Knows Now (guerilla banner drop on the steeple of the Ira Allen Chapel, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT), L.J. Roberts, hand-knit yarn. 15' x 10' x 10,' 2003.
Curated by Astria Suparak and Ceci Moss, "Alien She" will be on view at Carnegie Mellon's Miller Gallery from September 21, 2013 to February 16, 2014. Scroll through the images for a preview of the show and let us know your thoughts in the comments.Last year, we wrote about cycling in Amsterdam, the world’s most bicycle-friendly city according to the Copenhagenize Index of 2013. People who have taken their cars and entered to pass through the middle of Amsterdam city knows how cyclists own the city. They do not bother about the rules following they just rush through on the streets and the population of cyclists is so high that they make people who own cars and motor bikes powerless. Just like this software make traders powerless, here is full review. Whilst we don’t need to repeat how the city’s urban form is very conducive to cycling, or how the city’s high cycling rates are a result of decades of careful planning, it is worth noting that our earlier report also warned of the drawbacks of massive cycling, namely the steep increase in cycling related injuries. Crowded and narrow bicycle paths can reduce the attractiveness of cycling in the city. And the scooters, which strangely enough are allowed to ride on the bike paths, make dangerous situations arise easily given their substantial difference in mass and speed compared to cyclists. We also noted how the Cyclist Union supported widening Amsterdam’s bike lanes.
So where do things in Amsterdam stand today? Recent plans and progressive policies put in place in other European cities suggest that Amsterdam has some work to do, if it doesn’t want to lose its title as the world’s most bicycle-friendly city. Let’s take another look at cycling and cycling policies in the city, from a comparative perspective.
Increased cycling saved the City of Amsterdam € 40 million in 18 years
The City of Amsterdam’s Multi-Year Cycling Plan for 2012-2016 reveals that cycling in this city has increased by 44% between 1990 and 2008, the most recent year for which the data is available. Cycling is especially prevalent in the city center. There are now approximately 490,000 bike trips made to, from and within the city center each day, up from around 340,000 in 1990. The City’s Department of Infrastructure, Traffic and Transportation estimates that the large shift from cars to bikes for trips to, from and within the city center has saved the City €20 million annually on road infrastructure expenses.
As cycling increased, the number of transit riders in the inner city also dropped by 15% over the past 20 years. This has saved the City of Amsterdam a further €20 million on expenses on transit service. The shift from transit to cycling was especially apparent in trips to commuter rail stations, 90% of which were made by transit in 1990, where 60% of them is made by bike now. This shift alone has led to about 26,000 additional bike trips in the central city each day. (Source: City of Amsterdam Mobility Strategy).
And so, Amsterdam has the enviable situation that a total of 150,000 additional daily bike trips since 1990 havesaved the City €40 million in expenses in road infrastructure and transit service. Writing for Dutch daily De Volkskrant, Michael Persson [Add the link to article if available] calculated that, if we assume that these 150,000 trips are made by 75,000 cyclists, each new cyclist has yielded the City €500 in savings, annually. I believe it’s not as simple as a 2:1 ratio; determining how many cyclists have contributed to the new trips is far more complex. Especially since Amsterdam gets many visitors, who also bike. Nonetheless, it shows that each new cyclist leads to the City saving money.
Cycling in the world’s most bicycle-friendly city: Where do things stand today?
Despite these developments, massive cycling sometimes is seen as a problem. Between the congestion near intersections and junctions, the acute shortage in bicycle parking facilities near commuter rail stations and in higher-density neighborhoods, and the overcrowding on the bike lanes, one begins to see why someone might think that way.
Bike parking, a competitive event in central Amsterdam, is perhaps the most easily identifiable problem in this regard. The volume of abandoned and parked bikes near many major destinations mean that quite often it will be impossible to park near your destination. Parking space for an additional 38,000 bikes will be needed by 2020 to match parking supply with demand around the major destinations. (An additional 80,000 are esteemed to be needed in the city’s residential areas after 2020). Another issue is that the many parked bikes clutter the sidewalk, which impedes walkability.
The number of serious traffic injuries in Amsterdam is rising too, from 785 in 2006 to 950 in 2009 (Note that the actual number might well be higher as not all accidents are reported). A traffic safety factsheetpublished by the City reveals that cyclists are more often involved in traffic accidents than others, being involved in 56% of all accidents. They are also more often involved in serious accidents than other traffic participants. In 62% of all serious accidents involving cyclists, drivers were the other party. And a third of all accidents that left cyclist seriously injured, occurred on the city’s busiest bike paths, demonstrating an acute need for wider and safer paths. This need is particularly high in the inner city, where a lack of space to accommodate multiple modes of transportation has resulted in busy bike routes consisting of bike lanes on main roads, leaving cyclists biking next to traffic buzzing by at 50 km/hr. Whilst the “safety in numbers” theory which says that greater numbers of cyclists lead to safer cycling conditions almost always turns out to be correct as cities start seeing increased numbers of cyclists, the situation in Amsterdam might make one doubt this theory. A certain saturation point has been reached in Amsterdam, one in which cycling itself is starting to suffer from the large numbers of cyclists.
Investments in cycling infrastructure are lagging behind the growth of cycling
Both the acute parking shortage and the increase in accidents show that the cycling facilities in the city haven’t kept up with the increase in cyclists. To upgrade the infrastructure, the City of Amsterdam plans to invest a total of €120 million until 2020. The investment strategy focuses largely on adding parking capacity at critical locations around the inner city, and on the improvement and expansion of the city’s bicycle network, as necessary. If safety conditions don’t improve, some people could stop cycling altogether. Such sentiments appeared in letters readers submitted
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. "It was a vicious attack on innocent people at a restaurant in Kabul."
Michael Smith, president of the private nonprofit institution, said Saturday that families of the victims were being informed and arrangements being made to send their remains home.
An Afghan policeman stands near a damaged car outside a Lebanese restaurant, the site of a suicide attack, in Kabul Jan. 18, 2014. Reuters/Omar Sobhani
One of the victims was Alexis Kamerman, a Chicago native.
According to the Chicago Tribune, her family released this statement via an email from Kamerman's aunt Julie Pfeffer:
"First of all the world called her Lexie-
She was an amazing young woman –smart, strong, beautiful, funny, stubborn and kind. And fearless.
She took the job at the American University of Afghanistan to help the young women of Afghanistan get an education and take their rightful place as leaders in Afghan society.
As you could probably guess, Her death is a shock to us all and we can't imagine a moment going forward when she won't be desperately missed."
The university, which has more than 1,000 students, was established in 2006 and has a number of Americans on its staff.
Late Saturday, a State Department spokesperson told CBS News that the U.S. Embassy in Kabul had confirmed that a third American was also killed in the attack.
The attack is the deadliest violence against foreign civilians in the country since the start of the war nearly 13 years ago.
Kabul police chief Gen. Mohammad Zahir Zahir said the victims included 13 foreigners and eight Afghans and said the majority were civilians.
The dead at the La Taverna du Liban restaurant included the head of the International Monetary Fund in Afghanistan, three United Nations staff and a member of the European Police Mission in Afghanistan. The U.N. had initially reported four dead, but had counted the IMF representative.
Zahir and international officials said the dead included two Britons, two Canadians, a Dane, a Russian, two Lebanese, a Somali-American and a Pakistani. At least four people were wounded and about eight Afghans, mostly the kitchen staff, survived.
Five women, four foreign and one Afghan, were also among the dead, Zahir said.
The three attackers, including a suicide bomber and two gunmen, were also killed during Friday night's assault on the Lebanese restaurant.
The dead included the head of the IMF in Afghanistan, Wabel Abdallah, a 60-year-old Lebanese national; a Danish European Policewoman and her British bodyguard, while the U.N. in Kabul said its three staff members included a Pakistani, a Russian and a Somali-American. The restaurant's Lebanese owner, Kamal Hamade, was also killed.
The attack was condemned by the U.N. Security Council, NATO and the European Union.
"I strongly condemn this attack on random civilians and my thoughts and deepest sympathy goes to the next of kin," Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said in a statement.
The Danish Foreign Ministry declined to release details about the victim as customary but Denmark's TV2 said she was a 34-year-old woman.
"I condemn in the strongest possible terms this appalling and unjustifiable violence. The perpetrators must be brought to justice," EU High Representative Catherine Ashton said Saturday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office has not yet condemned the attack.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in reprisal for an Afghan military operation earlier in the week against insurgents in eastern Parwan province, which the insurgents claimed killed many civilians. The Taliban frequently provide exaggerated casualty figures.
"The target of the attack was a restaurant frequented by high ranking foreigners," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an emailed statement. He said the attack targeted a place "where the invaders used to dine with booze and liquor in the plenty."
He described the "revenge attack" as having delivered a "heavy admonitory blow to the enemy which they shall never forget."
During the operation last Wednesday in eastern Parwan province, Afghan officials said that Taliban fighters opened fire on an Afghan commando unit trying to capture an insurgent leader in his home. After opening fire on the Afghan soldiers, killing one of their American advisers, the team called the U.S.-led coalition for air support.
The governor of Parwan, Abdul Basir Salangi, said a Taliban leader, three of his family members and five civilians in a neighboring home, from which insurgents were also firing on the Afghan commandos, died in the ensuing combat. He added that seven Taliban fighters were also killed.
Insurgents have frequently targeted foreign interests around the country and in Kabul.
The deadliest previous attack against foreign civilians was in Sept. 8, 2012, when nine civilian employees of a private aviation company were killed in a suicide attack happened near Kabul airport. They included eight South Africans and a Kyrgyz.
The Taliban have stepped up a campaign of violence in recent months after foreign forces handed over control of security for the country to the Afghan army and police ahead of their full withdrawal by the end of 2014.Chocolate Macarons With Chocolate Peppermint Ganache Recipe
The Best Chocolate Macarons With Chocolate Peppermint Ganache Recipe – delicate chocolate macaron shells, glued together with smooth chocolate peppermint ganache.
Are you excited about these chocolate macarons? How was your Thanksgiving?
There is probably no need to remind you that Christmas is around the corner.
Every year, around this time I get obsessed with holiday cookie baking. But this year is different.
I don’t have a lot of cookie recipes coming. I’ve made some cakes.
I’ll definitely make these brownie cookies and meringue Christmas trees.
But no new cookie recipes. Please forgive me!
Homemade Chocolate Macarons
I’ve made these Chocolate Macarons With Chocolate Peppermint Ganache a few times and they turned perfect every single time.
The rich chocolate favor and smooth peppermint ganache, make them perfect for the holidays.
As you know I’m in the French macaron lover’s camp! But what I enjoy even more, than eating them – is making them.
I’ve shared some tips and tricks on making French macarons at home in this post.
Ingredients needed to make chocolate macarons :
For the macaron batter:
powdered sugar
almond flour
cocoa powder
cream of tartar
egg whites
granulated sugar
For the chocolate peppermint ganache:
semi-sweet chocolate
heavy cream
peppermint extract
How to make chocolate macarons (French Method)?
FOR THE CHOCOLATE MACARONS: Preheat oven to 350 F (190 C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (alternatively use silpat for macarons). Sift together powdered sugar, cocoa powder and almond flour. Discard any large pieces. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until they begin to foam, for 1 minute. Slowly add sugar, beating on medium-high speed. Beat until stiff, for 3 minutes. Fold in the dry ingredients in two additions, using a rubber spatula. Fold so the mixture is smooth, not runny. Fill a pastry bag, fitted with 1/2 inch tip (or just cut the tip of the bag and do not use a piping tip) with the batter. Pipe batter into 1-inch circles, spaced at least 1 inch apart. Tap baking sheets on the counter a few times, to release any air bubbles. Let macarons sit at room temperature for 45 minutes to 1 hour, so the tops are no longer glossy. Reduce oven temperature to 325 F (160 C). Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheets for at least 15 minutes, then remove and transfer to a cooling rack. Try to match shells with the same size, so you can glue them together with the ganache later.
FOR THE GANACHE: In a small saucepan, heat heavy cream until it just begins to boil and remove immediately. Place chocolate in a bowl and pour hot cream on top. Add peppermint extract. Let it sit for 1 minute, then stir with a rubber spatula. Stir continuously, until mixture gets smooth. Let it cool completely in the fridge or at room temperature, before you use it. Pipe ganache onto one shell, then sandwich with another. Macarons taste best if refrigerated for at least 1 day, before serving.
Using cream of tartar in french macarons meringue
I used to think that cream of tartar added to the egg whites in the process of whipping them really helps with a stable meringue.
With all of my successes and failures learning how to make French macarons, I’ve realized that I can make good macarons without cream of tartar. If you have it at your pantry, please use it. But if you don’t, no need to stress out, the macarons will turn out good.
What I’ve found out is that proper whipping of the egg whites, where they are not too stiff, but still stiff to hold the batter and proper macaronage, where the batter is smooth, not too thick and not runny are the most important steps when baking macarons at home.
Tips to make the perfect French Macarons at home:
The truth is that macarons aren’t difficult to make, but you need practice and some luck! Humidity, overmixing or undermixing the batter can be a problem. But I’m still very excited watching these bake and form feet! And then sandwich them together and look at how gorgeous they are! This chocolate macarons recipe is not your typical one. I’ve tried numerous recipes to make macarons with chocolate flavor, like Laduree’s All Recipes and many youtube recipes. I had no luck. Adding cocoa powder to the macaron batter, could easily break the final product, due to acidity. macarons will crack while baking. This is why, alter all my testings, I’ve realized that 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the amount of other ingredients works well.
Chocolate French Macarons oven baking temperature:
With this particular recipe, I’ve came to the conclusion that macarons need to be baked at 325F for 12 minutes, where you’ve preheated the oven to 350 F initially. This way macaron shells rise properly and not crack.
I use a gas oven, so please adjust the temperature correctly, if you use an electric oven and if it has a convection setting.
What to use chocolate French macarons for?
Most of my friends are obsessed with French macarons as well!
That’s why this holiday season I’m putting together French macaron gift baskets (cookies by me!) for some close friends and family!
Hope you enjoy these!
And if you don’t have the patience and desire to try the recipe, feel free to check my cookie gallery out and try some of the other cookie recipes.
Servings : 25 Chocolate Macarons With Chocolate Peppermint Ganache Recipe Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 12 mins Total Time: 1 hr 45 mins Chocolate Macarons With Chocolate Peppermint Ganache Recipe – delicate chocolate macaron shells, glued together with smooth chocolate peppermint ganache. Print 5 from 7 votes Leave a Review » Ingredients FOR THE CHOCOLATE MACARONS: 1 cup (125 gr) powdered sugar
1/2 cup (50 gr) fine almond flour
3 tbsp (25 gr) cocoa powder (I used Hersheys)
2 large egg whites at room temperature — (60-65 grams)
pinch of cream of tartar
5 tbsp granulated sugar FOR THE PEPPERMINT CHOCOLATE GANACHE: 4 oz (120 gr) semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream
2 drops peppermint extract Instructions FOR THE CHOCOLATE MACARONS: Preheat oven to 350 F (190 C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (alternatively use silpat for macarons). Sift together powdered sugar, cocoa powder and almond flour. Discard any large pieces. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until they begin to foam, for 1 minute. Slowly add sugar, beating on medium-high speed. Beat until stiff, for 3 minutes. Fold in the dry ingredients in two additions, using a rubber spatula. Fold so the mixture is smooth, not runny. Fill a pastry bag, fitted with 1/2 inch tip (or just cut the tip of the bag and do not use a piping tip) with the batter. Pipe batter into 1-inch circles, spaced at least 1 inch apart. Tap baking sheets on the counter a few times, to release any air bubbles. Let macarons sit at room temperature for 45 minutes to 1 hour, so the tops are no longer glossy. Reduce oven temperature to 325 F (160 C). Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheets for at least 15 minutes, then remove and transfer to a cooling rack. Try to match shells with the same size, so you can glue them together with the ganache later. FOR THE GANACHE: In a small saucepan, heat heavy cream until it just begins to boil and remove immediately. Place chocolate in a bowl and pour hot cream on top. Add peppermint extract. Let it sit for 1 minute, then stir with a rubber spatula. Stir continuously, until mixture gets smooth. Let it cool completely in the fridge or at room temperature, before you use it. Pipe ganache onto one shell, then sandwich with another. Macarons taste best if refrigerated for at least 1 day, before serving. Recipe Notes Macarons taste best if refrigerated for at least 1 day, before serving. Course: cookies, Dessert Cuisine: French Nutrition Information Calories: 86, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 6mg, Sodium: 6mg, Potassium: 43mg, Carbohydrates: 10g, Sugar: 8g, Protein: 1g, Vitamin A: 1.4%, Calcium: 1.1%, Iron: 2.6%
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Pin 42K 42K Shares• 20 minutes Its been twenty whole minutes since your last ever smoke. You begin to panic throw away whatever tobacco is left in the house. You peer through your closed blinds, wondering what will become of the world now that you’ve given up. Maybe you should have waited till Monday. Monday is always better when giving up stuff.
• 8 hours Your mind starts to play tricks on you and suggests to look in the ashtray for fag-butts. Then you realise, you have no rizla papers anyway, and try your best to get that thought out of your mind. You buy chewing gums, but realise too late that they’re cherry flavoured. Who the fuck likes cherry flavoured sweets?
• 12 hours By this stage you have already bitten the head of every loved one you know. They are getting quite worried about your behaviour and beg you to just smoke a cigarette – for peace sake. Smoker friends will have no sympathy, and will relish in blowing smoke into your face while saying ‘lovely fags’.
• 24 hours By now you have almost fooled yourself into thinking you’re off nicotine for good. You become delusional and repeat phrases like ‘Im grand’, ‘I don’t even feel like one now’ and ‘The thoughts of smoking now makes me sick’.
• 48 hours On your second day off the smokes you begin to think you are already healthy. You immediately sign up for the gym and you recklessly decide to tell the world via social media sites that you are off smoking for good. Your friends laugh it off, but leave heartfelt supportive comments anyway, knowing you’ll be probably back on them in a week.
• 72 hours Your entire body will test 100% nicotine-free and the pangs for smoking are at their highest. You stupidly decide to refrain from drinking, knowing that you are not strong enough to remain smoke free while drunk. Everywhere you turn there is someone smoking. The smell is like baked bread in a bakery and you kick yourself for committing. The only thing making you continue this nightmare is the fact you already told the whole world you’re quitting. No turning back now asshole!
• 5 – 8 days You once again become cocky, telling everybody how long you’re off the cigarettes for – down to the fucking second. You become to hate dinner time as you fear the emptiness afterwards. What do normal people do? -you ask yourself. You realise you unwittingly took up origami, tearing everything paper into tiny bits post meal. Your friends hate you and whisper behind your back, ststing that they liked you better when you were cool and smoking. They now have 50 euro bets on with each other, to see when you fail.
• 10 days After ten days you think you’re a fucking hero. Making sure to tell absolutely everybody how you have changed your whole life around. Non-smokers start to resent you at this stage, even forcing some to take up the habit. You are incredibly annoying right now and deserve a good kick up the hole.
• 10 days to 2 weeks This is the make or break period where you will either give in to temptation or continue being the miserable smoker you have always been. Friends and family have already forgotten about you quitting, so its easy now to shnake back onto them. “At least I gave it a try” you’ll tell yourself as you walk up to the shop keeper with €10 for fags. Then like some kind of divine intervention, you stop and think about all that hard work. You continue on your quest, ya great big legend you!
• 2 to 4 weeks Its almost a month now without smoking and you begin coughing up large chunks of phlegm from your chest. It feels good tho. This is like the physical act of ridding your body of fags. You Instagram your lung snot to prove a point. You begin to smell other peoples farts and body odours again. Seeing smokers now disgusts you and you begin your preachy phase – giving out to every smoker you know. You’re like every bad-boy turned good in Home and Away.
• 2 months Feeling brave, you decide to go back on the drink. Big mistake! You realise smoking cancels out the effects of alcohol quiet quickly, and blank out for most of the night. You wake up to numerous tagged photos on facebook of you smoking 10 fags at once. The guilt haunts you for the rest of the day until one of your friends admits photoshopping the cigarettes into your mouth. You de-friend him, but are happy you didn’t smoke.
• 3 months Dreaming about smoking and waking up guilty is now a regular occurrence. This makes you stronger and more determined. You don’t even think about it anymore, but the post dinner thing has now been replaced with eating something sweet. In fact, you realise you have put on four stone. You eventually start using that gym membership you got three months ago but never used.
• 3 months and 3 days You pull a calf muscle and never return to the gym again.
• 4 months A friend offers you a joint at a house party and you refuse, telling them you don’t smoke tobacco anymore. Your friend introduces you to his bong and you cry uncontrollably, thanking him for showing you the light.
• 9 months As an chronic weed smoker for 5 months, you lose your job and begin following conspiracy websites. Jim Corr is now your friend on facebook and exposing chemtrails has become your main goal in life. Your friend who introduced you to smoking pure cannabis has long gone, with your now ex-girlfriend. They sometimes pass you on the street, sniggering at your lard arse.
• 1 year After being arrested by the DS and given a three year suspended sentence for dealing weed. You decide to kick the habit and get your life back together. A woman rings you telling you that she’s pregnant, but you tell her she has the wrong number and you smash up your phone. You gloat on facebook that you have been nicotine free for a year now. You get two likes and a ‘fuck you prick’ from your local priest.
• 5 years You now run your own Marketing firm and have just signed a multi-million euro contract with Old Spice. Things couldn’t be better. Smoking is the last thing on your mind.Detectives investigating the break and enter of a service station in Rochedale on Saturday morning have released CCTV footage of the incident as they try to identify those involved.
Just before 5am the men, armed with tomahawks, smashed their way into the Miles Platting Road service station before stealing a sum of cash from the till, a quantity of cigarettes and a mobile phone.
A shop assistant locked herself in a back room and was not threatened during the incident.
Police have released images of two men they believe may be able to assist them with their inquiries.
Both men are described as being Caucasian in appearance, aged in their late teens or early 20s with very slim builds and fair complexions.
The first man was wearing blue cargo pants, black runners and a black hooded jumper while the second man was wearing a blue hooded jumper, dark pants and blue and orange runners.
Police are urging anyone with any information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
If you have information for police, contact Policelink on 131 444 or provide information using the online form 24hrs per day.
You can report information about crime anonymously to Crime Stoppers, a registered charity and community volunteer organisation, by calling 1800 333 000 or via crimestoppersqld.com.au 24hrs per day.F-15 Eagle Features
The Eagle's air superiority is achieved through a mixture of unprecedented maneuverability and acceleration, range, weapons and avionics. It can penetrate enemy defense and outperform and outfight any current enemy aircraft. The F-15 has electronic systems and weaponry to detect, acquire, track and attack enemy aircraft while operating in friendly or enemy-controlled airspace. The weapons and flight control systems are designed so one person can safely and effectively perform air-to-air combat.
The F-15's superior maneuverability and acceleration are achieved through high engine thrust-to-weight ratio and low wing loading. Low wing-loading (the ratio of aircraft weight to its wing area) is a vital factor in maneuverability and, combined with the high thrust-to-weight ratio, enables the aircraft to turn tightly without losing airspeed.
A multimission avionics system sets the F-15 apart from other fighter aircraft. It includes a head-up display, advanced radar, inertial navigation system, flight instruments, ultrahigh frequency communications, tactical navigation system and instrument landing system. It also has an internally mounted, tactical electronic-warfare system, "identification friend or foe" system, electronic countermeasures set and a central digital computer.
The head-up display projects on the windscreen all essential flight information gathered by the integrated avionics system. This display, visible in any light condition, provides the pilot information necessary to track and destroy an enemy aircraft without having to look down at cockpit instruments.
The F-15's versatile pulse-Doppler radar system can look up at high-flying targets and down at low-flying targets without being confused by ground clutter. It can detect and track aircraft and small high-speed targets at distances beyond visual range down to close range, and at altitudes down to treetop level. The radar feeds target information into the central computer for effective weapons delivery. For close-in dogfights, the radar automatically acquires enemy aircraft, and this information is projected on the head-up display. The F-15's electronic warfare system provides both threat warning and automatic countermeasures against selected threats.
A variety of air-to-air weaponry can be carried by the F-15. An automated weapon system enables the pilot to perform aerial combat safely and effectively, using the head-up display and the avionics and weapons controls located on the engine throttles or control stick. When the pilot changes from one weapon system to another, visual guidance for the required weapon automatically appears on the head-up display.
The Eagle can be armed with combinations of four different air-to-air weapons: AIM-7F/M Sparrow missiles or AIM-120 advanced medium range air-to-air missiles on its lower fuselage corners, AIM-9L/M Sidewinder or AIM-120 missiles on two pylons under the wings, and an internal 20mm Gatling gun in the right wing root.
Low-drag, conformal fuel tanks were especially developed for the F-15C and D models. Conformal fuel tanks can be attached to the sides of the engine air intake trunks under each wing and are designed to the same load factors and airspeed limits as the basic aircraft. Each conformal fuel tank contains about 114 cubic feet of usable space. These tanks reduce the need for in-flight refueling on global missions and increase time in the combat area. All external stations for munitions remain available with the tanks in use. AIM-7F/M Sparrow missiles, moreover, can be attached to the corners of the conformal fuel tanks.
The F-15E is a two-seat, dual-role, totally integrated fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and deep interdiction missions. The rear cockpit is upgraded to include four multi-purpose CRT displays for aircraft systems and weapons management. The digital, triple-redundant Lear Siegler flight control system permits coupled automatic terrain following, enhanced by a ring-laser gyro inertial navigation system.
For low-altitude, high-speed penetration and precision attack on tactical targets at night or in adverse weather, the F-15E carries a high-resolution APG-70 radar and low-altitude navigation and targeting infrared for night pods.The latest "State of the Market" report from property website Domain is out, and... hoo boy.
Getty
The quarterly report, which breaks down house and unit prices in each state and territory, shows staggering rises in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, but drops in Brisbane and Perth.
The national median house price increased by 2.2% over the quarter to reach $801,204. That's a 10.2% increase over the last year. Which is fine. Just fine. The national median unit price increased by 1.2% in the same quarter to $558,824. And 5.4% over the last year. Cool. Here's how each capital city is going, according to Domain.
Domain
"Glorious" Sydney Sydney house prices reached another record high, with a median house price of $1,151,565, an increase of 2.8% in just 13 weeks. Over the last year, Sydney house prices have increased by 13.1%. Median units in Sydney cost $717,899 – up 1.3% in the quarter, and 6.1% in the last year.
But don't worry renters, the news is terrible for you too! House rents increased to $550 a week, representing a 4.85% annual increase, and units aren't much cheaper at $530 a week, an annual increase of 6.1%.
Melbourne Median Melbourne house prices grew by 4% over the quarter to reach a new high of $843,674, while units grew 4.6% to reach $494,589.
House prices rose 15.2% over the year. Great. Median house rents are up 2.4% to $420 a week for the quarter and (blaze it) unit rents increased by 3.9%, reaching $395 a week.
Holy shit house prices actually declined in Brisbane. House prices fell 1.4% to $532,504 over the quarter, meaning prices grew by "only" 3.4% in the last year. The median unit price for Brisbane declined by 3.8% in the quarter to $376,760, the largest decline since December 2000.
And the rental market is "relatively steady" with house and unit rentals increasing by just over 1% in the quarter. Domain chief economist Andrew Wilson said the declines were due to a shitload of houses being built in Brisbane, pushing supply ahead of demand. I wonder if this would work in other states. Hmmm.THE US could be plunged into blackout after warnings that the country's power grid is vulnerable to a North Korean attack.
The Pentagon is rushing to protect the country's power lifeline amid escalating tensions with Kim Jong-un's plucky regime. Currently, defence officials are working on an "alternative communications network" in case of an attack. And worryingly for the Trump administration, North Korea has the capacity to launch an electromagnetic pulse (EMP).
GETTY THREAT: North Korea could be capable of wiping out America's power grid
Inside North Korea: The pictures Kim Jong-un doesn't want you to see Since 2008, photographer Eric Lafforgue ventured to North Korea six times. Thanks to digital memory cards, he was able to save photos that was forbidden to take inside the segregated state 1 / 62 Eric Lafforgue/Exclusivepix Medi Taking pictures in the DMZ is easy, but if you come too close to the soldiers, they stop you
“Such an attack could kill nine of 10 Americans by starvation and societal collapse” Former director of the CIA James Woolsey That's according to former director of the CIA James Woolsey. He recently wrote: "A single warhead delivered by a North Korean satellite could blackout the national electric grid and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures for over a year. "Such an attack could kill nine of 10 Americans by starvation and societal collapse." Woolsey urged President Trump to urgently modernise the country's defences. He added: "Launch a crash programme to harden against EMP attack and the US electric grid to preserve American civilisation and hundreds of millions of lives. "This could be a part of President Trump's infrastructure modernisation project."
It doesn't stop there, though. David Grantham, a fellow at the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis, said: “America’s adversaries recognise the advantage of electromagnetic pulse and promote it as a 21st century means of attack. "Iran mentions EMP over 20 times in its military doctrine. Evidence suggests that North Korea even simulated an EMP attack in 2013."
Revealed: Trump's NUCLEAR warship ready to strike Kim Jong-un The USS Carl Vinson has been despatched to Korean waters as a show of strength against Kim Jong-un. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has seen active duty in both Gulf wars 1 / 16 Getty Images The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is under the command of Captain Douglas C Verissimo
My HOLIDAY in North Korea: One man's time on Kim's tourist trail An inside view of North Korea 1 / 30Please enable Javascript to watch this video
SALT LAKE CITY -- Former and current members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hiked up Ensign Peak on Saturday as part of what they called a “resignation event.”
Last year, about a hundred people met at the trailhead to resign from the LDS church together, saying they no longer believed in its practices.
“Resignation from the church is a huge deal for a lot of people because it’s a complete life change when people leave the LDS religion,” said Joshua Kaggie, who resigned from the church last year.
He was joined by about 50 others for the half-mile trek to the top, which he said was more about uniting a group of former church members, rather than dividing them from current ones.
“Often times people’s family and friends will leave them,” Haggie said. “And so, they have to figure out a whole new social life, so one of the reasons we’re coming here today is so ex-Mormons can meet other ex-Mormons.”
Joining him was church member Brooke Swallow of Orem, who cited the church’s stance on social issues, like same-sex marriage, for her departure.
“Seeing that my friends who are affected by this decision are suffering, and just my own personal beliefs about social issues, I just didn’t want to be a part of that anymore,” Swallow said.
In a statement, LDS Church spokesman Ruth Todd said, “We regret when people leave the church, but our arms are always open, and we hope to welcome them back again someday."
Todd could not say approximately how many people resign from the church on a yearly basis. According to their website, the church has more than 14 million members worldwide.We’ve all learned by now that, thankfully, anyone voting against LGBT rights is clearly on the wrong side of history. However, it seems that some hard-headed lawmakers have yet to get that memo. One such person is Montana’s Representative Tom Berry (R-Roundup), who (along with Rep. Dave Hagstrom, who we wrote about earlier this week) voted against SB 107, which would (finally) decriminalize homosexuality. Now, since Lawrence vs. Texas made all sodomy laws null and void, this might seem like a no brainer. After all, what are they going to do, round up (pun intended) every LGBT person in the states with these laws still on the books and throw us in jail? The outcome would be outrageous, and of course it likely (hopefully) would never happen, but, still, it is a matter of dignity and what is right. The idea that taxpaying, law-abiding citizens have to live with laws on the books that criminalize our very existences is outrageous, especially here in the year 2013.
Well, Berry is learning the hard way that his way is not the right way, as his vote against the bill has earned him a protest of his personal business, because his constituents obviously do not like being represented by such a hateful individual. Great job, citizens of Roundup. Hell, if the likes of Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck can bend and roll with the tides of the times, surely Tom Berry can as well. However, as long as he digs his heels in, he can continue to suffer professionally and financially.
Here’s the image:× Expand Photo by Denny Culbert
Jackie Miller loves that Mardi Gras runs late this year. It gives her more time to create the dozens of traditional Cajun country costumes, masks, and capuchons for the krewes who participate in the Courir de Mardi Gras surrounding her Iota residence.
On a mid-January day her home was already starting to fill with her handiwork.
“When it's early February, it's really rushed,” she said. “This year I have the whole month of February to work with.”
The Cajun country Mardi Gras, or courir, involves krewes that dress completely in costume and travel the countryside begging, performing skits, and singing. Some roam on horseback, others involve children, and, in most cases, a chicken is thrown.
It's a tradition dating back to the arrival of the Acadians in Louisiana, with some aspects reaching back to medieval France; and Miller remains at its heart.
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Miller creates costumes primarily for Tee Mamou, a group that travels the Iota countryside on Mardi Gras in addition to performing at nearby D.I.'s Cajun Restaurant and parading through town on Mardi Gras afternoon for the annual Iota Mardi Gras Festival. Everyone in the Tee Mamou krewe must be completely disguised in the traditional costume and be able to chant the Mardi Gras song in French, “which dates back to medieval times in France,” Miller explained.
The costumes consist of tall conical hats called “capuchons,” items meant to poke fun at French royalty. (Some South Louisiana krewes wear mortarboards as well to mock the well-educated.) “They mocked anybody of hierarchy and power,” Miller said.
The clothes were traditionally a combination of unused items commonly found around the house, but sewn together in ways that turned life topsy-turvy. “It's anything goes or anything that's not normal, like men dressing like women,” she explained. “When these people put these on, they become a different person.”
Once masked, these revelers would beg while performing for the wealthy. “They went around begging because they really needed the food,” Miller said. “Like the song says, it was the end of winter. They had a disguise because they didn't want people to know who they were, and the performance made it not charity. They felt like they were giving something back.”
Today, when Tee Mamou travels from house to house on Mardi Gras to “beg,” homeowners throw coins at the members and a live chicken that the revelers must catch, a ritual that may also serve as a rite of passage among young men and women. Later, the chickens are brought to the Frugé Barn in Iota for a communal gumbo.
The krewes-including the children's and women's krewes-also perform at D.I.'s during the week; and the men's krewe performs during the Mardi Gras Festival.
Miller insists that Tee Mamou is the oldest continually running Cajun country Mardi Gras in Louisiana; others paused their courirs for one reason or another, such as World War II. “[Tee Mamou members] have been dressing like this since the beginning,” she said. “They are the only ones who have never stopped doing the traditional Mardi Gras.”
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Miller began making costumes when her sons were young and participating in the nearby Egan Mardi Gras. When they grew older and moved to the Tee Mamou, word spread, and others began asking if Miller would create their costumes as well.
Today, her children and grandchildren participate in Mardi Gras; but she will also sew about fifteen to twenty costumes a year for others, each taking about five hours to create. Miller makes many more capuchons and masks, selling the extras at a booth at the Iota Mardi Gras Festival.
The costumes feature many different styles of fabric with pockets turned out and fringe added like stripes. Her sewing room contains reams of various fabrics in all styles and colors. “They're not hard to do because anything goes,” Miller said.
Many times krewe members purchase two costumes: one to wear throughout the day and one to change into for later performances if the first costume gets soiled-one of the initiations for new members is to be thrown into a pond.
The capuchon is a fabric-covered cone trimmed in the back to hide the neck. “You have to wear it low on your forehead and straight up and down,” said Miller.
Two window screens are used in the masks; they darken the face so others will not recognize the wearer. The eyes are placed low so that the wearer may be able to see through easily, and the
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Miriam Delgado was one of 700 workers making printer cartridges in the border city of Juárez for the American-owned printer and software company Lexmark. She's the main reason foreign companies choose to set up factories, also known as maquiladoras, in places like northern Mexico.
Workers like her will work for cheap, as little as $7 a day. After five years working a nine-hour shift on an assembly line, Delgado began pressing for a raise. Then, last week, she was fired.
Now Delgado is among some 70 former workers who've set up a protest camp outside Lemark, located just 10 miles south of the Texas border.
They claim they were fired soon after demanding higher pay. They say they're tired of struggling to provide for their families on a salary that, according to government figures, puts them below the poverty line.
"By the end of my pay period, I'm skipping meals so my kids can eat," Delgado says.
The workers in this region make a huge variety of products, from flat-screen TVs, to car parts to electrical fuses that power entire cities. But they're up against industry giants that fuel more than half a trillion dollars in trade between the U.S. and Mexico.
Poor wages aren't the only issue. Lexmark workers claim they have endured sexual harassment by their superiors and are given inadequate safety gear.
A spokesman for Lexmark wouldn't comment on worker allegations in Juárez saying instead that the company was committed to open and honest conversation with its employees.
Multiple Protests
Some 300 workers from at least three other Juárez maquiladoras are protesting similar conditions and have petitioned the state to authorize their effort to unionize.
"It's not just a fight between a worker and some maquiladora, it's a matter of the life that everybody deserves to live," says Elizabeth Flores, a labor attorney in Juárez.
She says worker discontent has been building for some time. After years of economic recession and a period of heavy drug violence, Juárez is finally recovering.
Today, factory jobs are plentiful. As industry grows in Mexico's interior, fewer people are migrating to northern states in search of work. All this has empowered workers in Juárez to speak out.
"If you talk to labor leaders and people of maquilas, they're very worried as to where the future labor force is going to come from," says Jerry Pacheco, president of the Border Industrial Association in southern New Mexico.
He recently wrote an editorial about the need to raise factory wages in Juárez as a way to attract workers. He also defends the maquiladora industry, which has been a key economic driver in this region for the past 50 years.
"It's not just the wage that they pay... a lot of these employees are getting two or three meals a day. They have sports activities, the maquila will sponsor a soccer team, for example," he says.
Still, multinational companies wield a lot of political influence, thanks in part to the millions of jobs they create on both sides of the border. And Mexican politicians have historically resisted the creation of independent unions.
One of the selling points about locating in Juárez, as listed on the website of a business consulting firm in El Paso, Texas, is a "cooperative, predominantly non-union workforce."
"Any sort of objective assessment would tell you that labor rights are not perfectly upheld in Mexico," says Chris Wilson of the Mexico Institute, part of the Wilson Center think tank in Washington.
Wilson says it is in the companies' best interest to build better relationships with workers.
"Ultimately the workers and the company have... a similar set of interests in that they both need to company to be successful," he says.Jamaica Tallawahs 132 for 5 (Shakib 54*, Gayle 45*, Tanvir 2-14) beat Guyana Amazon Warriors 128 for 6 (Mohammed 46*, Lynn 33, Wasim 2-12) by five wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Jamaica Tallawahs overcame a dramatic top-order collapse, that saw them slump to 2 for 4 in the first seven balls, to chase down 129 against Guyana Amazon Warriors at Sabina Park. Shakib Al Hasan and Chris Gayle, who batted at No. 7, put on an unbeaten 87-run stand to take Tallawahs home. Gayle had injured his back while fielding in the first innings and left the field in the 17th over, which meant he could not bat for the first 18 minutes of the chase. The win pushed Tallawahs to second on the points table, behind Amazon Warriors who have played seven games.
Two wickets from Sohail Tanvir within the first five balls and the run-out of Andre McCarthy, who failed to slide his bat in despite making his ground, in the first over left Tallawahs tottering. Their situation got worse when Kumar Sangakkara was adjudged caught behind off debutant Ali Khan's first ball, in the second over. The Kingston crowd was stunned and a padded-up Gayle was watching from the dressing room, counting down his minutes.
Andre Russell, batting at No. 6, put the chase on track by hitting a six and a four in the first four balls he faced. He clubbed a 15-ball 24 but was dismissed when Adam Zampa took a one-handed diving catch at backward square leg off Veerasammy Permaul at the end of the fifth over. To the crowd's respite, Gayle finally walked out with the score 45 for 5.
Shakib and Gayle, who has not opened the batting on just three other occasions in his T20 career, provided impetus from the outset - six boundaries were struck in the first 12 balls of their partnership. Tallawahs needed 50 runs from 13 overs at that stage with a required rate of under four. One boundary was hit in the next six overs but Tallawahs cantered to the target with 25 balls to spare.
After being inserted to bat, Amazon Warriors lost captain Martin Guptill, playing his last game of the season, for a duck.
Chris Lynn struck an 18-ball 33 and Jason Mohammed anchored the innings with a 51-ball 46 but a failure to put together substantial partnerships meant Amazon Warriors could only post 128. Dale Steyn finished with 2 for 31 and best bowler was Pakistan left-arm spinner Imad Wasim who bowled an economical spell of 4-0-12-2.Skate the streets of Center City and neighboring areas on Landskaters’ City Skates! These skates cover a distance of 10 to 16 miles and last from two to three hours. There are several stops along the route to allow for regrouping and socializing, and there's an extended midpoint water break.
Each skate follows a unique route laid-out by an experience skate leader and all skates start and end at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. City Skates range in difficulty level from intermediate through advanced, so there's a skate for everyone. For less experienced skaters, at least once a month we have the Recreational Roll, a shorter, slower skate.
You don't have to be a Landskaters member to participate in our skates. You just have to wear a helmet. We also strongly recommend you wear safety gear such as wrist guards and kneepads. Come join the fun!
City Skate and Recreational Roll Schedule
Sunday Recreational Roll:
10am - 12pm
Departs behind City Skate on the last Sunday of each month
April through September and as scheduled.
Entry level skate (6-8 miles)
Helmets required, pads and wristguards strongly recommended.
Please be able to skate in control and brake.
RECOMMENDED FOR FIRST TIME CITY SKATERS!
Sunday City Skate:
10am-12:30pm
Every Sunday, April through October.
Intermediate level skate (10-12 miles)
Meet at the bottom of the stairs in front of the Art Museum
Brisk but casual pace allows for socializing.
Tuesday Night City Skate
7pm-10pm
Every Tuesday April through October.
Advanced Skaters Only! (12-16 miles)
Meet at the top of the stairs in front of the Art Museum
Fast pace appropriate for experienced skaters
Disclaimer: Even if you do not join the club, please be advised that the USE of HELMETS is REQUIRED during events sponsored by Landskaters Inline Skate Club ("Landskaters"), including but not limited to its weekly city skates, and that Landskaters and National Skate Patrol Inc. ("NSP") strongly recommend that all participants in such events should carry medical and liability insurance and should wear full protective gear (i.e., helmet, wrist guards, kneepads, elbow pads, and, at night, reflective clothing and blinking lights). Please also be advised that there are particular inherent risks of injury involved in city inline skating, including, but not limited to: dangers arising from falls, equipment failure, collision with vehicles, bicycles, other skaters, and pedestrians, unexpected obstacles including potholes, manhole covers, grates, chains, trolley tracks, cobblestones, bad pavement, water, oil, debris, gravel, curbs, stairs, hills and inclines, severe injury and death. This list of possible risks is not comprehensive, because conditions on the street, including the weather and lighting, are constantly changing. Neither Landskaters nor NSP can accept any liability for the existence of any such risks. Ultimately, each skater is responsible for staying alert to potential risks and obeying all traffic regulations. Finally, Landskaters and NSP strongly recommend that all participants in Landskaters-sponsored events (including its city skates) should be in good health, should verify that their equipment is in good condition, and should possess and master a set of minimum skate skills before participating in such events: the ability to skate in control, especially on hills and in groups of skaters; to stop in traffic; to maneuver curbs; and to avoid obstacles).Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, once described as'most dangerous man alive', says biographical image could be violated
Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, is not known for shunning the spotlight.
For years the world's most wanted terrorist, he once claimed, in front of the television cameras, to have killed more than 1,500 people in the pursuit of Palestinian liberation.
But the Venezuelan revolutionary, serving life imprisonment for the murder of two French intelligence officials and their informant in 1975, seems to have decided that not all publicity is good publicity.
With the help of his wife, a French lawyer whom he married in prison, Sanchez – once described as "the most dangerous man alive" – is suing a Parisian production company over a three-part television drama he claims could violate his "biographical image".
Isabelle Coutant-Peyre has demanded that the producers hand over the master copy of the footage for her to check for errors and potentially make changes before it is broadcast on the French Canal+ channel.
Coutant-Peyre told a court in Nanterre last month that the drama, which has not yet been finished, would make her husband out to be the instigator of crimes for which he has not been found guilty.
"You'd have thought it was the prosecutor narrating... it's a film against Ramírez Sánchez," she said.
Lawyers for Film en Stock, meanwhile, insisted that handing over the film would signify a violation of its creative rights.
"How could we tarnish the image of Carlos when he himself has claimed to be behind almost 2,000 deaths?" the company's lawyer, Richard Malka, asked.
Daniel Leconte, the firm's owner and the producer of the three-part drama, said he had never allowed any of his subjects access to his material before it was aired.
"For us, this would be catastrophic," he said. "It would mean that every time we make a film we are giving our subjects the right to direct their own lives."
He said the film be presented clearly as a fictional interpretation of a real man's life and could not be taken as an attempt at a factual biography.
"As far as the facts are concerned, we know almost everything about him already," he said. "Carlos' own life actions destroyed his name. He doesn't need me for that."
A verdict in the case is due tomorrow.
Ramírez Sánchez, who was given his nickname after a copy of Frederick Forsyth's novel The Day of the Jackal was found in his belongings and mistakenly believed to be his, was wanted in at least five European countries at the peak of his infamy.
Eventually captured by French police while recovering from surgery in Sudan in 1994, he has been in prison ever since, having been sentenced in absentia to life in jail.
The 60-year-old is awaiting a new trial before a special anti-terrorism tribunal for other attacks in the early 1980s.The Kockums Crane in around the mid-1970s
The crane in February 2000
The Kockums Crane (Swedish: Kockumskranen) is Jay Williams’ 138-metre (453 ft) high gantry crane in the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea.[1] It was originally used at the Kockums shipyard in Malmö, Sweden.
History [ edit ]
It was built in 1973–74 and could lift 1,500 tonnes. The gauge of crane's rails was 175 metres (574 ft) and the rail length 710 metres (2,329 ft). The crane was used to build about 75 ships. Its last use in Malmö was in mid-1997, when it lifted the foundations of the high pillars of the Øresund Bridge.
The crane was first sold in the early 1990s to the Danish company Burmeister & Wain but the company went bankrupt before the crane could be moved.
The crane was a landmark of Malmö from its time of construction until its dismantling in the summer of 2002, when it was shipped to Ulsan, after being sold to Hyundai Heavy Industries for $1.[1] The Koreans have dubbed the crane "Tears of Malmoe", due to the notion that the residents of Malmö wept when they saw their crane being towed away.[1]
See also [ edit ]X Unable to play video. Neither flash nor html5 is supported!
Everyone has an aunt who spends all summer claiming they're like catnip to mosquitoes.
As it turns out, health experts believe mosquitoes actually do prefer certain types of people. Here are a few factors that may make you "mosquito bait."
1. Pregnancy
Pregnant women exhale more carbon dioxide, which attracts mosquitoes.
That's concerning because the mosquito-borne Zika virus poses a serious risk of birth defects if women get infected during pregnancy.
2. Exercise
After a run outside, expect to get a few mosquito bites. The's because the insects are attracted to lactic acid.
It's a compound produced after exercising, and mosquitoes love it.
3. Drinking Alcohol
Health experts think drinkers are more attractive to mosquitoes because alcohol raises our body temperature, and mosquitoes zero in on warm bodies.
4. Type O Blood
According to a study, people with Type O blood were 83 percent more likely to get bitten. Typically, people with Type A have the lowest risk.
So if you're more prone to bites, pick up some bug spray and keep the skeeters at bay!
RELATED: Genetically engineered mosquitoes to combat Zika
20 PHOTOS SEE PHOTOS Genetically engineered mosquitoes to combat Zika PIRACABA, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11 :A Biologist releases genetically modified mosquitoes in the city on February 11, 2016 in Piracicaba, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist works with genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist works with genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A biologist works on putting blood on iron plates to feed the females of the nursery that produces genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A biologist works on putting blood on iron plates to feed the females of the nursery that produces genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) PIRACABA, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11 :A Biologist releases genetically modified mosquitoes in the city on February 11, 2016 in Piracicaba, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist works with genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist works with genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist works with genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) PIRACABA, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11 :A Biologist releases genetically modified mosquitoes in the city on February 11, 2016 in Piracicaba, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: The Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, is producing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Campinas Daily are released 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito. These mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and win the battle because they were outnumbered. After the breeding season, the natural females lay eggs that are not genetically modified Zika virus transmitters. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist works with genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) PIRACABA, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11 :A Biologist releases genetically modified mosquitoes in the city on February 11, 2016 in Piracicaba, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist works with genetically modified male mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist works with genetically modified male mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist works with genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist works with genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist work with genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer.The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images) SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - FEBRUARY 10: Yira Paulino, an entomologist, works with Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus at a laboratory of the National Center for the Control of Tropical Diseases (CENCET) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on February 10, 2016. (Photo by Stringer /Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - FEBRUARY 10: Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus are seen at a laboratory of the National Center for the Control of Tropical Diseases (CENCET) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on February 10, 2016. (Photo by Stringer /Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE SHARE SHOW CAPTION + HIDE CAPTION –We had another great week of content surrounding everything Star Citizen. Did you miss anything? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Sunday, March 29th
Behind the Scenes: Bug Hunting QA
Monday, March 30th
Ten for the Chairman #58
Tuesday, March 31st
NEW Format! Meet the Devs with James Pugh – Gurmukh Bhasin
Wednesday, April 1st (Happy April Fool’s Day!!)
Around the Verse Episode 2654??
Far From Home – One Man’s Look at Flying Solo
Vault: Vanguard WIP
Pictures of Fish
Thursday, April 2nd
Around The Verse Episode 38
Reverse The Verse Episode 41
Year 3 Subscriber Perks Update!
Friday, April 3rd
Monthly Report: March
But wait…there’s more!
This is your last weekend to snag an Aegis Vanguard for your fleet! Sale ends Monday!
Relentless Predator: The Aegis VanguardI’ve seen the pilot episode of Defiance, and I’ve previewed the massively multiplayer online third-person shooter game. Both are launching this month as part of a huge collaboration between NBC Universal’s SyFy network and venture-backed game company Trion Worlds. And I’ll be honest. The content is good, but I still don’t know how this one is going to turn out. These two properties will share a common fate. They’re both going to succeed, or they’re both going to fail.
The magnitude of the gamble is unlike any other “transmedia” project involving both TV and game versions of the same entertainment property. The Wall Street Journal reported that the development costs alone on the video game are $70 million. That’s not hard to believe, considering Trion has raised more than $150 million and it has a team of 150 working on the game. Over five years, it’s easy to see how payroll costs alone could hit that number. Another 150 worked on the TV show at SyFy, and they all had to coordinate.
The story is set on Earth in the year 2046. It takes place after a massive alien ship, the Ark, crash lands on Earth. The aliens are seeking a refuge as they flee their own planet, but they make a mess of Earth. The ship terraforms the whole place, and it dumps seven unwanted alien races to live or fight among the surviving humans. The aliens brought with them a new resource, Gulanite, that everyone wants to control in a kind of gold rush. The game’s version of San Francisco is in a state of warfare. In Defiance, the races are living together in an uneasy truce.
The game launches on April 2 with a huge amount of publicity from NBC Universal and its owner Comcast. Players will become immersed in the game and, hopefully, become attached to the lead characters Joshua Nolan and Erisa during a two week mission. They will start in the Marin County headlands and work their way down to the Golden Gate Bridge, where the player will feel a “Planet of the Apes” moment at seeing the ruined state of the iconic bridge, said Nick Beliaeff, senior vice president of development at Trion Worlds, in an interview with GamesBeat. The game is one of the only ones that works across the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms.
“We’re so excited this labor of love is about to see the light of day,” he said.
An intriguing pilot
After two weeks in the game, Nolan and Irisa will leave San Francisco and drive to the St. Louis arch, which is also in a ruined state after an alien spaceship crash lands on Earth. In the town of Defiance, where the TV show takes place, the aliens and humans are trying to live together. The movement of the characters from the game to the TV show is what transmedia theorists call a “touch point.” It’s a place where the fans of one medium could cross over and become fans of the same story in another medium. It is the hook to draw us into Nolan and Erisa (pictured right, Nolan played by Grant Bowler; Irisa played by Stephanie Leonidas). The touch point can work in either direction. It can pull the TV fans into the game or vice versa. If it happens right, like with the Harry Potter films and games, it’s a gold mine.
“We’re not binary when it comes to entertainment,” Beliaeff said at a recent event in Las Vegas. “We have touch-points. We don’t care how you get into Defiance, through the TV show or the game. We just want you in Defiance.”
The TV pilot is finished and set for its debut on April 15. Altogether, the first season will have 13 episodes. Some are done and some aren’t, said Michael Nankin, directing producer at SyFy, in an interview with GamesBeat.
You can play the game without ever watching the show and vice versa, but as TV series goes on, some characters will leave the show and transition into the game. Global issues affect both worlds, as the show is set in St. Louis and the game is based in the San Francisco area. The sci-fi show has the flavor of a western, but Nankin describes it more as an immigrant drama. The pilot has some slow parts, but it drew me in. The acting was good, the story had tension, combat, and comic relief. The show also set in motion a number of mysteries that will unfold in future episodes. I liked the episode, but I can’t say it’s going to hold my attention for a whole season in competition with so much other entertainment. It has a large cast and is tightly woven for a two-hour episode.
So how is the game?
But the game, by definition, is non-linear, with hundreds of hours of content and enormous territories for the players to roam over. You can run around on foot, but more likely you’ll want to ride an all-terrain vehicle. I’ve played the game several times, watching it move from an unpolished state to nearly finished. Last week, I played the version that players will see.
In the third-person shooting game, you can take on a wide variety of roles, including medic and machinist. I walked into a battle as a machinist with a sniper rifle and a machine gun. The graphics in the PC version look a lot sharper than on the consoles. But titles like Crysis 3 definitely look better.
I happened to materialize in the middle of a bridge. I tried to ride over it, but faced a roadblock by a bunch of mutants. I retreated and used my sniper rifle against them. They were not particularly hard to kill as they stood out in the open. But they did have a nasty habit of scooting to the side whenever I had them in my gun sights. The artificial intelligence was limited but passable. While one set of mutants fired at me, another would occasionally rush me with the mission of slicing me in two.“We have received a lot of inquiries over the past few days following some social media buzz and postings about the upcoming launch of Fenty Beauty by Rihanna… The conversations seemed to have spiked after a post about the brand’s makeup artist search. Fenty Beauty has officially partnered with James Vincent, who is leading the charge on their search for a Global Makeup Artist for Fenty Beauty. This is the only official information posted from the brand since the announcement of the launch in Spring of 2016. Any other post and/or chatter are from fan pages that are enthusiastically awaiting the launch and are unofficial and conjecture about the launch. We are just as excited as the fans and promise the launch will be worth the wait. Stay tuned for Fall 2017.”Welcome to USA TODAY's coverage of the National League Division Series.
In an almost unprecedented night of two winner-take-all games in the NL, the Brewers edged the Diamondbacks to move on to the NLCS. In the late game, aces Chris Carpenter outdueled Roy Halladay as the Cardinals upset the Phillies.
Recap of the Game 5's.
***
11:14: Carpenter throws 110 pitches, 70 for strikes. Whole infield hugs him.
11:09: Carpenter pitches 3-hit shutout. Phillie fans watch Howard carried off field. Fans aren't leaving. Still staring in disbelief.
11:08: Stadium is deth quiet qatching Cardinals celebrate. Howard is down on the ground. Manuel walks out to check on Hpward. Very eerie scene.
11:07: Howard hurts himself on ground out to Punto at second. Cardinals win.
11:06: If Cardinals win, the NLCS starts in Milwaukee
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fan of doing that on my iPad, so I'm overjoyed that my local library (here in metro Detroit) offers this awesome option.
It's a surprisingly generous offer, too: For most titles you get access to not just the latest issue, but also back issues. There's usually no limit on the number of magazines you can "check out," and they don't expire after a certain time period the way library e-books do. In other words, you get to keep them for as long as your account is active.
Here's how to get started with RBdigital, starting with what you'll need in order to read.
Dust off your library card
First, visit your local library's website (via your desktop browser) to see if there's any mention of RBdigital. If so, you'll need your library card number and password to get through the registration process, which should be accessible via that site. The process typically involves creating an account with RBdigital, the service that manages magazine loans for libraries.
With that done, check your inbox for an activation email from RBdigital and click the link to verify your account.
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
Eventually you should be looking the available catalog of magazines, the size of which can vary from one library to another. (Mine, for example, offers around 150 titles -- not every magazine I like, but a good mix overall.) If you see something you know you want to read, just click the cover and then the blue Checkout button. Pro tip: Before clicking that button, check the box marked Email me when the next issue is available. It's not quite as automated as a subscription -- you still have to manually check out each issue -- but it's close.
Consider the hardware
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
Next, figure out where and how you want to consume your digital mags. To my thinking, the best bet is a full-size tablet, meaning one with a screen that's at least 8 inches. I've used an iPad Mini, which is pretty good (so long as it has a Retina Display), but an iPad Air is better.
Ultimately, you want something with the highest resolution and largest screen you can get -- at least if you plan to consume magazines in their native format (meaning PDFs of the actual magazine pages). Thankfully, the RBdigital app offers a text view for many, if not most, titles, and it's a better implementation than I've seen before.
Typically, reading a magazine on a smartphone (or smaller tablet) means a lot of scrolling and zooming, which is far from ideal. But with one tap, the RBdigital app will switch you over to text mode, giving you larger print (in your choice of three sizes) nicely formatted for smaller screens. And it's not just raw text, either; photos get mixed in as well.
This mode definitely works better for longer stories; on pages with lots of little blurbs, the app doesn't always delineate between them well. I also noticed that in PDF view, at least on my tablet, it took a full second or so for each new page to come into focus. The previous app, Zinio for Libraries, was much faster.
Get the apps
The RBdigital apps are available for Amazon Fire, Android and iOS. Thankfully, the Fire version doesn't require side-loading like the Zinio app did.
Once it's installed, run the app, then sign into the RBdigital account you just created. Any magazines you've already checked out should be waiting for you. Alternately, you can tap the Menu button and then Magazines to explore the collection and choose titles to check out.
All this may vary a bit depending on your library, and different magazines may function a bit differently depending on where you read them. (Reading on a laptop, for example, still takes you to a Zinio-powered viewer.)
Bottom line: If you like magazines and want to read them for free, well, it's time to renew that library card.
Editors' note: This article was originally published on November 15, 2016, and has since been updated.× Big changes coming to Netflix; adding 50 new movies and deleting 80 others
NEW YORK (WGHP) – The next time you want to watch a movie from home, you may want to check that Netflix account again.
Netflix announced that it is adding 50 new movies this month for customers to watch.
However, 80 movies will be deleted from the service’s availability.
The movies will be soon be available are as follows:
Available July 1st:
“12 Angry Men” (1957)
“Bad Santa” (2003)
“Basic Instinct” (1992)
“Boyz N the Hood” (1991)
“City of God” (2002)
“Dead Man Walking” (1995)
“Fever Pitch” (1997)
“Funny Face” (1957)
“Gandhi” (1982)
“Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” (1989)
“Legends of the Fall” (1994)
“Patton” (1970)
“Philadelphia” (1993)
“Primal Fear” (1996)
“Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” (1991)
“The Karate Kid” (1984)
“The Karate Kid II” (1986)
“The Karate Kid III” (1989)
“The Manchurian Candidate” (2004)
“The Parent Trap” (1998)
“Under the Tuscan Sun” (2003)
“Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo” (2004)
Available July 4th:
“Knights of Sidonia” Season 1 (2014)
Available July 6th:
“Renoir” (2012)
Available July 9th:
“Homefront” (2013), “Out of the Furnace (2013)
Available July 11th:
“Hemlock Grove” Season 2 (2014), “The Battered Bastards of Baseball” (2014)
Available July 12th:
“Sleeping Beauty” (2014)
Available July 14th:
“Hitch” (2005), “The Master” (2012)
Available July 15th:
“The Last Days” (2013)
Available July 17th:
“Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures” Season 1
Available July 18th:
“Baby Daddy” Season 3, “Melissa & Joey” Season 3
Available July 19th:
“Hell on Wheels” Season 3
Available July 24th:
“Lost Girl” Season 4
Available July 26th:
“Christmas with the Kranks” (2004), “Continuum” Season 3
If one of your favorites is on this list, you may want to invest in a DVD.
These are the movies that will no longer be available to customers.
1) 10 Questions For The Dalai Lama
2) A Borrowed Life
3) A View To A Kill
4) AeonFlux
5) After Fall, Winter
6) Angel Heart
7) As Good as it Gets
8) Bad Company
9) Bang The Drum Slowly
10) Beavis And Butt-head Do America
11) Call Northside 777
12) Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
13) Chinatown
14) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
15) Comic Book Villains
16) Cotton Comes To Harlem
17) Death Wish 3
18) Death Wish 4
19) Desert Fox
20) Dr. Strangelove
21) Dragonslayer
22) Event Horizon
23) Evil Dead II
24) Fist Of The North Star
25) For Your Eyes Only
26) Freedom Writers
27) From Russia With love
28) Future By Design
29) Gattaca
30) Girl, Interrupted
31) Goldfinger
32) Hotel Rwanda
33) Howard Stern’s Private Parts
34) Killing Zoe
35) Lars and the Real Girl
36) Last Holiday
37) Less Than Zero
38) Live And Let Die
39) Look Who’s Talking
40) Look Who’s Talking Now
41) Look Who’s Talking Too
42) Monkeybone
43) Naked Ambition
44) Never Say Never Again
45) Nick Of Time
46) No Way Home
47) Only The Strong
48) Palo Alto
49) Party Monster
50) Point Blank
52) Poolhall Junkies
53) Resident Evil
54) Robinson Crusoe On Mars
55) Rocky
56) Rocky II
57) Rocky III
58) Rocky IV
59) Rocky V
60) Roger Dodger
61) Rubber
62) Some Time, Next Year
63) Spaceballs
64) Spanglish
65) Spirit Of The Marathon
66) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
67) Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
68) Stuart Saves His Family
69) Taxi Driver
70) Tentacles
71) The African Queen
72) The Dust Factory
73) The Little Prince
74) The Living Daylights
75) The Night Of The Living Dead
76) The Odd Couple
77) The Rat Race
78) The Running Man
79) The Terminator
80) Tokyo GodfathersMassachusetts legislators, toiling in secret to finalize a rewrite of the voter-passed marijuana legalization law, hit an impasse Thursday as they tried to iron out differences between a House version that would alter major parts of the ballot measure and a Senate bill with more modest changes.
“We’re stalled and we’re done for the night,” said Representative Ronald Mariano, the House majority leader and a top negotiator on the bill. “We haven’t scheduled a meeting for tomorrow.”
Supporters fear that a significant delay could thwart the expected opening of retail stores, aimed for July 2018. Lawmakers had hoped that a final recreational marijuana bill could be voted on by all lawmakers on Friday and sent to Governor Charlie Baker’s desk by the Legislature’s self-imposed deadline of Friday night.
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If lawmakers can find common ground, their bill would answer key questions about the future of legalization in the state. Here are six.
What’s the pot tax?
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Last year’s ballot measure, Question 4, put in place a relatively low state tax on marijuana purchases: 3.75 percent. In addition, the measure gave cities and towns the right, though not the mandate, to append an additional 2 percent tax that they could keep. When you add those to the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax, the maximum tax on marijuana purchases would be 12 percent, or $12 on a $100 pot brownie purchase.
According to rough estimates from the state Department of Revenue, that tax on recreational marijuana could generate a total of about $65 million in revenue in the first year of sales and about $130 million in the second.
That’s a significant sum. The state pot tax alone would more than cover the expected costs of regulating the industry, experts say.
The Senate bill would leave the tax scheme as is — as approved by voters.
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The House bill would ramp up both the state tax and the local tax, and make the local tax mandatory. With the state sales tax, the total pot tax rate would be 28 percent, or $28 on that $100 cannabis brownie purchase.
Senate leaders balked, saying that rate would ensure the black market remains, with people buying from dealers on the street and paying no tax at all. But top House officials said a 28 percent total tax would put Massachusetts in the middle of the pack with other legalization states and bring in enough money to cover not just regulation, but also more drug education and addiction treatment.
Who can ban local shops?
The ballot question, passed by 1.8 million voters, gave voters in each city and town the power to ban retail marijuana stores, farms, infused-product manufacturers (think: pot-infused candy makers), and testing facilities. It also required a referendum if residents in a particular community wanted to sharply limit the number of such facilities in a city or town.
The Senate version would clarify the procedures for such votes, but leave the power with residents.
The House version stripped residents of such power, instead giving it to local officials — something a key municipal group called common sense.
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“The House approach is much more desirable because it fixes significant flaws in Question 4,” said Geoffrey Beckwith, who leads the Massachusetts Municipal Association. “If the language goes forward as proposed in the Senate version or in Question 4, it will actually delay the rollout of the industry and create ongoing confusion.”
Who will appoint regulators?
The ballot question, as approved by voters, gave state Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg unilateral power to hire and fire the officials who will oversee the new billion-dollar industry, a three-person Cannabis Control Commission.
But both the House and the Senate bills would rob Goldberg of such autonomy. Both would expand the commission to five people and give the governor and attorney general the power to appoint, too. But there are differences on specifics. For example: Will most of the commissioners be paid or unpaid?
Regulators are “absolutely essential in a tax-and-regulate system,” said Andrew Freedman, who served as Colorado’s pot czar for three years and now runs a cannabis consulting firm focused on good government oversight and responsible industry practices.
Regulators will determine the success of the new industry. They will make rules on everything from signs in pot shop windows to the font size of warning labels on marijuana-infused cookies.
The infrastructure they set up will also help attract or discourage criminal activity.
Freedman said they are key to making sure a gray market doesn’t spring up in Massachusetts, in which people would legally grow marijuana and then illegally sell it in another state.
“There’s just a huge economic incentive to shift marijuana out of state,” Freedman said. So it’s key for regulators to create a “closed loop or else you are going to see a lot of out of state leakage and criminal activity.”
Can records of past pot crimes be destroyed?
The Senate bill would allow people to petition a court to destroy records of prior marijuana charges for incidents that are no longer illegal under current law.
Senators argued there’s no reason for past pot offenders to suffer harm, such as being turned away from a job, given that pot is now legal.
The House and the ballot question had no such provision.
Representative Mark J. Cusack, the House chairman of the Legislature’s marijuana committee, argued that a marijuana bill wasn’t the right place for such provisions.
Will the state end the right to grow and possess weed?
Almost certainly not. Both the House and Senate bills leave in place the right of adults 21 years of age and older to homegrow, buy, transport, possess, and use limited amounts of marijuana.
Will Baker sign the bill if he gets it?
Probably. He’s expressed openness to changes to the ballot question to protect public health and safety. But Charlie Baker ran on an oft-repeated promise not to raise taxes and has been careful not to box himself in, saying the tax rate should reflect the cost of implementing the new law, along with any secondary costs associated with adult-use pot.
“Governor Baker appreciates the Legislature’s careful consideration of the new marijuana law and will review the final legislation that comes to his desk,” said communications director Lizzy Guyton.
Baker, a Republican, will have 10 days to review the final bill if and when the Democrat-controlled Legislature sends it to his desk.
If the Legislature is unable to come to a compromise on its rewrite, the ballot question will remain in place.
Joshua Miller can be reached at [email protected]’m more bitter about whoever did the shittastic photoshop job on this pic. Don’t you forget that World of Wonder Productions approached ME (well my agent anyway) to do S4. So ok confessions- ya got me. I’m just a big pretender.
BUT HYPOTHETICALLY- How would you feel if someone told you to cancel 3 weeks worth of gigs and then you did and then they said 40 hours before “Nah…” after you may or may not have signed a document you may or may not even be allowed to even mention. Then, the people that made you sign that document wouldn’t even apologize or give you a check for their fuck up?
If that happened to me, I would speak ALL my truth in a book that would come out in 2014 i bet.
IF it were me. Not saying it’s me at all.
WILLAM
p.s. When I’m constipated, i sometimes think of you- and It helps.Blizzard is working on an "unannounced project that utilizes a robust first-person engine," according to two job listings on the company's US careers site.
The listings are for two lead software engineers, both specifically preferring workers with experience working on first-person games.
To date, Overwatch is the only first person game Blizzard has ever developed. It's not clear whether the project these job listings refer to is an expansion or sequel to Overwatch, or a new game altogether. Other series from the developer include World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone.
This isn't the first time Blizzard have advertised jobs for unannounced projects. Earlier this year, the company was after someone to lead the next Diablo project. In 2015, meanwhile, it was hiring an art director for an "unannounced project" in the Diablo universe.
Overwatch's latest big update is the introduction of Sombra, a new character capable of hacking other players' abilities. The base game, meanwhile, was very popular here at GameSpot--critic Mike Mahardy called it a "brilliant shooter," awarding it a 9. For more, check out our full Overwatch review.Rachel Nichols explains that Joel Embiid is talented, but if he continues to struggle with injuries, the 76ers will be in trouble. (2:18)
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid's five-year, $146.5 million maximum extension is essentially guaranteed but protects the franchise financially should Embiid suffer a contractually specific catastrophic injury, league sources told ESPN.
Embiid, 23, signed the rookie-scale max extension Tuesday, with the $146.5 million total for the deal based on the NBA's new salary-cap projections for the 2018-19 season.
For the Sixers to curb the ultimate value of the extension, it would take the triggering of several severe circumstances detailed in a 35-page-plus contract. Embiid's unique career trajectory -- missing his first two NBA seasons with successive foot surgeries and playing only 31 games in the 2016-17 season -- created a pathway for Philadelphia general manager Bryan Colangelo; Embiid's agents at CAA Sports; and the National Basketball Players Association to work together on creating a complicated and creative contractual agreement. The dramatic impact of Embiid's brief but dominant debut season left him as the only rookie since Wilt Chamberlain to average at least 28.7 points per 36 minutes played.
Here's how a perfect storm of calamity would have to unfold for Embiid to earn any less than the full $146.5 million: Across each of the final four seasons of the extension, ending with the 2022-23 season, the 76ers could waive Embiid for a financial benefit if he's lost because of a contractually agreed-upon injury that causes him to miss 25 or more regular-season games and if he plays fewer than 1,650 minutes, league sources said.
Specific injuries are laid out in the contract and include only past problem areas with Embiid's feet and back, sources said. Embiid has to miss 25 or more regular-season games because of injuries to those areas, and play fewer than 1,650 minutes, for Philadelphia to have the option of releasing him for cost savings.
Joel Embiid missed all of his first two seasons with injuries and was limited to 31 games last season, when he averaged 20.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game. AP Photo/Aaron Gash, File
For example, if Embiid hypothetically suffered a serious knee or wrist injury -- something outside the contractual language surrounding the feet and back -- the 76ers would have no avenue to waive Embiid to reclaim any portion of his salary. And given Embiid's rare talent, there's a belief that he'd have to suffer a career-ending injury to inspire the 76ers to release him.
If Embiid met that narrow criteria and the Sixers decided to waive him after the 2018-19 season, he would receive $84.2 million of his full contract; after the 2019-20 season, $98.2 million; after the 2020-21 season, $113.3 million; and after the 2021-22 season, $129.4 million.
What's more, if Embiid played a minimum of 1,650 regular-season minutes in three consecutive years during the extension, or three out of four including the 2017-18 season, those benchmarks would eliminate the possibility of a reduction in the contract, league sources said.
The first full season of Embiid's contract extension starts with the 2018-19 season and pays him $25.3 million, a salary that escalates a standard 8 percent per year until the 2022-23 season.
For Embiid to reach the threshold of the super maximum contract criteria -- which would pay him 30 percent of the salary cap and ultimately as much as $176 million -- Embiid must earn first-team All-NBA honors or be voted the NBA's Most Valuable Player in the 2017-18 season.
Despite missing his entire first two seasons with injuries and undergoing season-ending surgery that limited him to 31 games in 2016-17, Embiid showed the promise of being a transformational talent. He averaged 20.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game last season.
Embiid, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, had successive surgeries on his right foot that sidelined him in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. Surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee ended his 2016-17 season in March. Embiid has yet to make his debut this preseason but recently returned to full-contact participation in practices.
Embiid is expected to be ready to play for the Sixers on opening night on Oct. 18 against Washington but could initially face minute restrictions as part of the rehab process on his knee.
Embiid is the centerpiece of a Sixers revival that will include the debuts this season of the NBA's two previous first overall picks, Markelle Fultz and Ben Simmons. The Sixers signed two veteran free agents this summer, guard JJ Redick and forward Amir Johnson.A migrant boy stands in a puddle in a makeshift camp on the Greek-Macedonian border, near the village of Idomeni, Greece March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTSA8G9
Berlin (Reuters) - Mazedonien fühlt sich von der Europäischen Union in der Flüchtlingskrise im Stich gelassen.
“Ich habe verstanden, dass wir Europa egal sind”, sagte Präsident Gjorge Ivanov der “Bild” laut Vorab-Bericht von Freitag. Dabei bezahle sein Land in der Flüchtlingskrise jetzt “die Fehler der EU”. Als Nicht-EU-Land schütze Mazedonien Europa vor dem EU-Land Griechenland, das Flüchtlinge “einfach weitergeschickt” habe. Doch während die Regierung in Athen “jetzt schon wieder 700 Millionen Euro von der EU” bekomme, gebe es für sein Land “keinen Cent”. Mazedonien sei aus Sicht der EU “nichts, kein EU-Land, kein Schengen, keine Nato. Niemand will uns.” Während die Türkei am Verhandlungstisch mit der EU sitze, sei Mazedonien lediglich “Teil der Speisekarte”. “Wir waren schon immer Opfer der EU-Institutionen. 25 Jahre lang sind wir angelogen und manipuliert worden.”
Deutschland habe in der Flüchtlingskrise in der Frage der Humanität sehr gut gehandelt, aber beim Thema Sicherheit völlig versagt, sagte Ivanov. So besitze sein Land Informationen über mutmaßliche Dchihadisten und habe diese Informationen mit Deutschland und Europa austauschen wollen. “Aber keiner wollte unsere Daten. Man hat uns gesagt, ihr seid ein Drittland, wir dürfen die Daten nicht austauschen.” Auch bei technischer Hilfe habe sich die Bundesregierung verweigert, “Wir brauchten Ausrüstung für den biometrischen Datenabgleich. Deutschland hat immer alles abgelehnt.”
Das Westbalkanland ist seit 2005 EU-Beitrittskandidat. Am Mittwoch hatte es seine Grenzen für Flüchtlinge vollständig geschlossen. [nL5N16H1XD] Am Donnerstag hatte Verteidigungsminister Zoran Jolevski gesagt, nach den Maßnahmen der mazedonischen Regierung zur Eindämmung der Flüchtlingsströme nach Nordeuropa hoffe man auf eine rasche Mitgliedschaft in der Nato.Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamHouse to push back at Trump on border Trump pressures GOP senators ahead of emergency declaration vote: 'Be strong and smart' This week: Congress, Trump set for showdown on emergency declaration MORE (R-S.C.) late Wednesday sought to explain his reluctant support of former rival Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzTrump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Trump endorses Cornyn for reelection as O'Rourke mulls challenge MORE (R-Texas) in the Republican presidential race over controversial front-runner Donald 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.
"I don't dislike Ted. Ted and I have a lot of differences," Graham started during an appearance on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah," dryly quipping of his own explanation, "I'm getting better at this."
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"He was my 15th choice. What can I say?" Graham cracked up.
"One, he's not completely crazy," Graham continued of Cruz, comparing him to Trump.
When the host pointed out that the senator was suggesting Cruz was "partially crazy," Graham responded, "That works in Washington. You've got Bernie."
Graham, who has been a vocal opponent of Cruz, has come out in support of the Texas senator given his more outspoken opposition to Trump.
Graham hosted a fundraiser for Cruz earlier this week, after which Cruz joked that God "can still do miracles.” Establishment GOP figures such as Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush have also recently backed Cruz, an anti-establishment crusader, over Trump.
Illustrating his disapproval of Trump during his "Daily Show" appearance, Graham joked that the billionaire real estate tycoon would have a problem with the South African comedian.
"Are you a citizen?" Graham asked Noah at one point in the show.
"I'm not, why?" Noah asked.
"Do you have a green card?" Graham continued.
"I do not."
"If I were you, I'd be in a hurry," Graham said, sparking laughter from Noah. "If Trump wins, your days are numbered, pal. Young, black, liberal guy from Africa is not going to work with him."Three Los Angeles County deputies were relieved of duty, and two of them were arrested following an off-duty shooting incident near La Mirada Regional Park, authorities said Friday night.
Judith Gonzalez, 36, was arrested on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon. Adrienne Myers, 35, was arrested on suspicion of felony battery. The third deputy, who was not arrested, was not identified.
No one was hit by gunfire in the early Friday incident, but one of the three deputies was treated and released for injuries at a hospital. The name of that deputy was not released.
Deputy Pete Gomez of the sheriff's media bureau said he could not say what happened at the park during the predawn incident, but that brandishing or pointing a gun could be charged as an assault.
"I don't know if there was an argument, I don't know if there was a fight. I do know this will be thoroughly investigated," he said.
Bail was set at $50,000 for each deputy arrested.
ALSO:
Seal Beach shooting: D.A. expects an insanity defense
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L.A. schools need billions in facilities upgrades, report finds
-- Gale Holland
Image: Map shows the approximate location of where three off-duty sheriff's deputies were detained in La Mirada. Source: Google MapsAustralian Defence Force to begin releasing Syria, Iraq airstrike targets in fortnightly reports
Updated
The Australian Defence Force will start publishing fortnightly reports on the air strikes it carries out in Syria and Iraq, including bombing targets and locations.
Concerns had been raised about a lack of transparency from Australian authorities regarding the nation's role in the international coalition fighting terrorist group Islamic State.
Defence announced its decision after the US-led coalition released its civilian casualty report on May 1, which found at least 352 people had been killed by coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria since 2014.
Defence said Australian strike aircraft had been involved in two 2014 incidents that resulted in "credible claims" of civilian casualties, but said the claims were not substantiated.
Reports on air strikes will be published from next week and will summarise "the targets and locations in Iraq and Syria struck by Australian aircraft".
"This decision comes after weighing the importance of reporting ADF air strikes in Iraq and Syria against the potential propaganda advantages it might provide Daesh and any risk to the safety of ADF personnel on operations," Defence said in a statement.
It will allow independent groups to compare claims of civilian casualties against the times and places of Australia's strikes.
Airwars, a non-government organisation set up to hold nations accountable for civilian deaths from airstrikes, described Australia as one of the least-transparent coalition members.
Defence said it "takes all allegations of civilian casualties seriously".
"All ADF personnel operate under strict rules of engagement designed to minimise the dangers to civilians and comply with Australia's obligations under international law."
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, defence-and-national-security, defence-forces, air-force, government-and-politics, world-politics, australia, syrian-arab-republic, iraq
First postedPhoto
The acclaimed composer Stephen Sondheim is at work on a new musical with the playwright David Ives (“Venus in Fur”) based on two renowned films by the Spanish director Luis Buñuel, “The Exterminating Angel” and “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.” The Public Theater and the film and theater producer Scott Rudin are producing the work; the Public’s artistic director, Oskar Eustis, said on Saturday that the Public planned to mount the show at some point in the future.
“We will do it whenever Steve tells us to,” Mr. Eustis said.
Mr. Sondheim, who has won Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize in drama for his works, which include the lyrics for “West Side Story” and “Gypsy” and the full scores for “Follies,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Sunday in the Park with George,” and “Into the Woods,” confirmed the new project during an appearance on Friday night at the New Yorker Festival.
Describing by the two surrealist films by Buñuel, Mr. Sondheim noted at the event that “Discreet Charm” involved a group of people trying to find a place to dine together, and “Exterminating Angel” centers on people who finally dine – and are trapped afterwards in hellish circumstances. Mr. Sondheim, who was being interviewed by the New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik, said that he and Mr. Ives had just finished a first draft of the musical.
Reached by phone on Saturday, Mr. Sondheim said he didn’t want to say much more about the shape of the musical. The idea has been with him for many years, he said, and turned to it late last year as he and Mr. Ives decided to stop work on another project, at least temporarily.
“I mentioned this idea I had, and David knew the movies and was enthusiastic,” Mr. Sondheim said. “We looked at the films again and started working.”
Mr. Eustis said that he has been talking to Mr. Sondheim about what the composer might do next ever since the Public’s 2008 production of “Road Show,” Mr. Sondheim’s last major new musical. Mr. Eustis declined to describe the new work in any detail but spoke about its inspiration.
“The movies are two of Bunuel’s most brilliant films, and what I adore about them – and what I think Steve and David responded to – are that they are masterpieces of surrealism and masterpieces of political commentary,” Mr. Eustis said. “To be able to combine those two impulses – it’s as if Brecht met Dali – you have an artist in Buñuel who helped create the surrealist aesthetic and uses it to make a social critique of the bourgeoisie class. Sondheim and Ives saw ways to weave the two films together that are really thrilling conceptual insights.”
Mr. Sondheim, asked if the musical’s focus would be a critique of the well-to-do, said: “I don’t think in terms of themes. Oskar is a terrific dramaturge, but I don’t want to say more other than we like the story very much.”
In the years since “Road Show,” Mr. Sondheim, who is 84, was focused on completing a two-volume collection of his lyrics, which includes anecdotes and observations about writing and theater; the books were published to much critical praise in 2010 and 2011. Mr. Ives was nominated for a Tony Award for best play in 2012 for “Venus in Fur,” and is the author of the play “All in the Timing” and the books for several musicals. He also co-wrote the book for “White Christmas.”With Pakistan’s civilian government and judiciary showing renewed signs of life, it’s time for them to ask the question the country has been avoiding for nine months: How did Osama bin Laden, the world’s leading terrorist, hide out in a military garrison city near Islamabad without anyone knowing?
To ask this question is not to accuse the Pakistani military or intelligence service of wrongdoing. So far, no “smoking gun” has emerged. But many puzzling issues surround bin Laden’s stay in Abbottabad for six years. Nobody should want them answered more than Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the chief of army staff, who would gain new credibility at home and abroad by allowing such a probe.
Gen. Mike Hayden, the former CIA director, sums up a feeling that’s widespread among both Americans and Pakistanis when he says: “Without being accusatory, I think it’s certainly in Pakistan’s interest to clear the air.”
Implausible as it may sound, U.S. officials say that they don’t have any evidence that Kayani or other top Pakistani officials knew of bin Laden’s presence before the May 2 raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader. This assessment is based on the review of materials taken from bin Laden’s compound, plus the reactions of Kayani and other officials the night of the raid.
What makes an investigation seem possible now is that the Pakistani government, often under the military’s thumb, has been asserting its independence. The parliament has been examining how to “reset” the U.S.-Pakistan relationship; the Supreme Court has indicted Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in a corruption scandal and, notably, has scolded the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate for its treatment of prisoners; and President Asif Ali Zardari has managed to stay in power despite perpetual rumors that the military wants him out.
To lead Pakistan out of its wilderness of mirrors, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry should form a special commission to examine the loose ends of the bin Laden story. Based on conversations with U.S., Pakistani and other officials, here are some questions that deserve answers:
●How did bin Laden come to Abbottabad in 2005, and what did Pakistani officials know about his whereabouts? Kayani was ISI chief at that time, but the dominant figure was President Pervez Musharraf, the former army chief. The commander of the military academy at Abbottabad starting in 2006 was Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj, who succeeded Kayani as head of the ISI in 2007.
●Who owned the compound in 2005, and how was it readied for the new guest? I’m told that the original property records have disappeared, so the answers here are murky. But one intelligence source tells me that the architect who worked on the compound was regularly employed by the ISI; the architect reportedly was told only that a “highly placed VIP” was coming.
●What about the recent claim by former general Ziauddin Butt, former chief of the ISI, that the Abbottabad safe house was used by the Intelligence Bureau, another Pakistani spy agency? According to a December report in the Pakistani press, Butt said that bin Laden’s stay at Abbottabad was arranged by Brig. Gen. Ijaz Shah, head of the bureau from 2004 to 2008, on Musharraf’s orders. A Pakistani journalist named Arif Jamal recently published an article describing Shah as bin Laden’s “handler.”
●Whom did bin Laden contact while he was at Abbottabad? Though materials taken from the compound don’t show direct links with top Pakistani officials, U.S. analysts have found evidence that the al-Qaeda chief communicated with Mohammad Omar, leader of the Taliban, and with the Kashmiri militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba. The ISI is thought to monitor both groups closely; how did the messages slip through the net?
●What about the rumor that bin Laden was suffering from kidney failure and required dialysis? This canard was repeated for years, notably by Musharraf. CIA analysts were always dubious, and no dialysis machines were found at Abbottabad. So was this a deliberate piece of misinformation? And what about bin Laden’s claim in November 2001 to Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir that he had nuclear and chemical weapons? Was that a
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MADISON, Wis. - Madison police said a 29-year-old Stoughton man is dead after a shooting early Tuesday morning.
Police were called to the scene of a shooting on the 2000 block of Adderbury Lane around 3:15 a.m. where they found a man with an apparent gun shot wound inside a car.
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said officers found at least a dozen shell casings at the scene.
"It does appear the gunfire centered on the person behind the wheel and the car," Koval said. "But this does not appear to be some random act. This was definitely targeted." Police said they have had at least three previous contacts with the victim in the past.
Koval said when officers arrived, they attempted to perform life saving measures on the victim, but were unsuccessful.
One person dead after shooting on Madison's west side
"We have a young victim that was gunned down in an otherwise sedate, nice neighborhood," Koval said.
Koval said the shooting was Madison's 8th homicide of the year. Koval said the victim was an African-American man, and that no one is in custody in connection with the shooting.
Despite multiple reports of gunshots, Koval does not think any buildings nearby the shooting suffered any damage. However, officers will canvass the neighborhood to determine if bullets hit any homes.
A tent was erected over the body following the shooting, but remained on the scene at 6:30 a.m. Koval said he expect the body to be taken by the medical examiner once all forensic evidence is removed.
Koval said that Madison remains a very safe town by most standards, but the amount of homicides in 2017 is an indication of the problems of gun violence that are happening nationwide.
"I don't see any way to stop the flow of gun violence unless we do something radically different," Koval said. "We have to get the point where we stop erecting tents around corpses, We have to eliminate the perception that Madison is unsafe."
A neighborhood meeting about recent violence in the neighborhood is scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Elver Park Neighborhood Center at 1201 McKenna Boulevard.Police in Australia plan to charge a man who drove his aircraft down the main street of an outback mining town and parked it at the local pub.
The 37-year-old drew laughs and praise from locals of Newman, Western Australia after he taxied his Beechcraft two seater prop-driven aircraft from one side of town to the other at 2.30pm before coming to a stop outside the Newman Hotel’s Purple Pub, a popular local pub. He then apparently went inside for a drink.
Police said the man’s behaviour was “pretty stupid” and he will face charges, if an appropriate offence can be found.
"People think it was a bit of a laugh but it was very dangerous and we're not very happy with it," said Mark McKenzie, the local police sergeant.
"Kids were coming home from school. It could have been very ugly. All he needed was one gust of wind... because without the wings, it's not stable… It was a pretty stupid thing to do.”
The light aircraft did not have wings and reportedly had its propeller running and was being steered by foot pedals. Locals believe the incident, which occurred last Friday, was a prank, possibly for Halloween.
"It's certainly caused a lot of banter and a fair few laughs... we've no idea where it came from, but it's now parked up in the car park of the pub," witness George Christianson told local media.
"It's definitely been the cause of a lot of chatter."
Police said the man passed a breath test for alcohol and did not cause any traffic accidents or try to avoid arrest.
"I'm confident that he will be charged with something soon," said sergeant McKenzie.
"I would assume there would be an offence under the criminal code that may fit the bill.”Ariel has released a one-off police version of its trackday car, the Ariel Atom, following a tie-up between itself, the Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the Safer Rider campaign.
The Ariel Atom PL is based on the regular Atom 3.5R, but its Honda engine has been tweaked to produce 350bhp instead of the standard 245bhp, meaning the Police Atom will go from 0-62mph in 2.6 seconds. It also features a police livery plus functioning sirens and blue lights.
Ariel will launch a motorbike later this year, and company director Simon Saunders said he had - like other manufacturers who have also lent their cars to the police to highlight road safety - got the company involved with the Somerset-based Safer Rider campaign to raise awareness among motorcyclists about road safety.
"Our business is about going fast, very fast, but there is a time and a place," said Saunders. "The Atom is designed to be driven to a race track, where you can drive to your limits in safety and in a professional environment designed for the purpose. The road really isn’t the place to explore your or your vehicle’s limits.
"We're just about to launch an all new Ariel motorcycle and we want our bikes and customers to be as safe as they possibly can be as well, so this message is important to us. There’s always one certain loser in a motorcycle collision and that’s the motorcyclist."
Click here for more of the world's best and worst police cars.President Serzh Sarkisian said on Thursday that he expects his incoming new cabinet to embark on sweeping reforms that would “give new impetus to economic development” as he commented on his decision to change Armenia’s prime minister.
Sarkisian said his choice of the new prime minister, Karen Karapetian, has agreed to “lead a great wave of changes” designed to address popular disaffection with the socioeconomic situation in the country.
“The new government must restore the broadest trust in the authorities and find unconventional solutions for our economy and public life, which will … bolster Armenia’s positions in the region,” he told senior members of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).
Sarkisian said the main task of Karapetian’s cabinet, which will be formed in the next few weeks, will be to implement the kind of reforms that would significantly improve the domestic business environment.
The outgoing prime minister, Hovik Abrahamian, promised to speed up such reforms in May. Abrahamian, who was appointed prime minister more than two years ago, defended his track earlier in the day. He admitted, though, that his cabinet has failed to address many of the country’s socioeconomic woes.
Many Armenians have not felt any improvements in their lives despite faster economic growth registered by the government during Abrahamian’s tenure. Some have been hit hard by a sharp drop in remittances from their relatives working abroad and recession-hit Russia in particular.
Both Abrahamian and Karapetian attended a late-night meeting of the HHK’s governing board that discussed “substantial” personnel changes in the government promised by Sarkisian.
An HHK statement said Karapetian assured the board members that he will present a plan of government actions that will consist of two parts. “The first part will contain possible quick changes and successes that could instill some [popular] trust and faith towards the program, while the second party will lay out a vision for the long-term development of our country,” it said without elaborating.
The incoming premier was also cited as pledging to discuss the plan with economists, Armenia’s leading businesspeople, and “anyone else interested in this topic.” He declined to talk to journalists after the HHK meeting.
Karapetian, 53, has mainly lived in Russia for the past six years, holding senior executive positions in Russian subsidiaries of the Gazprom gas giant. He had managed Armenia’s Gazprom-controlled gas distribution network before serving as mayor of Yerevan from 2010-2011.This article is from the archive of our partner.
After a tumultuous summer for Bitcoin, the digital currency's value has not only stabilized but, over the last month, increased. On a Sunday afternoon in June the price of a Bitcoin dropped from over $17 to pennies. Now, as Ars Technica's Timothy B. Lee pointed out, the price rose above $4 for the first time in months. The currency looked doomed back in June. But, looks like it's not over yet.
Bitcoin hasn't just surpassed some arbitrary price point. It has had a stable month, steadily increasing throughout December, as the chart via Bitcoincharts.com below shows.
Keep in mind, this is all after a crazy volatile year and a half. With a value below 14 cents in April 2010, the currency achieved "dollar parity" by February 2011. In June it had soared to about $27. And then it thudded down to pennies. In that context, Lee explains what makes this rise impressive:
The original run-up in prices could easily be explained as a speculative bubble, and the subsequent decline as the popping of that bubble. But if that were the whole story, then the value of Bitcoins should have continued to decline as more and more people lost confidence in the currency. That hasn't been happening.
There are plenty of reasons Bitcoin doesn't make sense as a currency: It's complicated; has no real value behind it; it hasn't proven stable; it's not widely accepted; it's hard to keep track of. No, thanks.Be a gem and adventure with your friends while wearing one of our officially licensed Steven Universe Costumes! If you’re ready to help save the world this Halloween, our Steven Universe Halloween costumes are perfect for you! Be sure to complete your Steven Universe costume with a Steven mask, and a shield. Whether you are heading to a convention or want to represent your favorite TV character at your next Halloween party, Spirit Halloween will be a great resource for Steven Universe costumes that are sure to make your dreams come true!
Steven Universe Costumes
Calling all cartoon fans! If you’re looking for the perfect Steven Universe Halloween Costumes, you’ve come to the right place! Rest assured that we have only the most authentically designed Steven Universe costumes, so you’ll stand out in every crowd this year! Turn Halloween into the adventure you’ve always dreamed of when you team up with your pals Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst!
Shop all of our TV, Movies & Gaming costumes, and you can transform yourself into your favorite character this Halloween!by
Hey, I just want to tell you that… your PhD matters.
Yes, it does matter.
Who the $%&@# cares about my PhD? What am I achieving with it? Will my PhD mean anything for the world?
I asked myself these questions every single day of that PhD.
Do you ask yourself the same?
Then keep reading…
Your PhD Matters
People often wonder why I still write in Next Scientist. This is a blog for PhD students and young scientists and I have been away from Academia for 2 years. Why should I write for academics if I am long gone from Academia?
Two reasons: I like to write and I want to help PhD students.
People tend to understand the writing part. If some folks like to read, there must be people that like to write.
The helping PhD students part disorients them more.
Why do you help PhD students? Where do they need help? Aren’t they smart? Can’t they figure it out themselves?
Look, a PhD student is a human being. A smart human being. But human after all, with its virtues and flaws.
Among those flaws there are insecurities, fears, procrastination, entitlement, and others. We all have those, PhD or no PhD. This means a lot of room for improvement.
All these flaws limit the potential and impact of people.
If you doubt yourself at every step. If you waste time on Facebook instead of doing good work. You won’t give the best of you. You are half-assing your output.
We all waste our talent to some extent.
I do, daily.
What frightens me is the amount of talent wasted if a PhD student decides to binge on procrastination. Think of how much quality work we lose if a PhD student decides to quit her PhD or to be employed as a janitor after graduation (with all due respect to the janitors out there).
As PhD student you are already an accomplished person and most likely you are very smart (yes, if you arrived till here you are smart, trust me). I don’t want the talent of some of the smartest people out there to go to waste. That would be a loss for the world.
It might not feel like that, but your PhD matters.
The World Needs Your PhD
It pisses me off that nobody talks about how much we need PhD students to invent the future and how much they are changing the world today.
When you read or watch media out there, who do you find being talked about like that? Who does media see as the transformative power our society needs?
Entrepreneurs.
Screw Entrepreneurs, PhDs Are The Heroes
I read plenty of blogs and books about technology, online trends, self-improvement, educational, and the like.
I get bombarded with the message that being an entrepreneur is cool, that you need to create a company before you reach 30. If I don’t read in your Twitter bio “serial entrepreneur” you suck.
I hear that entrepreneurs will save the world’s biggest problems with their ideas, dreaming big, taking bold risks, creating your own destiny, contributing to the economy with your own business.
Heard of Elon Musk? The Google guys?
You only hear those stories of entrepreneurs that risk everything, work 100 hours a week and follow their guts till they succeed. These outliers are great material for Hollywood movies and news articles that will be shared in social media. But they are not representative of the success rate of entrepreneurs.
In fact most entrepreneurs fail.
Anyhow, I am going on a tangent here. Let’s see get closer to PhD students.
On which knowledge are entrepreneurs building on?
If nobody had done research in network communications, we wouldn’t have Internet today. And without Internet there would be no social network startups with billion dollar valuations.
If nobody had done research in relativity theory, no research would have been possible in GPS. And without GPS, Foursquare would just be the Yellow Pages and Uber a taxi company listing freelance drivers.
Let’s not forget that behind new startups there are many years of research mostly conducted by PhD students and young scientists.
I am not saying we don’t need entrepreneurs. Don’t get me wrong.
We need entrepreneurs to commercialize and turn our discoveries into commodities. Let’s admit it, most of us have the business skills of a 2 year-old toddler. It is obvious we need each other.
What about the risks?
Entrepreneurs take the risks, some say. My ass they take risks.
Sure, entrepreneurs spend the $15K they have managed to save in the last 2 years. They work their ass off for a year and a half. Then they borrow some money.
If they are extremely lucky they make it big. In most cases the business won’t succeed, they will call it a failure, write a blog post on how educational failure is, fill in for bankruptcy and move on the next adventure. Hey, and don’t forget to say that you will learn from your failures.
Pat yourself in the back.
That’s cute. Now let’s see the risks a PhD student takes.
The Risks Of Doing A PhD
Financial risk…
In some countries a PhD student walks out of grad school with $100K+ in debt.
How’s that for putting your money where your mouth is?!
Other PhDs receive a scholarship that feels like a minimum wage, just enough to get by. In that case you can consider yourself lucky, because many people do a PhD without getting a compensation.
Then you work like crazy for 4+ years. You spend until your late 30’s jumping from postdoc to postdoc to the next temporary position.
How’s that for taking one for Team Science?
If you are extremely lucky and close to a genius you make it big in science, not in millions of dollars, but in your impact to humanity.
Emotional risk…
The most likely scenario is that in your late 30’s you realize the best years of your life are gone.
You have no money or are still in debt.
You still haven’t built your own family. Your personal and social life is like a wasteland.
You have lived in more countries that you can count with your hand since you started climbing the Academic ladder.
But you cannot call for bankruptcy and start again, can you? Can you go back to square one? Sure, as a janitor, go ahead.
Career risk…
You end your stint in science being overqualified and old.
How often do you read “overqualified” and “old” in job descriptions?
You can handle difficult tasks, on your own terms, you are the one that calls the shots in your research. While that is the nice part of doing science, it hinders finding an alternative job that fills you up.
How many jobs offer intellectually stimulating tasks at PhD level, where you can call the shots as a new hire?
Let’s not get all negative.
The Travelling PhD syndrome
At least you have seen the world, right? You’ve lived in those different cities, different countries hoping from postdoc to postdoc.
So much travelling sounds terrific for vacation, but not so much to settle down in a place. It creates the syndrome “dude, where did my roots go”, or also known as “I don’t know where I belong anymore”.
You might decide to go back home to your motherland, but you’ve been away so long that you can’t belong there anymore.
If you are a woman in Academia it’s even worse!
The Extra Hurdles Of Being A Female PhD
You might not be able to have children anymore. Ooops, nasty trade-off alarm!! Your biological clock didn’t pause while you were writing papers and grant applications. Maybe you shouldn’t have pushed you academic career so hard.
As a woman, that sucks. From a species point of view it sucks too. It doesn’t sound like a good idea that some of our smartest women cannot reproduce. It’s like a reverse and perverse survival of the fittest.
You read that Silicon Valley is a white male monopoly. There is no place for women or other skin colours there. Well, tell me how that’s different for Academia. After 6 years doing research in Natural Science I still have to meet a full professor that is female or black.
So yes my dear friend, it is rough in Academia. It is risky in Academia. But…
You got the balls or ovaries to be doing a PhD. And I salute you.
I salute you because YOU belong with the brave ones
Without expecting any reward, YOU are creating knowledge that will push the human species further.
Now it might not seem like that, but your PhD matters to the world. It’s the accumulation of many YOU’s doing PhD level research that fuels this unstoppable force of knowledge.
You might make that groundbreaking discovery, or it might be somebody else. The important thing here is that somebody does.
In the meantime, you should realize that receiving knowledge, improving it, and passing it on to the next generation of scientists is an achievement of which you can be proud.
If you just do that, your PhD will be considered a success.
We need you, so please don’t quit your PhD. Stay.
Your PhD matters.
Be happy.
Finish.
And move on, in Academia or Industry.
Your PhD matters.How Al-Qaeda Uses Encryption Post-Snowden (Part 2) — New Analysis in Collaboration With ReversingLabs
Analysis Summary Al-Qaeda (AQ) encryption product releases have continued since our May 8, 2014 post on the subject, strengthening our earlier hypothesis about Snowden leaks influencing Al-Qaeda’s crypto product innovation.
The main AQ media house — GIMF and Al-Fajr are not using home-brew crypto algorithms, as validated through a combination of open source and reverse engineering techniques.
There are rumors of AQ software being infested with backdoors. Our analysis of Mujahideen Secrets (Asrar al-Mujahideen) in open source and through ReversingLabs repository identifies signals of malware that peaked 18 months ago. Whereas this may have been a sign of real malware/backdoors, it is likely a result of either sudden peak of AV submissions, reputational signaling, or echo effects among anti-virus vendors.
Combining events and intentions from open source with software reverse engineering techniques, as demonstrated with ReversingLabs, is a powerful combination.
Introduction
In May 2014 we published research on how Al-Qaeda had changed their use of encryption after the Snowden leaks. This piece generated tremendous interest in publications like The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph, Politico, Ars Technica, Threatpost, and commentary from noted experts like Bruce Schneier. Additionally, our friend @th3j35t3r wrote a great encapsulation piece that added a bit of color. Also, we’d like to upfront acknowledge and correct our failure to reference the excellent work by MEMRI on this subject.
The prior research focused on a single point: Following the June 2013 Edward Snowden leaks we observe an increased pace of innovation, specifically new competing jihadist platforms and three major new encryption tools from three (3) different organizations – GIMF, Al-Fajr Technical Committee, and ISIS – within a three to five-month time frame of the leaks.
We did not investigate the technical aspects of these software packages and we scoped our analysis to open sources available in Recorded Future. This time we turned to our friends at ReversingLabs to provide additional context.
New Product Releases Since Our Post
Al-Fajr, one of Al-Qaeda’s media arms, released a new Android encryption application early June 2014 on their website, referring to how it follows the “latest technological advancements” and provides “4096 bit public key” encryption.
GIMF, another media arm of Al-Qaeda, also launched a new version of their Android software since our last post. Interestingly, between these two new product releases this continues the bet on mobile and Android as the preferred platform for these groups. The large availability and affordability of Android phones, especially in underdeveloped countries, is probably the reason for this.
This provides us with the following updated timeline of Al-Qaeda encryption product releases since 2007.
Let’s go back to our question from the prior blog entry: Did the Snowden leak lead to a change in communication behavior of terrorists? We can now also update our visual from before.
Between (a) these new product releases and (b) GIMF’s own statement on the Tashfeer al-Jawwal download page:
Take your precautions, especially in the midst of the rapidly developing news about the cooperation of global companies with the international intelligence agencies, in the detection of data exchanged over smartphones.
It’s pretty clear our earlier point that we’re observing increased pace of innovation in encryption technology by Al-Qaeda post Snowden stands true. And this innovation is based on best practice, off the shelf, algorithms.
Analysis
As we dive further into changing nature of Al-Qaeda encryption software there are three questions we’ll ask:
As Al-Qaeda has launched new software products and modules, are they using new crypto algorithms invented by themselves (“home-brew”) or adopting new algorithms available in the public? These products have been rumored to be infected with malware/backdoors of various sorts – inserted by governments and/or Al-Qaeda. Can we observe that? Are these products used in the wild? An interesting proxy for this, tied to the prior point, is whether they are uploaded to malware detection engines, and we’ll analyze that.
In pairing up with our friends at ReversingLabs, our main objective was to combine Recorded Future’s open source analytic data with ReversingLabs repository of malware samples (the world’s largest).
First, let’s review the products in question.
Summary Table of Products and Methods
Tracking Technical Fingerprints
For analysis of the toolsets we’ll start with hashes and other indicators.
Use of Off-the-Shelf vs. Home-Brew Crypto
The first question we want to explore is whether these new products are using off-the-shelf crypto or home-brew encryption – as home-brew carries significant risks as outlined by Bruce Schneier.
Tashfeer al-Jawwal
Tashfeer al-Jawwal is GIMFs mobile encryption software, released three months after the Snowden leaks.
GIMF themselves state the Twofish algorithm (developed by Bruce Schneier and colleagues) is used in Tashfeer al-Jawwal.
The program uses the cryptographic algorithm Twofish with cipher block chaining which has the same strength as the algorithm for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). It uses elliptic curve encryption in exchanging keys with the keys encoded to 192-bit length. It was necessary to use elliptic curve encryption instead of the base encryption RSA because it is very long, and it’s not possible to store it in SMS nor use it with the Bouncy Castle libraries which use algorithms and methods of encryption with tested capabilities proven to be effective. This library does permit developers to change the random algorithms to protect against any misuse or abuse.
This is consistent with the move away from (possibly government influenced) NIST standard algorithms to Twofish also done simultaneously by Silent Circle.
In analyzing the code in Tashfeer al-Jawwal (done with ReversingLabs) we find three interesting points.
1. The package comes loaded with a whole series of encryption algorithms, including Twofish (consistent with GIMF statement): AES, Blowfish, DES, DESede, GOST28147, IDEA, ISAAC, Noekeon, RC2, RC4, RC532, RC564, RC6, Rijndael, SKIPJACK, Serpent, TEA, Twofish, CCM, EAX, GCM.
2. There’s heavy reliance on off-the-shelf crypto: BouncyCastles and CryptoSMS.
3. They use explicit message headers for crypto messages – consistent with Mujahideen Secrets – probably as a way to seem legitimate.
Amn al-Mujahid for Mobile
According to Al-Fajr themselves, “The Amn al-Mujahid program is characterized by a strong encryption, and it is the best aid for the brothers since it follows the technological advancements [in the field].” (Translation from MEMRI.)
Again, like GIMF, Al-Fajr refers to using/following technological advancements – not inventing their own. From the documentation of the non-mobile Amn al-Mujahid we see the use of Twofish and also AES:
Select the encryption algorithm (AES or Twofish), which is located at the bottom of the program window.
And in the manual for Amn al-Mujahid for mobile, the one clue about encryption type is the below – referring to an RSA Key, not a home-brew crypto approach.
There are also references to compatibility in keys and functionality between the mobile and desktop versions:
The features of the Amn al-Mujahid for the mobile phone match their equivalents in the desktop version, hence the user can now copy the keys that are in the Amn al-Mujahid desktop version and add them to Amn al-Mujahid for the mobile phone and vice versa.
Asrar Al-Ghurabaa
ISIS’ Asrar Al-Ghurabaa is the one product that comes with statements about proprietary algorithms, but since this product is seemingly not available anymore it’s hard to conclude whether they really are using a proprietary algorithm.
Assessment
Our assessment is that between the statements from these groups, and the reverse engineering of the software packages, they’re not using home-brew encryption.
Finally, there are (of course) subtleties relating to this statement. A software program can use the most standard, secure, publicly vetted crypto algorithms and libraries, and still trip up on the handling of keys and transfer of information (e.g. the clipboard and the program in itself).
Infection of Al-Qaeda Software With Malware
The second question we’ll dive into is whether these products are infected with malware or backdoors. There certainly has been such speculation and rumors – both in the security community as well as among the Jihadist themselves. Such malware or backdoors could be provided by governments obviously but perhaps also other organizations.
Can we observe this? We will use Mujahideen Secrets (Asrar al-Mujahideen) as our basis for analysis here given that it’s the longest standing product.
Exploring the timeline of the technical indicators for Mujahideen Secrets as well as the surrounding events we can observe its launch, warnings in Inspire magazine about knock-offs by governments, the refresh (pushed on GIMF RSS feed) at time of launch for Asrar Al-Dardashah, as well as submissions to VirusTotal of Asrar al-Mujahideen – all the way to recent revelation of Morten Storm using Asrar to reach Anwar al-Awlaki.
Observing the RSS feed at GIMF we can see how Asrar al-Mujahideen was republished within minutes of the release of Asrar al-Dardashah – which probably is a good indication of sharing resources, methodologies, perhaps even code based between the two.
One interesting point we observe for Asrar_2.exe is how it’s been submitted to Virus Total in 2012-2014. In particular in the timeline below we can observe how its attribution as malicious has recently fallen over time from 2013 to 2014.
We asked our friends at ReversingLabs, who have the world’s largest repository of malware, to plot the detection of the file as malicious and interestingly it rises from early 2011, peaks in early 2013 and then falls until now. By the time of this publication we observe three AVs detecting and 11% detection rate.
Obviously Mujahideen Secrets (MS) is not malware in the traditional sense. However, suddenly it gets marked as malware – and this is across a broad set of vendors – by leading American, Chinese, and Russian security companies, as well as smaller vendors. There can be multiple reasons for this.
Suddenly the usage of this package goes up – which leads to it more commonly being submitted to the anti-virus (AV) vendors — and since it is new/unusual to them it fires off warning signals. After a while the AV vendors realize it is not malware and remove warnings. The sudden increase in general usage is a compelling hypothesis as this would be a good data point for usage in the wild. The description of Asrar in Inspire was originally done in their summer issue of 2010.
An organization influences one or multiple AV vendors to mark MS as malicious to make it less attractive for Jihadist to use. They may even just influence one AV vendor as AV vendors tend to copy each others’ assessments. After a while they refuse to do this. Perhaps a good conspiracy theory, but for the same government agency to pull this off between Russian, Chinese, and American vendors, and then only for a short while, seems a bit farfetched.
An individual tries to influence AV vendors and has some temporary success. We can see discussions like that on VirusTotal.CLOSE The Red Sox made the first big trade of the winter meetings, trading for White Sox ace Chris Sale. USA TODAY Sports
Chris Sale won 17 games last season with the White Sox. (Photo11: Joe Nicholson, USA TODAY Sports)
The Boston Red Sox acquired Chris Sale, one of the game's most dominant left-handed pitchers, from the Chicago White Sox for Yoan Moncada and three other prospects.
The White Sox also got minor league right-handed pitchers Michael Kopech and Victor Diaz and outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe.
The blockbuster marks a turn toward rebuilding for the White Sox, who deal their left-handed ace whose combination of dominance and cost-effectiveness made him the top prize on the trade market this winter.
As for the Red Sox, they land Sale, 27, for three years at the low cost of $51.5 million if they exercise a club option for 2019. And suddenly, they boast a deadly left-right-left combo of David Price, Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello and Sale, who went 17-10 with a 3.34 ERA and 233 strikeouts in 226 2/3 innings last season.
The cost was significant, as club President Dave Dombrowski sent power-hitting Cuban infielder Moncada to the White Sox, along with right-handed starter Michael Kopech, outfielder Luis Basabe and right-hander Victor Diaz.
Moncada, 21, produced a.918 OPS in 106 games at high-A and Class AA last season, and then had a 19-at-bat stint in Boston at the end of the year. He was the top-ranked prospect by Baseball America at midseason.
Kopech, 20, was ranked No. 93 on that list, but was limited by hand and calf injuries in 2016. The 33rd overall pick in 2014, Kopech has struck out 172 batters in 134 2/3 career minor league innings.
Dombrowski proved, as he did in helming the Detroit Tigers, that he's not afraid to boldly deal prospects to win now. The Red Sox committed $63 million in February 2015 to sign Moncada - a $31.5 million signing bonus and an overage tax for the portion of their bonus that exceeded their $1.8 million international bonus pool at the time.
Gallery: Notable offseason tradesTV Reviews All of our TV reviews in one convenient place.
The Leftovers has a problem most television shows would love to have. It’s now two related but essentially separate shows in one, both of them eminently compelling, richly detailed, expertly performed, and lovingly shot. The only downside to season two of The Leftovers is not knowing which of those shows will occupy each episode, and the viewing experience is akin to alternating between hours of The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead. After “Axis Mundi” cast its spell by introducing the intriguing Murphy family, it felt like there wasn’t enough room in The Leftovers for Laurie, Tommy, and Meg. I quietly dreaded a return to the all-heat-and-no-light Mapleton milieu, but then “Off Ramp,” The Leftovers’ finest hour yet, upended my expectations once again. After weeks of dying to know what happened to Evie Murphy and her friends, I went into “Orange Sticker” slightly bummed about having to wait indefinitely for an update on Tommy and his healing hugs. You know a show is slaying everything when your biggest complaint is not getting to spend enough time with the characters.
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Still, “Orange Sticker” continues The Leftovers’ season two winning streak with a triumphant return to Miracle, a town watching helplessly as its privileged status begins to slip away. The disappearance of Evie and her friends is an incredibly smart way to advance the show, considering how little interest Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta have in answering the big questions. Instead of providing a tidy explanation for the Sudden Departure, Lindelof and his team have miniaturized it. The mass disappearance of millions of people around the world is difficult to conceive of, and it’s too massive a tragedy to feel intimate. The disappearance of three young girls from a quiet Texas town with a population well under 10,000 has the same impact on that community that the Sudden Departure had globally. And the loss is more acutely felt in Miracle, a town known for more or less staying the same while the entire planet changed around it. The losses are more acute to the audience too. Aside from the crying baby in the opening scene of the pilot, Evie and her friends are the first characters we’ve actually gotten to see before they disappeared. “Axis Mundi” didn’t spend a ton of time with Evie, but she was sketched with enough detail that the audience is actually experiencing the loss rather than watching characters deal with the loss of someone we’ve never met.
Experiencing that sudden, inexplicable loss makes it even easier to empathize with Nora as she startles awake during the earthquake and finds Jill and Lily exactly where they’re supposed to be, but Kevin is nowhere to be found. She desperately turns on the television and opens her laptop, so wracked with grief and panic that she forgets they don’t have service yet, because she has to know if it happened again. Nora seemed genuinely surprised in “A Matter Of Geography” when the scientists who bought her house suggested that the Sudden Departure may not be an isolated incident. When Nora hears that Evie and her friends have gone missing, then sees what appears to be an emancipated dog, she thinks the same curse responsible for taking her entire family has stalked her all the way to Texas.
Kevin is safe, of course, after waking up in the drained lake where Evie disappeared with a cinder block mysteriously tied to his ankle. Kevin and Nora have committed to being transparent with each other at all costs, so he’s forthcoming about where he woke up, and she immediately goes into crisis mode. For the mysterious new family in a town that has its population carefully managed and monitored, it’s less than ideal to be tied directly to the disappearance of a local girl. And Kevin is securely tied to Evie’s disappearance, between his missing cell phone, which he finds with help from Ghost Patti, and his muddy handprint on the car window. Kevin and Nora volunteer to help search for the girls, fueled equally by the desire to help find their missing neighbors and the desire to scrub the scene of any sign of Kevin’s presence. It’s yet another example of how season two improves on season one. In Mapleton, the characters faced abstract threats. Even the tangible antagonists, the Guilty Remnant, are more of an insidious presence than an actual threat. Now, Kevin and Nora face a much more concrete crisis, which lends The Leftovers an immediacy it’s never had before.
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Nora, who convinces Kevin to handcuff herself to him at bedtime, would be far more worried if she really knew the danger Kevin is in. It can only be a matter of time before that handprint ties Kevin to the scene of Evie’s disappearance, and John is the “burn your house down now, ask questions later” type. John concludes Isaac was somehow involved in what happened to Evie and shows up to his hotel to violently confront him with Kevin in tow, and he’s so righteously angry he’s barely fazed by a bullet to the gut. There’s a potentially fatal confrontation brewing between the Murphys and the Garvey-Dursts. Especially if there’s no logical explanation for the girls’ disappearance, and according to Ghost Patti, no such explanation is forthcoming.
Ghost Patti is the only real weakness The Leftovers has exhibited in season two, and
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the north-east this afternoon, Ewan Murray:
Both north east clubs remain desperate for strikers... Sunderland now turning their attention to possible loan move for Chelsea's Daniel Sturridge. Despite earlier conflicting evidence surrounding Gyan, there remains every chance he will leave the Stadium of Light for France or Turkey, should the opportunity arise. Newcastle, meanwhile, have moved for Twente's Bryan Ruiz, who was last spotted in talks with Fulham....
7.51pm: Sky Man at Stoke has it "on good authority" that they have opened discussions with Manchester City over the possibility of signing Adam Johnson on loan. But, as he points out, they still have deals for Peter Crouch and Cameron Jerome to tie up. Can they get all the paperwork sorted in time?
7.55pm: The word on the street (well, the internet) is that QPR may be preparing a late move for Nicklas Bendtner. Am I the only one who thinks it would make more sense for Arsenal - given the modest additions made so far - to keep hold?
7.58pm: Our man in the north-west, Andy Hunter, reports that "Everton are pushing ahead with the signing of Royston Drenthe from Real Madrid despite Mikel Arteta's move to Arsenal falling through."
7.59pm: And now here's some news from north of the border from Ewan Murray: "Celtic will sign Moroccan left-back Badr el kaddouri on loan for six months."
8pm: He's here! He's actually, really here! Sky Sports News Silver Fox Jim White is at his seat and ready for the next three, glorious hours. The channel has been previewing his arrival in the studio since some time last year, so I'm expecting literal fireworks, allied with insights that would make the messiah weep with envy.
8.03pm: Andy Hunter is on fire. "Wigan have followed up the signing of Shaun Maloney by taking Patrick Van Aaanholt on a season long loan from Chelsea," he reports. "Roberto Martinez's work with Tom Cleverley last season has not gone unnoticed."
8.08pm: Newcastle fans! You didn't think that your club was really going to sit there and watch the interest accrue on that Andy Carroll money while failing to address their glaring need up front did you? Never! Apparently Mike Ashley's people are right this minute attempting to hijack Fulham's bid for the FC Twente forward Bryan Ruiz. And according to Sky, they've got a half-decent chance.
8.10pm: "Sky have gone with a relative unknown alongside their big gun Jim White," reckons Pete Marland. "He's got off to a shaky start, stumbling over done words. But I am expecting him to pick up the pace as the evening goes on. Still it is a big call to pair him with one of the lesser known female SSN presenters." Hang on a sweet second there Pete - Natalie Sawyer is anything but an unknown to those of us who have this channel on in our office 24 hours a day. She's an experienced veteran. He did stumble over his words though.
8.14pm: Jim White is literally on the phone as he bellows to us that Shaun Wright-Phillips's move to QPR is now good to go ahead after he cleared up some loose ends with Manchester City. Seriously - on the phone! Is he talking to us or the person on the other end of the line? We may never know.
8.16pm: My spies in Portugal tell me that FC Porto have stolen a march in the battle (nay, global conflict) to sign Nicklas Bendtner "Portuguese media have just reported that Bendtner is in route to FC Porto for €12m," says Mário Guerreiro. "And that the Alvaro Pereira's move to Chelsea could still be a possibility, as Chelsea have now offered Lukaku in exchange." Mário even provided a link, for those who speak Portuguese.
8.20pm: At what point do we start to say that this actually just hasn't been a particularly exciting transfer deadline day?
8.25pm: I'm hearing that Bolton have now officially completed the signing of David Ngog from Liverpool.
8.27pm: OK, but seriously - who waits until now to place a bid for a player? Sky reporting now that Leicester might be about to make a fresh approach for the striker Nikica Jelavic, having already had a £6.5m offer turned down. How does this happen? If you wanted him that badly, couldn't you have thought about it at, say, breakfast time? Or even mid-afternoon? Is this just an idle dinner conversation that got out of hand?
8.30pm: Royston Drenthe is on Merseyside and still trying to sort out his loan from Real Madrid to Everton. Which he seems to have been doing for a little while to be honest.
8.31pm: Top football finances blogger Swiss Ramble is at his wits' end on Twitter. "I've been racking my brains trying to work out Arsenal's strategy this summer," he tweets. "But have come to the unhappy conclusion that there isn't one.
8.35pm: And while we're doing the Twitter thing, here's @JmsDmnd explaining Leicester's late notice business. "Leaving it late because they are desperate for a striker and were pinning their hopes on Nicky Maynard (staying put)," he says.
8.36pm: Oh dear, hearing that Robbie Savage has been criticising Arsenal's signing of Per Mertesacker on the grounds that the player didn't do well at Real Madrid. That's right readers, the same Real Madrid who Mertesacker has never played for.
8.43pm: Well the Portuguese media can say what they like about FC Porto – our own Ewan Murray reckons Sunderland are still in the running: "Sunderland's latest striker target- Nicklas Bendtner," he writes. "Understood to be in talks over a deal at the moment."
8.45pm: Another new face for Bolton - Chelsea's website confirms that Gael Kakuta has joined the Trotters on loan until 1 January.
8.52pm: Sunderland have denied reports that Nicklas Bendtner has joined on loan, though they are in negotiations to make that happen.
8.53pm: Wow, quite the rumour being mongered on Sky right now. Sky have heard "unconfirmed reports" that Tottenham are trying to swing a deal for Real Madrid's Kaká. Which, let's face it, could very well be reports that somebody in the back room made up in a bid to make today's action all feel a bit less underwhelming.
8.55pm: "Never mind Arsenal's policy, what's Chelsea's game today," demands Oliver Pattenden. "Loaning out a number of young, exciting players, and not actually bringing anyone in despite the fact they need to inject some pace and creativity. If they send Lukaku straight back out after spending half the summer courting him, what's the point?"
8.57pm: Arsenal's unofficial deadline day ambassador has been sharing his views on Twitter. "Disagree with Ian Dowie," he tweets after the latter criticised Arsenal's transfer strategy. "Do you want Arsenal to buy Messi? Benayoun will create and score goals for us #justsayin" Well, I reckon most fans probably would quite like Arsenal to buy Messi...
9.01pm: Actually, what did happen to that Benayoun loan? Haven't heard any updates in quite some time...
9.03pm: Harry Redknapp puts Gary Cotterill out of his misery, getting his driver to stop by the gate as he leaves the team's training facility so he can share a few words with the Sky Sports reporter. Redknapp says that there will be no big signings for Spurs tonight, but then he has been prone to the odd white lie in this position before. "We've been trying for one big one, but just couldn't hook it in the end," he says, referring, apparently to Gary Cahill. "We've been trying to get Gary Cahill but just couldn't make it happen. That was the one that we tried to do today." He says Kaká was never an option.
9.08pm: The end of Redknapp's conversation with Cotterill is interrupted by a phone call from Daniel Levy, but the Tottenham chairman hung up immediately - apparently realising his manager was on telly. The conspiracy theorists are already suggesting that this may suggest a big signing is still on the cards.
9.10pm: Yossi Benayoun seems to be hinting at that loan to Arsenal on Twitter: "staying in London...will sign soon... i will twitt when it happens".
9.11pm: Cameron Jerome and Peter Crouch are undergoing medicals at Stoke right this second.
9.13pm: We're back to Tottenham, where Redknapp also had time to say that Luka Modric is staying, and that the club turned down a further bid from Chelsea yesterday. "£40m I think," says Redknapp.
9.18pm: @teessidedazza tweets in to point out that while most teams' websites are full of stories of comings and goings today, Middlesbrough's big splash is "Gary Pallister playing a flute". And frankly I think we all respect them more for it.
9.21pm: And now Sky tells us that the Arteta deal is back on. Or at least it might be. Apparently the issue was never over the fee between the two clubs, but over the player's wages. Anyway, the player, we are told, has been in touch with his representatives and negotiations have subsequently resumed.
9.24pm: Henri Lansbury's loan to West Ham is now official. Which comes as a surprise only because I had assumed that was already the case some time ago.
9.30pm: Ninety minutes left before the transfer window shuts. Something worthwhile has to happen. Right? Right?
9.33pm: "A die-hard Gooner, I can't ignore the obvious signs – Arsenal are run like the Chicago Cubs of American Baseball," announces Mike Cunningham. "A club with no apparent strategy, that puts together a big, attractive entertainment package and becomes a must-go destination for any player much more interested in fame, a great experience, and millions than they are in winning silverware. The differences are only the Cubs' home ground is a dump, while the Emirates are a palace; the Cubs sign big (albeit bad) player contracts, while Arsenal are penny-pinchers. But Arsenal have a long way to go: they are only six years into matching the 111-year championship drought the Cubs currently enjoy."
9.34pm: Could the handling of this Arteta deal actually be an Arsenal masterstroke? Had the club just gone out and signed him off the bat, many fans might still have reflected that in return for losing Cesc Fábregas and Samir Nasri they were getting a 29-year-old with a recent history of injury trouble. This way, the narrative instead becomes far more positive - 'look, we didn't just sign Benayoun!'
9.38pm: "Arteta to Arsenal is back on," confirms our man Andy Hunter. "Both clubs were adamant it was off earlier this evening but there is still a chance it could happen. Arsenal may have to go above £10m though."
9.39pm: Thanks to Richard House for emailing in to point out that West Ham have now confirmed the signing of Guy Demel.
9.41pm: Yakubu and Scott Dann are certainly taking their time over those medicals at Blackburn. Deals were reportedly as good as done at lunch-time but still no confirmation as yet.
9.43pm: "As a fan of the Cubs, I feel obliged to point out the team has gone a mere 103 years without a championship, not the embarrassing 111 Mike Cunningham attributes to them," points out Brent Braga – one of a number of Cubs fans seemingly reading this report. "The Cubs won't achieve that feat until 2019, which is roughly the same year Arsenal will be winning the Championship given present form." I'd say some Arsenal fans would call that optimistic, Mike.
9.46pm: Arteta has reportedly told Everton he wants to leave, but has not handed in a transfer request. Which basically means he does want to leave, but is not willing to forego the parting fee he is entitled to upon leaving the club (which would be waived if he put in a formal request).
9.48pm: Wilson Palacios has completed his medical and is now officially a Stoke City player. Cameron Jerome and Peter Crouch still undergoing theirs. All good signings, in my book.
9.53pm: "Yakubu's physical is probably taking so long because much like buying a used car, you'd like to take at least one full walk around its exterior before you seal the deal," snickers George Hasenecz.
9.56pm: Oh Jim White you cheeky scamp – cutting to an advert break right after telling us that Craig Bellamy has been seen arriving at Anfield. Of course, we shouldn't read too much into it. He might just be there to stand behind Sky's reporter and make faces at the camera like everyone else.
9.59pm: I assume Yakubu's "physical" is taking so long because it pretty much consists of Steve Kean watching replays of Yakubu missing that sitter against Korea in the World Cup whilst muttering over and over again, 'That could happen to anyone'," honks Taylor Rockwell.
10pm: ONE HOUR TO GO. The combined spend of Premier League clubs in this transfer window has now surpassed £400m, apparently. I'm can't help but feel that as a species we probably shouldn't be proud of that.
10.02pm: "Looks like Newcastle will fail with their quest for that striker, Bryan Ruiz had the look of their last hope," reports my colleague Ewan Murray. "No further deals anticipated there." Still, at least the fans know that their club really, really tried. They do know that, don't they?
10.06pm: And now another Andy Hunter update: "Arteta has resurrected his transfer single-handedly, to the surprise of both Everton and Arsenal," he writes. "Everton's attempt to hold out for more than £10m weakened as a result."
10.07pm: So with, erm, 53 minutes left to go - here's what we are still waiting on:
• Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun's anticipated moves to Arsenal (on permanent and loan deals respectively)
• A mooted move for Bryan Ruiz to Fulham (is this still alive?)
• The outcomes of medicals for Yakubu at Blackburn, Wilson Palacios and Peter Crouch at Stoke, Scott Dann and Yakubu at Blackburn
• Aston Villa completing deals for Tottenham's Jermaine Jenas and Alan Hutton
• The outcome of Craig Bellamy's last-minute arrival at Liverpool
10.12pm: Still waiting on news for any of those stories, so in the meantime just wanted to say again that I think Palacios is a really top signing for Stoke. Not so long ago that many were talking about him as the most reliable cog in that Tottenham midfield. Fresh start may be just what he needs.
10.17pm: News from Spain via reader Walt Irons. "Hey there Paolo. Hanging in there? Something is happening! After already having loaned Dani Pacheco from Liverpool, only to loan him again to Rajo Vallecano earlier this transfer window, Atletico Madrid now announce on twitter that they have sold Julio Alves to Besiktas. Without ever mentioning they had signed him from Potruguese side Rio Ave in the first place. Now that's transfer deadline day wheelin'-dealin' for you, 'Arry!"
10.21pm: Sorry Fulham fans, sounds like the Bryan Ruiz deal may be off altogether.
10.24pm: Footage now of Shaun-Wright Phillips literally running in the door at QPR. Is this part of the medical?
10.25pm: To put the £400m combined Premier League transfer spend I mentioned earlier (it's now £410m, by the way) into context, they spent £215m in the January window, and £345m last summer. They did spend £432m in 2009 - though by the time all tonight's business is done we should have surpassed that.
10.29pm: Curious tweet from Wesley Sneijder. "I respect all the Man Utd fans, who supported me the whole transfer window," he writes. "I'm a winner and I will make you Interisti proud this season!!!!"
10.31pm: Lest there be any doubt, Sneijder made a follow up tweet saying "Thanks for all the support, from all over the world!! I will stay with Inter next season. Have a good night everyone." He will be at Inter next season - an outcome that always seemed likely after the Italian club sold Samuel Eto'o.
10.32pm: Is this the start of the rush? Yossi Benayoun's loan move to Arsenal has seemingly been confirmed, and in the meantime Raul Meireles has handed in a transfer request at Liverpool. With half an hour left before the window closes. Bizarre.
10.33pm: And now here's Andy Hunter with another confirmed deal: "Blackburn have signed Yakubu from Everton, fee yet to be confirmed but around £2m."
10.34pm: Shaun Wright-Phillips has completed his move to QPR. In a three-minute interview with Sky Sports he thanks the Manchester City supporters, and uses the word "chillin'" at least 47 times.
10.36pm: In case you didn't believe me about that Meireles transfer request (frankly I'm not sure I completely did myself), here's a story about it from the Liverpool website.
10.38pm: It seems I was misled on the Bryan Ruiz story folks - according to Sky Sports News he is now a Fulham player. FC Twente have apparently confirmed the deal.
10.40pm: Here's Yossi Benayoun confirming his move to Arsenal on Twitter: "I sign with arsenal,very happy and excited about it,but now my head is only in the game against grecce on friday,thanks for the support." And while we're on the subject, an observation from reader Euan Rellie on Arsenal's newfound leadership: "Benayoun=Israel captain; Park=Korea captain; Rosicky=Czech captain; Vermaelen=Belgian captain; Ramsey=Wales captain; Arshavin=Russia captain."
10.45pm: A lot more waffle on Sky Sports about Mikel Arteta - interrupted by some naughty language from the Arsenal fans outside Emirates Stadium that gets Sky Man very cross. Anyway, it all basically seems to boil down to "a deal is very close. But then so is the deadline."
10.47pm: As suggested a few moments ago, Bryan Ruiz to Fulham seems like a done deal. "FC Twente president Joop Munsterman has confirmed it to several Dutch television channels," says William Cleven. "Transfer fee of approximately €12m. It's too bad, Ruiz was probably the best player on Dutch fields last couple seasons. Twente will have a tough time in the UEFA Cup (refuse to use that new term) facing their own best player at Craven Cottage."
10.49pm: Here's Andy Hunter on the Meireles transfer request: "Liverpool rejected a Chelsea bid of £7m plus Benayoun last week. Made it clear they wanted cash only and their money back on the £11.8m signing from Porto. Bit late, but it appears Chelsea have relented."
10.49pm: Craig Bellamy has signed for Liverpool. Reports are that it's a two-year deal, but that bit is unconfirmed.
10.50pm: What ever happened to Royston Drenthe's medical at Everton?
10.52pm: Chelsea confirm Yossi Benayoun's loan to Arsenal. Which really isn't that dramatic a development, given that the player had already done so.
10.54pm: Six minutes to go and still a lot of questions unanswered. Arteta, Meireles, Drenthe, Crouch, Jerome, Bendtner deals all still unconfirmed, among others. Of course, the people finalising these deals may just not be finding time to speak to journalists right now. Possibly.
10.57pm: Sky Sports News say Arsenal are "preparing the paperwork" for the Arteta deal. Preparing it?! There's 150 seconds left to have the deal done!
10.59pm: Many of you, of course pointing out that Arsenal managed to get the signing of Andrei Arshavin through about three weeks after the deadline seemed to have passed. When everyone wants these things to happen, they usually do.
11pm: IT'S OVER, IT'S FINALLY OVER! Except, of course, it really isn't. The transfer window has officially shut, but it will be a good few minutes yet until we find out what has and hasn't happened. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.
11.03pm: Confirmed from Aston Villa: Jermaine Jenas has joined on loan, and Alan Hutton has joined on a permanent deal. Still waiting to find out whether the Bendtner loan deal has gone through.
11.04pm: A tweet from @oscarrickettnow: "Meireles clearly let down over contract promise. Not part of #LFC's Brits-only revolution. Is twice as good as Henderson."
11.05pm: Also on Twitter, a very valid question from my colleague Simon Burnton: "Why do #epl clubs who've just been given loads of money by foreign owner always buy Shaun Wright-Phillips?"
11.06pm: Jon Matthews offers the counter-point to Euan Rellie's positivity over Arsenal's newfound leadership. "Given they've got the captains of the teams ranked 13, 32, 33, 37, 42 and 117 in the world, could it be that Arsenal have got too many chiefs and not enough Spaniards?"
11.08pm: A half-hearted cheer from the clutch of fans standing behind Sky Man at Sunderland, as he confirms that Nicklas Bendtner has indeed joined on a season-long loan.
11.09pm: Thanks to reader Jonathan Morgan for alerting me to the fact that Scott Dann's move to Blackburn has been confirmed.
11.11pm: Two big bits of information coming across my desk now. I'm hearing via our own sources that Arsenal have completed the signing of Arteta. Meanwhile Chelsea have confirmed that Raul Meireles has signed on a four-year deal.
11.14pm: "You need to bin that Portuguese mole of yours," writes our man in the north-east Ewan Murray. "Bendtner to Sunderland on season's loan completed. Steve Bruce has his striker."
11.15pm: Sky also now quoting their own sources who also say the Mikel Arteta deal has gone through. We had it first though. So there.
11.16pm: Apologies folks - I made a typo earlier in amongst the madness - suggesting that Jenas and Hutton had signed for Sunderland instead of Aston Villa. I have amended that entry now, but for the avoidance of doubt: Jenas and Hutton have both joined Aston Villa.
11.17pm: My, Jack Wilshere is enjoying his evening. Another Tweet from him: "Best news of the day! Brilliant signing! Welcome to Arteta! Great day all round for #AFC this is why #ILoveAFC. Come on you gooners!!!!"
11.19pm: The BBC's Phil McNulty has news for Everton fans on Twitter: "Everton have signed Argentine striker Denis Stracqualursi on season-long loan and Drenthe confirmation expected soon."
11.21pm: Also very active this evening, the folks who look after Liverpool FC's club website. Here's their story on the termination of Philipp Degen's contract (by mutual consent).
11.23pm: "Aghhh! I've got Meireles on the back of my Liverpool shirt," yelps Robert Cobourne. "Comolli should give me my money back. I suppose it's understandable really. I mean, goalscoring, influential midfielders aren't exactly something we can have cluttering up the place." On the plus side, at least you didn't get a tattoo...
11.24pm: Sky Sports's "Totaliser" has the final combined spend of Premier League clubs this transfer window at £448m. I refer to my previous comments on this matter.
11.34pm: Sounds like Everton's signing of Denis Stracqualursi on loan is indeed confirmed. Still waiting on Royston Drenthe.
11.35pm: In fact, here's a photo of Stracqualursi courtesy of Duncan Smith. As Duncan observes, "He looks very confused by the shirt".
11.36pm: Confirmed: Peter Crouch and Cameron Jerome have both signed for Stoke. The Crouch fee is £10m, apparently. It must be said that sounds like a very good piece of business for Tottenham on a 30-year-old striker with a patchy goalscoring record. I think he'll do well for Stoke, but still.
11.39pm: The BBC report that Blackburn have snuck another signing in under the radar: the striker Jordan Slew joining from Sheffield United for £1m.
11.41pm: Real Madrid confirm on their website that Royston Drenthe has joined Everton.
11.47pm: Anton Ferdinand has signed for QPR. Apologies - I must have missed this one altogether, but it sounds like it got done right up against the deadline, and has now been confirmed.
11.56pm: And now Everton, too, confirm the Drenthe signing. Season-long loan. Fulham, meanwhile, have grabbed the former Porto striker Orlando Sa on a free.
12.03am: OK folks, that's it from me tonight. Here are the big headlines from transfer deadline day. Thanks for reading and for all your emails and tweets through the day. Sorry I couldn't use more.
• Arsenal have signed Mikel Arteta from Everton for a reported £10m, as well as adding Yossi Benayoun on loan, after completing their anticipated deals for Andre Santos and Per Mertesacker.
• Chelsea have signed Raul Meireles from Liverpool after the player handed in a late transfer request
• Craig Bellamy has returned to Liverpool, signing a two-year deal, while Joe Cole has departed for a season-long loan at Lille.
• Scott Parker has completed a £6m switch to Tottenham from West Ham.
• Fulham held off interest from Newcastle to sign Bryan Luiz from FC Twente for a reported £12m. They also signed the former Porto striker Orlando Sa on a free transfer.
• QPR have added Shaun Wright-Phillips and Anton Ferdinand
• Alan Hutton and Jermain Jenas have both moved from Tottenham to Aston Villa - on a permanent deal and on loan respectively
• Stoke have signed Peter Crouch, Cameron Jerome and Wilson Palacios
• Scott Dann and Yakubu have both moved from Everton to Birmingham
• Nicklas Bendtner joined Sunderland on a season-long loanHide Transcript Show Transcript
WEBVTT GENERATED HUNDREDS OF MILLIONSOF DOLLARS.THE DEAL HAS NOW APPARENTLYFALLEN APART.A CLOUD OVER THE CAPITAL WITHTOBACCO MONEY CAUSING SOME OFTHE FRICTION.THE POLITICAL HAGGLING IS OVERWHO GETS THE EXTRA MONEY.>> THE BIG QUESTION IS IS THEGOVERNOR GOING TO GET PUSHBACKFROM DEMOCRATS THIS YEAR ONSPENDI PRIORITIES.AND, HIGHER RATES FOR DOCTORSWHO PROVIDE SERVICES FOR THENEEDIEST CALIFORNIANS.>> I THINK THERE IS A GENERALAGREEMENT THAT WE WANT TOINCREASE ACCESS TO CARE FORCALIFORNIANS.ROUGHLY ONE IN FOUR RECEIVETHEIR HEALTH CARE FOR MEDI-CAL.>> IT WILL BE UNACCEPTABLE TOVOTE ON A BUDGET.>> HE'S TALKING ABOUT PROP 54.IT REQUIRES ALL BILLS TO BE PUTIN WRITING 72 HOURS BEFORE THEYARE VOTED ON.THAT INCLUDES ONLINE INTERNETACCESS AS WELL.RIGHT NOW, THERE IS A BILL THATHAS CHANGED.EVENT, THERE IS A CONSTITUTIONALDEADLINE TO GET THIS DONE BYJUNE 15 OR THEY RISK LOSINGTHEIR PAY.I WE HAD HEARD THERE WAS A DEAL.TAKE US THROUGH THIS PROCESS.I REALLY DO LEARN DUMPING HADGONE WRONG?WHAT A RELIEF WAS SUPPOSED TOCOME OUT THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE.THAT NEVER HAPPENED.SUBSEQUENTLY, TO PRESSCONFERENCES ALSO NEVER HAPPENED.WE ARE STILL WAITING.
Advertisement Proposed California budget bill would give doctors a raise Share Shares Copy Link Copy
California lawmakers introduced legislation Monday that would allow $465 million in higher payments for doctors and dentists who provide publicly funded care.The proposal is outlined in a budget bill and may reflect an agreement between Gov. Jerry Brown and top legislative leaders on a key sticking point in budget negotiations. But neither top lawmakers nor Brown commented on the proposal.The lawmakers and Brown were divided on how to spend more than $1 billion from higher tobacco taxes.Under Proposition 56, the increased tobacco taxes are supposed to help expand health services to low-income Californians. But there was pressure to provide higher reimbursement rates to dentists and doctors who serve the poor.“The governor's budget allows for a 2 percent increase in rates to those MediCal health care providers who are in managed care operations,” California Department of Finance spokesperson H.D. Palmer said. “That works out to more than $170 million additionally from the state's general fund.”Doctors and dentists have pressured Brown and lawmakers to use a portion of $1.2 billion in tobacco tax revenue to increase the payments they get for treating low-income patients on Medi-Cal. Providers and health care advocates have long said that low payments for doctors and dentists discourage them from accepting Medi-Cal patients, leading to long wait times to see a doctor in some areas.The legislation did not satisfy doctors."On first glance this legislation raises more questions than it answers," said Joanne Adams, a spokeswoman for the California Medical Association, which represents doctors. "We will provide more comment once we have thoroughly reviewed."The bill, AB120, would allow - but not require - up to $325 million for additional payments to doctors and $140 million for dentists, subject to a formula that would be worked out by the state Department of Health Care Services. The legislation would allow up to $800 million in total supplemental payments at the discretion of the governor's finance director, based on economic and budget factors.Monday was the last day for lawmakers to finalize spending decisions to allow for a 72-hour waiting period before the budget deadline Thursday night.Budget legislation was introduced in time to hit the target. But lawmakers and the governor still appear to be resolving differences. Senate and Assembly leaders scheduled news conferences Monday to outline an expected deal with the governor, but they were repeatedly pushed back and eventually cancelled.The cancelled plans to publicly celebrate a budget deal reflected the struggles of Brown and lawmakers to get used to a new rule requiring them to publish all legislation, including the budget, for 72 hours before a final vote.The rule, approved overwhelmingly by voters last year, has forced Brown and lawmakers to negotiate on a compressed timeline, but also will give the public, lobbyists and even lawmakers more time to digest the plan.An Assembly-Senate conference committee last week approved most pieces of a state budget that would largely preserve the status quo. It would boost spending on social services and higher education while expanding a tax credit for the working poor. Democrats hold a majority in both chambers, making it likely the spending deal will pass Thursday.Republicans, who are in the minority in both the Senate and Assembly, have long complained that they're forced to vote on budget and other important legislation pushed by Democrats before they've had time to wade through everything in the bill.Washington and the international community won't recognize the outcome of Sunday's referendum in Crimea on seceding from Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday after six hours of talks with Russia's foreign minister.
"Neither we nor the international community will recognize the results of this referendum and we also remain deeply concerned about the large deployments of Russian forces in Crimea and along the eastern border," Kerry said.
"Right now, given this particular climate, we really need to hear more declarative policy in order to make clear where Russia is proceeding with respect to these troops and these exercises."
His comments came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov acknowledged there was no "common vision" between the two nations over the crisis in Ukraine.
Sunday's vote on Crimea — Ukraine's strategic Black Sea peninsula of two million people — is widely expected to back secession and, potentially, annexation with Russia. The new government in Kyiv believes the vote is illegal, but Moscow says it does not recognize the new government as legitimate.
Kerry said he also raised concerns over the troop movements during the talks with Lavrov in London.
"The Foreign Minister made it clear that President Putin is not prepared to make any decision regarding Ukraine until after the referendum on Sunday," Kerry said.
"We believe the referendum is contrary to the constitution of Ukraine, contrary to international law, is in violation of that law, and is illegitimate."
Also on Friday Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced via Twitter that he will briefly visit Ukraine next week during a European trip. He will be the first G7 leader to do so since the new government took office.
And U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Poland, which borders Ukraine, and Lithuania next week to meet with leaders of the two countries to reassure them about defence commitments under NATO, the White House said on Friday.
Lavrov on Friday reaffirmed that Russia will "respect the results of the referendum" in Crimea and said sanctions would harm relations.
"Our partners also realize that sanctions are counterproductive," he said.
European and U.S. leaders have repeatedly urged Moscow to pull back its troops in Crimea and stop encouraging local militias there who are hyping the vote as a choice between re-establishing generations of ties with Russia or returning to echoes of fascism from Ukraine's Second World War era, when some residents co-operated with Nazi occupiers.
The showdown between Russia and the West has been cast as a struggle for the future of Ukraine, a country with a size and population similar to France. Much of western Ukraine favours ties with the 28-nation European Union, while many in eastern Ukraine have closer economic and traditional ties to Russia. Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, has worked for months to press Ukraine back into Russia's political and economic orbit.
While the Russian Foreign Ministry engaged in more sabre-rattling Friday by warning that it reserves the right to intervene in eastern Ukraine in defence of ethnic Russians who it claims are under threat, Lavrov denied any plans to send troops into eastern Ukraine.
"Russia doesn't and can't have any plans to invade southeastern regions of Ukraine," he said.
Clashes in eastern city
The Russian Foreign Ministry said clashes overnight Thursday in the eastern city of Donetsk showed that Ukrainian authorities had lost control of the country and could not provide basic security.
The clashes broke out, however, when a hostile pro-Russian crowd confronted pro-government supporters. At least one person died and 29 were injured.
Ukraine responded by calling the Russian statement "impressive in its cynicism."
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"[The Donetsk clashes had] a direct connection to deliberate, destructive actions of certain citizens of Russia and some Russian social organizations, representatives of which are present in our country to destabilize the situation and escalate tensions," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Evgeny Perebiynis said, according to the Interfax news agency.
The UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, told reporters Friday in Kyiv that there was "no sign of human rights violations of such a proportion, of such widespread intensity that would require any military measures."
Russia has also sent thousands of troops to its long border with Ukraine, a move that U.S. officials have called an intimidation tactic cloaked as military exercises. The Russian drills announced Thursday included large artillery exercises involving 8,500 soldiers in the Rostov border region alone.
Western officials have asked Russia to start diplomatic talks with Kyiv to lessen tensions but Russia says that government illegally drove Ukraine's pro-Russian president from power.
British Prime Minister David Cameron underlined the threat of sanctions.
"We want to see Ukrainians and the Russians talking to each other. And if they don't, then there are going to have to be consequences," Cameron told Kerry in a separate meeting Friday in London.
'Difficult task'
U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said while it was "not too late" for the Crimea referendum to be cancelled, it was important to be "realistic" about the prospects.
"The fact that so far Russia has not taken any actual action to de-escalate the tensions makes this a formidably difficult task today," Hague said.
Kerry arrived in London with plans to make clear to Lavrov about the stakes that Russia faces. The U.S. wants Russia to accept something short of a full annexation of Crimea — but Kerry has not said what that might entail.
He told senators in Washington that should the Crimea vote take place and no resolution is reached, "there will be a very serious series of steps on Monday in Europe and here."
Obama has imposed limited sanctions against unidentified Russian officials thought by the U.S. to be directly involved in destabilizing Ukraine.
But Congress on Thursday put off a vote until after March 24 that would have expanded those sanctions, as well as approve $1 billion US in loan guarantees to Ukraine and International Monetary Fund revisions to help Kyiv.The 40-year-old woman began chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment after undergoing an operation for a cancerous lump on her left breast, Tgcom24 reported on Monday.
However, it was only after she had completed four months of chemotherapy and undergone 22 radiotherapy sessions at an oncological hospital in Rimini that she noticed a burn mark on her right breast, which was healthy.
She confronted her doctor who confirmed her suspicions that she had in fact been treated on the wrong breast.
A preliminary hearing was held in Rimini on December 16th but the case was dismissed after examination of the woman’s medical records and a legal medical report.
This is disputed by the woman’s lawyer, Roberto Urbinati, who presented a series of oncological and psychological findings to support her claim for damages for medical negligence.
According to the lawyer, the medical mishap resulted in “a reduction in the possibility of the patient’s survival by no less than 20 percent”.
“It’s the first case in Italy of such an error. In the world, only in the United States in Pennsylvania, [has there been] a similar [
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expanding. Currently, they are open Monday through Friday, from 10:30 AM to 6:30 PM, focusing on the lunch crowd.
If you are in the area, stop in and give them a try. If you aren’t in the area, it is well worth a short drive to sample their menu. Either way, you won’t be disappointed.
Extras: Nearly all packaging is eco-friendly.
Atlanta Cheesecake Company
1300 Shiloh Road
Kennesaw, GA 30144
770-427-4896
Website
Sharing is caring!A newly-discovered species of leucothoid amphipod has been named after British singer and composer Sir Elton John.
“I named the species in honor of Sir Elton John because I have listened to his music in my lab during my entire scientific career,” explained Dr James Thomas from the Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography, Florida, author of a paper in the journal ZooKeys.
“So, when this unusual crustacean with a greatly enlarged appendage appeared under my microscope after a day of collecting, an image of the shoes Elton John wore as the Pinball Wizard came to mind.”
This tiny (7 – 8 mm long), extraordinary creature, Leucothoe eltoni, can be found in coral reefs of Yenweres Bay, Raja Ampat, Indonesia, and also in the Philippines, where it lives inside other reef invertebrates in a commensal association — without causing any harm, nor benefit to its host.
“The species is found primarily in branchial baskets of solitary tunicates such as Herdmania and Polycarpa sp., rarely in bivalve mollusks (winged pearl oyster Pteria penguin), and branched yellow rope sponges Callyspongia (species undetermined).”
In an interesting twist Leucothoe eltoni is now reported from Hawaiian waters as an invasive species.
“While described from coral reef environments in tropical Indonesia and the Philippines, it is an established invasive species in the Hawaiian Islands,” Dr Thomas said.
“The most likely mode of introduction was a U.S. Navy dry dock transported to Pearl Harbor in 1992 from Subic Bay, Philippines.”
Dr Thomas also pointed out that even though their tiny size, crustaceans such as Leucothoe eltoni provide crucial information about reef health.
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Thomas JD. 2105. Leucothoe eltoni sp. n., a new species of commensal leucothoid amphipod from coral reefs in Raja Ampat, Indonesia (Crustacea, Amphipoda). ZooKeys 518: 51-66; doi: 10.3897/zookeys.518.9340Ever wanted to experience real Taiko Drumming?
We're having a free open day where you can come learn Taiko!
You are welcome to bring a koha.
Narukami Taiko is a newly formed Japanese drum team in Wellington NZ. We are looking for new members to join our group! We teach classes in both Wellington and Tawa, and we are planning on opening up another beginner class!
Our leader has been playing Taiko for over 6 years. She has played throughout NZ and a little in Japan.
Please wear comfortable clothing to this event as it will be a bit physical!
(shorts, t-shirt, hair tie etc)
If you have any questions regarding classes, Taiko, or general enquiry’s, please contact us via E-mail at [email protected]
So what are you waiting for? Come along and drum with us!A few years ago, popular drag and stock car racer Tia Norfleet told Sporting News that she was on her way towards becoming the first female African-American driver in NASCAR history. On her official website, the 24-year-old daughter of NASCAR legend Bobby Norfleet claims that she's an accomplished racecar driver who plans on racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series this year. But according to recent reports, Norfleet's impressive NASCAR bio is a total hoax - well, sort of...
According to a New York Times report published on March 6, Norfleet is not even licensed to compete in NASCAR... and the avid promotion of her promising racing career has some NASCAR officials confused.
Back in May 2011, Norfleet told Sporting News that she planned on making her NASCAR debut later that year with hopes of paving the way for other African-American women to race. "That's one of the things I want to change," Norfleet told SN's David Steele. "We want to bring a different light to NASCAR. You ask the average person, black, what NASCAR is, and they say, 'You drive around in a circle, and that's it-so what?' Well, they don't see anyone there they recognize, or that they can identify with."
Norfleet has told her story to a number of other credible tabloids including the Washington Post and Huffington Post. But according to the Times, it's all false.
A recent press release distributed by Norfleet's representatives Platinum Sports Entertainment Group claims that she is the first and only African-American female driver in NASCAR and ARCA (another professional auto racing club). Norfleet's website TiaNorfleet34.com makes similar claims, with reports that she's planing to race in the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series. But according to the Times, Norfleet is not evn licensed to compete in either NASCAR or ARCA - the only NASCAR-sanctioned event she has competed in was in a low-level event last year at the Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, VA (she completed just one lap before parking). Norfleet has only bought licenses to compete at minor local and regional events, which aren't regulated by NASCAR. Not only is Norfleet not approved to race in the 2013 Nationwide Series, she may not even be qualified.
"I am uncomfortable with Tia representing herself in the way that she has," Marcus Jadotte, NASCAR's vice president for public affairs and multicultural development, told the Times. "Ms. Norfleet is one of thousands of individuals who have purchased licenses in the Late Model Division of our sport. I am uncomfortable with attempts Ms. Norfleet and her representatives have made to forgo the sport's development process."
NASCAR currently runs a Drive for Diversity program, designed to help develop minority drivers (including Darrell Wallace Jr.). But according to NASCAR officials, Norfleet was never invited to participate in the program. Her father (Bobby Norfleet) did participate in the truck series in the early '90s.
The Augusta, GA native also has a "secret" criminal record in Georgia and Virginia - she was found guilty in 2005 and 2009 of assault and drug-related offenses.
In response to such hoax allegations (which the Times compares to the recent Manti Te'o scandal), Norfleet said, "I've been racing in non-sanctioned races before. I've been racing forever. For as long as I can remember. I race in non-sanctioned races."
Norfleet also tweeted:
@TiaNorfleet: "I'm not going to let a biased, smear campaign stop me. I've been dealing with this type of obstruction since I got my license back in 2010."
And:
@TiaNorfleet: "Just as a state issued license, there not just handed out! You take a test, pass it, and last but not least pay for it!!"
So what do Mstars readers think - is Norfleet's promising NASCAR career truly a hoax, or at least maybe an exagerated fabrication?
© 2019 Mstars News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
AdvertisementHistory
The economic development of the Republic of Ireland has been tremendous, especially considering their lack of natural resources and sporadic periods of high emigration. The success and then collapse of its economy in 2008 has to do with its high level of interdependence with the globalized market.
It was able to harvest the power that multinational corporations have gained in our current era to bring business and money to Ireland’s shores. This has, of course, come at the expense of home grown industries that failed to take off in providing wealth and jobs to the country.
Ireland’s way to bring wealth into the nation, importing established businesses, has been the inspiration that other countries used to bring in wealth. Deng Xiaoping, the leader of China from 1978, utilized special economic zones which had been originated in Ireland.
The Shannon free trade zone was the first special economic zone that ever opened, which it did in 1959. But it was because of the tough economic conditions that had led to this innovative strategy. When we speak of globalization, the free movement of capital around the world, ireland’s story is one that owes it success to this system.
The Republic of Ireland wasn’t declared until 1949, but 1922 marks the point when the Irish Free State established and this is when the nation began to act independently. The long connection to the United Kingdom was broken, and Ireland had been given control of its own future. In this sense, the political ties with the crown had been severed, however the economic ties were not. The majority of its imports were still flowing into England, and therefore their two economies were largely still intertwined.
All of this changed when a dispute about land deeds that England felt it was due from the Irish, and what soon started was a trade war between the two nations that would go on throughout the course of the 1920s and 30s. Tariffs were placed on English goods which then led to the England placing tariffs on Irish goods, and this pattern continued for several years.
During this first period of the Irish Free State’s economic development, state run enterprises were the norm as typically happens during a nation’s early development. The economy mostly consisted of agricultural products, and the development of further cultivation. This meant taking sugar from the fields to package it up for exportation.
Because of the lack of resources, protectionism wasn’t a good strategy for economic development. It soon became clear that the outside world was needed to bring tools for industrialization. By the time of World War Two, Ireland was quite an impoverished nation. An economy based mostly on agriculture, and no modern industries to show for. The world was leaving the nation in the past.
The one sector it did have going for it was the cattle industry, and this was because after 1945 the western world saw an era of prosperity. In this, the demand for beef was rising and farmers of rural Ireland became willing to supply. The cattle trade is one that limits a farmer’s ability to fully utilize his farmland.
To raise cattle, a certain amount of the land must be left for a them to graze upon, and this limits the ability to use farm land for crops. Cows were raised on the fields of Ireland, then were sent off to slaughter houses mostly in England. This was all well and fine for a long period of time, even as the other parts of the economy began to further develop, but this one product could not driving Irish farming forever. 1973 was a big year for the world economy, the oil embargo had effects that shook the entire globe.
One of these was that the excess cash that had driven a high demand for beef was no longer available. The Irish farming industry was hit by a case of a bursting economic bubble in the cattle industry. Cows were no longer worth the value they had been purchased for, and the land the cows grazed on limited the availability of area for crops. By this time, it was clear that the economy needed drastic change. By the 1970s, it was already changing but this demand crisis exposed the uncertainty of having an economy based on agriculture.
Because of Ireland’s location, being the first island in the area of Europe when coming from the United States, it was a spot for planes to refuel on their way to the continent. Specifically the airport in the Republic’s second biggest city, Shannon, became a way to make money from the flow of international sources from providing a service. The government of this time saw this as an opportunity to revolutionize the way the economy worked. In 1959, the Shannon free trade zone was officially established. International companies that had already proved successful were able to move to Ireland, and receive tax breaks on profits and the flow of exports.
The workforce of the nation was used to fill production jobs that were brought in. companies that made drugs, lightbulbs, tools, airplanes, medical devices, weapons, and countless other products. The diversity of production began supplying the population with both employment and wages, opening up Ireland to the consumerism that was sweeping the western world for the first time.
The 1960s was a period of economic prosperity that began Ireland’s transition into the world economy and policies of free trade. Ireland became a middleman for the international capitalist world, and they had the labor force that to meet the demands of these massive multinational companies. Labor was brought here only then to be exported to the largest national markets, and as the middleman they simply took part in the production.
This sort of growth that began in the 1960s was continued throughout the rest of the country with the continued attraction of international business, but no longer just to the Shannon zone, but across the entire country. 15 year tax holidays were given to foreign companies who came into Ireland and were producing exports.
This meant that taxation rates would be suspended for the first 15 years that a company was active in the country. The entire taxation system was going through changes to further adjust to the system of free trade, and so these companies came to the country knowing that corporate tax rates were in the process of getting lower. This emphasis on foreign business meant that home grown industry was neglected and left to fend for itself. While the economy was ticking along fine, this wasn’t a problem, however it meant that shifts throughout the world could have major consequences.
The one home grown industry, besides agriculture, that was succeeding through the 1960s was construction. This was because the further space was needed for the influx of foreign firms.
The construction industry was heavily subsidized by the government to ensure that space would be available for any company looking to establish itself in the country. It was something that the government depended on for what it saw as the one way that the economy would keep growing.
Being a major player in the construction industry at this time would have brought immense wealth and guaranteed jobs. This was a mistake because an economy cannot rely on the inflow of foreign capital and jobs alone. What the government was doing for the construction industry, it should have been doing in other sectors as well. Building up its internal industry to compete with these companies that were taking advantage of the favorable tax system. There were still state owned industries, however they were seen as second to the support given to foreign entities.
The economic joyride could not last forever, and with the 1973 oil crisis, western Europe and North America both faced economic downturns. At the same time that the demand for Irish beef had crashed, the foreign companies investing were facing the same kind of kind of crunch that was sweeping the western world.
Stagflation, that is economic stagnation teamed with inflation, was hitting the economies of the developed capitalist nations. This was the point in time in which the Keynesian economic model began to fall out of favor with the largest nations in the world. The 1970s and 1980s were very tough times in Ireland.
The abundance of poverty that was thought to have been left in the past reemerged across the whole of society. Apart from this economic slowdown, the fact that Ireland’s population was rising at a high rate as well as government mismanagement was straining the economy. By the end of the 1970s, the poor economic state the nation found itself in earned it the slander ‘the sick man of Europe’. Public expenditure (on tax holidays and minimal tax rates for foreign companies) and government debt had hit all time highs and this was placing considerable strain on the financial state of the country.
Beginning in the 1980s, during the depths of the economic slowdown, a new initiative was put into place in order to bring international financial institutions to Ireland. State reforms began to shape themselves around the rising tide of monetarism that was sweeping across the world.
Both Ronald Reagan in the US and Margaret Thatcher in the UK had enacted policies that furthered deregulation of the economy, weakened labor rights, and increased privatization of state owned industry. Ireland came into this period doing the same thing, and it saw the growing importance financialization was having in the global economy.
Financialization is the process by which profits are accumulated through interest on money lending and taking a percentage of money movement. The 1980s saw a reduction of public spending and a government led initiative to make the state more favorable to foreign business.
What happened in the 90s was a culmination of initiatives and reforms that had been taking places since the 60s. With the fall of the Berlin wall, and then later the implosion of the Soviet Union, capitalism went global. This could be compared to a moment like the industrial revolution in the sense that it changed the way that nation’s functioned with one another.
This could be called the capitalist revolution because it was the moment when the market economy went global. Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund played a role in creating such a market by offering loans to nations in need that were contingent on economic reforms that encouraged free trade and made it favorable foreign investors. Capital controls were removed and government intervention in the economy became a taboo. The result of this made it possible for business owners to start making larger profits than in earlier periods.
An economic miracle took place in Ireland during the 1990s, commonly referred to ‘Celtic Tiger’. The low tax rates that had attracted foreign business and financial institutions had succeeded in bringing a wealth to Ireland. It was enough that it was being felt by all economic classes, and so the standard of living jumped to a new high.
This rise in this economy is also the result of the modernization of the infrastructure system that was seen through these years. People were living comfortably, earning higher wages, and living longer. This period established Ireland as one of the European powerhouses, especially in the arena of credit.
The slowdown of Celtic Tiger began around 2003. The rising wages Ireland had seen had made it no longer so profitable for companies to produce there, and many began to move to places where costs were lower such as China and Vietnam. Apart from this, the government began to fund homegrown industries in an attempt to have them be able to compete on the world market.
In the same way that the Shannon free zone was used to attract foreign business, the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) was set up to house foreign financial institutions. In the same way Shannon was special economic zone with tax incentives geared toward foreign investors, the IFSC did the same to create a banking base for Europe in Dublin. This was a sector where native institutions did become very successful and were able to compete on the global market.
In the 2000s, it was the Irish banks that helped to fund the rise in housing that took place. With the rising wealth from Celtic Tiger, many more citizens were able to purchase a house than ever before. This went on for years, and mortgages became easier to obtain. The goal was to continue the interest money rolling in, and it became necessary to approve high risk cases. Everything was going fine until the mortgage payments didn’t start coming in and it became suddenly clear that the banks were going broke.
2007 is the year when the bubble broke, and economic hardship was back on the menu. While many countries were hit very hard, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, amongst others, Ireland’s troubles really came from them relying so much on foreign investment to fuel the economy. The world was was in a crunch, and the lack of foreign business meant that the country was hit once by the bursting of the housing bubble and then again by the lack of demand for goods by a world in a recession.
The first solution was a massive government bailout for the banks, and then foreign packages from the EU. Things got so bad that TROIKA commission had to come in reorganize the running of the economy. Overhauling austerity measures were put into place as a way of reducing national debt and balancing the books. These measures included further cutbacks in state spending, further prizativation of the few publicly owned business that were left, and an increase in tax rates. The result was a squeeze of the people to the breaking point, however the result was balanced budget and Ireland is once again in a period of growth.
While many praise this as an amazing recovery and proof that global capitalism is a good thing, below the surface there are still many problems. Measures to prevent a further crisis have not been put into place, and so another collapse is always lurking just around the corner. Also, they have not reduced their reliance on foreign actors to drive the economy. The tax system still remains one that squeezes the working people while it the corporations pay very little. The current corporate tax rate is 12.5%, this is the lowest in the EU. a much better solution would be in setting up an economic structure that guarantees a basic level of social insurance for all and provides funding for native industry.
It is as if the government has learned little from experiencing such an economic catastrophe. The need for an upgrade in social funding is clear, and yet the current strategy is just to repeat what has worked in the past. Another crisis lurks in the future, and that one may not be solved as quickly as the last.
Like this: Like Loading...Michael Bird
HALF a decade of rock-bottom interest rates and loose monetary policy have delivered an astonishing windfall to governments around the world, dramatic new research released today reveals.
By contrast, older savers with significant assets have been hammered, losing out on huge amounts of interest.
Younger households, which are net borrowers have benefitted. While contrary to popular perception, banks have only gained by a small amount, and many have actually lost out.
The report by The McKinsey Global Institute says that for governments in the Eurozone, US and UK the costs of servicing their national debts are $1.6 trillion (£1 trillion) lower than they would otherwise have been.
In comparison, households in the Eurozone, UK and US have lost out on an estimated $630bn (£394.42bn) in net interest income, with older households hit hardest.
Five years of easing has had varied effects on finance: profits have been trimmed in the Eurozone banks, with $230bn effectively lost up to last year.
US banks have seen a $150bn boost in the same period, due to a slump in interest payments to their depositors.
McKinsey’s report registers barely any change to the profitability of UK banks, where net interest income fell by just one per cent.
Life insurance has been hit particularly hard by the low yields on bonds that they had previously relied on.
The authors of the research concluded that the continuation of a low-interest rate environment for several more years could threaten their survival.
In the UK, where wealth is more closely linked to property, low rates are credited with boosting house prices by 14 per cent, because many mortgages are pegged to the Bank rate.
However, UK homeowners will be more exposed when rates do rise. The report estimates that for every percentage-point hike in effective interest rates, annual household debt payments would increase by 19 per cent.
The appetite for emerging market bonds among foreign investors has also surged: the $92bn purchased by international buyers in 2007 had surged to $264bn last year, according to the report.Need a 1TB solid state drive? OCZ Technology's new Octane line might be just what you're looking for. These new drives will be available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB capacities, the latter of which is the first 2.5-inch SSD in the world to offer such a copious amount of storage.OCZ is making use of its Indilinx acquisition and has outfitted these drives with the Indilinx Everest controller."OCZ has reached an important milestone in the development of its own controller technology," said James E. Bagley, Senior Analyst with Storage Strategies NOW. "The high sustained performance, even with compressed files, the rapid boot feature and high access speeds using SATA 3.0 protocol puts their controller technology in the major league.""Until now SSDs have been tailored for specific applications, forcing users into a product which maximizes performance for a narrow band of applications, but is significantly lacking in others," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. "The Octane Series solves this problem by providing the highest level of performance across varied workloads including mixed file sizes and mixed compressible and uncompressible data, all while nearly doubling NAND flash endurance."Read and write speeds on the SATA 6Gbps version can get up to 560MB/s and 400MB/s, respectively, along with 45,000 random read 4K IOPS. There's also a SATA 3Gbps variant -- Octane-S2 -- that's rated at up to 275MB/s read and 265MB/s speeds with 30,000 random read 4K IOPS. Both variants come with Indilinx's proprietary NDurance technology, which is supposed to increase the lifespan of the NAND flash memory. AES encryption is supported too.Look for these drives to ship on November 1, 2011. No word yet on price.PGA v The Queen [2012] HCA 21 (30 May 2012)
Last Updated: 31 July 2012
HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA
FRENCH CJ,
GUMMOW, HAYNE, HEYDON, CRENNAN, KIEFEL AND BELL JJ
PGA APPELLANT
AND
THE QUEEN RESPONDENT
PGA v The Queen [2012] HCA 21
30 May 2012
A15/2011
ORDER
Appeal dismissed.
On appeal from the Supreme Court of South Australia
Representation
D M J Bennett QC with P F Muscat SC and A L Tokley for the appellant (instructed by Legal Services Commission (SA))
M G Hinton QC, Solicitor-General for the State of South Australia with K G Lesses for the respondent and intervening on behalf of the Attorney-General for the State of South Australia (instructed by Director of Public Prosecutions (SA))
S J Gageler SC, Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth with G A Hill intervening on behalf of the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth (instructed by Australian Government Solicitor)
J D McKenna SC with G J D del Villar intervening on behalf of the Attorney-General of the State of Queensland (instructed by Crown Law (Qld))
Notice: This copy of the Court's Reasons for Judgment is subject to formal revision prior to publication in the Commonwealth Law Reports.
CATCHWORDS
PGA v The Queen
Criminal law – Rape – Husband's immunity from prosecution for rape of wife – Presumption of consent to intercourse by wife in marriage – Appellant charged in 2010 with two counts of rape contrary to s 48 of Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA) – Alleged rapes committed in 1963 against then spouse – Legislative amendments enabled institution of proceedings despite lapse of time – Elements of offence of rape in 1963 supplied by common law – Whether in 1963 common law of Australia presumed consent by wife in marriage.
Precedent – Judicial method – Development of common law – Whether presumption of consent by wife in marriage was part of common law of Australia – Whether statement of common law in R v L [1991] HCA 48; (1991) 174 CLR 379 applied to events alleged to have occurred in 1963.
Words and phrases – "common law", "marital exemption", "marital immunity", "presumption of consent", "rape", "retrospective application".
Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA), s 48.
Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 (UK) (20 & 21 Vict c 85).
FRENCH CJ, GUMMOW, HAYNE, CRENNAN AND KIEFEL JJ. The appellant and his wife, the complainant, were lawfully married in South Australia on 1 September 1962. At the relevant times in 1963 they remained lawfully married and were cohabiting in South Australia as husband and wife at the house of her parents; there were in force no legal orders or undertakings of any kind which affected their matrimonial relationship.
The charges
On 5 July 2010, by information of the Director of Public Prosecutions of South Australia, the appellant was charged for trial in the District Court of South Australia with two counts of carnal knowledge, with four counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and, what is immediately relevant for this appeal, with two counts of rape (counts 3 and 5) contrary to s 48 of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA) ("the CLC Act"). The particulars of count 3 were that between 22 March 1963 and 25 March 1963, at Largs Bay in South Australia, the appellant had vaginal sexual intercourse with his wife without her consent. The particulars of count 5 were that on or about 14 April 1963, also at Largs Bay, the appellant had vaginal sexual intercourse with his wife without her consent.
The issue before the Court is whether the appellant is correct in his contention that, as a matter of the common law, upon their marriage in 1962 his wife had given her consent to sexual intercourse and thereafter could not retract her consent, at least while they remained lawfully married, with the result that he could not be guilty of raping her as charged by counts 3 and 5.
The proposition of law upon which the appellant relies has its source in a statement in extra-judicial writings of Sir Matthew Hale, Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench (1671-1676), which were first published in 1736 as The History of the Pleas of the Crown. The statement by Hale is more fully set out later in these reasons [1] A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown, published in 1803 [2] A Practical Treatise on the Criminal Law, published in 1816 [3] A Treatise on Crimes and Misdemeanors, the first edition of which was published in 1819 [4]
Given this state of affairs, it is perhaps not surprising that the Canadian Criminal Code of 1892 (s 266) and the Criminal Code of Queensland of 1899 (s 347), in defining the crime of rape, included the phrase "not his wife" [5] [6] [7] [8]
"New cases will arise which will elude the most carefully constructed formula. The common law, proceeding, as we have pointed out, by a series of successive approximations – by a continual reconciliation of cases – is prepared for this, and simply modifies the form of its rule. But what will the court do with a code? If the code is truly law, the court is confined to a verbal construction of the rule as expressed, and must decide the case wrong. If the court, on the other hand, is at liberty to decide ex ratione legis, – that is, if it may take into account that the code is only intended to declare the judicial rule, and has done so defectively, and may then go on and supply the defect, – the code is not law, but a mere text-book recommended by the government as containing all at present known on the subject."
Indeed, in 1888, among the 13 judges sitting in the Court for Crown Cases Reserved, on the case stated in R v Clarence [9] Offences against the Person Act 1861 (UK) [10]
Thereafter, in the annotation to s 48 of the 1861 UK Act which appeared in Halsbury's Statutes of England, published in 1929 [11]
"It is said that a husband cannot be guilty of rape upon his wife as a principal in the first degree". (emphasis added)
The 28th edition of Archbold's Pleading, Evidence & Practice in Criminal Cases, published in 1931, four years before the enactment of the CLC Act, cited Hale for the proposition expressed as:
"It is a general proposition that a husband cannot be guilty of a rape upon his wife... but it would seem that the proposition does not necessarily extend to every possible case" [12]
In the intervening period there appears to have been no reported case in England in which a husband had been prosecuted for the rape of his wife during their cohabitation [13]
As it stood in 1963, s 48 of the CLC Act stated:
"Any person convicted of rape shall be guilty of felony, and liable to be imprisoned for life, and may be whipped."
It is accepted that the elements of the offence of rape identified in s 48 were supplied by the common law.
Section 4 of the CLC Act had wholly repealed The Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1876 (SA). As amended by s 13 and the Schedule to the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1925 (SA), s 60 of the 1876 statute had read:
"Whosoever shall be convicted of the crime of rape shall be guilty of felony, and, being convicted thereof, shall be liable to be imprisoned for life, with hard labor, and may be whipped." [14]
The scheme of the legislation in South Australia, in its various forms, was to classify the offence of rape as a felony and to specify the range of punishments upon conviction. This followed the pattern in s 48 of the 1861 UK Act. The legislative emphasis upon the classification of the crime and the punishments which might be inflicted, leaving the elements of the crime itself to the common law, reflected past fluctuations in the statute law. Shortly after the enactment of the 1861 UK Act, there appeared in the 5th edition (1877) of Russell's work, A Treatise on Crimes and Misdemeanors [15]
"This offence formerly was, for many years, justly visited with capital punishment; but it does not appear to have been regarded as equally heinous at all periods of our Constitution. Anciently, indeed, it appears to have been treated as a felony, and, consequently, punishable with death; but this was afterwards thought too hard; and, in its stead, another severe but not capital punishment was inflicted by William the Conqueror, namely, castration and loss of eyes, which continued till after Bracton wrote, in the reign of Henry III. The punishment for rape was still further mitigated, in the reign of Edward I, by the statute of Westm 1, c 13, which reduced the offence to a trespass, and subjected the party to two years' imprisonment, and a fine at the King's will. This lenity, however, is said to have been productive of terrible consequences; and it was, therefore, found necessary, in about ten years afterwards, and in the same reign, again to make the offence of forcible rape a felony, by the statute of Westm 2, c 34. The punishment was still further enhanced by the 18 Eliz c 7, s 1."
The lapse of time
Something should be said respecting the legal significance of the length of time between the alleged conduct in 1963 and the institution of proceedings in 2010. As the CLC Act stood in 1963, it included s 76a [16] Criminal Law Consolidation Act Amendment Act 1985 (SA). However, in R v Pinder [17] Criminal Law Consolidation (Abolition of Time Limit for Prosecution of Certain Sexual Offences) Amendment Act 2003 (SA). The result was that a person, such as the appellant, who had acquired immunity by reason of the operation of the repealed s 76a had lost that immunity and could now be prosecuted.
Changes have been made to the elements of the offence of rape, beginning with the Criminal Law Consolidation Act Amendment Act 1976 (SA), but it has not been submitted that these changes to the elements of the offence apply retrospectively.
The permanent stay application
On 6 July 2010 Herriman DCJ gave reasons for dismissing an application by the appellant for a permanent stay of proceedings. His Honour's reasons included the following passage:
"The complainant's evidence is that in 1960 and 1961, when she was 15 or 16, the accused was in a relationship with her and she says that at that time they were living in her parents' house, albeit that he slept in a separate room. They were ultimately married in September 1962, when she was 17, but she says that before that age she had sexual intercourse with him on two occasions. Those two occasions represent counts 1 and 2 on the information.
The parties then lived as husband and wife in her parents' house until mid-1963, when they went to their own premises. They separated in 1969.
The complainant says that on two occasions, in March and April 1963, which she relates to times immediately before and soon after the birth of their first child, the accused had forcible sexual intercourse with her against her will.
She says that she did not, at any time during the marriage, complain of carnal knowledge or, indeed, of that forced sexual intercourse.
The time for laying of any such charges was then within three years of the act, so that the time for laying a complaint with respect to the carnal knowledge counts expired in about 1964 and, with respect to rape, in about 1966. Those time limits were not abolished until the year 2003. More importantly, there was, and, indeed, there remains, a real question as to whether in 1963 an offence of rape in marriage, as it is commonly called, was then part of the common law of this State."
His Honour went on to stay the trial pending the statement for the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia of a case under s 350(2)(b) of the CLC Act. This dealt with the argument of the appellant that at the time of the alleged offences in 1963, he could not, as a matter of law, have committed the crime of rape upon his wife.
What was said in 1991 by four of the five members of this Court in R v L [18] at least as having the result that by 1991 it was no longer the common law in Australia that by marriage a wife gave irrevocable consent to sexual intercourse with her husband. Herriman DCJ saw the outstanding issue for determination as being "was the offence of rape by one lawful spouse of another... an offence known to the law of South Australia as at 1963?". A question to this effect was stated for consideration by the Full Court [19]
"The defendant is liable at law to be found guilty of the offences of rape charged in count 3 and count 5 of the Information, notwithstanding that at the time of the alleged offence he was married to the alleged victim and was cohabiting with her, the marriage giving rise to no presumption of consent on her part to intercourse with her husband, and
|
against the water park. (CBC)
Penalties for the TSSA charges can range from fines of up to $1 million to jail time.
"Typically the penalties are not as serious as that but I think, again, we've never had a prosecution as serious as this one," said Lee.
A court date has been set for Aug. 22.
Lee said safety standards are in place for waterpark operators in particular because the facilities often attract young children in need of extra supervision.
"The TSSA takes the safety of Ontarians seriously and TSSA will enforce those regulations aggressively because these are meant to protect Ontarians and the public," he said.
Take our poll!The idea that TDD damages design and architecture is not new. DHH suggested as much several years ago with his notion of Test Induced Design Damage; in which he compares the design he prefers to a design created by Jim Weirich that is “testable”. The argument, boils down to separation and indirection. DHH’s concept of good design minimizes these attributes, whereas Weirich’s maximizes them.
I strongly urge you to read DHH’s article, and watch Weirich’s video, and judge for yourself which design you prefer.
Recently I’ve seen the argument resurface on twitter; though not in reference to DHH’s ideas; but instead in reference to a very old interview between James Coplien and myself. In this case the argument is about using TDD to allow architecture to emerge. As you’ll discover, if you read through that interview, Cope and I agree that architecture does not emerge from TDD. The term I used, in that interview was, I believe – Horse shit.
Still another common argument is that as the number of tests grows, a single change to the production code can cause hundreds of tests to require corresponding changes. For example, if you add an argument to a method, every test that calls that method must be changed to add the new argument. This is known as The Fragile Test Problem.
A related argument is: The more tests you have, the harder it is to change the production code; because so many tests can break and require repair. Thus, tests make the production code rigid.
What’s behind this?
Is there anything to these concerns? Are they real? Does TDD really damage design and architecture?
There are too many issues to simply disregard. So what’s going on here?
Before I answer that, let’s look at a simple diagram. Which of these two designs is better?
Yes, it’s true, I’ve given you a hint by coloring the left (sinister) side red, and the right (dexter) side green. I hope it is clear that the right hand solution is generally better than the left.
Why? Coupling, of course. In the left solution the users are directly coupled to a multitude of services. Any change to a service, regardless of how trivial, will likely cause many users to require change. So the left side is fragile.
Worse, the left side users act as anchors that impede the ability of the developers to make changes to the services. Developers fear that too many users may be affected by simple changes. So the left side is rigid.
The right side, on the other hand, decouples the users from the services by using an API. What’s more, the services implement the API using inheritance, or some other form of polymorphism. (That is the meaning of the closed triangular arrows – a UMLism.) Thus a large number of changes can be made to the services without affecting either the API or the users. What’s more the users are not an anchor making the services rigid.
The principles at play here are the Open-Closed Principle (OCP) and the Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP).
Note, that the design on the left is the design that DHH was advocating in his article; whereas the design on the right was the topic of Weirich’s exploration. DHH likes the directness of the design on the left. Weirich likes the separation and isolation of the design on the right.
The Critical Substitution
Now, in your mind, I want you to make a simple substitution. Look at that diagram, and substitute the word “TEST” for the word “USER” – and then think.
Yes. That’s right. Tests need to be designed. Principles of design apply to tests just as much as they apply to regular code. Tests are part of the system; and they must be maintained to the same standards as any other part of the system.
One-to-One Correspondence.
If you’ve been following me for any length of time you know that I describe TDD using three laws. These laws force you to write your tests and your production code simultaneously, virtually line by line. One line of test, followed by one line of production code, around, and around and around. If you’ve never seen or experienced this, you might want to watch this video.
Most people who are new to TDD, and the three laws, end up writing tests that look like the diagram on the left. They create a kind of one-to-one correspondence between the production code and the test code. For example, they may create a test class for every production code class. They may create test methods for every production code method.
Of course this makes sense, at first. After all, the goal of any test suite is to test the elements of the system. Why wouldn’t you create tests that had a one-to-one correspondence with those elements? Why wouldn’t you create a test class for each class, and a set of test methods for each method? Wouldn’t that be the correct solution?
And, indeed, most of the books, articles, and demonstrations of TDD show precisely that approach. They show tests that have a strong structural correlation to the system being tested. So, of course, developers trying to adopt TDD will follow that advice.
The problem is – and I want you to think carefully about this next statement – a one-to-one correspondence implies extremely tight coupling.
Think of it! If the structure of the tests follows the structure of the production code, then the tests are inextricably coupled to the production code – and they follow the sinister red picture on the left!
FitNesse
It, frankly, took me many years to realize this. If you look at the structure of FitNesse, which we began writing in 2001, you will see a strong one-to-one correspondence between the test classes and the production code classes. Indeed, I used to tout this as an advantage because I could find every unit test by simply putting the word “Test” after the class that was being tested.
And, of course, we experienced some of the problems that you would expect with such a sinister design. We had fragile tests. We had structures made rigid by the tests. We felt the pain of TDD. And, after several years, we started to understand that the cause of that pain was that we were not designing our tests to be decoupled.
If you look at part of FitNesse written after 2008 or so, you’ll see that there is a significant drop in the one-to-one correspondence. The tests and code look more like the green design on the right.
Emergence.
The idea that the high level design and architecture of a system emerge from TDD is, frankly, absurd. Before you begin to code any software project, you need to have some architectural vision in place. TDD will not, and can not, provide this vision. That is not TDD’s role.
However, this does not mean that designs do not emerge from TDD – they do; just not at the highest levels. The designs that emerge from TDD are one or two steps above the code; and they are intimately connected to the code, and to the red-green-refactor cycle.
It works like this: As some programmers begin to develop a new class or module, they start by writing simple tests that describe the most degenerate behaviors. These tests check the absurdities, such as what the system does when no input is provided. The production code that solves these tests is trivial, and gradually grows as more and more tests are added.
At some point, relatively early in the process, the programmers look at the production code and decide that the structure is a bit messy. So the programmers extract a few methods, rename a few others, and generally clean things up. This activity will have little or no effect on the tests. The tests are still testing all that code, regardless of the fact that the structure of that code is changing.
This process continues. As tests of ever greater complexity and constraint are added to the suite, the production code continues to grow in response. From time to time, relatively frequently, the programmers clean that production code up. They may extract new classes. They may even pull out new modules. And yet the tests remain unchanged. The tests still cover the production code; but they no longer have a similar structure.
And so, to bridge the different structure between the tests and the production code, an API emerges. This API serves to allow the two streams of code to evolve in very different directions, responding to the opposing forces that press upon tests and production code.
Forces in Opposition
I said, above, that the tests remain unchanged during the process. This isn’t actually true. The tests are also refactored by the programmers on a fairly frequent basis. But the direction of the refactoring is very different from the direction that the production code is refactored. The difference can be summarized by this simple statement:
As the tests get more specific, the production code gets more generic.
This is (to me) one of the most important revelations about TDD in the last 16 years. These two streams of code evolve in opposite directions. Programmers refactor tests to become more and more concrete and specific. They refactor the production code to become more and more abstract and general.
Indeed, this is why TDD works. This is why designs can emerge from TDD. This is why algorithms can be derived by TDD. These things happen as a direct result of programmers pushing the tests and production code in opposite directions.
Of course designs emerge, if you are using design principles to push the production code to be more and more generic. Of course APIs emerge if you are pulling these two streams of communicating code towards opposite extremes of specificity and generality. Of course algorithms can be derived if the tests grow ever more constraining while the production code grows ever more general.
And, of course, highly specific code cannot have a one-to-one correspondence with highly generic code.
Conclusion
What makes TDD work? You do. Following the three laws provides no guarantee. The three laws are a discipline, not a solution. It is you, the programmer, who makes TDD work. And you make it work by understanding that tests are part of the system, that tests must be designed, and that test code evolves towards ever greater specificity, while production code evolves towards ever greater generality.
Can TDD harm your design and architecture? Yes! If you don’t employ design principles to evolve your production code, if you don’t evolve the tests and code in opposite directions, if you don’t treat the tests as part of your system, if you don’t think about decoupling, separation and isolation, you will damage your design and architecture – TDD or no TDD.
You see, it is not TDD that creates bad designs. It is not TDD that creates good designs. It’s you. TDD is a discipline. It’s a way to organize your work. It’s a way to ensure test coverage. It is a way to ensure appropriate generality in response to specificity.
TDD is important. TDD works. TDD is a professional discipline that all programmers should learn and practice. But it is not TDD that causes good or bad designs. You do that.
Is is only programmers, not TDD, that can do harm to designs and architectures.At the start of this year, I had no plans to write articles about the Book of Mormon. But curiosity opened the door, and one discovery led to another. What I hope readers gain from my writings is a sense of the process – the combination of reason and intuition – that leads to an expansion of understanding. The Book of Mormon really is accessible to everyone, not just scholars or experts. A person could spend years studying Egyptology and ancient languages and still fail to see the big picture. I am no expert in such topics, but being a non-expert allows me to step back and connect the dots. Once the dots are connected, the picture that emerges is clear and self-evident.
After I discovered a pattern in Moroni 7, my attention shifted to the name Moroni itself. I wondered if I could figure out the meaning of this name.
When dealing with names of unknown origin, there are a couple ways we can figure out their meaning. The usual approach is to try to find similar names or words in known ancient languages. But we can also learn a lot by looking at the names in context and by comparing people or places within the Book of Mormon that have the same or similar names.
The nice thing about the scriptures is that we can often find wordplay associated with proper names. For example, the name Alma appears to be derived from the Hebrew root elem, meaning “youth” or “young man.” The introduction of this character in the Book of Mormon reads as follows: “But there was one among them whose name was Alma, he also being a descendant of Nephi. And he was a young man, and he believed the words which Abinadi had spoken…” (see Mosiah 17:2).
Finding such literary devices (which are quite numerous in the scriptures) might lead us to believe that the authors had a sense of humor and liked to be clever with their words. But the reason for such wordplay is rooted in something deeper – a cultural and spiritual belief that survives even today among the Jews.
In Judaism, there is power in a name. Naming someone or something is like giving a prophecy. The name is like a patriarchal (or matriarchal) blessing which describes what that person is foreordained to do in their life. A person’s name serves as a foundation for his or her personal identity and mission. When we find examples in the scriptures of people whose deeds seem to match the meaning of their name, that does not mean that they were named after the fact. It means that the authors of the scriptures were looking for ways in which those individuals lived up to the promise of their name.
Waters of Rebirth
As I thought about the name Moroni, I realized that Moroni is linguistically related to Mormon and Cumorah. All three words have the root mor. And Mormon and Moroni are very similar. In fact, I believe that Mormon is an adaptation of the name Moron/Moroni. Joseph Smith said that Mormon means “more good.” But given the context of his statement, I think we can take this as satire.
When we first encounter the name Mormon, it is not the name of a person, but rather a place:
And it came to pass that as many as did believe him [Alma] did go forth to a place which was called Mormon, having received its name from the king, being in the borders of the land having been infested, by times or at seasons, by wild beasts. Now, there was in Mormon a fountain of pure water, and Alma resorted thither, there being near the water a thicket of small trees, where he did hide himself in the daytime from the searches of the king. (Mosiah 18:4-5)
The phrases that follow the name Mormon are clues that let us know the meaning of the name. There are several clues and I believe that all of them have significance:
“having received its name from the king”
“by times or at seasons”
“wild beasts”
“a fountain of pure water”
Alma “did hide himself in the daytime”
Mormon is a multifaceted name. In order to not overcomplicate this discussion, I’m only going to focus on two of these clues: the water, and the reference to the king.
Mor appears to be related to the ancient Egyptian root mr, which means “collection of water.” This is represented in hieroglyphics by the sign of the hoe, followed by the canal, thus depicting irrigation. The root mr refers to all bodies of water, including lakes, rivers, streams, canals, etc. It is the likely source of modern Indo-European words for “sea” such as the Spanish mar and the French mer.
It’s not hard to see that in the land of Egypt, water is very important. It was so important to the ancient Egyptians, that mr became one of the words by which they defined themselves as a people. When dark-skinned Muslims came up from Africa into Spain, the Spaniards called them Moors. Today, the Spanish word moreno is used to describe a dark-skinned or dark-haired person.
Water was one of the defining characteristics of the land of Mormon. For Alma’s followers, this water was a symbol of spiritual rebirth and the resurrection. When Alma invited the people to be baptized, he said, “Behold, here are the waters of Mormon.” He then invited them to become “witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life” (see Mosiah 18). This idea of death and resurrection will become important later on.
The other word that the Egyptians used to define themselves is khem, which means “black.” This refers to the dark fertile land surrounding the Nile. It might also refer to dark-skinned people. Khem is related to the Biblical name Ham, who was the son of Noah.
In the Book of Mormon, the word khem appears as kum or cum. So as we look at the word Cumorah, we can see that it contains the word khem (land) and also the word mor (water). Without any context, we could guess that Cumorah means “fertile land with water” or “land of water.” Mormon actually gives us the meaning of Cumorah right in the text:
And it came to pass that we did march forth to the land of Cumorah, and we did pitch our tents around about the hill Cumorah; and it was in a land of many waters, rivers, and fountains; (Mormon 6:4)
Another name that has mor in it is Morianton. In this case, –ianton is tacked onto mor. The morpheme ian or ean appears to be some sort of modifier which turns the word into a superlative, or at least increases its magnitude. This is consistent across several different Book of Mormon names:
Ripliancum – “And it came to pass that he came to the waters of Ripliancum, which, by interpretation, is large, or to exceed all …” (Ether 15:8)
…” (Ether 15:8) Coriantumr – “…and Coriantumr was king over all the land” (Ether 12:1)
the land” (Ether 12:1) Gadianton – “For there was one Gadianton, who was exceedingly expert in many words, and also in his craft…” (Helaman 2:4)
in many words, and also in his craft…” (Helaman 2:4) Teancum – “… yea, a true friend to liberty; and he had suffered very many exceedingly sore afflictions.” (Alma 62:37)
.” (Alma 62:37) Irreantum – “And we beheld the sea, which we called Irreantum, which, being interpreted, is many waters.” (1 Nephi 17:5)
The last example, Irreantum, is similar to Morianton, just without the initial m. So if mor means “water,” then we can guess that Morianton means “exceedingly great water.” This is what we find in the text.
Therefore, Morianton put it into their hearts that they should flee to the land which was northward, which was covered with large bodies of water… (Alma 50:29)
Yet another related name is Moriancumr. This one has morian, meaning “great waters,” plus cum meaning “land.” So we know this has something to do with a large body of water and land. Once again, the text gives us the answer:
…it came to pass that the Lord did bring Jared and his brethren forth even to that great sea which divideth the lands. And as they came to the sea they pitched their tents; and they called the name of the place Moriancumer; (Ether 2:13)
So we’re starting to make sense of all these names. But we have to remember that a single word can mean different things in different contexts.
The The Place of the King
Let’s go back to the description of the land of Mormon in Mosiah 18. We are informed that Mormon “received its name from the king.” I assume this is a reference to King Noah, but it just says, “the king.” Does the word Mormon have something to do with a king?
Mormon appears to be related to the name Moron, and in the book of Ether, Moron is indeed connected to the idea of a king.
And when he had gathered together an army he came up unto the land of Moron where the king dwelt, and took him captive, which brought to pass the saying of the brother of Jared that they would be brought into captivity. Now the land of Moron, where the king dwelt, was near the land which is called Desolation by the Nephites. (Ether 7:5-6)
This can’t be a coincidence. We can be certain that the name Moron has something to do with the dwelling place of a king. We can also assume that the names Mormon and Moroni did not originate with the Nephites, but with the Jaredites. The narrative of the Book of Mormon might lead us to believe that the Nephites had no contact with the Jaredites, but the naming patterns indicate otherwise. After the Nephites assimilated with the Mulekites at Zarahemla, Jaredite names started showing up.
After noticing this detail about the king, I wondered to myself: “If Moroni means ‘king,’ then is there any language on earth today in which the word for ‘king’ resembles moroni?” It turns out that there is. And this leads us to a very unexpected place. In Sesotho, a South African language that is part of the Bantu family, the word for “king” is morena. We might be inclined to dismiss this connection as coincidental. However, there are other Bantu language connections to the Book of Mormon.
In the waters east of Mozambique near Madagascar, there is a group of islands called Comoros. The people who live on these islands speak a Bantu language. The capital of Comoros is a city called Moroni. In the Comorian language, the word Moroni means “in the heart of the fire.” Critics have noted the similarity to the Cumorah and Moroni of the Book of Mormon, suggesting that Joseph Smith may have copied the names from a map.
There is a Bantu ethnic group in Kenya known as the Meru or Ameru. The language they speak is called Kimîîrú. In Tanzania, there is a mountain also named Meru. These Bantu peoples in the eastern and southern part of Africa are thought to have migrated from Cameroon in the west.
The common tie among all these related names and peoples is not immediately obvious, but once understood, everything starts to make sense. All the Bantu languages tie back to ancient Egypt. A handful of researchers have noted this linguistic connection and written about it.
The ancient Egyptian word for “pyramid” is mer, from the root mr. This sounds the same as the word for “water,” but the pyramid mr in hieroglyphics begins with the chisel instead of the hoe. Our English word pyramid comes from the Greek pyramidos, meaning “fire within” or “fire in the middle.” This is very similar in meaning to the Comorian word moroni, meaning, “in the heart of the fire.”
The pyramid is the place of the king. More specifically, it is a tomb, the burial place of a king. The pyramids were built for the pharaohs as a place for them to await the resurrection. Within the Great Pyramid at Giza is a room known as the King’s Chamber.
The word mer means pyramid, but because it is the tomb of the king, it also came to refer to the king himself. As with many other cultures, the Egyptians came up with indirect ways of addressing the king. Phrases like “your highness” or “your majesty” are comments about the attributes of the king, and these attributes are used as substitutes for the name of the king. Likewise, in Egypt, a pharaoh might be referred to as one who is “beloved” or “highly favored” by the Gods. Thus the root mr or mry also came to mean “beloved.”
The pyramid represents the convergence of opposite forces. The four sides of the pyramid correspond to the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) as well as the four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. The north-south alignment of the pyramids at Giza is accurate to within 3/60 of one degree. That is astonishing even by today’s standards.
The pyramids today are only shadows of what they once were. Originally the outside was covered with smooth white casing stones. And the top was capped with a special stone known as the Benben. This stone is thought to have been plated with gold so as to shine like fire in the sun, thus representing “fire in the middle.”
The Mound of Creation
The pyramid, along with its golden capstone, is a representation of a specific story from Egyptian mythology. It is a creation story that was prominent in the city of Hermopolis or Khemenu, which means, “the town of the Eight.” Hermopolis is also known as the “Island of Fire.” There are a few different version of this myth, but they all have common elements. It goes something like this.
In the beginning, there was nothing but a chaotic watery abyss. Then eight gods came together. These eight, known as the Khemenu or Ogdoad, consisted of four male-female pairs:
Nu and Naunet, representing the primordial waters Amun and Amaunet, representing air, invisibility, and hidden powers Kuk and Kauket, representing darkness and obscurity Huh and Hauhet representing eternity or infinity
The interaction of these gods proved unstable, and a mound of earth began rising from the primordial waters. And from within the mound there was an explosion of fire, giving birth to the sun god, Ra.
Now, it’s easy to get lost in the labyrinth of Egyptian mythology. A person could spend a lot of time learning the names of all the gods and their representations, but still fail to see the obvious message that is staring him in the face. As I consider this creation myth, a couple things stand out.
First, it seems clear to me that the four pairs of gods correspond to the four elements and the four sides of the pyramid. Nu represents water, Amun represents air, Kuk represents black earth, and Huh represents eternal fire.
And second, it seems self-evident that this creation myth did not come out of nowhere. It is rooted in human observation of the natural world. A mound of earth rises up from the water, and fire bursts out from the middle. What is this describing?
The city of Moroni in Comoros is near an active volcano. Mount Meru in Tanzania is a volcano. Though there are no volcanoes in Egypt, someone, somewhere, must have seen the formation of a volcanic island. A volcano is a place of convergence and transformation. In a volcanic island we see the four elements in vivid, contrasting colors: blue water, black volcanic rock, yellow sulfur, white clouds of steam, and red fiery lava in the middle. Fire meets water and earth meets air, and through the union of these opposites, something new is born.
The volcano is a symbol of creation, birth, and regeneration. The dead earth is lifted up, becoming new again. It is understandable that the Egyptians would want to be buried in the mound of creation. They were obsessed with death and resurrection. They believed that if their bodies were placed within the mound, then they would become alive again.
Knowing the Egyptian creation myth helps us understand the origins of the pyramid. The first stage in the evolution of the pyramid was the simple burial mound, in which bodies were placed in a heap of earth. This gave rise to mastabas, rectangular tombs made of clay bricks. The mastabas then developed into step pyramids, and eventually into the large pyramids which were tombs for the pharaohs.
The mound of creation is not an exclusively Egyptian myth. Sumerian mythology tells a similar tale. The mound of Eridu in modern-day Iraq was said to have risen up out of the waters. The name Sumer itself contains the root mr. The Akkadian word kamaru means “heap up” or “pile up,” referring to raised embankments or ramparts.
The idea of a mountain of fire could be compared to the Jewish concept of the Shekhinah or Divine Presence. When Moses went up into a mountain and spoke with God, “the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount” (Exodus 24:17).
In addition, there is a Mount Meru in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. It is said that this mountain, sometimes called Sumeru, is surrounded by oceans and reaches up to the heavens. In Indonesia, there is a volcano called Merapi that is named after the mythical Mount Meru. Thus the Egyptian creation story extends from Africa all the way to the Orient.
Cumorah’s Double Meaning
In the Egyptian creation myth, everything begins with the primordial waters. The god of these primordial waters is Nu (meaning “abyss”), so we could call them the “waters of Nu.” In ancient Egyptian, this would be pronounced as mr (water) + n (Nu) or mrn. So the name Moroni, in its most fundamental sense, means “waters of Nu” or “watery abyss.” But because water became associated with the story of creation, Moroni came to refer to the mound itself. We can trace the evolution of mr as follows:
water → mound, heap → tomb → pyramid → king → beloved, favored
As I mentioned before, the name Cumorah contains the two words by which the Egyptians identified themselves: khem (land) and mor (water). So what is Cumorah? It is the land of Egypt. It is a fertile land with many waters. The Egyptians saw the watery land around the Nile as being representative of the primordial waters of Nu. The pyramid is the mound that rose up out of the waters. Because mr means both water and mound, that means that Cumorah has two meanings. Not only is it a “land of many waters,” but it is also the “land of the mound,” or “land of the hill.”
In describing the Nephite land of Cumorah, Mormon puts great emphasis on the fact that Cumorah is a land of many waters. This is not just a random detail. Cumorah did not happen to have many waters. It had to have many waters. In their search for a sacred site, the Jaredites looked for a place that would match the creation story: a land of many waters with a mountain of fire.
The hill at Cumorah was also known as Ramah (see Ether 15:11). It might seem that Cumorah was the Nephite name and that Ramah was the Jaredite name. However, cumorah is an Egyptian word, and ramah is a Hebrew word which means “high” or “exalted.” So it appears to me that Cumorah was the original name given to the hill by the Jaredites.
Both the Nephites and the Jaredites fought their final battles around Cumorah. Why would that be? The only explanation is that it was a sacred site to both peoples. Remember that the primordial mound is a tomb. It is a place to await the resurrection. So the Nephites and Jaredites went to Cumorah because they knew deep down that they were going to die. They knew that they would become extinct as a people, so they went to the one place where they could hope for a rebirth.
In Egypt, funerary texts were often placed inside tombs to guide the departed in the afterlife. The earliest funerary texts were only for royalty, but over time these texts evolved and extended to anyone who could afford a burial. Likewise, the records that Mormon deposited in the hill Cumorah served as a funerary text for the Nephites. The Book of Mormon itself symbolizes death and resurrection. The record was buried in the mound and then was lifted up out of the earth. And like the gold-plated Benben stone, the gold plates represent the fire within.
One Cumorah or Two?
I think there is a strong possibility that the original Hill Cumorah – the one described in the Book of Mormon – is a volcano. At the very least, Cumorah would have been a representation or symbol of a volcano. Volcanoes naturally create caves and lava tubes, and I’m sure Mormon could have found a safe place to keep the records. If it was a volcano, then this helps us better understand the geography of Book of Mormon lands.
There are four passages in the Book of Mormon that make reference to a land of water. Two of these passages (Mormon 6:4 and Mosiah 8:8) describe this as a land of “many waters.” This is the land that is specifically identified as Cumorah. The other two passages (Alma 50:29 and Helaman 3:3-4) describe a land covered with “large bodies of water.” So the description is different. And in Helaman 3:4 is says that the people going to the place with large bodies of water traveled an “exceedingly great distance” to get there. To me, this sounds like there are two different places.
At the end of the Book of Mormon, there are three people who have similar names: Ammaron, Mormon, and Moroni. These are all variations of the same name, Moron, which refers to the primordial hill or mound. Mormon received the records from Ammaron, and he gave the abridgement to his son Moroni. Each of these men had their own hill. Ammaron kept the records in the hill Shim. Mormon took the records and put them in the hill Cumorah. And then Moroni took the abridgement and buried it in the other hill Cumorah.
If I had to guess, I would say that the land of Cumorah is the area around Tabasco and Veracruz Mexico. This region is truly a land of many waters, rivers, and fountains. In this land there is an active volcano called San Martin Tuxtla, as well as an extinct volcano called San Martin Pajapan. An Olmec monument was found at the top of Pajapan, and the locals say that goblins haunt the caves in the mountain’s sides.
When Mormon mentions the land with “large bodies of water,” this could be a reference to the Great Lakes. Manchester, New York is near Lake Ontario, one of these large bodies of water. It is also near the Finger Lakes. Perhaps Moroni saw this as a place that mimics or is symbolic of the original Cumorah.
The Hill Cumorah in New York is a drumlin that stands out from the surrounding land like a mound rising up from the sea. Joseph Smith said he found the gold plates on the west side of the hill, near the top (JS History 1:51). Today, the hill, like the ancient pyramids, is capped with a gilded monument.
Living Up to One’s Name
I mentioned at the beginning that in the scriptures, we can often find wordplay associated with proper names. I have discovered that if you know the meaning of a person’s name, you can almost always find something that ties back to that name. There are several scriptural names that have the same mr root, and in every case there is something that relates to the Egyptian creation story.
The Moroni who buried the abridged records in the Hill Cumorah is not the only Moroni in the Book of Mormon. The other is the young military leader whose story is found in the book of Alma. Knowing that the name Moroni is a reference to the primordial mound, can we find any correlations to this meaning in Captain Moroni’s life? Captain Moroni, of course, is the person who directed the people to build fortifications.
And now it came to pass that Moroni did not stop making preparations for war, or to defend his people against the Lamanites; for he caused that his armies should commence in the commencement of the twentieth year of the reign of the judges, that they should commence in digging up heaps of earth round about all the cities, throughout all the land which was possessed by the Nephites. (Alma 50:1)
This is significant, because it means that Moroni’s mounds were not just for defensive purposes. To the Nephites, they had a spiritual meaning.
Some LDS scholars, in trying to discredit North American geography models, have pointed out that the Hopewell mounds in the eastern United States were used for ceremonial purposes and not for defense. Therefore, they couldn’t be connected to Moroni’s fortifications. Many of the Hopewell mounds were burial mounds, and it has been claimed that there is no mention of burial mounds in the Book of Mormon. But what we learn from connecting the name Moroni back to Egypt is that the mound is first and foremost a tomb. This is the place where the people wanted to be buried. And the Book of Mormon does mention burial mounds.
Nevertheless, after many days their dead bodies were heaped up upon the face of the earth, and they were covered with a shallow covering. (Alma 16:11) And there was great calamity in all the land, for they had testified that a great curse should come upon the land, and also upon the people, and that there should be a great destruction among them, such an one as never had been upon the face of the earth, and their bones should become as heaps of earth upon the face of the land except they should repent of their wickedness. (Ether 11:6)
The word that the Nephites used for “heap up” may have been related to the Akkadian
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side of the cage. Paul's corner told him to calm down and gave him some water.
"What the hell was that?" Dana White said from the other side of the cage. Paul shrugged and said the first thing that came into his head. "I didn't hear the bell" Paul said. "Bullshit" UFC President Dana muttered. He walked away. Straight after that Dana made the announcement that Paul Daley would never fight in the UFC again. Even after the dust had settled, Paul had joined Strikeforce and was doing well. He'd knocked out UFC Veteran Scott Smith in Round one. Strikeforce Bosses were so impressed they gave Daley a title shot against The un-beatable Strikeforce Champion, Nick Diaz.
But Dana White still wasn't Paul's biggest fan. When asked about the Diaz VS Daley fight Dana said:
"What? Who do I want to win? That's fucking obvious, Nick Diaz" Paul couldn't understand why. He got cut from the UFC before he'd even got back to the hotel and Dana was still pissed at him. Paul lost against Diaz in a controversial win. Paul thought that the Referee stopped the fight too early, he wasn't knocked out and Daley was trying to get back to his feet.
But as long as Nick Diaz was still the champion, there was no way Diaz was going to give Daley that rematch.
When Daley wasn't getting enough fights he asked to be released from his Strikeforce contract. From then on Paul Daley post-UFC took on every fight that was offered to him. He took on challenges from fighters all over the world. "MMA Ringside" in Canada, "Impact Fighting championships" in Australia. "The Dubai Fighting championships" in Dubai, "Cage Contender" in Ireland. "The Legend Fight show 2" in Russia. He lost one of them, but he'd been on a winning streak.
Twitter, MMA fans and journalists were giving Paul support, telling him that the UFC should have taken him back, but he didn't know what Dana White thought. After a little digging on MMA Video sites, Dana wasn't giving away any clear answers.
In The first MMA Interview that Paul saw Dana said this:
Interviewer: "Do you think that Paul Daley could come back?"
Dana: "Absolutely not No fucking way"
The second one went like this…..
Interviewer: "Will you be cutting the master of the Heel-Hook Rousimar Palhares?"
Dana: "We cut this kid called Paul Daley for doing the same thing. Paul will never fight in the UFC again and we're gonna cut Palhares too"
Swedish Interview went negatively.
Interviewer: "Is there any way back for Paul Daley to get back to the UFC"
Dana: "I don't know about that"
Ariel Helwani's interview with Dana didn't make Paul felt better either.
"What about Paul Daley Dana? Have you had any thoughts about getting him back?" Ariel asked.
Dana: "I really haven't thought about it. You'll have to find him and ask him" Dana said.
Ariel did just that. He called Paul's management and they set up the interview on the MMA Hour. Paul explained what he was doing in MMA now and where his career was going.
"Would you like to be back in the UFC Paul?" Ariel asked.
"I'd be lying if I said no" Paul said. "The UFC is one of the biggest MMA promotions in the world. A UFC event is coming up near me, and I'd love to be a part of it" Paul said.
That last comment Daley made gave him the push he needed. A UFC fight night was coming up. Dana would be there and this was Paul's chance to see Dana after all this time. With a friend he got some tickets and went to the event. Machida VS Munoz was great main card, Paul wished he'd been put on it. Paul couldn't get to see Dana backstage without a VIP Pass, so his only option was the parking lot.
"Dana…wait!" Paul said.
"Fuck off before you get arrested…..again" Dana said.
"So you've been keeping tabs on me then?" Paul asked. Dana chewed his gum roughly before spitting it out in a tissue.
"The fucking answer's a "No" Paul…..it's always a "No" Dana said.
"Look Dana…..Mr White. I just want five minutes of your time….please…..what have you got to lose?" Paul asked. Dana leaned back in his car seat before opening the car door.
"Okay...Five fucking minutes" Dana said.
It was weird for Daley having to be his own manager, at least for tonight. Dana pulled up outside a hotel. Paul followed him. Dana went to the desk and the woman gave him his card. They both went up a few flights of stairs, then along a corridor. Dana opened the door with the hotel card and Paul followed him inside. "Say your piece, then fuck off" Dana said. Paul figured that Dana had the biggest room in the hotel. It was huge with Two mini fridges and what looked like a cabinet of drinks. A flat screen TV was built into the wall and champagne bottles were stacked in a polished steel bin.
"Cost much does it?" Paul asked.
"Why the fuck are you here?" Dana asked sitting down.
"You know why I'm here. I want back into the UFC" Paul said.
"Just because you've been a good boy for five fucking seconds?" Dana asked.
"Dana come on. I've learnt my lesson" Paul said sitting down in one of the chairs, but he was facing Dana.
"You learnt your lesson at the UFC's expense" Dana said.
"It was one mistake" Paul said.
"Do you know how much money we could have lost? How many UFC Sponsors that have second thoughts because of your mistake? No Paul, you don't know shit about the UFC because you were too fucking selfish" Dana said getting up to get a drink.
"People have been Tweeting me and Stuff Dana. Gilbert Yvel hit a Referee. BJ Penn, held on to Jens Pulver, Frank Mir went to crazy on a Heel-Hook, Dan Henderson and Dong Hyon Kim got in extra punches. The Diaz Brothers beat up Mayhem Miller in public…." Paul was saying.
"The Diaz Brothers did that shit In Strikeforce. Get your facts fucking straight" Dana said pouring out a glass of Scotch.
"So that makes it okay? Everyone gets a second chance but me Dana. Brock Lesnar talked racist shit to Velasquez, he gave the finger to the crowd. Southern Blue eyed Chael Sonnen cheated to get to Anderson Silva and he's still fighting in the UFC. How is that fair?" Paul asked.
"Paul don't fucking patronize me with the "I have a dream" bullshit. You crossed a line" Dana told him.
"So did Nate Diaz on Twitter" Paul said.
"You're talking about the Diaz Brothers like they're fucking Georges ST Pierre lookalikes. The Diaz Brothers are mixed race and have the same fucking parents okay? So don't fucking go there" Dana said taking a sip of his drink.
The point is how could you ban me from the UFC?" Paul asked. "Diaz and Bisping have done worse" Paul said. "All I'm asking for is one more chance. You gave a chance to Diaz when he called Caraway a fag. You gave Bisping a second chance when he spat on Jorge Rivera's camp at UFC 127…..in public" Paul said.
"Bisping and Diaz didn't punch Koscheck in the fucking face. You're just pissed that Bellator dumped you. Diaz would rather chop his own dick off than give you a re-match. You're back in the fucking little leagues Daley. It's Only now you fucking realize that the UFC was the best thing that has ever happened to you" Dana said.
"No" Paul said simply. "Dana, you were the best thing" Paul said.
Without warning Paul scurried over to Dana on the chair and Kissed him. Without thinking Dana kissed him back. They made out on the sofa until Paul started to unbuckle Dana's jeans. Dana's leg twitched.
"Trying to sleep your way to the top Daley?" Dana asked.
"I'm banned from the UFC for life….remember?" Paul asked. Paul got on the floor and unbuttoned Dana's jeans and slid them down. Dana was a tough crowd to please, but maybe Paul could please him in other ways. He stroked him through his pants gently at first then faster as he used his other hand to massage Dana's thigh. When Paul was finished, Dana pulled his trousers up and Paul went to wash his hands.
Daley came back out and walked to the hotel door.
"Hey Daley…." Dana said. Paul stopped, thinking that Dana was going to say something about his "Private performance"
"This goes no further than here okay?...I'll think about your future in the UFC. I'm not promising you shit" Dana said with a nod.
"I get it…..thanks Mr White" Paul said.
Dana made some calls while Paul went back to his place. He got a call from one of his Team-mates Dan Hardy who was training with Miller at the time.
"Hey Paul how are you Mate?...wow….yeah that's great news…..yeah come over" Dan said.
"Late night hookers again Danny-boy?" Miller asked.
"Funny Miller. Nah Mate, things are looking up for Paul Daley. He might be back in the UFC before you know it" Dan told his training partner.
"Wait….Paul Daley's back in the UFC and I'm not?" Miller asked.(Kosher?)
UPDATE: The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals will be published in February 2010, hopefully in time for Purim! You can preorder it here. It is a lavishly illustrated book with humorous descriptions of all of the beasts on display, with an intro by Ann, a forward by Joseph Nigg, the bestselling author of How to Raise and Train and Dragon, and a discussion about imaginary animal recipes with Food Network star Duff Goldman. It’s a 5 x 7 small-sized hardcover–the perfect gift.
In honor of upcoming holidays like Passover, I thought I would ask Jeff’s better half, Ann VanderMeer, editor of Weird Tales, co-editor of New Weird and Steampunk, and a practicing Jew who teaches bat/bar mitzvah students, to give us an idea of which fantastical animals and beings would be kosher and which would not be kosher, in terms of gnawin’ off a bit o’ that. Answers below… – Evil Monkey
Abumi-Guchi (furry creatures formed from the stirrup of a mounted military commander) – Ann [with look of disbelief]: “Do they chew their prey?” EM: “I think so.” A: “Then no. Besides, the provenance is suspect.”
Aigi Kampoi (fish-tailed goat) – A: “Yes, that would be kosher because it has cloven hoofs, chews its cud, and has fins and scales. Although, it would still be considered a meat meal, even though it’s partially fish. So you can’t eat dairy with it.”
Amikiri (snake-bird-lobster) – A: “No. Absolutely not. The snake and lobster parts make it treyf.”
Arkan Sonney (fairy hedgehog) – A: “No, because hedgehogs aren’t kosher, so a fairy hedgehog wouldn’t be any different, monkey.” EM: “But they’re delicious!” A: “Even so.”
Baku (dream-devouring tapir) – A: “That’s considered a swine. It doesn’t chew its cud.” EM: “What if it was a dream-devouring cow? Would the dream-devouring disqualify it?” A: “No. As long as you don’t consider that scavenging.”
Brag (malevolent water horse) – A: “Horses are not kosher, no matter how aquatic.”
Bugbear (bearlike goblin) – A: “Bears have paws. Things with paws are not kosher. And they eat meat.” EM: “If it was a bear with hooves that chewed cud and the goblin part was just in its stomach, would it be kosher?” A: “Then it wouldn’t be a bear, idiot.”
Chupacabra – A: “It’s definitely a carnivore.” EM: “What if it’s just for show and they don’t eat their prey?” A: “Well I’m sure they don’t chew their cud and have cloven hooves unless the chupacabra turns out to be some kind of mutant cow.”
Cornish Owl-Man – A: “Unfortunately an owl is not kosher because it is a bird of prey–Lev. 11:17, and obviously you cannot eat a man because that is cannibalism.” EM: “Again, though–delicious!”
Dragon – A: “No reptiles or amphibians.” EM: “No exceptions? What about if it chews its cud?” A: “Shut up.”
Encantado (dolphin-human shapeshifter) – EM: “Surely it’s kosher when it’s a dolphin.” A: “A dolphin is a mammal just like you. It has no scales, even though it has fins. Besides, what if it starts changing while you’re eating it?”
ET – A: “…..?” EM: “It had cloven hooves.” A: “It’s a humanoid.” EM: “It looked like a pile of dung. It seemed to chew cud. Would any alien be automatically un-kosher?” A: “I guess it really depends on the alien–like a plant?” EM: “An alien that comes down to Earth.” A: “No, because they wouldn’t be considered an animal.” EM: “What if they looked just like a cow, but with a brain?” A: “Cows have brains.” EM: “Arggh!” A: “But cows don’t travel to other planets using their brains.” EM: “My point exactly!” A: “Anything intelligent is not kosher.”
Headless Mule (fire-spewing, headless, spectral mule) – A: “No, because the mule itself, even if it weren’t fire-breathing, isn’t kosher. The fire doesn’t cleanse it.” EM: “But it’s self-cooking!”
Hippocamp (horse-fish) – A: “Unfortunately, the horse part makes it treyf, and a little bit of treyf makes everything treyf. So if you had 99 percent fish and one percent horse it would still be treyf.” EM: “And a really fucked up looking hippocamp!”
Hobbits – A: “Not kosher at all. They are sentient beings.” EM: “That brings up a point. They’re actually not sentient because they’re not real, so aren’t they just as kosher as air.” Ann: “No comment.”
Hoopoe (rooster-swallow-chicken-snake-goose-lobster-stag-fish hybrid) – A: “The snake and the lobster make it unkosher–see Hippocamp above for percentages.”
Jackalope – A: “No, rabbits are not kosher.” EM: “Not even rabbits?!! Why not?” A: “Because although it chews the cud, it does not have hooves.”
Jaud (vampirized premature baby) – A: “Oh. Do I even have to tell you?” EM: “I guess not.” A: “Number one, a vampire drinks blood. Blood ingesting is a no-no. Number 2–baby?!?!”
Jotai (animated folding screen cloth) – A: “Sure, why not? It’s not a food item. Scarf it down to your heart’s delight. So long as it’s made from plant fibers, not a treyf animal. And only one type of fiber–no mixing of wool and linen.” EM: “Doesn’t sound too good…”
Man-Eating Tree – A: “Tree part yes, man-eating no, therefore treyf.”
Mermaid – A: “No, for the obvious reasons.” EM: “What if you marry one? Is that kosher? Will a rabbi marry you?” A: “Kosher is a term about eating, not about sex.” EM: “I’m not talking about sex–I’m talking about marriage!” A: “If the mermaid is Jewish, the rabbi will probably marry you. But only if you’re Jewish too. But you’ll definitely have to find the right rabbi…”
Mongolian Death Worm – A: “No, because you cannot eat anything that crawls on its belly.” EM: “Does that mean an injured kosher animal that is crawling along isn’t kosher any more?” A: “Yes, because you can’t eat an animal that’s been injured or is sick.” EM: “It’s a wonder you haven’t all starved to death.”
Pollo Maligno (cannibalistic chicken spirit) – A: “When you say cannibalistic, do you mean a chicken that eats other chickens or a chicken that eats humans?” EM: “When I say Pollo Maligno, I have no idea what I mean except I sound fierce.” A: “Well, chickens are kosher, but if it’s eating meat, probably not…” EM: “POLLO MALIGNO! POLLO MALIGNO!”
Pope Lick Monster – A: “I don’t know what that is.” EM: “I think it’s a monster that licks the Pope.” A: “If it’s licking the Pope, it’s probably treyf.”
Sasquatch – A: “What is sasquatch like?” EM: “I’d imagine kind of stringy.” A: “No, that’s not what I mean.” EM: “Kind of ape-like I guess.” A: “If it’s still undetermined, it might be kosher, but maybe not.”
Sea Monkeys – A: “Only if they have fins and scales. Wait a minute–aren’t they actually brine shrimp? Then no.” EM: “I don’t think so. The package shows these cute little things with human faces.” A: “Well, in that case…NO!”
Shedim (chicken-legged demon) – A: “If you have to eat a demon, you really ought to just go off and die somewhere.” EM: “Good point.”
Vegetable Lamb of Tartary – A: “Oh, absolutely kosher! Vegetables are kosher and lambs are kosher! Nice combination. How about some mint with that meal!”
EM: “And monkeys aren’t kosher, right?”
A: “You certainly aren’t.”
UPDATE: If not coming here from Boing Boing, check out additional comments on their post about, er, this post.
Also, want more silliness? Check out beer-book pairings with Arianna Huffington, Michael Chabon, and others.Bert Trautmann: 10 Things you didn’t know about Bert!
On Monday 19th August 2013, Manchester City fans rose as one to honour their former goalkeeper Bert Trautmann. Most of the fans present at the Etihad will never have seen Bert play, but he is a man who has gone down in City’s history as one of their finest players.
If you mention the name Bert Trautmann to football fans they will tell you two key points
Bert was a German POW who played for Manchester City Bert broke his neck in the 1956 FA cup final and played on to win the cup.
However there is much, much more to his life than that!
Here are 10 things you may not have know about the legend that is Bernhard Carl Trautmann or simply ‘Bert’!
1) Bert Trautmann was a mechanic
Bert Trautmann began a 4 year apprenticeship as a trainee mechanic at a large diesel truck manufacturer in the maintenance depot. After only completing two years he joined the Luftwaffe as a wireless operator.
Having not fulfilled the criteria for wireless operator Bert trained as a paratrooper before working in maintenance on the Russian front. Bert believed (through his mechanic background) that Germany lost the war on the eastern front due to the constant upgrading of tanks and vehicles. This meant that the mechanic had to carry too many spare parts and not enough vehicles were able to be repaired quickly enough.
2) Bert was sent to prison for 3 months
Bert was ordered to sabotage a car to enable his army unit to have a vehicle to use. The plan backfired when another mechanic tried to fix the car and was engulfed in flames.
Bert was court martialled and sent to military prison in the Russian prison of Zhitomir. Shortly after entering prison Bert was diagnosed with appendicitis and completed his sentence in a military hospital.
3) Bert was a centre half not a goalie!
Bert was a POW at Garswood Park camp opposite Haydock Park racecourse. During his time here he played many football games as centre half.
An Anglo-German match was organised between players from the camp and the locals from around the camp, however Bert had picked up an injury and asked the goalie if he could play in goal for this game! The rest is history!
4) During the war Bert was captured 4 times!
Bert was first captured by Russians near Zaporozhye and made to repair damaged bridges before escaping back to German lines. Then in France he was captured by the French resistance being gagged and bound for 30 hours before escaping.
Having lost his unit he was captured by American GIs whilst trying to get back home to Bremen. The GIs took him into a field where, fearing he was to be shot, he made a dash for freedom.
During this dash he jumped over a hedge to land at the feet of a peeing British Tommy! This was his last capture which led him to being sent to POW camps in England.
5) Bert was near death many times
Out of 1000 people in his army unit only 300 remained alive. It’s a surprise that Bert was one of them! Doctor’s described him as hours from death when treated for appendicitis. On trips back from the Russian front partisans would ambush the train continuously.
On one trip he made it back to a safe town and made shelter in a school. Due to the hundreds of civilians and German soldiers already in the school, Bert and a fellow soldier made refuge in a store cupboard.
That night Allied planes scored a direct hit on the school. Bert and his fellow soldier were the only two pulled out alive 3 days later!
Whilst on patrol a grenade landed near Bert. He survived but another soldier lay with his intestines hanging out. Bert later tripped on a box and landed on a huge bomb (fortunately it didn’t go off!).
Most people will know that Bert broke his neck in the ’56 FA cup final. But the break was not diagnosed immediately. Bert celebrated with the rest of the team and came back to Manchester after X-rays showed no break.
He was slapped on the back by Frank Swift, he went to an osteopath and had his neck manipulated before finally another X-ray confirmed a broken neck. The specialist said he was a knock from death!
6) Bert was married three times (and reject an attempt to be forced into marriage)
Bert Trautmann was married to Margaret and lived with her in Bramhall and Anglesey. Upon his divorce after living apart for two years he married fellow German Ushi. This marriage didn’t survive Bert’s constant travelling and there was another divorce. Bert then married Marlis at the age of 60.
Bert also had a daughter with his first girlfriend Marion whom he met whilst at the POW camp. Whilst her parents tried to pressure Bert into marriage upon Marion becoming pregnant Bert did not love Marion enough to marry her!
7) Bert’s son was killed by a car 3 weeks after the FA Cup victory
Whilst recovering from his broken neck, Bert accepted an invitation to be a guest at a Germany v England game. This acceptance caused a great deal of anger from Bert’s wife Margaret.
Margaret wanted Bert to spend time with her and their young son John. Bert went leaving the two behind. Margaret went out with John into Bramhall and was talking with a family friend when John saw a van which sold sweets.
Given some money John went but was told he was a penny short. John dashed across the road to go and get the penny from his mum but never made it.
A car came from behind the van and hit John. He was confirmed as dead minutes after arriving at Stockport infirmary. Margaret never forgave Bert for leaving them.
Bert Trautmann had gone from the triumph of winning the FA Cup to breaking his neck to losing his son in three weeks.
8) Prior to winning the FA Cup Bert agreed to sign for German side Schalke 04
Desperate to go back to Germany, Bert accepted a player/coach role at Schalke 04 in 1952. His contract was agreed and all that was needed was for Schalke to talk to Man City and agree a fee.
All this was done without City’s knowledge. A delegation from Schalke made their way to Manchester pretending to be on a fact finding mission.
The delegation showed their hand at the end of the visit offering £1,000 for the German goalkeeper. City laughed at the offer demanding £20,000!
Bert tried to force City’s hand writing an article in the press “Why I have to leave Manchester City”. All to no avail as this was in the era when clubs had the power over players. Bert stayed and became a legend.
9) After leaving City Bert travelled the world teaching football
After leaving City, Bert started by going down the to Stockport as general manager before moving to Germany to manage teams there. Falling out with the owners at County and in Germany, he took up an offer from the German Foreign Office to spread German footballing knowledge.
First stop was as Burma’s national coach where he took them to winning the Fair Play trophy at the Olympics of 1972 before winning several Asian cups.
After Burma he became an advisor to the Tanzania FA before moving on to Liberia. As national coach in Liberia Bert escaped a murderous military coup and was stuck with his team in Ghana!
After Liberia he went on to coach the Pakistan team and then acted as an advisory coach in North Yeman. He hung up his teacher’s boots after being an advisor to the Malta FA.
10) Bert turned down the opportunity to be the North West agent of a German sportswear brand
Bert Trautmann was the first player to wear a new low cut light weight boot designed by his German friend Adolf Dassler. Adolf ran a family company in Germany and became a friend of Bert’s.
After the death of Bert’s son, Adolf offered Bert the chance to be the North West of England agent for the family firm but Bert turned him down. The family firm’s name was Adidas!
Bert Trautmann will never be forgotten!
All these points came from the brilliant book Trautmann: The biography by Alan Rowlands read my review of the book here.
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You do NOT want to know the story of what happened after I finished this one. But if you do, I saw nudes on reddit. There. You know the story now.
Anywho, this here's the Weasel Hoarder. Somebody asked on tumblr so yeah. Here she is. In her full weasely glory. I took a bit of creative liberties. Honestly I'm more proud of that sweet, sweet background. Savor that cold frosty environment, bubby.
SOME people on reddit have had.... negative reactions to my other zomgals. Some called me a "necrophiliac". I did a bait-and-switch joke on tumblr about that which made it look like I was going to stop but it turned out I was going to do MORE. MOOOOOOOOOOOOORE OF THESE. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT I CAN'T DRAW!
Edit: THE fav.me LINK HAS "thc" IN IT HOLY CRAPWe watched on election night as dejected Hillary Clinton supporters poured out of New York City’s Javits Center, but we didn’t see her campaign team wrestling with how and when to concede. And in the months leading up to that moment, we watched Clinton give long, disjointed speeches, but we didn’t see the internal campaign drama that went into writing them.
That’s all in “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign,” the groundbreaking book from Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes that creates an intimate portrait of a campaign positioned to lose, even though it was favored to win.
Listen to This Episode
On The Breakthrough, Allen divulges his process for digging deep into what was, by all accounts, a secretive campaign. He shares his agreement with sources — all spoke on background, and none of their names were used. Hear how he and Parnes gained their trust, kept their confidences and reported out stories no one else was able to tell. He describes the moment they realized what their reporting all meant:
“Right before the election, our editor sent us a note and got us on the phone and he said, ‘You guys have a problem. Your book has all these warning signs, all this, sort of, foreboding … and she’s about to be elected president.’ He was like, ‘How do you reconcile that?’”
Allen and Parnes interviewed nearly 100 insiders. The authors returned to sources again and again, clarifying timelines and confirming facts without revealing who gave them the information. They turned up some scoops. The campaign was dysfunctional — tense from infighting over how resources were spent. The candidate herself couldn’t settle on a message for why she wanted to run, and argued with staff over whether she should apologize for her email server scandal. And even in the most pivotal days of her campaign, Clinton didn’t seem to understand the mood of the country.
“She’s partway through the primaries already and she’s saying, ‘I don’t understand what this populist uprising is,’” says Allen. He and Parnes were “dumbstruck” when sources first told them this, long before Election Day.
Hear about these surprises and more on The Breakthrough, the ProPublica podcast where investigative reporters reveal how they nailed their biggest stories.
Have an idea for an episode? Email us your suggestions at [email protected].
Listen to this podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher.
The music for this podcast is from Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Rosevere.Chinese maker of U.S. Olympic uniforms baffled by backlash
Li Guilian has built Dayang Trands into a $300-million company that tailors clothing for some of the world's most famous brands and powerful people.
Dayang is also the manufacturer behind those snappy blue blazers and white slacks designed by Ralph Lauren for this year's U.S. Olympic team. And that's where the story turns ugly for the hard-charging entrepreneur known by many here as "Chief Li."
Chinese President Hu Jintao and fellow Politburo members are loyal customers of her firm, Dayang Trands. So are U.S. billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Former President George H.W. Bush donned one of the company's suits.
A farmer's daughter who got her start stitching aprons in the countryside, she has built a $300-million company that's listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Now 66, Li employs 10,000 workers sewing fine clothing for some of the world's most famous brands and powerful people.
DALIAN, China — If Horatio Alger had spoken Mandarin he would have loved the rags-to-riches tale of garment maker Li Guilian.
Over the past few weeks she's watched the American backlash over those uniforms' made-in-China labels with a mixture of astonishment and dismay.
"I have a simple question," said the bespectacled, raspy voiced Li in an interview at company headquarters in this industrial seaside city in northeastern China. "Can America really make the suits we make? We have cheaper costs here so you can have cheaper prices in America."
U.S. officials, she said with a wry smile, really ought to get a grip. "Pay attention to the performances of the U.S. athletes and not their clothes," she said.
The dust-up comes at a time when American unemployment remains stubbornly high, fueling tension over China's massive trade imbalance with the U.S.
While Ralph Lauren and the U.S. Olympic Committee try to stem the public relations crisis, many Chinese like Li are baffled by the controversy.
Most garment manufacturing left U.S. shores long ago. Low-cost Chinese goods, they reason, have helped American families stretch their dollars.
Nearly half the clothing in the U.S. today is made in China, while nearly all the rest is manufactured in other countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh, said Daniel Ikenson, an economist at the Cato Institute in Washington.
China'sapparel exports in 2010 were worth $121 billion. Despite rising wages and competition from other developing nations,China'smanufacturing infrastructure remains unrivaled, experts say.
"Whether the U.S. could ever do again what China is doing now, it seems highly unlikely in the next decade or two," said Ken Perkins, president of research firm Retail Metrics in Swampscott, Mass. "There are virtually no firms that would be willing to invest in new plants, spinning and weaving infrastructure in the U.S."
It would be hard to compete against companies such as Dayang, whose founder Li is the embodiment ofChina'seconomic miracle.
Descended from a long line of farmers, the country girl spotted opportunity 33 years ago as Communist China was beginning to test free-market reforms. She opened an apron and tablecloth factory in her home village of Yangshufang, gradually shifting to more complex garments.
Today the company makes 5 million suits a year — a good portion of them for American brands includingMacy's, DKNY and Banana Republic.Image caption Kaloti is currently building the biggest refinery in the world in Dubai
Dubai's biggest gold refiner committed serious breaches of the rules designed to stop gold mined in conflict zones from entering the global supply chain, a whistleblower has revealed.
Amjad Rihan led an Ernst & Young team that audited Kaloti and found it was failing to carry out the proper checks.
But after he told the Dubai regulator, it changed its audit procedures. He said that allowed details of the most serious findings to be covered up, with Ernst & Young turning a blind eye.
The regulator, Ernst & Young and Kaloti all say they acted properly.
Mr Rihan told BBC Newsnight: "The risk of conflict gold entering Dubai and entering the global supply chain is extremely high."
The audit team, which visited Kaloti last year, alerted the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) and also urged superiors at Ernst & Young to notify other regulators and the gold-buying public.
Global gold hub
In May the DMCC's guidance required the audit team's initial findings to be made public but by November that requirement had disappeared.
Angry with the regulator and his firm, Mr Rihan decided to resign and blow the whistle, taking his story to the campaigning group Global Witness, which passed key documents to Newsnight. His disclosures have also been reported by the Guardian and Al-Jazeera.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Amjad Rihan tells BBC Newsnight why he felt he had to resign
"I wouldn't be able to live with a decision like that. I wouldn't be able to come back home at the end of the day and look at my children in the eyes and tell them I'm proud of myself. I will never feel at peace with myself," he said.
The audit found Kaloti had breached a number of international rules for the responsible sourcing of gold, including:
Paying tens millions of dollars in cash without proper documentation - a total of $5.2bn (£3.1bn) - or 40% of its business
Importing more than four tonnes of gold-painted silver that arrived in Dubai declared as gold - a practice Kaloti described as "normal"
Dealing with a supplier that had been linked to conflict zones in eastern Congo
Conflict-free gold is described as gold that has not caused, supported or benefited unlawful armed conflict during its production.
Dubai is an important global gold hub, with more than one-fifth of the world's trade in physical gold taking place there.
As well as being used for jewellery or gold bars, about 300 tonnes of gold a year is used for components in electronic devices, such as computer leads and smartphones.
'Choke point'
Dubai has been named in reports by Global Witness and the United Nations as a big destination for conflict gold. So the DMCC has adopted the international standards designed to show its gold traders and refiners are sourcing gold responsibly.
Conflict minerals Image copyright Reuters • Conflict minerals are minerals mined in conditions of armed conflict and human rights abuses • Armed groups earn hundreds of millions of dollars every year by trading conflict minerals. These minerals can be found in all our electronic devices, from mobile phones to gaming systems • A law passed in 2010 gave companies a May 2014 deadline for reporting the source of its raw materials • In January computing company Intel announced that it would no longer use conflict minerals in its microprocessors • US technology giant Apple began publicising which of its suppliers may be sourcing minerals from conflict zones in February • Apple's first published list detailed 104 suppliers that were unverified for compliance with ethical guidelines
Ernst & Young's team in Dubai was engaged to carry out an audit of Kaloti against two standards - one set by DMCC and one set by the London Bullion Markets Association (LBMA), the standard gold sellers have to meet to sell on the London market.
"Refiners - those who melt the gold down into bars or other forms - are the choke point in the supply chain," Annie Dunnebacke, from Global Witness, said.
"They must carry out checks all the way... back to the mine to find out what the conditions of extraction were, whether the gold has funded conflict, and what's happened along the way."
Mr Rihan said his audit team made "severe and disturbing findings" at Kaloti but he discovered the DMCC was far from keen on publicly shaming Kaloti.
'High risk'
Mr Rihan said: "We told them about the severity of our findings as well as our final conclusion which would state that the risk of conflict minerals entering Dubai is extremely high.
"The Dubai-based regulator was not happy about that, and
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his benevolent wishes for uninterrupted peace with them. On these principles the government was administered while it remained in the hands of the Quakers. This was an illustrious example of government on religious principles, worthy of imitation by all the nations of the earth. I am happy to state, that there are various incidents related by travelers, both among the native Africans and Indians, where lives have been saved by the presentation of a pacific attitude, when they would have otherwise fallen prey to savage barbarity.
It has been my purpose to exhibit reason as a great safeguard, at all times capable of dethroning passion and alleviating our condition in periods of the greatest trouble and difficulty, and of being a powerful handmaid in achieving a triumph of the principles of universal peace. I have also thus far treated the subject as a grand fundamental principle, universal in its nature, and binding alike on every member of the human family. But if there be a single class of people in these United States, on which these duties are more imperative and binding, than another, that class is the colored population of this country, both free and enslaved. Situated as we are, among a people that recognize the lawfulness of slavery, and more of whom sympathize with the oppressor than the oppressed, it requires us to pursue our course calmly onward, with much self-denial, patience and perseverance.
We must be prepared at all times, to meet the scoffs and scorns of the vulgar and indecent—the contemptible frowns of haughty tyrants, and the blighting mildew of a popular and sinful prejudice. If amidst these difficulties we can but possess our souls in patience, we shall finally triumph over our enemies. But among the various duties that devolve on us, not the least is that which relates to ourselves. We must learn on all occasions to rebuke the spirit of violence, both in sentiment and practice. God has said, “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it.” The laws of the land guarantee the protection of our persons from personal violence, and whoever for any cause, inflicts a single blow on a fellow being, violates the laws of God and of his country, and has no just claim to being regarded as a Christian or a good citizen.
As a people we have suffered much from the pestilential influence of mob violence that has spread its devastating influence over our country. And it is to me no matter of astonishment that they continue to exist. They do but put in practice a common every day theory that pervades every neighborhood, and almost every family, viz.: That it is right, under certain circumstances, to violate all law, both civil and national, and abuse, kick and cuff your fellow man, when they deem that he has offended or insulted the community in which he resides.
Whenever the passions of individuals rise above all laws, human and divine, then they are in the first stages of anarchy, and then every act prosecuted under the influence of this spirit, necessarily extends itself beyond the boundary of our laws. The act of the multitude is carried out on the principle of combination, which is the grand lever by which machinery as well as man is impelled in this fruitful age. There is no difference in principle between the acts of a few individuals, and those of a thousand, while actuated by the spirit of passion, dethroning reason, the laws of our country and the liberty of man. Hence every individual that either aids or abets an act of personal violence towards the humblest individual is guilty of sustaining the detestable practice of mobocratic violence. Yet such is the general spirit that pervades our common country, and receives its sanction from places of high honor and trust, that it is patriotism to disregard the laws. It is but reasonable to suppose the individuals, guided by like views and motives, will on some occasions concentrate their power, and carry on their operations on a large scale. Unless the hearts and reasoning powers of man become improved, it is impossible for the most sagacious mind to augur the consequences. The spirit of passion has become so implanted in human bosoms, that the laws of our country give countenance to the same, by exhibiting lenity for those who are under its influence.
This is doubtless a great error in legislation, because it not only pre-supposes the irrationality of man, but gives him a plea of innocence, in behalf of his idiotism. The only sure method of conquering these evils is to commend a reform in ourselves, and then the spirit of passion will soon be destroyed in individuals, and communities, and governments, and then the ground-work will be fully laid for a speedy triumph of the principles of universal peace.
The love of power is one of the greatest human infirmities, and with it comes the usurping influence of despotism, the mother of slavery. Show me any country or people where despotism reigns triumphant, and I will exhibit to your view the spirit of slavery, whether the same be incorporated in the government or not. It is this demon-like spirit of passion that sends forth its poignant influence over professedly civilized nations, as well as the more barbarous tribes. Its effects on the human interest is the same, whether it emanates from the subjugator of Poland—the throne of Britain—the torrid zone of the South, or the genial clime of Pennsylvania; from the white, the red, or the black man – whether he be of European or African descent – or the native Indian that resides in the wilds of the forest, their combined action is at war with the principles of peace, and the liberty of the world.
How different is the exercise of this love of power, when exercised by man, or enforced by human governments, to the exercise of Him who holds all “power over the heavens, earth, and seas, and all that in them is.” With God, all is in order—with man, all confusion. The planets perform their annual revolutions —the tides ebb and flow—the seas obey. His command – the whole government of universal worlds are sustained by His wisdom and power – each invariably performing the course marked out by their great Author, because they are impelled by His love. But with man, governments are impelled by the law of force; hence despotism becomes an ingredient in all human governments.
The power of reason is the noblest gift of Heaven to man, because it assimilates man to his Maker. And were he to improve his mind by cultivating his reasoning powers, his acts of life would bear the impress of Deity, indelibly stamped upon them. If human governments bore any direct resemblance to the government of God, they would be mild in their operation, and the principles of universal peace would become implanted in every mind. Wars, fighting, and strifes would cease —there would be a signal triumph of truth over error—the principles of peace, justice, righteousness, and universal love would guide and direct mankind onward in that sublime path marked out by the great Prince of Peace.
And now my friends, let us cease to be guided by the influence of a wild and beguiling passion—the wicked and foolish fantasies of pride, folly and lustful ambition—the alluring the detestable examples of despotism and governments—the sickly sensibility of those who from false notions of honor, attempt to promote the ends of justice, by placing “righteousness under their feet,” and are at all times ready to imbue their hands in a fellow creature’s blood, for the purpose of satisfying their voracious appetites for crime, murder and revenge. I say from them let us turn away, for a terrible retaliation must shortly await them, even in this life. The moral powers of this nation and the world is fast wakening from the sleep of ages, and wielding a swift besom, that will sweep from the fact of the earth error and iniquity with the power of a whirlwind. But a few years ago and dueling was considered necessary to personal honor, and the professional Christian, or the most upright citizen might barter away the lives and happiness of a nation with his guilty traffic in ardent spirits, with impunity. But now a regenerated public sentiment not only repudiates their conduct, but consigns them with “body and soul murderers.” Though the right to be free has been deemed inalienable by this nation, from a period antecedent to the declaration of American Independence, yet a mental fog hovered over this nation on the subject of slavery that had well nigh sealed her doom, were it not that in the Providence of God a few noble spirits arose in the might of moral power to her rescue. They girded on the power of truth, for their shield, and the principles of peace for their buckler and thus boldly pierced through the incrustrations of a false and fatal philosophy, and from the incision, sprang forth the light of glorious liberty, disseminating its delectable rays over the dark chasms of slavery, and lighting up the vision of the vision of a ruined world. And the effect has been to awaken the nation to her duty with regard to the rights of man—to render slaveholders despicable and guilty of robbery and murder—and in many places, those that profess Christianity have been unchurched, denied the privilege of Christian fellowship. And the same moral power is now awakening in the cause of peace, and will bring disgrace and dishonor on all who engage in wars and fighting.
The period is fast approaching when the church, as at present constituted, must undergo one of the severest contests she has met with since her foundation, because in so many cases she has refused to sustain her own principles. The moral warfare that is now commenced will not cease if the issue should be a dissolution of both church and state. The time has already come when those believe that intemperance, slavery, war and fighting is sinful, and it will soon arrive when those who practice either their rights to enjoy Christian fellowship will be questioned.
And now, Mr. President, I shall give a few practical illustrations, and then I shall have done. It appears by history that there have been many faithful advocates of peace since the apostolic age, but none have ever given a more powerful impetus to the cause of peace, than the modern abolitionists. They have been beater and stoned, mobbed and persecuted from city to city, and never returned evil for evil, but submissively, as a sheep brought before the shearer have they endured scoffings and scourges for the cause’s sake, while they prayed for their prosecutors. And how miraculously they have been preserved in the midst of a thousand dangers from without and within. Up to the present moment not the life of a single individual has been sacrificed on the altar of popular fury. Had they have set out in this glorious undertaking of freeing 2,500,000 human beings, with the war-cry of “liberty or death,” they would have been long since demolished, or a civil war would have ensued; thus would have dyed the national soil with human blood. And now let me ask you, was not their method of attacking the system of human slavery the most reasonable? And would not their policy have been correct, even if we were to lay aside their Christian motives? Their weapons were reason and moral truth, and on them they desired to stand or fall—and so it will be in all causes that are sustained form just and Christian principles, they will ultimately triumph. Now let us suppose for a single moment what would have been our case, if they had started on the principle, that “resistance to tyrants is obedience to God”?—what would have been our condition, together with that of the slave population? Why, we should have doubtless perished by the sword, or been praying for the destruction of our enemies, and probably engaged in the same bloody warfare.
And now we are indebted to the modern abolitionists more than to any other class of men for the instructions we have received from the dissemination of their principles, or we would not at this moment be associated here to advocate the cause of moral reform – of temperance, education, peace and universal liberty. Therefore let us, like them, obliterate from our minds the idea of revenge, and from our hearts all wicked intentions towards each other and the world, and we shall b able through the blessing of Almighty God, to so much to establish the principles of universal peace. Let us not think the world has no regard for our efforts—they are looking forward to them with intense interest and anxiety. The enemies of the abolitionists are exhibiting a regard for the power of their principles that they are unwilling to acknowledge, although it is every where known over the country, that abolitionists “will not fight,” yet they distrust their own strength so much, that they frequently muster a whole neighborhood of from 50 to 300 men, with sticks, stones, rotten eggs and bowie knives, to mob and beat a single individual probably in his “teens,” whose heart’s law is non-resistance. There is another way in which they do us honor—they admit the right of all people to fight for their liberty, but colored people and abolitionists—plainly inferring that they are too good for the performance of such unchristian acts—and lastly, while we endeavor to control our own passions and keep them in subjection, let us be mindful of the weakness of others; and for acts of wickedness of others; and for acts of wickedness committed against us, let us reciprocate in the spirit of kindness. If they continue their injustice towards us, let us always decide that their reasoning powers are defective, and that it is with men as the laws of mechanics —large bodies move slowly, while smaller ones are easily propelled with swift velocity. In every case of passion that presents itself, the subject is one of pity rather than derision, and in his cooler moments let us earnestly advise him to improve his understanding, by cultivating his intellectual powers, and thus exhibit his close alliance with God, who is the author of all wisdom, peace, justice, righteousness and truth. And in conclusion, felt it always be our aim to live in a spirit of unity with each other, supporting one common cause, by spreading our influence for the good of mankind, with the hope that the period will ultimately arrive when the principles of universal peace will triumph throughout the world.
Sources:
The Colored American, September 9, 16, 23, 30, 1837. – See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/1837-william-whipper-non-resistance-offensive-aggressionATLANTA - August 7, 2014 -For adults, eating at both fast-food and full-service restaurants is associated with significant increases in the intake of calories, sugar, saturated fat, and sodium, according to a new study. The study, appearing early online in Public Health Nutrition, finds on days when adults ate at a restaurant, they consumed about 200 additional total daily calories whether they ate at fast- food restaurants or at full-service restaurants.
Previous studies looking at restaurant food consumption have found that adults who reported eating fast food consumed more calories, fat, and sodium, as well as fewer fruits, vegetables and vitamins compared to than those who did not report eating fast food. Studies have also linked meals consumed at both fast-food and full-service restaurants with higher caloric intake.
For the current study, Binh T. Nguyen of the American Cancer Society and Lisa M. Powell of the University of Illinois at Chicago used more recent data from more than 12,000 respondents between the ages of 20 and 64 taking part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003 (NHANES). Participants were asked about visits to fast-food and full-service restaurants on two successive days.
The study found on days when eating at a fast-food restaurant, there was a net increase of total energy intake (194.49 kcal), saturated fat (3.48 g), sugar (3.95 g) and sodium (296.38 mg). Eating at a full-service restaurant was also associated with an energy intake (205.21 kcal), and with higher intake of saturated fat (2.52 g) and sodium (451.06 mg).
The study found Individual characteristics moderated the impact of restaurant food consumption. Net energy intake was larger for black adults compared with their white and Hispanic counterparts and greater for middle-income v. high-income adults.
"The United States is one of the most obese nations in the world, with more than one in three adult men and women in defined as obese," said Dr. Nguyen. "Just as obesity rates rise, there's been a marked increase in total energy consumption consumed away from home, with about one in four calories coming from fast food or full service restaurants in 2007. Our study confirms that adults' fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption was associated with higher daily total energy intake and poorer dietary indicators."
The researchers say the larger adverse effect they measured on energy intake for some lower socio-economic and minority populations has policy implications. They say efforts to improve diet and reduce energy intake from restaurant sources could actually help to reduce racial and socio-economic disparities in Americans' diets.
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Article: The impact of restaurant consumption among US adults: effects on 2 energy and nutrient intakes; Public Health Nutr Published Early Online August 7, 2014; doi:10.1017/S1368980014001153AMHERST – On the eve of the Boston Marathon Monday, the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band will perform during a pregame ceremony honoring the victims of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing before the Boston Red game against the Baltimore Orioles Sunday night at Fenway Park.
Under the direction of Timothy Todd Anderson and Thom Hannum, 240 band members will accompany 35 bagpipers and traditional Scottish drummers performing the melody “Highland Cathedral.”
As they play, prayer canvases bearing messages of support to the city of Boston collected from across the country by the grassroots effort America4Boston will line the outfield warning track, according to a press release.
“This is an important moment for the City of Boston and the people of Massachusetts,” said Anderson. “The tragedy last year affected not just the Commonwealth, but the whole nation, and we are honored to be invited by the Red Sox to participate in this ceremony to honor the victims’ memories.”
The game is slated to begin at 7:05 p.m.San Francisco’s insatiable housing need should clarify the debate over restrictions that promise to incrementally boost affordable housing while exacerbating the overall shortage, making housing that much more unaffordable for everyone.
The Board of Supervisors reportedly has reached a compromise tempering last year’s voter-approved Proposition C, which more than doubled the city’s affordable-housing requirement from 12 to 25 percent for large apartment developments (those with at least 25 units). A proposed ordinance supported by Supervisors Jane Kim and Aaron Peskin, who backed the ill-advised proposition, would have barely reduced that requirement, to 24 percent; a measure supported by Supervisors London Breed, Ahsha Safai and Katy Tang, which seems to have deservedly prevailed in negotiations, would lower it more substantially, to 18 percent.
Kim and Peskin also wanted to raise requirements for condominium developments and smaller buildings (those with 10 to 24 units). Breed, Safai and Tang argued for lowering the set-aside for condominiums and opening more affordable housing to middle-income residents.
Because greater affordable-housing requirements diminish the financial feasibility of development, significantly reducing the set-aside likely would boost residential construction by 5 to 7 percent and reduce total spending on housing, according to an analysis by City Controller Ben Rosenfeld’s office. The competing proposal would have modestly increased the number of units officially designated as affordable, by 2 to 4 percent, but it was not expected to appreciably improve the supply or cost of housing over the onerous requirements set by Proposition C.
An earlier study by the controller’s office found that any affordable-housing requirement greater than 18 percent is likely to discourage development. In that light, though the supervisors appear to have made progress, their agreement starts at the upper limit of what’s reasonable and crosses into dubious territory by allowing the figure to rise to 20 percent over the next two years.
San Francisco’s population reached a record of more than 874,000 last year, according to a state report, and its housing growth was relatively brisk for a change, adding 5,000 units. But the population has expanded at nearly twice the rate of housing since 2010. Meanwhile, as the struggle to house teachers has illustrated, the city has been even worse at building middle-income housing than it has been at producing low-income units. With less than two-thirds of the estimated housing need met for at least the past decade, the city would have to maintain the unusual pace of the past year for another five years merely to close that shortfall, to say nothing of accommodating further growth.
The supervisors’ debate reflects the broader problem facing San Francisco, the Bay Area, and California. Having stifled the housing supply and driven prices skyward through over-regulation, politicians can’t fix the mess by imposing even more burdensome rules.
Competing measures
Kim-Peskin: Would increase affordable housing 2 to 4 percent but have little effect on overall supply.
Breed-Safai-Tang: Would reduce affordable housing 5 to 8 percent but boost overall supply 5 to 7 percent.
Source: City Controller’s OfficeBy Staff
A Saudi court sentenced a Christian Asian man to two years in prison and ordered him lashed 200 times after he was caught with a woman inside his apartment, a newspaper reported on Monday.
The man, in his 50s, immediately rejected the verdict by the court in the capital Riaydh and demanded deportation, saying Islamic law should not be enforced on him on the grounds he is not Moslem.
"I know that Islam does not approve of relationships outside marriage but in my religion, this is acceptable…I asked the judge to deport me since the case involves me and one of my country women,” the man said.
Sabq newspaper said the defendant, who had lived with the woman for nearly a year, refused to leave the court room after the judge handed down the sentence but he was told he must accept the local laws since he is living in Saudi Arabia and ought to respect its traditions.
It was not clear when he would be flogged and whether his girl friend was also sentenced.Given how busy last year's release calendar was, Arkane Studios' Dishonored might have easily slipped under your radar, but the stealth action title is full of ambitious ideas and promising pedigrees. With designers who've worked on the Deus Ex, Thief, and Arx Fatalis series, there were already plenty of reasons to be excited, and thanks to a new slew of details about the game's levels, powers, stealth gameplay, and Chaos system, and we've now got even more.
Here's the complete rundown:
The game takes place in a steampunk-infused city by the name of Dunwall.
You play as Corvo, a supernatural assassin and royal protector of the Empress. After you're falsely accused of her murder, you're tasked with taking whatever action you see fit, be it going on a murderous quest for revenge or working to clear your name.
Structurally, the game is mission based, with a series of discrete levels and a hideout you visit to upgrade your equipment in between.
Individual levels are designed to be as non-linear as possivle, with heavy sandbox elements. You'll have a great deal of freedom to explore the level, and you'll be presented with several different routes to your objective. The end goal is to ensure that no two players have the exact same experience.
To help give gameplay the same dynamic feel, Corvo has access to a full suite of powers, including the ability to stop time, teleport, double jump, summon rats, and possess animals. Using all of these abilities in conjunction can lead to novel solutions, such as summoning and possessing a rat to sneak through a mousehole and around guards.
While you're free to charge into combat guns blazing, Dishonored's stealth system will be very robust for those that take the time to master it.
Eavesdropping on conversations will allow you to update your objectives without bloodshed, and using your powers in conjunction with stealth will help you navigate around enemies you'd otherwise have to fight.
If you play your cards right, you can even complete missions without anyone knowing you're there.
Rather than a standard good or evil reputation system, Dishonored will track the outcome of your actions via its Chaos system. If you take actions that significantly destabilize the world, the outcome of the story and future levels will change, sometimes dramatically, sometimes subtly.
All told, Dishonored is shaping up to be a rather ambitious undertaking. We're eagerly anticipating the game's release on the PS3, PC, and Xbox 360, currently slated for the second quarter of 2012.
Thanks, Gamespot.On most Sunday mornings I swim up to consciousness while listening to BBC Radio 4. The thing that forces me into full wakefulness is an almost comically correct programme called, with great wit and originality, ‘The Sunday Programme’. This hour is supposed to be about religion. But whenever I concentrate it always seems to be mainly about sex – sexual abuse by priests and leaders of religions of almost all denominations, or the travails of overt homosexuals who insist on adhering to, or seeking to be ministers in, churches which disapprove of overt homosexuality. Yesterday was no exception to this rule, so reliable that is actually comical.
But for a few brief moments it actually did discuss religion. An atheist (I forget his name) was pitted against the author of a new book on the 'New Atheism’ from which we suffer so much here on this blog, whether I write about it or not.
This was Andy Bannister, of whom I had not heard before. Nor have I read his book ‘The Atheist Who Didn’t Exist’.
I was astonished (because these discussions are usually hopelessly narrow) to hear him referring to Thomas Nagel, the courteous and thoughtful philosopher who gives Atheism a good name and who openly discusses the fact that he and his fellow believers in Nogod *want* God not to exist. This is a point I tirelessly seek to make about the whole argument. It is indeed the only interesting part of it, which Mr Bunker and others decline to discuss.
Anyway, he mentioned that Aldous Huxley had also written on this point. I have always admired Huxley’s bleak clarity and honesty, and made a brief Internet search to see what he might have been referring to.
I found a book called ‘Ends and Means’, subtitled ‘An Enquiry into the Nature of Ideals and into the Methods employed for their Realization’, published in London in 1937 by Chatto and Windus. There’s a 1941 edition online here
http://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/religion.occult.new_age/occult.conspiracy.and.related/Huxley,%20Aldous%20-%20Ends%20And%20Means.pdf
The interesting bit, for this part of the argument, begins at the bottom of page 269, where Huxley is discussing the reality of the ‘meaning’ which we like to give to the world and our actions within it.
‘This is a question’, says Huxley, ‘which, a few years ago, I should not even have posed. For, like so many of my contemporaries, I took it for granted that there was no meaning’…
‘…I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption...
‘Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know *because we don’t want to know*(my emphasis). It is our will that decides how and upon what subjects we shall use our intelligence. Those who detect no meaning in the world generally do so because, for one reason or another, it suits their books that the world should be meaningless…’
There then follows an interesting reflection on the Marquis de Sade (one of whose disciples was Ian Brady, the Moors Murderer), perhaps the ultimate example of the man who wanted to live free of restraint (and ended up being restrained by authority as a result).
‘De Sade’s philosophy’ Huxley writes ‘was the philosophy of meaninglessness carried to its logical conclusion. Values were illusory and ideals merely the inventions of cunning priests and kings. Sensations and animal pleasures alone possessed reality and were alone worth living for. There was no reason why anyone should have the slightest consideration for anyone else.’
Of course almost all of us recoil from such a view of the world, and, even if we wished God and hell out of existence, can construct systems of mutual solidarity, or at least apparent mutual solidarity, which keep us and our fellow-creatures from raging down De Sade’s path, or Brady’s.
Yet like all pure, unashamed and unrestrained versions of any idea, he is valuable in assessing its essence, just as one must know about Robespierre and Lenin when dealing with any Utopian, however mild and restrained. What if the restraints come off? As Huxley says ‘ Sade is not afraid to be a revolutionary to the bitter end. Not content with denying the particular system of values embodied in the “ancien regime”, he proceeds to deny the existence of any values, any idealism, any binding moral imperatives whatever… De Sade is the one completely consistent and thoroughgoing revolutionary of history.’
A little further on comes this ‘No philosophy is completely disinterested. The pure love of truth is always mingled to some extent with the need, consciously or unconsciously felt by even the noblest and the most intelligent philosophers, to justify a given form of personal or social behaviour, to rationalize the traditional prejudices of a given class or community.’
And then ‘The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do, or why his friends should not seize political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous to themselves.’
And (remember this is 1937) ‘The voluntary, as opposed to the intellectual, reasons for holding the doctrines of materialism, for example, may be predominantly erotic’. As is usual in Huxley this is followed by an example, drawn from his immensely wide reading, typical of a pre-1914 educated person (such as Huxley was – his poor eyesight saved him from a muddy grave in Flanders) but rather shaming for those who pose as intellectuals in today’s world.
Huxley (after a justified swipe at Christianity’s frequent willingness to endorse things it shouldn’t) continues ‘For myself, as no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. *We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom* (my emphasis); we objected to the political and economic system because it was unjust.'
Then ‘The supporters of these systems claimed that in some way they embodied the meaning (a Christian meaning, they insisted) of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and at the same time justifying ourselves in our political and erotic revolt: we could deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever’.
The next section, dealing with man’s later attempt to rediscover meaning in class or nation, should send a shudder down any spine. For once again, it is 1937. I think I had better read the whole thing when I get the chance, but this passage shone with such startling and honest brilliance (compared with most of the dreary repetitious stuff which passes for debate on the subject) that I thought it worth reproducing here. Thank you, Radio 4.Share. Pwnd. Pwnd.
PC gaming has expanded its lead over consoles in the hardware market, and may safely be called "dominant" in the industry, according to a recent study by John Peddie Research.
The study found the PC gaming market is worth $21.5 billion USD - over twice the size of its competitors in the console industry. The report took into account market sales of personal computers, accessories, upgrades, and other such form of hardware used for gaming purposes. Senior Gaming Analyst Ted Pollak says it's being driven by both casual gamers moving to mobile platforms, and by more hardcore gamers who desire gaming experiences not available through console technology.
Exit Theatre Mode
Jon Peddie, President of JPR, attributes part of the success of the PC hardware market simply to more advanced technology:
"Nvidia, Intel, and AMD have enthusiast CPUs and GPUs that are so powerful, when combined with SSD's and fast memory, they absolutely trounce the computing power and gaming capabilities of the newest console generation,” and that “committed PC gamers...are power users and pay thousands for the ability to play games at very high settings.”
For commentary on the rise of PC gaming, see IGN’s article on the subject.
David Witmer is a freelance writer for IGN. He enjoys tweeting and blogging about deep stuff. Follow him on Twitter @d_witmer, or on IGN at dynasty_70For the charisms listed in the New Testament, see spiritual gift
The Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are an enumeration of seven spiritual gifts originating from patristic authors,[1] later elaborated by five intellectual virtues[2] and four other groups of ethical characteristics.[3][4] They are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
Book of Isaiah [ edit ]
Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Folio from Walters manuscript W.171 (15th century)
The seven gifts are found in the Book of Isaiah[5] 11:1-2, where the Biblical passage refers to the characteristics of a Messianic figure understood by Christians to be Jesus Christ empowered by the "Spirit of the Lord".[6]
In the Hebrew Masoretic text the "Spirit of the Lord" is described with six characteristics (wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear of the Lord), and then the last characteristic (fear of the Lord) is mentioned a second time.[7]
In the Greek Septuagint the first mention of the fear of the Lord is translated as "spirit of [...] godliness" (πνεῦμα [...] εὐσεβείας).[8]
Verse Hebrew
Masoretic[9] English
New International Version[10] Greek
Septuagint[11] Latin
Vulgate[12] 11.1 א וְיָצָא חֹטֶר, מִגֵּזַע יִשָׁי; וְנֵצֶר, מִשָּׁרָשָׁיו יִפְרֶה. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. και εξελευσεται ραβδος εκ της ριζης ιεσσαι
και ανθος εκ της ριζης αναβησεται et egredietur virga de radice Iesse
et flos de radice eius ascendet 11.2 ב וְנָחָה עָלָיו, רוּחַ יְהוָה--רוּחַ חָכְמָה וּבִינָה,
רוּחַ עֵצָה וּגְבוּרָה, רוּחַ דַּעַת, וְיִרְאַת יְהוָה. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD— και αναπαυσεται επ' αυτον πνευμα του θεου
πνευμα σοφιας και συνεσεως
πνευμα βουλης και ισχυος
πνευμα γνωσεως και ευσεβειας et requiescet super eum spiritus Domini
spiritus sapientiae et intellectus
spiritus consilii et fortitudinis
spiritus scientiae et pietatis 11.3 ג וַהֲרִיחוֹ, בְּיִרְאַת יְהוָה; and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. εμπλησει αυτον πνευμα φοβου θεου et replebit eum spiritus timoris Domini
The seven Latin terms are then:
In Christianity [ edit ]
The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit is one of several works in Christian devotional literature which follow a scheme of seven.[13] Others include the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer, the beatitudes, the seven last words from the cross, the seven deadly sins, and the seven virtues.[14]
The seven gifts were often represented as doves in medieval texts and especially figure in depictions of the Tree of Jesse which shows the Genealogy of Jesus. For Saint Thomas Aquinas, the dove signifies by its properties each gift of the Holy Spirit.[15]
Roman Catholicism [ edit ]
Although the New Testament does not refer to Isaiah 11:1-2 regarding these gifts,[16][17] Roman Catholicism teaches that initiates receive them at Baptism and that they are strengthened at Confirmation, so that one can proclaim the truths of the faith: "The reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace." For "by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed."[18]
The seven gifts of Holy Spirit [ edit ]
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, these gifts "complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them."[19]
Wisdom is considered the first and the greatest of the gifts. It acts upon both the intellect and the will. According to St. Bernard, it both illumines the mind and instills an attraction to the divine. Adolphe Tanquerey OP explained the difference between the gift of wisdom and that of understanding: "The latter is a view taken by the mind, while the former is an experience undergone by the heart; one is light, the other love, and so they unite and complete one another." [20
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) genotypes experienced increased cardiovascular effects. The MDMA-induced cardiovascular effects are mainly due to the release of NE and 5-HT [39], [40]. Gender differences in the 5-HT neurotransmission system, which is modulated by sex steroids, could have contributed to our results. Women exhibited an enhanced serotonergic function in relation to men [15], [41]. On the other hand, men have larger reserves of 5-HT, and, therefore, more extensive disturbances in 5-HT synthesis/transmission may be required to respond to MDMA [42]. Genetics determined blood pressure (BP) and HR effects. Our results are plausible since MDMA promotes 5-HT release through the translocation of 5-HTT and, as a result, the availability of 5-HT in the synapse will be greater in the l/* carriers because they present higher expression of 5-HTT in relation to the s/s carriers. Furthermore, results of BP according to COMT val158met genotype are consistent with the literature [43], and independent of BP results regarding 5-HTTLPR genotype since the proportion of subjects with l/* and s/s alleles in val/val and met/* groups was similar. MDMA-induced effects on HR are determined by female gender and 5-HTTLPR genotype. However, gender might be more important than genetics; in fact, women showed higher HR increases than men in all four subgroups of genotypes (no differences in HR increase were observed between women carrying l/* and s/s allelic-variants, results not shown). The results on HR are clinically relevant because the mean 20 beats/min (bpm) HR increase developed into tachycardia in some cases. Furthermore, HR increase would be greater in a real context of drug consumption than that observed in our laboratory controlled study because consumers dance for hours under stressful conditions (loud music and high ambient temperature), and repeated doses may be taken per session. Globally, this would worsen observations made in the experimental setting. Naturalistic studies suggest that the HR of ecstasy users easily reaches 100 bpm. [44], [45]. Values that are comparable with those observed during physical exercise of variable intensity in healthy people [46], [47]. The modest increase observed in OT, which is well-documented, seems to be influenced by gender, although the contribution of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism should not be completely discarded [5], [48], [30].The sexual dimorphism in the 5-HT system (previously discussed) may explain gender differences. When comparing OT values of l/l vs. s/s carriers there were differences in the AUC 0-8 h (p = 0.015) (Figure 2). The increase of OT observed between 8–12 h post-administration of MDMA could be simply physiological (circadian rhythm). In the work of Liechti et al [8] whilst no gender differences were reported in DBP, HR, and peripheral body temperature they were, however, observed in SBP where men displayed significantly higher values. Women showed a significant increase in SBP and DBP compared to placebo. Discrepant results between our study and Lietchís could be due to the fact that the volunteers of Liechti and colleagues were drug naïve, received similar or higher MDMA doses (1.35–1.8 mg/kg) than ours, and genetic polymorphisms were not considered.Cairo is coming unhinged. From razing a buffer zone between the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, to criminalizing membership in the Muslim Brotherhood, to using lethal force against activists who violate the country’s protest law, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has crafted an internal security strategy heavy on birdshot, bulldozers, and pliant judges.
Foreign policy realists may argue that Egypt’s domestic problems are its own; they don’t change U.S. strategic interests. The Obama administration’s release of previously embargoed military aid to Egypt—and simultaneous concession that the country’s human rights record is cause for concern—would seem to align with that reading.
However, it is not true that domestic politics can be quarantined from foreign policy. In fact, Egypt’s domestic and foreign policies are becoming more entangled by the day. And that bleed-over should raise concerns.
Brendan Smialowski / Reuters U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo June, 22, 2014.
THE NEAR AND FAR ENEMY
In its approach to internal security, the regime fails to differentiate—and some would argue purposefully conflates—extremists with non-violent political opponents. As Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry recently argued, “the difference between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State is not large.” Such sentiments are nothing new in Egypt, but what is new is the fervor the regime cultivates in rooting out the Islamist scourge and its translation into foreign policy.
During the Muslim Brotherhood’s political ascent after the 2011 Revolution, those opposed to the group became wary of what they referred to the “Ikhwanization” of the state. From security personnel sporting beards to banks issuing bonds that conformed to the principles of Islamic finance, opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood saw these developments as signs of an Islamist takeover. After the Brotherhood was removed from power in 2013 and was subsequently declared a terrorist organization, the new government pushed to “de-Ikhwanize” the state—a pursuit that extends into the foreign policy realm.
InMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Jose Mourinho: "I paid, it's over"
Manchester United manager José Mourinho has denied owing money to the Spanish state in a tax fraud case relating to his time in charge of Real Madrid.
He had been accused of owing nearly €3.3m (£2.9m, $3.8m) in undeclared image rights revenue.
After a brief hearing Mr Mourinho said he had paid everything he had been asked for and the case was now closed.
However a court official said the Portuguese manager remained under official investigation.
A judge will decide whether the case goes to trial.
"I left Spain in 2013 with the information and the conviction that my tax situation was perfectly legal," Mr Mourinho said after Friday's hearing.
"A couple of years later I was informed that an investigation had been opened and I was told that in order to regularise my situation I had to pay X amount of money.
"I did not answer, I did not argue. I paid and signed with the state that I am in compliance and the case is closed."
The hearing came two days before a Manchester United game against Chelsea.
The Spanish authorities began the image rights case against Mr Mourinho in June.
Mr Mourinho's representatives, Gestifute Media, said earlier that he had paid more than €26m in tax at an average rate of more than 41% while living in Spain from June 2010 until May 2013.
In 2015, Gestifute said, he accepted a settlement agreement regarding previous years.
Several leading footballers have also recently faced tax investigations in Spain.
Argentines Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano and Ángel Di María have all been punished for tax evasion while a case against Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo continues. He denies wrongdoing.Although most Americans (including those who serve in government) are unaware of it, genetically engineered foods are on the market only because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has covered up the warnings of its own scientists, misrepresented the facts, and violated explicit mandates of U.S. law.
The following points provide the details.
1. The Food Additive Amendment of the U.S. Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act institutes a precautionary approach and requires that new additives to food must be demonstrated safe before they are marketed. (21 U.S.C. Sec. 321)
2. An official Senate report described the intent of the amendment as follows: “While Congress did not want to unnecessarily stifle technological advances, it nevertheless intended that additives created through new technologies be proven safe before they go to market.” (S. Rep. 2422, 1958 U.S.C.C.A.N. 5301- 2)
3. Though the FDA admits that the various genetic materials implanted in bioengineered organisms are within the amendment’s purview, it claims they are exempt from testing because they are generally recognized as safe (GRAS). (Statement of Policy: Foods Derived From New Plant Varieties, May 29, 1992, Federal Register vol. 57, No. 104 at 22991)
4. However, the FDA’s regulations state that substances added to food that were not in use prior to 1958 cannot qualify as GRAS unless they meet two requirements. Not only must they be acknowledged as safe by an overwhelming consensus of experts, but this consensus must be based on “scientific procedures” – which ordinarily entails studies published in peer-reviewed journals. (21 CFR Sec. 170.30 (a-b))
5. FDA regulations further stipulate that these scientific procedures must provide a demonstration of safety and that GRAS substances "...require the same quantity and quality of scientific evidence as is required to obtain approval of the substance as a food additive." (21 CFR Sec. 170.30(b)) Thus, it’s clear that the GRAS exemption is not supposed to reduce the degree of testing but rather to relieve a producer from performing new tests for substances already known to be safe on the basis of previous ones.
6. Genetically engineered (GE) foods fail both requirements. There is substantial dispute among experts about their safety; and none has been confirmed safe through adequate testing.
7. As the FDA was developing its policy on GE foods during 1991-92, there was not even consensus about safety among its own experts. The predominant opinion was (a) that these new foods entail unique risks, especially the potential for unintended harmful side effects that are difficult to detect and (b) that none can be considered safe unless it has passed rigorous tests capable of screening for such effects. These scientists expressed their concerns in numerous memos to superiors – memos that only came to light in 1998 when the lawsuit led by the Alliance for Bio-Integrity forced the FDA to divulge its files. (Copies of these FDA memos are posted at http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents)
8. For example, microbiologist Dr. Louis Pribyl stated: "There is a profound difference between the types of unexpected effects from traditional breeding and genetic engineering...." He added that several aspects of gene- splicing "... may be more hazardous..." (FDA Document 4 at http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents) Similarly, Dr. E.J. Matthews of the FDA's Toxicology Group warned that "... genetically modified plants could... contain unexpected high concentrations of plant toxicants...," and he cautioned that some of these toxicants could be unexpected and could "...be uniquely different chemicals that are usually expressed in unrelated plants." (Document 2 at http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents) Citing the potential for such unintended dangers, the Director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) called for bioengineered products to be demonstrated safe prior to marketing. He stated: "... CVM believes that animal feeds derived from genetically modified plants present unique [emphasis added] animal and food safety concerns." (Document 10 at http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents) He explained that residues of unexpected substances could make meat and milk products harmful to humans.
9. In light of these unique risks, agency scientists advised that GE foods should undergo special testing, including toxicological tests. (e.g. Documents 2 & 6 at http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents)
10. The pervasiveness of the concerns within the scientific staff is attested by a memo from an FDA official who protested the agency was "... trying to fit a square peg into a round hole... [by] trying to force an ultimate conclusion that there is no difference between foods modified by genetic engineering and foods modified by traditional breeding practices." She declared: "The processes of genetic engineering and traditional breeding are different, and according to the technical experts in the agency, they lead to different risks." (Document 1 at http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents)
11. Moreover, FDA officials knew there was not a consensus about the safety of GE foods among scientists outside the agency either. For instance, FDA's Biotechnology Coordinator acknowledged in a letter to a Canadian health official that there was no such consensus in the scientific community at large. He also admitted, "I think the question of the potential for some substances to cause allergenic reactions is particularly difficult to predict." (Document 8 at http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents)
12. This lack of consensus in itself disqualifies GE foods from GRAS status. But even if consensus did exist, no GE food would qualify as GRAS because none has satisfactorily passed the level of testing that the law requires – and that the FDA experts stated is necessary. The agency’s files demonstrate that as of 1992, there was virtually no evidence to support safety, with one official’s memo to the Biotechnology Coordinator querying: " … are we asking the scientific experts to generate the basis for this policy statement in the absence of any data?” (Document 1 at http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents) And the evidentiary base is still deficient because the FDA does not require any testing; and the tests relied on by the EU, Canada, and others do not adequately screen for the unexpected side effects about which the FDA scientists warned. The inadequacy of current testing has been pointed out by numerous experts, including the Royal Society of Canada and the Public Health Association of Australia. (Also see paragraph 27 below.)
13. Despite the ample evidence indicating a lack of consensus abut safety, as well as the lack of requisite evidence to confirm it, the FDA’s decision-makers (who acknowledge they’ve been operating under a policy “to foster” the U.S. biotechnology industry) declared that as long as a GE food does not introduce a known toxin or allergen, they would presume that it’s GRAS – and can therefore be marketed without any testing. In doing so, they professed themselves “not aware of any information” showing that GE foods differ from others “in any meaningful way,” even though they had received extensive input from their scientists pointing out the significant differences and their serious implications. (The agency’s promotional policy was acknowledgement in “Genetically Engineered Foods,” FDA Consumer, Jan.-Feb. 1993, p.14. Its fraudulent denial of awareness appears in: Statement of Policy: Foods Derived From New Plant Varieties, May 29, 1992, Federal Register vol. 57, No. 104 at 22991)
14. Although many people have been led to believe that the U.S. district court in Alliance for Bio-Integrity v. Shalala determined that GE foods are on the market legally, its decision actually highlights the extent to which their presence is contrary to the law. (Alliance for Bio-Integrity v. Shalala. 116 F. Supp. 2d 166 (D.D.C. 2000) at p. 179)
15. In her written opinion, the judge stated: “Plaintiffs have produced several documents showing significant disagreements among scientific experts.” (116 F.Supp.2d 166 (D.D.C. 2000) at 177) However, she ruled that the crucial issue was not whether GE foods were in fact GRAS at the time of the lawsuit (or were actually GRAS when the FDA issued its policy statement on GE foods in May 1992) but whether FDA administrators had acted arbitrarily in 1992 in presuming that they were GRAS. Therefore, because she held that the case hinged on this narrow procedural issue of whether there had been adequate rational basis for the FDA’s presumption, she said that any evidence showing lack of expert consensus at the time of the lawsuit was irrelevant, since it was not within the administrators’ purview when they formed their policy in 1992.
16. As for the evidence that had been within the FDA’s own files in 1992, she ruled that the administrators were free to disregard the opinions of subordinates when setting policy. (116 F.Supp.2d 166 (D.D.C. 2000) p.178) This conclusion is odd, since the written opinions of the agency’s scientists represented far more than mere policy preferences. They constituted solid evidence that a significant number of experts did not recognize GE foods as safe. Further, the judge failed to mention the fact that the FDA’s biotechnology coordinator had admitted there was not a consensus within the scientific community, even though plaintiffs’ briefs had emphasized it and cited the relevant document.
17. She additionally disregarded the fact (which had also been clearly pointed out to her) that the FDA’s files demonstrated there was insufficient technical evidence about safety to support a presumption that GE foods are GRAS. Although her opinion initially acknowledged that such technical evidence is legally required, she never returned to the issue – a highly irregular outcome.
18. Therefore, because she ignored so much important evidence, her ruling is very dubious. It’s also quite narrow. She did not determine that GE foods are (or ever were) truly GRAS. Nor did she determine that any has been demonstrated safe. She merely held that given the evidence before them in 1992, FDA officials had not acted arbitrarily in presuming that the foods were GRAS. Further, she emphasized that their presumption is, as a matter of law, “rebuttable.” (p.172)
19. This is a crucial point, because even if one believes that the FDA administrators had reasonable basis in 1992 to presume that all GE foods are GRAS, it’s obvious that their rebuttable presumption has been clearly and continually rebutted – both by the ever-growing dispute among experts and the ongoing lack of adequate testing.
20. Moreover, the lack of consensus and the lack of evidence are glaringly apparent, as the next seven paragraphs amply demonstrate.
21. In the Alliance for Bio-Integrity lawsuit, nine of the plaintiffs were well-credentialed life scientists (including tenured professors at UC Berkeley, Rutgers, the University of Minnesota, and the NYU School of Medicine) who asserted they did not regard GE foods as safe. As noted in paragraph 15 above, the judge acknowledged we had demonstrated there were “significant disagreements among scientific experts.” This in itself established that as of May 1998, GE foods could not be considered GRAS.
22. The following year, the respected medical journal The Lancet strongly criticized the presumption that GE foods entail no greater risks of unexpected effects than conventional foods, stating that there are “good reasons to believe that specific risks may exist” and that “governments should never have allowed these products into the food chain without insisting on rigorous testing for effects on health.” (The Lancet, Volume 353, Issue 9167, Page 1811, 29 May 1999)
23. In 2001, an expert panel of the Royal Society of Canada issued a report declaring (a) that it is “scientifically unjustifiable” to presume that GE foods are safe and (b) that the “default presumption” for every GE food should be that the genetic alteration has induced unintended and potentially hazardous side effects. (“Elements of Precaution: Recommendations for the Regulation of Food Biotechnology in Canada; An Expert Panel Report on the Future of Food Biotechnology prepared by The Royal Society of Canada at the request of Health Canada Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Environment Canada” The Royal Society of Canada, January 2001) In describing the report’s criticism of the current approach to regulating GE foods, the Toronto Star stated: “The experts say this approach is fatally flawed … and exposes Canadians to several potential health risks, including toxicity and allergic reactions.” (Calamai, P., “Ottawa Rapped, Expert Study Considered Major Setback for Biotech Industry,” Toronto Star, February 5, 2001)
24. The British Medical Association has also expressed reservations about the safety of these novel products. As described in the British Medical Journal, the Association released a 2004 report stating that “more research is needed to show that genetically modified (GM) food crops and ingredients are safe for people and the environment and that they offer real benefits over traditionally grown foods.” (Kmietowicz, Z. “GM Foods Should Be Submitted to Further Studies, says BMA,” British Medical Journal, 2004 March 13; 328(7440): 602)
25. In January 2015, a peer-reviewed journal published a statement signed by more than 300 scientists asserting that there is not a consensus about the safety of GE foods and that their safety has not been adequately demonstrated. (Hilbeck et al. Environmental Sciences Europe (2015) 27:4. http://www.enveurope.com/content/pdf/s12302-014-0034-1.pdf)
26. Thus, the absence of requisite consensus is irrefutable, especially in light of the fact that the FDA has, in court, established that an additive was not GRAS merely by producing testimony from two
experts who did not regard it as safe. (United States v. Seven Cartons... Ferro-Lac, 293 F. Supp. 660, 664 (S.D. Il. 1968)
27. Further, not only has there never been a genuine consensus about the safety of GE foods, the evidentiary base on which such a consensus is legally required to rest has never existed either – and is still absent. This is well-attested by David Schubert, a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, who recently asserted: “As a medical research scientist who published a comprehensive, peer-reviewed critique of genetically modified food safety testing, I can state confidently that it is false to say such foods and the toxic chemicals they require are extensively tested and proved safe.” (Letter to the LA Times, October 28, 2012)
28. Moreover, although the proponents of GE foods claim that the FDA subjects them to scientific reviews, the voluntary consultations that the agency conducts with the manufacturers are not scientific reviews – and the FDA has admitted that they aren’t. As its Biotechnology Strategic Manager has described the process: “The FDA requests that firms submit a summary of their assessment to the agency. The FDA does not request the original data and, therefore, does not conduct a scientific review of the firm's decision.” (Maryanski, J., “Safety Assurance of Foods Derived by Modern Biotechnology in the United States,” July 1996.) In January 1999, the FDA affirmed that it still was not conducting scientific reviews, stating: “FDA has not found it necessary to conduct comprehensive scientific reviews of foods derived from bioengineered plants... consistent with its 1992 policy.” (Reported in The Lancet, May 29, 1999) And this lenient approach is still in place.
29. Although the FDA has been illegally, and fraudulently, exempting GE foods from the testing requirements established by Congress in 1958, hardly any current members of Congress are aware of the malfeasance. Consequently, the House of Representatives (in passing a bill titled the “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015”) voted to remove the requirements that the FDA has been illicitly waiving; and it appears that virtually none of those who voted “yes” realized that they were in essence forgiving the FDA’s flagrant violation of the law (and its snubbing of the Congressional will) – and legitimizing a policy that was deemed both unscientific and risky by the agency’s own experts.*
30. Hopefully, if that bill is considered by the Senate, its members will deliberate on the basis of more complete and accurate information.
* Although the provisions of the bill that have garnered most attention are those that relate to labeling (especially the one that prohibits states from requiring the labeling of GMOs sold within their borders), the provision that legitimizes the FDA’s lax and illegal no-testing policy is the one that alters current statutory law.
Copyright © 2015 Steven M. Druker. Permission is granted to reproduce and circulate this document as long as all the text is maintained.
Steven M. Druker, J.D., is executive director of Alliance for Bio-Integrity http://www.biointegrity.org/ and author of Altered Genes, Twisted Truth, How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public. http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Genes-Twisted-Truth-Systematically/dp/0985616903/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1441115656&sr=1-1&keywords=altered+genes+twisted+truthCopenhagen Police arrested 28 people early on Thursday in connection with Saturday night's violent demonstration in Nørrebro
Police ransacked several addresses in Nørrebro, inner Copenhagen, Valby and the city's Nordvest district in a search for individuals involved in Saturday night's demonstration.
See also: Weekend demo turns violent in Copenhagen
Police said that their investigation into the activists involved in Reclaim the Streets showed that addition to throwing Molotov cocktails, rocks and bottles at police and smashing several business windows on Saturday, several of the same individuals were involved in the vandalism of a bank in Østerbro.
Officers arrested 19 men and nine women. Fifteen of the arrestees were brought in for further questioning while the others were released shortly after their arrests. Police said that weapons, cobblestones and hemp plants were found during their searches. Those arrests are in addition to the three that were made in the early hours of Sunday.
Justice Minister Søren Pind, who vowed a “historically hard” response to the activists, praised police on Facebook.
“Good work by the Copenhagen Police. As I said, I will not tolerate this behaviour, and there is plenty of place in our prisons,” he wrote.
Following the Saturday demonstration, activists promised “similar events” in the future in a now-deleted Facebook post.
“Yesterday [Saturday, ed.] we took the streets back and you were crazy! There were a lot of us on the streets and we will neither claim responsibility for, nor condemn, the night's activities, but rather send a reminder that there is always a risk of revenge and action when one physically and aggressively reprimand people,” the group wrote.
The group said its actions were in response to Nørrebro becoming a district full of “expensive parent-purchased flats, hipster cafes and asocial capitalist stores”.
According to a former activist, another motivation for the demonstration was the far-left's perception that the Copenhagen Police handled them unfairly in relation to demonstrations by the Islam-critical group Pegida, which has been staging regular but poorly attended demonstrations for months.
“It's as if the police have punished one side really hard while they have let the other group be in peace and many feel as though [the police] have used unnecessary violence and power,” Erik Storrud told Berlingske.Goldendale Observatory Image: Courtesy Washington State Parks
Seattle Astronomical Society
The hometown crew holds three public star parties every month, including in Greenlake and Shoreline as well as viewing nights for members. Experts lead workshops on astrophotography, or the art of snapping pics of stuff 10,000 light-years away that has never heard of Instagram. seattleastro.org
Theodor Jacobsen Observatory
University of Washington undergraduates lead lectures at regular open nights at the school’s stone observatory, after which attendees can visit the dome and 1892 refracting telescope, a shiny antique that works with old-fashioned weights and dials. The relic isn’t as powerful as the modern home telescopes set up on the lawn, but it has old-school novelty. depts.washington.edu/astron/outreach/jacobsen-observatory
Cloud Break Optics
A telescope shop in a rainy city? Sure, says co-owner Stephanie Anderson, also the president of the Seattle Astronomical Society (see above). The Ballard store sells scopes for viewing the sun, stars, or your neighbors—including one giant instrument Anderson describes as “looking like the thing you shoot clowns out of.” cloudbreakoptics.com
Battle Point Astronomical Association
The Bainbridge Island group holds monthly open events at a park that had a former life as a naval station. The Ritchie Observatory holds a planetarium and a 27.5-inch reflector telescope, whose mirror took a year to grind and polish. bpastro.org
Goldendale Observatory State Park
The region’s only publicly accessible telescope sits in a pocket-size state park southeast of Yakima, soon to undergo a $1.5 million upgrade. It lost its Dark Sky status in April, meaning it’s no longer quite dim enough to be one of the very best places for star searching. But there’s still a lot visible through the 24.5-inch reflector telescope, scheduled to remain open during the remodel. The rollicking evening lecture from the observatory director combines lots of Star Wars references with more facts and -mythology than a freshman course. goldendaleobservatory.comChristie and Trump. | AP Photo/John Minchillo New poll shows Christie approval in New Jersey at lowest point
Gov. Chris Christie’s approval rating in New Jersey sits at its lowest point since taking office, tying the 30 percent mark registered last June, according to the latest poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Public Mind released on Wednesday.
Christie’s disapproval rating clocks in at 61 percent, the polls found. About 54 percent of Republicans approve of the governor and 37 percent disapprove. About 77 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents said they disapprove.
Story Continued Below
And the governor’s endorsement of presidential candidate Donald Trump did not help him at home, possibly even driving more supporters to turn against him.
The poll, which was conducted in the days before and after the Trump endorsement last week, found Christie’s approval rating fell from 33 percent before he announced his support to 27 percent after. Disapproval increased from 59 percent to 64.
Those numbers, however, have a margin of error of more than 5 percent — higher than the rest of the poll — because of the smaller sample size. Still, it’s clear the governor’s surprising decision to back a figure loathed by many establishment Republicans did him no favors in the Garden State.
“Christie’s return to his roots after suspending his White House run was an opportunity to re-establish some good will with voters,” Krista Jenkins, professor of political science and director of FDU’s PublicMind, said in a statement. “But joining forces with Donald Trump was hardly a vehicle for getting voters to reconsider their sour mood toward the Governor.”
Just 29 percent of respondents said New Jersey is headed down the “right direction,” with another 59 percent saying it is on the “wrong track.”
The poll also included word associations, with many of the most common descriptors for Christie veering into the negative. “Bully,” “bad,” “arrogant” and “disappointing” were among the most commonly used words. Some also said “smart,” “good,” “Ok,” “fair,” “bold” and “truthful.” But beyond those, there were few nice comments, with descriptions ranging from “incompetent” to “cocky” to “disaster.”
“Although not all of the most commonly mentioned words offer a description that is negative, it’s hard to overlook the preponderance of terms that underlie the deep disappointment that voters feel for the governor’s leadership,” Jenkins said. “Maybe the ‘bully’ thing used to work for the governor, but not anymore given his low approval and the plethora of negative attributes linked to his persona.”
Overall, the poll has a margin of error of 3.9 percent. It was conducted between Feb. 24 and Feb. 28 and included 694 registered voters. Christie endorsed Trump on Feb. 26.A victim of child sex abuse denied compensation by a Government agency because it said he "consented" has now received an apology.
The young man, who was abused from the age of 13, was told by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority that he would not receive any money because he had not been the victim of a crime.
He was groomed online and abused by 23 men, 21 of whom have been convicted of offences including sexual activity with a child, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and meeting a child after sexual grooming.
His family's appeal for compensation was rejected and an appeal was due to be heard later this month.
But the agency has now revised its position just days ahead of the planned appeal.
The young man, who cannot be named, had already prepared to give evidence in order to prove he was a victim.
Liberty, who was supporting the case, said CICA’s CEO Carole Oatway wrote to him apologising for the way his case was handled.
The letter said: “I am firmly of the view that you are eligible for compensation. It is clear that advantage was taken of your age and vulnerability for the purpose of sexual abuse.”
His father said: "We are thankful CICA has changed its stance – but it should never have come to this.
"Having spent years coming to terms with what happened to him and that it was not his fault, my son was told by a state body that it was."
Debaleena Dasgupta, a lawyer for Liberty, who was supporting the appeal, said: "It was only at the 11th hour they conceded these appeals."
In July five charities criticised the Government agency for denying compensation to child sex abuse victims who they said had consented.
Under the law children under 16 cannot be deemed to have consented, unless they are over 13 and the defendant could reasonably have believed they were 16.
But the agency used different guidelines, allowing it to argue that some victims had consented in fact and were therefore not victims of crime.
Last month CICA said it would alter its guidelines to tell staff that children who appeared to have consented could have been subject to coercion.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Chris Harris starred in pantomimes in the West for more than 30 years
Tributes have been paid to one of the west of England's best-loved actors, writers and directors, who has died.
Chris Harris, 71, from Portishead, played the dame in pantomimes at Bath's Theatre Royal since 2001.
For many years the Bridgwater-born actor also starred in, and co-wrote, pantomimes at Bristol's Old Vic.
His theatre work also included performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Bristol Old Vic and the New Shakespeare Company.
Emma McDermott, from the Theatre Royal, said it was with "great sadness" that staff learned of Harris's death on Wednesday.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Jon Monie said he was "devastated" by Harris's death
"In his 13 consecutive years as director and performer in the Theatre Royal's much loved traditional pantomimes, and in his acclaimed one-man shows, Chris gave joy to audiences far and wide.
"Chris had a wonderful personality, a great sense of humour and a heart of gold."
The Bristol Old Vic tweeted: "We are very sad to hear that Chris Harris, legend of many of our pantomimes in the 1990s, passed away yesterday."
'My hero'
Theatre Bath tweeted: "Sad news. We have just heard Chris Harris star of the Theatre Royal pantos has passed away. He will be missed."
Former Holby City actor Mark Moraghan tweeted: "So sad to hear my pal Chris Harris has passed away. He will be sadly missed RIP Pal. Thoughts with his family."
Bristol's mayor George Ferguson said he was "desperately sorry" to hear of Harris's death and called him "a brilliant Bristol actor who has entertained generations".
Jon Monie, who starred alongside Harris in pantomimes for more than a decade, said he was "devastated" by the news.
"It's a huge loss to theatre and to audiences around the West Country," he said.
"Chris was the most extraordinary man. He was professional always, incredibly generous... and he was extremely funny. He was my hero."More detail on selected questions.
1. Do you support the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline?
The Green Party opposes the Kinder Morgan Pipeline. The benefits to BC are not worth the risks. Also, the National Energy Board was flawed in their process of moving forward with the pipeline.
2. Should the province intervene further to cool real estate prices?
The Green Party will introduce a housing strategy on the primary purpose of providing homes first, and a means of investment second.
3. Should schools be built before anticipated population growth?
The Green Party would look at the complexities and reasoning for doing this prior to making a decision.
4. Should modest tolls be placed on all bridges and major highways to fund TransLink?
Tolls on the Golden Ears and Port Mann bridges put a huge financial burden on the commuters using those bridges to get to work. It also creates congestion on the other arteries, many commuters look at alternative routes to avoid the tolls. The Liberals and NDP announcements regarding toles sound great but they are not responsible decisions. The BC Greens would work with the local Mayors to find a fair and sensible way to move forward with a more sensible plan.
6. Should political donations be capped for MLAs and parties?
The BC Greens made the decision to turn away all corporate and union donations last year. We did not want elected MLAs to go into parliament with any expectations from corporations or unions that had funded our campaign. The NDP says they will ban corporate and union donations if they form a government, yet hundreds of thousands of dollars keep rolling into their campaign office. Any NDP MLAs elected will be spending the next 4 years in parliament knowing that they received huge amounts of union donations to be elected.
7. Would you support a moratorium on removing land from the ALR?
The BC Greens want to support and encourage farming in BC. Presently 70% of our vegetables come from the states. We feel we can help farmers so that a higher percentage of our food can be provided by local farmers. Please note that the BC Liberals decreased farm area by7.9% and opened up 90% of ALR to industrial activities.
8. Should B.C. allow 18-year-olds to smoke legal marijuana?
The legislation was just released and there has not been enough time for our party to do the research and come up with the best policy. We’re looking to support developing industry in BC, protecting small distributors from big money and large corporations, and we recognize that the punitive, war on drugs model had not only failed but been a drain on our economy in policing and health costs. We also would be looking at proactive education so people understand the risks associated with prolonged cannabis use so that, while it will be legal, they will be making an informed decision if they choose to use.
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middle of the night, there will be no time for him to fumble with opening a safe or finding the key to open his trigger lock. It should remain up to the owner to decide what method of storage is best and safest for his own family.
Mokad was captured and charged with two ridiculous and petty victimless crimes under oppressive Massachusetts law. Let’s be clear, in the vast majority of the United States, these are not crimes at all. His property was seized, and his Massachusetts gun licenses were revoked. A judge ordered him held on $15,000 bail and to surrender his passport. If convicted, he faces up to ten years in prison.
Among the property seized was a legally-owned AK-47 WASR-10 rifle, a legally-owned M&P-15 rifle, a legally-owned Ruger GP100.357 Magnum, three legally-owned low-capacity (<10-rd) magazines, and two standard-capacity (30-rd) magazines with unknown date of manufacturing (therefore with an unknown legal status).
The police will have to prove the magazines were manufactured after 9/13/1994 to prove that they were not “legal.” It is puzzling how they might accomplish this, since the vast majority of magazines are not stamped with any kind of date.
The property was photographed by the Methuen Police Department and uploaded to Facebook:
Methuen police were quite proud of their efforts at ruining this young man’s life.
“This investigation was an excellent example of local and federal law enforcement officers working together to make our community safer,” Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon said on Facebook. He continued, “The agents, officers and detectives did an excellent job of following a tip and developing information through investigation to a rapid conclusion resulting in an arrest and seizure of weapons and high-capacity magazines.”
Following the department’s tacky self-aggrandizing Facebook post came an influx of outraged citizens to inform the department of their betrayal of the 2nd Amendment and the civil liberties they were supposed to be protecting. Hundreds of comments — overwhelmingly negative — flooded the thread. The department’s Facebook administrator assured the public that they do not view imprisoning people for owning magazines as a violation of the 2nd Amendment.
Yet the citizens were right to cry foul. If these charges do not represent infringements… then what does?
Lets review the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which all police officers are sworn to uphold.
Amendment II. A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Lets also not forget that Massachusetts itself has the same constitutionally-enshrined right — written when it used to be a free state — which the police officers in the state are also sworn to uphold. Recall what is written in the Massachusetts constitution:
Article XVII. The people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the common defence.
After numerous criticisms for arresting a man over magazines, MPD attempted used the mala prohibitum excuse.
When questioned whether the gun owner was targeted because of his foreign-sounding name, Methuen PD laughed, and said:
Finally, after being called tyrants, fascists, and predators, MPD reminded us how much they care.
Whenever I hear an oppressor justify their actions with feigned compassion, I am reminded of the wise words of C.S. Lewis:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
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A lengthy forum thread on NortheastShooters.com discusses the event in detail.
Accountability Check
Be sure to let Methuen Police know that its treachery has not gone unnoticed.
The Methuen Police Chief is Joseph Solomon.
Methuen Police Department
90 Hampshire Street
Methuen, MA 01844
Phone: (978) 983-8698
Facebook: Methuen Police
The gun store that likes to call the cops on its customers:
North Shore Firearms
251 S Main St, Middleton, MA 01949
Phone: (978) 777-5151Over the past year the price of oil has collapsed and taken ExxonMobil’s share price with it. As the oil giant prepares to release its latest set of results this week, the company continues to show little genuine interest in preparing for a less carbon-intensive future.
Even as world leaders gathered in Paris for the recent climate summit, where hundreds of nations and corporations stepped forward to underscore their commitment to action, ExxonMobil followed an odd course that has been lost in all the fanfare surrounding the international gathering.
Here’s what was missed: while appearing to pay lip service to the need for climate action, ExxonMobil suggested that the supposedly high cost of a low-carbon future would make any such action prohibitively expensive. The company claimed that limiting global warming to 1.6C, just above the goal set out in the Paris climate pact, would raise carbon costs to $2,000 per ton by the end of the century. Think $20-plus for a gallon of gasoline and you will have a sense of the scare and paralysis Exxon was hoping to inspire, even as it appeared to concede the need for action on the climate..
Despite its disingenuous head fake in Paris, Exxon’s narrative of preferring, and even encouraging, inaction in the face of climate change is the oil giant’s well-established modus operandi. As recent news accounts have shown, Exxon funded organizations for decades that denied the risks of climate change, despite the company’s own internal research confirming those very risks.
Reducing carbon emissions is a direct threat to Exxon’s current carbon-oriented business planning. But Exxon’s risky path also poses a very real threat to the pension funds, institutional investors, and individuals who could very well end up paying through the nose for the oil giant’s desire to sweep climate concerns under the rug.
And that is why ExxonMobil’s day of reckoning is fast approaching. New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman has launched an investigation into whether ExxonMobil misrepresented the risks of climate change and the costs of addressing them.
Specifically, the attorney general points to a recent report to investors, where Exxon employed a set of wildly exaggerated assumptions about the costs of a low-carbon future to make the startling claim that its hydrocarbon reserves were immune from climate risk. High costs, it argued, would prevent society from taking climate action.
The Exxon report, a linchpin of the investigation, was written in response to a shareholder proposal filed with the company in 2014 by Arjuna Capital, an investment firm. The proposal asked the company to report on how it was managing its “carbon asset risk”. Or, more specifically, the risk that up to two-thirds of all fossil fuel reserves currently valued on the balance sheets of energy companies might end up “stranded” – too costly to extract when carbon emissions are appropriately priced and therefore non-monetizable. The best climate science tells us that leaving these reserves unburned, indeed, must occur if we are to avoid the risk of catastrophic climate change.
Exxon’s 30-page report, Managing the Risks, failed to address one key thing: the risks referred to in its title. Instead, the report dodged a hard look at the risks by employing questionable math. Specifically, Exxon said that the government intervention required to force a low-carbon future (which could evidently strand much of the firm’s carbon assets) would eventually cost consumers up to 44% of their total income. Governments, Exxon argued, would never impose such a burden. Therefore, Exxon concluded its reserves would not be adversely affected.
The problem with this tortured analysis is that independent economists consistently estimate the cost to consumers of a low carbon future would be far less — more like 2% of income if we act today. Not 44 percent. The management experts at McKinsey peg this at just 0.4-1.6% of GDP in 2030. Economist William Nordhaus recently estimated the transition to a low-carbon economy would require a carbon price of only $25 per metric ton, far below the $2,000 scare projection from ExxonMobil.
The ExxonMobil report also made the dubious assumption that carbon emissions would stay constant over time, rather than decline in response to a price on carbon. This contradicts the very MIT study Exxon relied upon, which assumes emissions fall over time, making carbon abatement cheaper.
Furthermore, whatever increased cost to consumers from higher energy prices does occur might be offset elsewhere. For example, if the revenues from a carbon tax were rebated to consumers or used to reduce corporate income taxes, the net impact on the economy might be a boost, rather than a drag. Indeed, oil giant Statoil projects that achieving a low-carbon scenario will lead to the highest estimated GDP growth from 2030 onward, providing a sharp contrast with the high costs of inaction in less proactive scenarios.
The good news is that, contrary to Exxon’s claims, a low-carbon future need not be costly to society. But it would be a huge shock to the bottom lines of Exxon’s shareholders if they are left holding the bag with high-cost stranded carbon assets.
Exxon is pushing up against a shifting tide. A defensive approach to climate change does not bode well for companies whose very survival is dependent on adapting to a low-carbon future. As investors, we are obliged to tell ExxonMobil that denial is no longer a credible business plan.
Natasha Lamb is director of equity research and shareholder engagement and a portfolio manager at Arjuna Capital. Dr Bob Litterman is a former head of risk management at Goldman Sachs. Dr Litterman has synthetically hedged out stranded asset exposure in his personal portfolio, including a short in Exxon.FILE - This undated photo provided by Sotheby's shows "The Scream" by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. The work, which dates from 1895 and is one of four versions of the composition, will lead Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale in New York on May 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Sotheby's, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — One of the art world's most recognizable images — Edvard Munch's "The Scream" — could sell for $80 million or more when it is auctioned at Sotheby's on Wednesday.
The 1895 pastel of a man holding his head and screaming under a streaked, blood-red sky has become a modern symbol for human anxiety, popularized in movies and plastered on everything from mugs to Halloween masks.
It is one of four versions created by the Norwegian expressionist painter. Three are in Norwegian museums; the one at Sotheby's is the only one left in private hands. It is being sold by Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose father was a friend and patron of the artist.
A price tag of $80 million would be among the highest for an artwork at auction. The record is $106.5 million for Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust," sold in 2010 by Christie's in New York.
The image has become part of pop culture, "used by everyone from Warhol to Hollywood to cartoons to teacups and T-shirts to whatever else," said Michael Frahm of the London-based art advisory service firm Frahm Ltd.
"Together with the Mona Lisa, it's the most famous and recognized image in art history," he added.
Sotheby's said its pastel-on-board version of "The Scream" is the most colorful and vibrant of the four and the only version whose frame was hand-painted by the artist to include his poem, detailing the work's inspiration.
In the poem, Munch described himself "shivering with anxiety" and said he felt "the great scream in nature."
Proceeds from the sale will go for the establishment of a new museum, art center and hotel in Hvitsten, Norway, where Olsen's father and Munch were neighbors.
"I have lived with this work all my life, and its power and energy have only increased with time," Olsen said in February. "Now, however, I feel the moment has come to offer the rest of the world a chance to own and appreciate this remarkable work."
"It has historical importance... it helped move art history from impressionism to expressionism," Frahm said of "The Scream."
He predicted that "we're going to see a new world record for a piece sold at auction." Frahm said the sale will show that great quality artworks can still come up for sale; that the top end of the market is driving further away from the rest of the market and that it's a global market now where Asia and the Middle East are playing a more significant role than Europe and America.
But figuring out who might buy it is trickier.
"This could really be someone who just wants to own the most iconic piece of art to come up at auction ever," Frahm said, adding that it could be the Qatari royal family, one of the world's biggest art buyers.
The director of the National Museum in Oslo, Audun Eckhoff, says Norwegian authorities approved the Munch sale since the other versions of the composition are in Norwegian museums. One version is owned by the National Museum and two others by the Munch Museum, also in Oslo.
Sotheby's said a total of eight works have sold for $80 million or more at auction.
Only two other works besides Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust" have sold for more than $100 million at auction. Those are Picasso's "Boy With a Pipe (The Young Apprentice)" for $104.1 million in 2004 and Alberto Giacometti's "Walking Man I" for $104.3 million in 2010.
____
Online: http://www.sothebys.comBernie Romano (l.) reviews information provided at a workshop on Tuesday about jet noise. [DNAinfo/Heather Cherone]
NORWOOD PARK — Izabela Piatek, who lives near Oriole Park, said she and her neighbors came to a meeting Tuesday designed to give her a chance to weigh in on the expansion of O'Hare Airport for a simple reason.
"The noise is killing me," Piatek said, adding that she is awakened by cargo flights every night at 3 a.m. and finds it impossible to go back to sleep. "It is very hard to live like this."
Piatek said she understands the airport was critical to the health of Chicago's economy, but was worried how she would cope with the noise as she got older.
"We need the airport, but someone should think about the little people," Piatek said.
Heather Cherone says many residents are pessimistic moving forward:
The workshops — which continue Wednesday and Thursday in the western suburbs — were designed to gather feedback on whether a change in the order of east-west runways being built at O'Hare warrants a full-scale reconsideration of the environmental impact of the massive project, FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said.
Bernie Romano, who like Piatek lives in Norwood Park, said she is also woken up by the nighttime cargo flights, which O'Hare officials acknowledge are among the loudest.
But Romano had little hope that her words — delivered to a court reporter seated at a desk in a hallway at Taft High School — would make any difference to federal aviation officials deciding whether additional environmental studies of the airport expansion are needed.
"I have no confidence that [the meetings] mean anything," Romano said. "This was just a chance for us to bitch and moan. The pictures were nice and glossy and pretty. That's about all."
The FAA has tentatively found that the conclusions laid out in the 2005 environmental study used to approve the $8.7 billion project are still valid, and a more comprehensive environmental study is not needed, Molinaro said.
A plane soars over the Northwest Side. [DNAinfo/Heather Cherone]
After federal officials review residents' comments, a final decision is expected to be issued before the new runway on the south side of the airport, at Berteau Avenue, opens on Oct. 15, Molinaro said.
The meetings also served as a chance for federal officials to warn residents that the flight paths will change after the newest east-west runway opens, Molinaro said.
"People need to know that there will be a change," Molinaro said.
Flight patterns at O'Hare are designed to ensure the airport operated as efficiently and safely as possible, according to federal aviation officials.
Patrick Loftus, who said he hears jet noise at all hours at his home in Sauganash, said he was more optimistic than Romano that federal officials would take action to reduce the roar of planes.
"I know there won't be a short-term solution, but the people won't go away either," Loftus said.
A consultant answers questions about O'Hare Airport's operations at a workshop Tuesday. [DNAinfo/Heather Cherone]
The analysis by the FAA anticipates that the new runway will be used mostly for arrivals from the west, at least until 2021 — when the expansion is expected to be complete.
That means air traffic over the Northwest Side will be mostly unchanged, although arriving and departing planes will be spread out over a wider area stretching from north to south across the airfield, Molinaro said.
The plan assumes two diagonal runways at O'Hare will be dismantled as scheduled — one on the east side next week and one on the west side in 2019.
Nearly 70 percent of the time, the winds at O'Hare flow from the west. That means most planes take off over the suburbs west of the airport, and land after flying over the North and Northwest sides of Chicago.
The final two workshops will take place from 1-9 p.m. Wednesday at Monty's Elegant Banquets, 703 S. York Road, Bensenville; and from 1-9 p.m. Thursday at Belvedere Events and Banquets, 1170 W. Devon Ave., Elk Grove Village.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:Essence came out with two new blushes under the ‘Essence Satin touch blush’ Line. I have always been a fan of essence blushes, and when I saw that these new ones have a satin finish, I was really curious to try them out! Usually satin finish blushes that do not look overly shimmery or chunky are hard to find especially for a low price tag!
Essence satin touch blush: 10 satin coral
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Tapping off the excess before applying the product works best with this formula, and as it is highly pigmented, it can be buildable on the skin. If applied lightly, it will give a luminous coral sheen to the skin that is very natural and lightweight. It is very long lasting and it stayed on me for about eight hours before starting to fade.
Availability: Ulta
Essence satin touch blush: 20 satin love
This is a beautiful brown rose color with warm undertones. It has a silky- soft formula that blends nicely into the skin to give the cheeks a natural satin finish. It is very pigmented and buildable.
It is also powdery on the pan but does not look heavy on the face. As it has some brown in it, it can still look gorgeous as a bronzer too! I don’t have a lot of shades that are similar to this one in my collection which makes this blush really unique. It has been my favorite lately and it is also very long lasting. It stayed on me for about seven hours before starting to fade.
Availability: Ulta
So overall, I think that these new blushes are 100% worth checking out! For 2.99$ each, you get 5g of product which is a great deal. I really hope that they will add more shades to this line because it is really pretty and unique!
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Like this: Like Loading...James Cameron’s The Game Changers May Make February 2019 Debut!
UPDATE: According to a recent post on the film’s Instagram page, The Game Changers may make its worldwide debut as early as February 2019! It is a tentative date, and the post announces that two more stories have been added to the documentary:
“We remain excited to announce that over the past six months we had the opportunity to include two more game-changing stories — the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and five-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton — which in turn led to a brand new, and much improved, final cut of the film.”
The post adds:
“Please know that we continue to work hard to ensure that the final cut of The Game Changers will be made widely available as soon as possible.”
You can watch the trailer below.
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February 9, 2018: The trailer for The Game Changers has officially been released! Just over one minute, the teaser features a plethora of athletes clearly thriving on a plant-based diet. You can catch glimpses of Patrik Baboumian, Kendrick Farris, Tia Blanco and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the trailer below:
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The Game Changers is a new vegan documentary being directed by The Cove‘s Louis (Louie) Psihoyos, with James Cameron as the executive producer and mixed martial artist James Wilks as the producer, and is set to be released later on this year. In an interview with GetBoulder, Psihoyos stated that “the best way to turn a culture around is by making a film about it,” and added:
“The next film I’m doing is on elite athletes whose diets are plant based. The world’s strongest guy is a vegan. The world’s fastest guy, Carl Lewis, was the first to break 10 seconds, and he did it when he was a vegan. The nine-time world-champion arm-wrestler is a vegan. We’re trying to dispel the myth that you need protein from animals to become a real man. It’s being executive produced by James Cameron, so it’s going to be a great film. I’m probably more excited about this one than anything I’ve done so far because I feel like it will change things perceptibly.”
According to the website (which seems to feature Germany’s strongman Patrik Baboumian), the documentary will introduce “the world to elite athletes, special ops soldiers, visionary scientists, cultural icons, and everyday heroes–each on a mission to create a seismic shift in the way we eat and live.” There does not appear to be an official trailer for the documentary available yet, but you can stay up-to-date on the film by visiting the official website.
The Game Changers is set to premiere on January 19, 2018 at the Sundance Film Festival at 3:30PM. The documentary will be screened a total of five times during the festival. You can learn more about the showings here.
Photo Credit: www.nytimes.com
Lena Tashjian Lena Tashjian manages content and social media for Clearly Veg. She focuses on vegan news, companies, guides, interviews, product reviews and more. You can contact her at [email protected]THREE FINGER JUGGLING LLC
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Machetes, Light Weight Knives And Saw Blades On A Steeeck! The Gifts That Keep On GivingFA Cup Fourth Round Analysis Ahead of Gameweek 24 FPL
Fourteen Premier League clubs featured in the FA Cup Fourth Round this weekend and the Fplbet team have since been glued to the match highlights analysing each fixture ahead of Gameweek 24.
The third round kicked off on Friday when Manchester United traveled to Derby with manager Louis van Gaal looking for a win to ease the pressure. The Premier League outfit showed their class coming away with a 3-1 win against their Championship opposition.
Elsewhere Manchester City youngster Kelechi Iheanacho continued his fine season as he scored a hat trick against fellow Premier League side Aston Villa. The forgotten man at West Brom Saido Berahino reminded Tony Pulis what he is capable of when given the chance scoring two goals in the Baggies 2-2 draw with League 1 Peterborough.
Derby 1-3 Manchester United
Goals: Rooney (16’), Blind (65’), Mata (83’)
Assists: Martial x2, Lingard
Fplbet MOTM: Anthony Martial (MUN)
> Wayne Rooney curled in a top class opener from 20 yards to put United ahead. The striker has looked back to his best recently scoring four goals this month in all competitions.
> Over half (52.3%) of United’s attacks came down the left hand side where Anthony Martial was positioned. Martial looked dangerous in attack and if United keep scoring his PPG could increase rapidly.
> The win helped relieve pressure from Van Gaal and post-match Wayne Rooney spoke out in support of his boss stating: “It’s unfair to say it’s (down to) the manager, we’re on the pitch, so the players have to take a lot of responsibility for performances and results”.
Colchester 1-4 Tottenham
Goals: Chadli x2 (27’, 78’), Dier (64’), Davies (OG) (80’), Carroll (82’)
Assists: Lamela, Bentaleb, Trippier, Chadli
Fplbet MOTM: Nacer Chadli
> Nacer Chadli put in an excellent performance and was the focal point of Tottenham’s attack, with Eriksen looking quiet despite playing in his preferred central position behind Kane.
> Despite scoring four goals, Tottenham were wasteful in attack and 15 of their 27 shots failed to hit the target.
> Harry Kane was subbed off on the 67th minute at 2-0 when the game looked wrapped up, he’ll now enter the Norwich game with slightly fresher legs.
Arsenal 2-1 Burnley
Goals: Chambers (19’) Sanchez (53’)
Assists: Sanchez, Oxlade-Chamberlain
Fplbet MOTM: Alexis Sanchez
> Alexis Sanchez made and instant impact on his return to first team football, assisting the first and scoring the second goal. The Chilean showed no signs of lack of game time and was eventually subbed on the 78th minute.
> Calum Chambers replaced Hector Bellerin at right back and despite impressing it’s likely the Spaniard will come back into the starting XI this Tuesday.
> Nacho Monreal was also treated to a well-earned rest with Kieran Gibbs replacing him for the tie, Gibbs is likely to suffer the same fate as Chambers with Monreal expected to start against Southampton.
> There was a return to first team football for Francis Coquelin, the Frenchman played 71 minutes and tightened the Arsenal midfield. This could be key going forwards with Wenger keen to start keeping more clean sheets.
> There was also no game time for Mesut Ozil, Petr Cech or Joel Campbell but Egyptian Mohamed Elneny did make his debut.
Aston Villa 0-4 Manchester City
Goals: Iheanacho x3 (4’, 24’ (Pen), 74’) Sterling (76’)
Assists: Sterling, Iheanacho
Fplbet MOTM: Kelechi Iheanacho
> What could have been a potentially a tricky tie for City, against a Villa side who were unbeaten in their last five games in all competitions, was in truth a walkover, the away side took control by scoring twice within the first 24 minutes and went on to win the game with ease.
> Young striker Kelechi Iheanacho scored a hat-trick for City eased with Raheem Sterling completing the rout.
> There was an eyebrow raising decision to start Bacary Sagna as a central defender, but the Frenchman impressed alongside Otamendi.
> Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Yaya Toure were all rested for the encounter.
> There was no real surprises in the Aston Villa side but both Micah Richards and Joleon Lescott were rested.
Crystal Palace 1-0 Stoke
Goals: Zaha (17’)
Assists: Cabaye
FplbetMOTM: Wilfried Zaha
> Crystal Palace named their strongest starting XI whilst Stoke made eight changes to their team after playing in a semi-final tie that went to penalties during the week.
> Peter Odemwingie made his first appearance since September but struggled to impact the game before being removed in the 75’ minute.
> New-boy Emmanuel Adebayor, who arrived on a free transfer last Tuesday, was deemed not fit enough to feature.
Nottingham Forest 0-1 Watford
Goals: Ighalo (89’)
Assists: N/A
Fplbet MOTM: Craig Cathcart
> Watford’s top scorer Odion Ighalo saved the Hornets from a replay, as he came off the bench to fire Watford into the FA Cup fifth round.
> The Nigerian, started on the bench but came on in the 72nd minute, and scored the winner with a minute remaining when he fired in from close range. He now has 10 goals in his last 15 games, and 15 in total this season.
> There was a debut upfront for new signing Nordin Amrabat replacing Ighalo, but it’s hard to look beyond Ighalo starting against Chelsea on Wednesday.
> Debutant keeper Costel Pantilimon wasn’t tested much but came to Watford’s aid saving an Eric Lichaj volley.
> Despite Ighalo coming on and taking the limelight the Watford defence was impressive throughout with Craig Cathcart the most best of the bunch.
Portsmouth 1-2 Bournemouth
Goals: King (71’) Pugh (83’)
Assists: O’Kane
FplbetMOTM: Gary Roberts
> Bournemouth made 10 changes to the starting XI that beat Sunderland, but the replacements failed to impress as Portsmouth dominated in the first 70 minutes.
> The double substitution of Matt Richie and Marc Pugh injected life into the Cherries and soon after they found themselves level at Fratton Park, before going on to secure their place in the next round.
West Brom 2-2 Peterborough
Goals: Berahino x2 (14’, 84’)
Assists: Lambert, Dawson
Fplbet MOTM: Saido Berahino
> In a rare start, and amid transfer rumours Saido Berahino put the Premier League side ahead with a brilliant long-range finish. Berahino got his second with a clever finish from again from an acute angle.
> Unlike a typical Tony Pulis side there was some terrible defending on show that led to Jon Taylor’s equaliser just 60 seconds after the Premier League side went 2-1 up.
> West Brom were booed off for failing to overcome a side two divisions below them at home.
> Despite his two goals we wouldn’t suggest bringing Berahino into your FPL sides as his troubled season on the bench is likely to continue when West Brom get back to Premier League action.
Liverpool 0-0 West Ham
Goals: N/A
Assists: N/A
Fplbet MOTM: Darren Randolph
> There was no start for Sam Byram with James Tomkins starting at right back for West Ham, the former Leeds man was cup tied having played for the Yorkshire club in the competition.
> An inexperienced Liverpool side were frustrated by West Ham goalkeeper Darren Randolph as their FA Cup fourth-round tie ended in a goalless draw.
> The away side did have a few early chances, notably an Enner Valencia header and a Pedro Obiang volley.
> West Ham’s Dimitri Payet completed 90 minutes but didn’t see much off the ball, most importantly for FPL managers the Frenchman was unscaved.
Carlisle 0-3 Everton
Goals: Kone (2’), Lennon (14’), Barkley (65’)
Assists: Lennon, Oviedo, Osman
Fplbet MOTM: Aaron Lennon
> Owners of Romelu Lukaku will be happy as the Belgian wasn’t needed by Roberto Martinez and was an unused substitute in the win, along with Gerard Deulofeu.
> Leighton Baines was rested in favour of Brian Oviedo who put in a good performance with an assist. Baines will no doubt return to the starting lineup against Newcastle on Wednesday night.
> Aaron Lennon has put himself into the limelight after a goal and assist in an all round impressive performance from the winger.
> Ross Barkley also got on the scoresheet and will be hoping to take his cup form into the league after scoring against both Manchester City and Carlisle this week.
MK Dons 1-5 Chelsea
Goals: Oscar x3 (15’, 32’, 44’), Hazard (Pen) (55’), Traore (62’)
Assists: Costa, Loftus-Cheek, Fabregas, Hazard
Fplbet MOTM: Oscar
> Guus Hiddink once again fielded a strong team, with Kurt Zouma and Cesar Azpilicueta being rested for the tie.
> Willian started on the bench before coming on in the 64th minute, he did pick up a foot injury in the closing stages of the game, it initially looked bad news for owners of the Brazilian but he seemed to run it off.
> Oscar scored a first half hat trick and despite playing as a winger he was constantly involved.
> Eden Hazard looked lively throughout picking up an assist and scoring a 55th minute penalty, the game will certainly give the Belgian a confidence boost.
Thanks for reading our FA Cup Fourth Round Analysis Ahead of Gameweek 24 Fantasy Premier League. Check out our Clean Sheet Tips and FPL Competition.<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/chicken-rescue_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/chicken-rescue_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/chicken-rescue_0.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > A Key West good Samaritan helped rescue the city's famous free-roaming chickens by wrapping them up in newspaper and putting them in the back of a car. (Jayesh Mani) (Jayesh Mani)
At a Glance A photo showing Key West's famous chickens being rescued from Hurricane Irma has gone viral.
The Facebook post was shared more than 33,000 times.
A Key West good Samaritan helped rescue some of the city's famous free-roaming chickens from the fast approaching Hurricane Irma, placing them in newspaper and putting them in the back of a car. The photo, which showed the chickens being rescued, went viral on Facebook and was shared more than 33,000 times.
"CHICKEN EVACUATION," the viral post from Key West Finest exclaimed. "Gotta love the people in Key West! Thank you to Local Selfie Celeb Jayesh Mani for doing what the rest of us only wished for! #onlyinkeywest"
The feral birds are lovingly dubbed "gypsy chickens" in the city and wander the streets freely. Locals estimate that there's hundreds of these types of chickens in Key West, many of them vulnerable to the severe effects of Irma.
(MORE: Hurricane Irma's Track Forecast: Here's What to Expect in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas )
Amber DeBevec, the owner of Key West's Finest, told weather.com that Mani was being celebrated for his kind act and that the chickens were delivered out of harm's way.
"Jayesh Mani is the man on a mission," DeBevec said. "The chickens have been delivered to another helpful friend in Key West and are safe. Jayesh is lovingly known as the Selfie King of Key West, locals clammed to get a coveted 'Jelfie' with our hometown hero. "
"Please keep us in your prayers as many of our friends have stayed behind to ride out the storm," she added. "We will post updates on our Facebook page as we get them from our local citizens."Some drove a pickup truck into Comrade Brewing on Thursday during business hours, but no one was hurt.
Someone drove a pickup truck into Comrade Brewing on Thursday during business hours, but no one was hurt.
The crash at the southeast Denver brewery broke the garage doors, ruptured gas and water lines and damaged beer tanks, according to Westword. As a result, they’ll have to get rid of a batch of Superpower IPA.
Owner David Lin told Westword that they’ll also have to stop brewing for a few weeks while repairs are made.
“We have a good amount of beer in the cellar right now, but we might have to cut back” on distributing kegs to bars and restaurants,” he said. “We can’t wash kegs, either, because the water line was damaged.”
It’s currently unclear what led to the crash.
Comrade Brewing’s taproom reopened yesterday.Apple Stock News
Reports surfaced earlier this week that Apple had started a team charged with designing an electric car to take on Tesla and other automobile designers. Rumors circulated that Apple had hired people from the automotive industry and seems poised to build an automobile that may or may not drive itself. A123 Systems, a lithium-ion battery maker for electric cars and other business sectors, is suing Apple for what
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sharing. Microsoft's recent purchase of a stake in Facebook made its ambitions clear - and Google has been noticeably weak on this front.
"Google just hasn't had any traction with its own social networking attempts," says Malseed.
For Microsoft, buying Yahoo amounts to an effort to restore its once unshakeable position at the top of the technology tree. But for Yahoo, selling out will be a galling end to once glorious, ground-breaking road.
Yang likes to style himself under the job title "chief Yahoo". The company's advertising used to feature a distinctive yodel which prompted a $5m copyright lawsuit from a "professional yodeller" in Washington state who claimed to have written the ditty. It is unlikely that such quirks will survive within the multinational corporate embrace of Microsoft.Paul George was unsure his body would allow him to vie for a spot on Team USA after the grind of the NBA season, but with the Summer Olympics two months away, he says he is going to give it "a shot."
Paul George averaged a career-best 23.1 points per game this season in 81 games for the Pacers. Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images
The 26-year-old Indiana Pacers All-Star guard/forward, who suffered a gruesome right leg injury in a Team USA scrimmage two years ago, explained his mindset in an interview with ESPN's Cari Champion this week. The interview is scheduled to air Monday on the noon SportsCenter.
"I was just hesitant on the simple fact that, the past couple years has obviously been tough for me -- just felt like I didn't have enough time to myself, and time to recover, and you know, give my body a rest. I didn't want to jump out of a season, jump right into the Olympics. But I think I kind of said that too prematurely.
"I didn't give myself enough time to really think it through. I think since I've been off, my body's telling me yes, my mind is telling me yes, people around me are telling me yes. So I feel good about it. And, you know... I want to give it a shot."
On Aug. 2, 2014, George ran into a basketball stanchion during the scrimmage in Las Vegas and suffered an open tibia-fibula fracture. He said before the 2014-15 season that he would like to play in the Rio Olympics, but during this season he told reporters he would have to see how his body responded to a full slate of games and the playoffs before knowing whether he could give his Olympic dream a shot.
USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo told NBA.com at the 2014 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement that he would keep a spot open on the team for George.
Editor's Picks Cover boy George: Pacers star new face of 2K17 Indiana Pacers star Paul George will be on the cover of the NBA 2K17 video game.
"We thought it's the right thing to do. That's it.... We didn't give thought to all the detail," he told NBA.com. "Just that when a guy goes down and all these things, the circumstances, his career passes before him, he's out for a year, a year-plus, he's not able to participate now with us -- we wanted to throw that out and say, 'We're counting on you. You've got a spot in '16.'"
George was one of 31 finalists named for the 2016 U.S. Olympic team in January. Colangelo said in March that he planned to unveil the 12-man Olympic roster in late June.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff will hold a four-day training camp in Las Vegas from July 18 through 21, and then the team will play five exhibition games, starting July 22 against Argentina and ending on Aug. 1 against Nigeria. The Olympic basketball tournament will take place Aug. 6-21 in Rio de Janeiro.
George missed 76 games during the 2014-15 season before making his season debut April 5. In 2015-16 he missed just one game and posted a career-best 23.1 points per game. He also scored 41 points in this season's All-Star Game, finishing one point shy of Wilt Chamberlain's All-Star Game record.BEIJING (Reuters) - China has cut its growth target this year as the world’s second-largest economy pushes through painful reforms to address a rapid build-up in debt, and erects a “firewall” against financial risks.
Chinese national flags are flying near a steel factory in Wu'an, Hebei province, China, February 23, 2017. Picture taken February 23, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
China aims to expand its economy by around 6.5 percent, Premier Li Keqiang said in his work report at the opening of the annual meeting of parliament on Sunday.
The target, which Reuters had reported exclusively from sources in January, was realistic and would help steer and steady expectations, said Li.
China set a target of 6.5 to 7 percent last year and ultimately achieved 6.7 percent growth, supported by record bank loans, a speculative housing boom and billions in government investment.
But as the government moves to cool the housing market, slow new credit and tighten its purse strings, China will have to depend more on domestic consumption and private investment for growth. As in 2016, China did not set a target for exports, underlining the uncertain global outlook.
“The developments both in and outside of China require that we are ready to face more complicated and graver situations,” Li said, adding that world growth remained sluggish, while deglobalisation and protectionism were gathering pace.
Growth of around 6.5 percent is sufficient to safeguard employment, said Huang Shouhong, director of the State Council Research Office, who helped craft the premier’s work report.
China added 13.14 million new urban jobs in 2016, with the number of college graduates finding employment or starting businesses reaching another record, according to Li’s report.
“As for whether there is a bottom line on growth, as long as there are no problems in employment, growth slightly higher or lower is acceptable,” Huang said.
Michael Tien, a Hong Kong delegate to China’s parliament and founder of clothing chain G2000, said he was surprised by the 6.5 percent figure.
“I think it’s very high,” he told Reuters. “In the past few years, whatever number they come up with, they will always meet it, and they will always exceed it a little bit. So with this economy, 6.5 (percent) is mind-boggling.”
DELICATE BALANCE
Economists say it is a delicate balancing act to support growth and maintain liquidity while pursuing reforms and taming unruly financial forces.
The 2017 target for broad money supply growth was cut slightly to around 12 percent from about 13 percent for 2016. The government’s budget deficit target was kept unchanged at 3 percent of GDP.
Li said China would continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy, adding that government aimed to cut companies’ tax burden by about 350 billion yuan ($51 billion) this year.
China will also maintain a prudent and neutral monetary policy, he said.
Beijing has flagged in recent months a gradual shift away from a loose monetary stance to discourage speculative investments. Since February, the central bank has raised by tiny increments the interest rates on some lending facilities.
Jia Kang, former director at the finance ministry’s Institute of Fiscal Science, told Reuters he did not expect the PBOC to hike policy rates, at least in the near term.
“It seems unlikely, since stability comes first in the short term,” Jia said.
At present, systemic risks are under control, but China must be fully alert and build a “firewall” against financial risks, Li said.
Chinese banks extended a record 12.65 trillion yuan of loans in 2016, and recent data shows that new yuan loans hit 2.03 trillion yuan in January, the second-highest ever.
“We will apply a full range of monetary policy instruments, maintain basic stability in liquidity, see that market interest rates remain at an appropriate level, and improve the transmission mechanism of monetary policy,” Li said.
China will also press on with asset securitisation and debt-to-equity swaps this year.
CAPACITY CUTS, LAYOFFS
China will push forward with reform of state-owned firms and assets this year, Li said.
Ownership reforms at more than 100 central government-run enterprises will be completed by year-end as part of efforts to use private capital to revive its lumbering state sector, state media reported last month.
China is also looking to shutter more ‘zombie’ enterprises, a term loosely used to describe inefficient firms with surplus capacity.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a work report released on Sunday that it would shut or stop construction of coal-fired power plants with capacity of more than 50 million kilowatts.
China will also cut steel capacity and coal output this year, the economic planner said.
Fixed-asset investment is expected to rise about 9 percent in 2017, down from last year’s target of 10.5 percent.
Slideshow (10 Images)
“As overcapacity is cut, we must provide assistance to laid-off workers,” Li said.
China aims to create more than 11 million new urban jobs this year, even as employment pressure grows.
“This year’s target for urban job creation is 1 million more than last year, underlining the greater importance we are attaching to employment,” Li said.Lou Amundson's agent has had an ongoing dialogue with the Knicks about bringing the bruising center to New York.
Several teams, including some with more money to offer than the Knicks, have also expressed interest in Amundson.
According to Chris Tomasson of Fox Sports Florida, Amundson has drawn interest from Charlotte, which can offer the $2.5 non tax-payer exception.
The Knicks can offer only the veteran's minimum to Amundson.
Amundson's agent, Mark Bartelstein, says Amundson is in no rush to make a decision.
"Glen (Grunwald) and I have talked," Bartelstein said. "(Amundson) is the best big man on the market, so there's no reason to be impatient."
Amundson isn't the only free-agent big man being linked to New York.
Donte Greene, formerly of Sacramento, said the Knicks are one of three teams he's considering. Kenyon Martin appeared to be a potential target, but recent reports have stated that the veteran is considering the Lakers and Nets. Though, according to colleague Jared Zwerling, Martin wouldn't accept the veteran's minimum, which appears to be all the Lakers and Nets have to offer.
Zwerling also reports former Nuggets big Chris Anderson is open to signing for the veteran's minimum.
Other candidates include D.J. White and Andray Blatche.
The Knicks have 13 guaranteed contracts, and in theory can add two more to get to the maximum roster allotment of 15.
Many have speculated that the Knicks will add a reserve forward of Amundson's ilk before Opening Night.
The 6-9, six-year veteran averaged 3.5 points and 3.7 rebounds in 12.6 minutes for Indiana last season.
You can follow follow Ian Begley on Twitter.Rare earth metals, hard-to-find materials, with unfamiliar names such as lanthanum, neodymium and europium, are used in wind and solar energy projects, but dwindling supplies could hinder a roll-out of low carbon technologies and slow China’s shift away from coal power.
These compounds, which are highly toxic when mined and processed, also take a heavy environmental toll on soil and water, posing a conundrum for policymakers in China, the world’s biggest producer and consumer of rare earths.
In 2012 the Chinese government named the city of Ganzhou, in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, a “rare earths kingdom”; even though at that time its rare earth reserves were already almost depleted.
According to a rare earths white paper issued by the State Council News Office in 2012, the reserves to extraction ratio for rare earth elements in southern China was 15. In other words, if mining continued at the existing rate, those reserves rich in medium and heavy rare earth elements (MHREEs) would only last for another 15 years.
Three years later and 6,000 miles away in Paris, 190 countries signed the historic Paris Climate Agreement, including plans to introduce a greater share of wind and solar power in a “decarbonised” future. But few of the delegates gathered in Paris seemed to realise how important one small south-central Chinese city would be to achieving this target; as almost all the clean, smart and low-carbon technologies are reliant on rare earths.
This prompts the questions: do we have enough rare earths to build the clean and smart future we’re imagining; can China, supplier of 90 per cent of the global rare earths over the last 20 years, meet expected growth in demand; and what will the environmental consequences be.
Rare earths kingdom
Chinese geologists working in Ganzhou fifty years ago discovered ion-absorbing rare earths; a discovery that restructured the world’s supply of rare earths. China replaced the US as the biggest producer of rare earths and Ganzhou rapidly became the world’s largest producer of MHREEs.
Despite rapidly depleting reserves Ganzhou still accounts for more than half of all rare earths produced in China. A visit to the mines and industrial parks of Ganzhou gives no sense of a glorious “kingdom”. It’s a scene of devastation: crude open air mines and smelters, and rough muddy attempts at restoring the landscape. It’s a sight hard to associate with the environmental technologies that rare earths are used in.
Water in and around the mining area is severely polluted. According to China Environmental News, the water supply for 30,000 people in the county of Longnan alone has been affected by rare earth mining, with 40,000 mu (6,589 acres) of farmland seeing reduced yields or complete harvest failure.
Over a decade of excessive extraction has left the surface water in the Zudong mining area, China’s biggest source of ion-absorption rare earths, with ammonia and total nitrogen levels far above safe standards; while groundwater is nowhere near up to minimum drinking water standards.
In April 2012 a cross-ministry investigation headed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology found 302 abandoned rare earth mining sites in Ganzhou, with 97.34 square kilometres affected. It would take 70 years just to deal with the 190 million tonnes of mining waste left behind.
Black market
China’s government says the country “meets 90 per cent of the world’s demand for rare earths, but has only 23 per cent of global reserves.” In the early 1990s China overtook the US to become the world’s biggest producer and exporter of rare earths and since then has virtually become a monopoly supplier, with some rare earth products produced only in China.
This story was originally published in Chinadialogue under a Creative Commons’ License and was republished with permission. Read the full story.That wasn't statistically different from the last time the Next America Poll measured this issue in October 2012; at that point, 55 percent of adults rejected that statement, while 42 percent agreed. Both of those results show a shift toward greater tolerance since spring 2009, when the Pew Research Center tested the question. At that point, a slight 51 percent to 43 percent majority said that newcomers threatened American traditions.
Yet the question of immigrants' cultural impact—in contrast with their economic effect—continues to divide Americans across racial, educational, generational, and partisan lines. In the new survey, whites, particularly the older and blue-collar whites at the core of the modern Republican electoral coalition, expressed much more discomfort than other groups did about the cultural impact of immigrants.
The College Board/National Journal Next America Poll, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, surveyed 1,272 adults ages 18 and older from Oct. 14-24, in English and Spanish, through landlines and cell phones. It includes oversamples of 245 African-Americans, 229 Hispanics, and 107 Asian-Americans; the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points for the overall sample, with larger error margins for the subgroups. The poll is one component of National Journal's Next America project, which examines how changing demography is changing the national agenda.
Not surprisingly, the poll found that the fastest-growing immigrant groups overwhelmingly reject the notion that newcomers are threatening American traditions. Asian-Americans disagreed with that statement by a resounding margin of 71 percent to 25 percent, and Hispanics dismissed it by 67 percent to 31 percent.
African-Americans, the poll found, also rejected the idea by a comparable 65 percent to 33 percent. That continued a major shift in opinion among blacks: Support for the idea that newcomers undermine American values has steadily fallen among African-Americans from 62 percent in 2009 to 47 percent in 2012 to only one-third now. (The belief that newcomers are undermining American values among Hispanics never reached nearly as high, but has also declined from 42 percent in 2009.)
Whites, though, remained closely divided on the question in the new survey, with 47 percent agreeing that newcomers are threatening American customs and values and 50 percent disagreeing. That's a modest shift toward acceptance from 2009, when a 52 percent majority of whites saw newcomers as a threat while only 43 percent disagreed. (Compared with last year, the results show little change among whites; at that point, 45 percent endorsed the statement and 54 percent rejected it.)
This narrow overall split masks sharp cleavages among whites that follow familiar political lines. Consistently, groups central to the GOP coalition expressed much more unease about the ongoing demographic change than other elements of the white community.U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett was in Austin last week, on a brief information tour of his Congressional District 35 (Austin/San Antonio), devoted primarily to a joint effort with the Texas Public Interest Research Group publicizing their 32nd annual “Trouble in Toyland” report itemizing dangerous children’s toys during the holiday season.
Doggett also spoke to the Chronicle briefly about the state of policy debates in Washington – and urged his constituents to maintain the pressure on Congress to defend the Affordable Care Act and oppose the current corporate-friendly GOP tax cut bills.
“Even in a state like [Texas],” Doggett said, “where most elected officials are not going to cast the vote that most people want, they still need to hear from folks.” Doggett spoke during a TexPIRG-sponsored press conference at Escuelita del Alma, the preschool where he said two of his grandaughters had been “proud graduates” before moving on to Austin public schools.
Doggett was introduced by Bay Scoggin of TexPIRG, who summarized three categories of dangerous toys that the group is highlighting this year: those using contaminants or toxic materials like lead, those with parts that present choking dangers to infants and toddlers, and (a new category) those potentially representing a threat to the privacy of children.
Scoggin displayed two types of “Fidget Wild” fidget spinners that in design look relatively harmless, but that tests determined contained as much as 300 times the permissible amounts of lead. Left unsupervised by adults or older children, the spinners represent a danger of prolonged lead ingestion by small children. The spinners had been on sale at Target stores, but educational and public pressure generated by TexPIRG, Scoggin said, had persuaded the company to remove them from the shelves. “Over the last 30 years,” Scoggin said, TexPIRG research and activism has resulted in “more than 150 recalls and other actions to get dangerous toys off the shelves.”
Doggett addressed the perennial choking threat of certain toys, which include common items like balloons but also larger toys, like dolls that are often packaged with small accessories that can get into the hands (and mouths) of children too young for them. Other small toys – magnets, beads, and the like – might look like candy, but when ingested by toddlers or infants, can become health threats and often require surgery to remove. Doggett praised groups like TexPIRG and cited the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but added, “There is no substitute for careful parental supervision” concerning their children’s toys. He recommended using a toilet paper cylinder as a handy measuring device for determining if toys or toy parts are small enough to create a hazard.
Scoggin noted a new danger represented by high-tech toys, like dolls, that use Bluetooth connections to hear and respond to children’s voices, and then upload those exchanges to unprotected servers – creating both an invasion of privacy by the manufacturers and indirectly an invitation to hackers who can readily access the information. “Children are supposed to be protected under a variety of privacy laws,” he said, but enforcement is too often lax, and parents need to remain vigilant.
The full TexPIRG report is available at the U.S. PIRG website (www.uspirg.org), with more detailed information about dangerous toys, and specific advice for parents and families shopping for holiday gifts for children. Doggett added that previous reports still available online feature dangerous toys that may have been discontinued, but “turn up at flea markets or garage sales.”Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images President Donald Trump dismantles the Department of the Interior's Stream Protection Rule, meant to protect waterways from from coal mining operations, at the White House on Feb. 16, 2017.
WASHINGTON ― While President Donald Trump distracts the public with his angry tweets, Republicans in Congress have been busy undoing federal regulations that agencies have been working on for years.
GOP lawmakers are dismantling regulations they deem overreaching and burdensome using an obscure law known as the Congressional Review Act, or CRA, which can be used to undo any regulation within 60 days of its finalization. The law, passed in 1996, also bars agencies from writing a “substantially” similar rule after the initial rule has been blocked ― a major concern for legal experts and advocates.
The CRA came to be under legislation pushed by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). Lawmakers wanted an easier way to undo regulations, even though agencies can only issue them according to statutes written by Congress.
Congress had only used the CRA once before Trump took office, which is another reason people are concerned about its implications. There isn’t a whole lot of legal precedent concerning how and when it should be used.
In 2001, Republicans used the CRA to undo a Clinton-era regulation creating new workplace ergonomics rules to prevent repetitive injuries. The agency that wrote the rule ― the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ― never touched ergonomics standards again.
Ergonomics may sound silly, but the rules weren’t about desk jockeys dealing with carpal tunnel syndrome. Think more like meat-packers crippled by repetitive injuries ― those are the people the regulation would have helped the most.
“Ergonomic injury is very common among poultry processing workers, both because repetitive knife cuts and hoisting heavy birds on and off the assembly line cause debilitating carpal tunnel,” explained University of Maryland law professor Rena Steinzor, formerly president of the Center for Progressive Reform.
When the Obama administration considered allowing faster line speeds at poultry plants in 2012, labor groups opposed the move as dangerous and urged OSHA to write new a new rule to make the work safer; poultry plant workers already suffer injuries at twice the rate of the general workforce.
Steinzor, who has testified before Congress on regulations, credits the 2001 CRA resolution targeting ergonomics as the reason OSHA decided not to write a new rule, though the agency didn’t cite it in its formal denial of petitions to take action on behalf of poultry workers.
OSHA “cowered,” said Steinzer. “It was battered. It stopped dealing with ergonomics.”
It may very well be the ultimate block on modernizing workplace standards. Celine McNicholas, Economic Policy Institute
Republicans’ desire to rip up Obama-era rules is no surprise, but using the CRA to do so could have a chilling effect on federal agencies that lasts for years.
In the last month, the House has pushed through 13 “resolutions of disapproval” reversing Obama-era regulations, including a Labor Department rule blocking contractors that have repeatedly violated workplace standards from receiving new contracts. The Senate is expected to take up that measure soon, and the House is also eyeing other Labor Department regulations that qualify for CRA action.
What makes passing a disapproval resolution under the CRA so easy is that you only need a simple majority to do it, meaning Democrats in the Senate can’t use a filibuster to stop it.
“The most interesting and troubling thing about this is that it may very well be the ultimate block on modernizing workplace standards,” said Celine McNicholas, labor counsel for the Economic Policy Institute.
The lack of precedent when it comes to the use of the CRA creates a tricky situation for all branches of government, since the agencies are still required to issue rules on specific issues, but can’t do so in a way that replicates their previous rule. The CRA states that a rule “may not be reissued in substantially the same form,” and that the agencies cannot issue “a new rule that is substantially the same” ― unless Congress passes a new law requiring a rule on that subject.
McNicholas noted that because the CRA has been used only once before, there has not been a judicial review, nor is there any case law defining how agencies should proceed.
“We’re in uncharted territory here,” she said.
Craig Warga/Bloomberg via Getty Images An employee packs ground turkey in Hamilton, New Jersey, on Oct. 21, 2013. Meatpackers are susceptible to injuries, but Republicans undid a workplace ergonomics rule that would have protected them using the Congressional Review Act.
Even the 60-day limit on using the CRA is fuzzy, because the time frame is 60 legislative days after finalization, not actual days. The Congressional Research Service reported last fall that any rule agencies finalized after May 30 last year is potentially subject to disapproval ― which means as many as 145 rules are subject to potential repeal.
The main reason the CRA is not used more often is that presidents generally don’t want to overturn rules their agencies have created, and will veto any “resolutions of disapproval” that make it through Congress. Republicans passed five CRAs between 2009 and 2016, but Obama vetoed all of them.
It’s the time period shortly after the White House switches parties and the reigning party controls both chambers of Congress when the stars align for the CRA.
And it’s not just labor rules Republicans are throwing out. In the first few weeks of the Trump administration, Congress has passed CRAs undoing a Social Security Administration rule meant to keep mentally ill people from buying guns, and a Securities and Exchange Commission rule requiring oil, gas and mining companies to disclose their payments to foreign governments.
The foreign disclosure rule in particular puts the SEC in a bit of a bind, because under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act Congress passed in 2010, companies must provide this kind of information to regulators.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who co-authored the law, expressed great frustration with his Republican colleagues who helped write Dodd-Frank but then voted in support of the CRA chopping up the SEC rule. Cardin said he talked to Republican colleagues who had supported that piece of Dodd-Frank, hoping to convince them to flip their vote. It didn’t work.
“What the Senate did with the CRA, what Republicans did on a straight party-line vote, is outrageous,” Cardin said. “It’s an abuse of the CRA, compromises America’s leadership, and delays substantially ― and perhaps even the quality ― of the disclosures that will have to take place.”
Cardin admitted that the SEC took too long to write the rules Dodd-Frank required, as it’s been almost seven years since Congress passed the law. But undoing them now, Cardin said, would damage the country’s international credibility when it comes to fighting corruption, and would make it more difficult for the SEC to find another avenue for fulfilling the Dodd-Frank mandate.
But the SEC will need to try, Cardin said, because he isn’t holding his breath in hopes that Congress will advance any other anti-corruption legislation anytime soon.
What the Senate did with the CRA, what Republicans did on a straight party-line vote, is outrageous. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.)
Environmental advocates have been some of the loudest opponents the CRA. Republicans have already targeted three Interior Department regulations; Trump signed a bill undoing regulations to protect waterways from from coal mining operations on Thursday. Two other bills targeting rules from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management are expected to come up for a vote in the Senate when lawmakers return on Feb. 27.
One of those BLM rules cracks down on the amount of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, that natural gas producers are allowed release in drilling operations on federal land. The other rule updated BLM guidelines on when and where to allow development on federal lands and provided more opportunities for the public to weigh in on those decisions.
If the Senate follows the House in undoing both rules, environmental advocates will inevitably challenge agencies to write similar regulations ― opening the door to potential lawsuits.
“It’s unfortunate that they have decided to take a tool that has such a lack of precedence and that is so blunt and extreme,” said Josh Mantell, energy campaign manager with the Wilderness Society. “We understand there may be issues with some of these regulations, but the idea that you’d throw the entire thing out and not allow anyone to move forward just traps us in the past.”
Mantell added that there could be some loopholes for agencies if they want to write a similar rule later. They could issue the regulation under other statutes, or a new administration could direct a different agency with similar jurisdiction to take it on. Still, he said, it’s unfortunate that “five-year processes, with an extreme amount of public engagement, are wiped out through the CRA.”
BURGER/PHANIE via Getty Images A urinalysis rule could also fall victim to the Congressional Review Act.
One of the rules Republicans put up for a disapproval vote in the House last week came as a surprise to a lot of people, since the rule hadn’t received any significant attention when it was issued. It has to do with urine.
In 2012, Congress passed a law that would allow states to make people filing for unemployment insurance submit to drug tests. Democrats hated the idea, but they agreed to the provision in exchange for getting Republican support for an expensive extension of long-term unemployment insurance.
Democrats didn’t agree to allow states to just do whatever they want, however. As a compromise to the compromise, the legislation said states could only test people in occupations for which such testing is common, such as jobs with a public safety component. And the bill instructed the Labor Department to come up with a regulation controlling how states decide which workers should be subject to urinalysis. Democrats were confident the department wouldn’t allow states to test too many people.
But Republicans neglected to give the Labor Department a deadline for writing those rules. The agency took its time, and didn’t release a proposed rule until 2014. Congressional Republicans and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) complained that the draft regulation wouldn’t let states drug test enough people. But the rule only received 16 public comments; contentious rules can get tens of thousands of comments.
The Labor Department issued the final version of the regulation last August ― which is within the timeline for disapproval under the CRA, according to the Congressional Research Service. The delay in drafting the rule could guarantee its demise, as Republicans seek to expand drug testing for the poor and jobless.
A former Labor Department official said the agency was mindful of the CRA, but had no way of knowing exactly when the cutoff would be.
Also, nobody expected Trump to be president.
“When you have a rule with 16 comments and you’re making significant changes to address those comments, we didn’t think of this as a CRA target,” the former official said.
Now that the CRA resolution targeting urine passed the House, the Senate will need to vote before it can head to Trump’s desk.
Theoretically, once the urinalysis rule is gone, the Trump Labor Department could reissue a new version that Republicans like better. The CRA language about what constitutes “substantially” similar regulations has never been tested, and it doesn’t say who is the arbiter of what is too similar. It might be up to Congress.
But it’s also possible that Congress strikes the rule and the Labor Department can’t issue a new one. Republicans could try to pass a new drug testing law, but Senate Democrats would probably keep that from happening. Then states will be left with no authority to drug test unemployment claimants at all.
The use of the Congressional Review Act “is only the first step” for Republicans when it comes to undoing regulations, said Steinzor.
“We’ve gone DefCon 1,” she said. “There’s worse still to come.”Get the biggest Liverpool FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Jordan Henderson has agreed in principle to a contract extension that would tie him to Liverpool for at least the next four years.
The England midfielder has enjoyed a fine campaign under Brendan Rodgers who also revealed today that he expects to sign a new deal once the season is over.
Henderson, 23, joined from Sunderland in 2011 for a fee in the region of £18million but endured a tough start to life at Anfield.
But the Wearsider has been a revelation this season as Liverpool turned into title challengers.
In August 2012 he turned down a move to Fulham after manager Brendan Rodgers had given the green light to his departure.Hannity introduced the video clip during a discussion of Obama’s refusal to use the term “radical Islam” to identify the enemy – a refusal which he doubled down on in a speech on Tuesday that Gorka described as “petulant” and “outrageous.”
“[Obama] said that, ‘What difference does it make what we call it?’ Well, what if you went to a doctor’s clinic with a serious illness, you had tuberculosis, and the doctor says, ‘I’m going to call what you have the flu or a common cold. Here’s a couple of aspirins. Go home,’” Gorka explained.
Watch the video above.
Below is a partial transcript:
SEAN HANNITY: Here with reaction, author of Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War, the distinguished chair of military theory at Marine Corps University, Dr. Sebastian Gorka.
Let’s look at this attack. Let’s look at it from a law enforcement standpoint. Here they had all the information about this guy. He said he was part of al Qaeda. He said he was part of Hezbollah, cheered on 9/11, all these indicators, on a watch list, taken off a watch list. Big mistake?
SEBASTIAN GORKA: Well, clearly, it is a big mistake because this man has killed 49 Americans. Yes, we don’t know exactly how the decision was made. I work with members of the FBI, and they’re good people. They’re patriots.
Most of the big problems we’ve seen in the last seven years come out of the DOJ. It’s the DOJ that puts the political correctness matrix on top of the FBI.
HANNITY: OK. If the FBI, the DOJ, Homeland Security — if they knew about the Orlando terrorist, they ultimately did nothing. They didn’t follow up on the guy. You know, are we supposed to believe that the Syrian refugees that the president wants to bring into the country and Hillary Clinton wants to bring into the country that they say they can vet properly, even though our intelligence officials say ISIS will infiltrate — how dangerous is that?
GORKA: Hugely dangerous. ISIS has stated in their English language publications, Sean, that they will and they are using the refugee streams. We saw in Europe, we saw people using false Syrian passports exploiting the refugee streams to execute the attacks that were just like the attack in Orlando. So we don’t have to hypothesize. It’s happened already, and they say they want to do more.
HANNITY: One of the things I like about your book is you say we can defeat jihad. OK, we have Chattanooga, we have Boston, we have San Bernardino, now we have Orlando. We had Belgium. We had Paris.
We don’t seem to be winning this war, and a president that is hell-bent and passionately today saying he doesn’t have to say or identify radical Islam for what it is.
GORKA: But passionate in his petulance. That speech was outrageous!
HANNITY: That’s a great line. He was petulant today.
GORKA: Totally! He said that, “What difference does it make what we call it?” Well, what if you went to a doctor’s clinic with a serious illness, you had tuberculosis, and the doctor says, “I’m going to call what you have the flu or a common cold. Here’s a couple of aspirins. Go home.”
HANNITY: What if in World War II, we didn’t identify Nazism for what it is or imperial Japan for the enemy that they are?
GORKA: This is — this is…
HANNITY: Or Reagan saying the evil empire!
GORKA: Right. This is when you have to bring Americans together. Those people weren’t gay people, they were Americans!
HANNITY: By the way, under sharia, radical Islamists, if it was a group of women dancing…
GORKA: Right!
HANNITY: … they would feel justified in doing this.
GORKA: Right, listening to music.
HANNITY: Listening to music.
GORKA: The Taliban banned music in Afghanistan!
HANNITY: All right, I’m trying to understand, it’s pathological at this point to me, the president, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats…
GORKA: It is.
HANNITY: It’s inexplicable. It’s — you know, I don’t understand this mysterious reluctance and resistance to identify an enemy.
I want to play some things for you. Let’s first go to The New York Times’s Nicholas Kristof and they talked about Obama when he was in a Muslim school. He said, “He recalled” — in a first rate accent, by the way — “the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first rate accent in a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated, and it’ll give Alabama voters a heart attack, but Mr. Obama described the call to Muslim prayer as one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset.”
Now, I’m going to play for you back to back his comments about Islam and his comments about Christianity, and I want you to respond. Let’s roll the tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAR
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Union law. They are required to carry a valid travel document, a passport or a national identity card, for entering the CTA and for travelling between Ireland and the UK.[68]
Schengen Area [ edit ]
In 1985, five member states of the then European Economic Community signed the Schengen Agreement on the gradual dropping of border controls between them. This treaty and the implementation convention of 1990 paved the way for the creation of the Schengen Area. Implemented in 1995, by 1997 all European Union member states except the United Kingdom and Ireland had signed the Agreement. The Amsterdam Treaty, which was drafted that year, incorporated Schengen into EU law, while giving Ireland and the UK an opt-out permitting them to maintain systematic passport and immigration controls at their frontiers. The wording of the treaty makes Ireland's opt-out from eliminating border controls conditional on the Common Travel Area being maintained.
The British government has always refused to lower its border controls as it believes that the island status of the CTA puts the UK in a better position to enforce immigration controls than mainland European countries with "extensive and permeable land borders".[69] While not signing the Schengen Treaty, Ireland has always looked more favourably on joining but has not done so to maintain the CTA and its open border with Northern Ireland,[70] though in 1997 Ireland amended its Aliens Order to permit identity and immigration controls on arrivals from the United Kingdom.[3]
Identification requirements [ edit ]
Most transport operators permit passengers to travel within the Common Travel Area without a passport, although Ryanair require all passengers to carry a passport or a national identity card. In 2014 a private member's bill was put before the Irish parliament which proposed to prohibit transport operators from requiring the production of a passport for travel within the Common Travel Area, but it was not passed.[71] Photo ID is required for Irish or British citizens travelling by air at the minimum. The Irish government in October 2015, started issuing passport cards and are the same size as national identity cards from other EU countries, which are accepted by all transport operators but the issuing of a passport card requires the holder to already have a conventional passport book.[72]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Bernard Ryan (2001). "The Common Travel Area between Britain and Ireland". Modern Law Review. 64 (6): 855. doi:10.1111/1468-2230.00356.
J. M. Evans (1972). "Immigration Act 1971". The Modern Law Review. 35 (5): 508. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2230.1972.tb02363.x. JSTOR 1094478.
Evan Smith (2016). 'Brexit and the history of policing the Irish border', History & Policy. http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/brexit-and-the-history-of-policing-the-irish-border
. http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/brexit-and-the-history-of-policing-the-irish-border Graham Butler (2015). "Not a "real" Common Travel Area: Pachero v Minister for Justice and Equality". Irish Jurist. 54 (1): 155–164.
Graham Butler; Gavin Barrett (2018). "Europe's 'Other' Open-Border Zone: The Common Travel Area under the Shadow of Brexit". Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies. 20 (1). doi:10.1017/cel.2018.10.Is there something in the water in Seattle?
The area has seen dramatic actions by and on behalf of workers in the past few months: defeat of concessions at major grocery chains, Boeing workers’ big “no” vote on concessions, a $15 minimum wage voted in for airport workers, and election of a socialist to city council—a candidate who made a city $15 minimum the centerpiece of her campaign.
Activists are hoping what’s happened here has implications far beyond the Puget Sound.
“We may be ahead of some areas, but we’re not unique,” predicted Dave Freiboth, head of Seattle’s county labor council. “This kind of change is coming nationally.”
In October, two hours before a regional grocery strike would have jumped off, 30,000 Food and Commercial Workers and Teamsters won a contract that defeated onerous health care concessions, and more, that had been forced on their co-workers in other states.
A few weeks later, Boeing Machinists (IAM) turned down an extortionist demand to freeze pension contributions for current workers, abandon defined-benefit pensions for new hires, and pay new hires $21,000 below current workers. Boeing had demanded an eight-year contract extension to keep work on the 777X airplane in Washington. Despite extraordinary intervention by the IAM International, the 31,000 Boeing workers voted “no” two to one.
Support Boeing Workers with an Email Washington’s Democratic Governor Jay Inslee, the Congressperson who represents the city of Everett (where Boeing is located), and Everett’s mayor have all publicly called for Machinists Local 751 to bring Boeing’s latest “last/best/final” offer to the membership. The new proposal no longer contains a two-tier wage, but it still destroys the defined-benefit pension plan. At recent meetings with Boeing, the only union representative who wanted to bring the proposal to the members for a second vote was from the International union. Political Director Larry Brown is organizing a boycott of the governor's upcoming holiday party. He believes that, given the skill level of Boeing Machinists, this may be the last stand for maintaining defined-benefit plans for workers. “We need to raise this to a new level,” Brown said. “This is an epic battle. We need to make this Chapter 2 of Occupy Wall Street. We are going to stand and fight.” To tell Inslee to stop interfering in the internal affairs of the Machinists and to support a decent standard of living for Washington workers, email his chief of staff, Joby Shimomura, at both jobyshimomura[at]gmail[dot]com and joby.shimomura[at]gov.wa[dot]gov.
Meanwhile in November’s local elections, voters in SeaTac (a small city home to the area’s airport) by a slim 77-vote margin established a $15 minimum for airport-related workers.
And community college teacher and Teachers (AFT) member Kshama Sawant, running as a socialist on a platform of taxing millionaires and a $15 city minimum wage, raised over $100,000 in contributions and a small army of volunteers for a city council election. (Each seat is contested separately—Position 1, Position 2—but races are citywide.)
When the smoke cleared, Sawant had received almost 95,000 votes—defeating the congenial liberal 16-year incumbent by a little over 3,000 votes, and getting almost as many votes as the incumbent mayor. Her red socialist signs and T-shirts were seen all over Seattle.
HOW’D IT HAPPEN?
Lynne Dodson, secretary-treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council, believes these developments reflect a cultural shift in labor. A former co-chair of statewide Jobs with Justice, she says labor is recognizing the need to work with community allies.
Seattle labor has particularly strong ties with environmental groups, economic justice organizations, communities of color, the LGBT community, and immigrant rights groups, including a day labor organization affiliated to the state labor council.
Dodson relates this fall’s victories to social movements of past decades, starting with the 1999 Seattle action against the World Trade Organization. The WTO protests forged unusual alliances that remain to this day. Washington’s union density is also the fourth-highest in the nation.
Freiboth believes Seattle labor has an unusually strong ability to “minimize dysfunction and leverage unity” despite differences—thanks to local labor’s democratic traditions and the city’s progressive politics.
Both credit the Occupy Movement with “changing the conversation”—“a general uprising of young, displaced workers trapped in low-wage jobs,” as Freiboth saw it. “People looked at the wage disparities and saw that, as a simple matter of fact, the system isn’t working.”
“How long were we in labor talking about income inequality, but nobody listened?” said Dodson.
And both think the Tea Party actually, inadvertently helped. Dodson credits the right-wingers for having made socialism seem less alien, particularly to young people, by describing modest reforms like Obamacare as “socialist.”
Best-Selling Book Secrets of a successful organizer A step-by-step guide to building power on the job. Buy Now. »
State Senator Bob Hasegawa, a former Teamster leader who still sits on the state labor council, sees the Machinists’ vote as a reaction to Boeing’s over-reaching at a time when workers were increasingly fed up. He was one of only two state senators to vote against giving Boeing a multi-billion dollar tax break (bribe) to keep work in Washington.
He’s not so sure the string of victories heralds a major change, but maybe so: “People are open to new solutions, because the old solutions sure aren’t working—concession after concession.”
STEWARDS MADE THE DIFFERENCE
Why were grocery workers in the Puget Sound able to hold the line against those concessions when others have given in? Mary Ann Schroeder, a 20-year Safeway worker, credits two steps.
Because of local mergers and a renewed commitment to internal organizing, the number of shop stewards in area stores has increased enormously. In a departure from the past, when many stores had no stewards at all, she said co-workers were kept continuously informed about negotiations.
She also credits community support. In past contract fights, many workers were uncomfortable with actions in front of the store, worrying it would just bring management down on them.
But this year, they got thousands of shoppers to sign cards pledging to boycott if there were a strike. Also important was the union’s great visual: a giant clock at a downtown plaza counting down the hours until the strike deadline.
Boeing workers, too, showed a resolve to resist concessions that’s increasingly rare. Larry Brown, IAM 751 political director, credits part of that to workers’ high skill level.
The planes are hand-built, like a Lamborghini: “The difference is that a jet has about four million parts, and a Lamborghini has about 10,000,” he said. “Boeing would like to have a compliant workforce and a highly skilled workforce—but they only get to have one of the two.”
But Brown stressed that the action also reflects the good work District 751 has done with “intergenerational” education, building solidarity and union consciousness among young workers. The result has been a lot of union pride—and a group of workers who aren’t easily intimidated or bought off.
After the “no” vote, the Washington Labor Council held a rally of about 500 for the Boeing workers in downtown Seattle. Council President Jeff Johnson said, “We gather to say ‘thank you’ to the Machinists for standing up for community standards.”
POLITICIANS TAKE NOTICE
All this has had a real impact on local politics. During the November election, the mayor made a big issue out of opposing city accommodations for virulently anti-union Whole Foods, arguing no subsidies should go to a corporation seeking to undermine local labor standards.
Some union people knew candidate Sawant from her work in Occupy, which had substantial labor involvement in Seattle. Her vigorous push for $15 brought her endorsements from a half dozen locals, mostly public employees. A large Electrical Workers (IBEW) local and an AFSCME state employees local gave money. Some labor leaders publicly supported her campaign; far more backed her quietly and helped build support within their ranks.
Now that she’s won, labor has largely united behind her and she is a popular speaker at rallies. Tellingly, four of the other eight city council members joined Sawant at a December 5 rally to support the national fast food workers’ strikes and a $15 city minimum wage.
$15 CAMPAIGN PLANS
Still, neither Sawant nor the labor movement is willing to sit back and count on the actions of other council members. An ordinance to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 in 2014 will be introduced when the council reconvenes in January—but at the same time, plans are being made for a citywide referendum.
There’s precedent for that. In 1998 Washington voters established a state minimum that rises automatically with inflation each January 1. The 2013 minimum, $9.19, is the nation’s highest—and will rise to $9.32 for 2014.
The campaign is already influencing local labor negotiations.
Business Manager Dave Westberg of Operating Engineers Local 609, which represents non-teaching K-12 employees, wants to make the Seattle School Board the poster child for the need to raise the minimum wage.
“Locally, there is no greater example of income inequity than Seattle Schools,” Westberg said. “The current entry wage in the nutrition department is $11.67 and for custodians the (apprentice) rate is $11.61.
“Most of these are full-time employees who are forced to live far outside the city and commute or live in public housing in order to work at Seattle Schools.”
Freiboth says the vote in SeaTac and the election of Sawant mean “the political establishment can’t ignore wealth inequality any longer. We have a whole generation of baby boomers with kids in crap jobs without health care, and they’re starting to see the connection between that and a strong labor movement.”
Paul Bigman is on the executive board of the Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor Council.Batch 169 voting is now open. The following polls are currently open:
Batch 169
Batch 168
Batch 167
Batch 166
Batch 165
Batch 164
Batch 163
Batch 162 results will be up soon.
The full list of matchups for today is:
Mindlash Sliver vs Verdant Eidolon
Incite War vs Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
Independent Troops vs Sea God’s Revenge
Hand of the Praetors vs Extricator of Sin
Phyrexian Processor vs Teferi’s Moat
Viscid Lemures vs Tormod’s Crypt
Damping Field vs Cystbearer
Tooth of Chiss-Goria vs Blessed Reversal
Aspect of Wolf vs Wall of Wood
Lady Evangela vs Ichor Wellspring
Entreat the Angels vs Ivory Charm
Wirewood Pride vs Circle of Protection: Red
Timber Gorge vs Thalakos Deceiver
Ob Nixilis, Unshackled vs Battlegrace Angel
Soratami Mirror-Mage vs Chronostutter
Swat vs Firespout
Phantom Warrior vs Nephalia Drownyard
Miner’s Bane vs Warmonger
Interdict vs Goblin Glory Chaser
Emrakul, the Promised End vs Sandblast
Spellbane Centaur vs Hyalopterous Lemure
Downpour vs White Shield Crusader
Farrel’s Mantle vs Channel
Titania, Protector of Argoth vs Kalastria Nightwatch
Kraul Warrior vs Hasran Ogress
Boldwyr Heavyweights vs Emberwilde Augur
Containment Priest vs Thraben Inspector
Telepathy vs Horned Turtle
Spiderwig Boggart vs Impact Resonance
Skyshroud Claim vs Dreg Reaver
Tomb Hex vs Elvish Impersonators
Eater of Hope vs Scourge of NumaiClose, Mitt, but not quite.
In an 1895 newspaper column, “Mr. Dooley,” a character created by the writer Finley Peter Dunne observes: “Sure, politics ain’t bean-bag. ‘Tis a man’s game, an’ women, childer, cripples an’ prohybitionists ‘d do well to keep out iv it.” The saying — minus the part about women and cripples and prohybitionists — stuck, and has become a popular political aphorism to this day. You’ll often hear it mentioned in a discussion about negative attacks. For example:
Reporter: “Your latest ad claims that your opponent shoots baby ducklings for sport. Does that cross a line?”
Candidate: “Well, as they say, politics ain’t bean bag.”
As the Republican race has gotten nastier over the past month, the vast gulf between bean bag — which may have been some kind of turn-the-century Skip-It — and politics has been remarked upon with increasing frequency. Especially by Mitt Romney, as recently as this morning. The only thing is, he never says it right. Ever:
January 6:
”As someone said a long time ago,” he told a Friday night crowd on the subject of how campaigns can get a little rough at times. ”Politics ain’t beanbags.”
January 6:
“I’m ready for what anyone wants to bring my way. Got to have broad shoulders in this business. As — as was said long, long ago, politics ain’t beanbags.”
January 8:
“Anything wrong, I’m opposed to. But, you know, this ain’t, this ain’t the bean bag.”
January 12:
“Politics ain’t bean bags and I know it’s going to get tough.”
January 30:
“There’s no question that politics ain’t bean bags.”
As far as we can tell, Romney has not accurately recited the aphorism a single time during this entire campaign. Nitpicking? Sure. Romney is usually only off by one letter. Still, “politics ain’t bean bag” has been repeated for over 115 years now. It’s four words long. It shouldn’t be too difficult to master.Will UFC Fight Night 107 be remembered as the evening in London when Jimi Manuwa stomped into the collective consciousness of the light heavyweight division and announced he wasn’t there to make friends? Perhaps. Perhaps. What is an undeniable fact, at least according to Ben and Chad, is that Manuwa did about as good a job utilizing his screen time on The Fight Pass Dot Com as anyone could have imagined on Saturday. First, Manuwa put Corey Anderson to sleep with a left hand, then got on the mic to call for a title shot, then went to the press conference to say Jon Jones tarnished his legacy with steroids. So, yeah, all in a night’s work for The Paper Boy. In addition to that, your dudes discuss Gunnar Nelson’s win over Alan Jouban and also, goddamn it, they were just kidding about having Kelvin Gastelum fight Anderson Silva.
All that, plus AYFKM and Just Sayin’ Stuff.
Direct downloaders can figure out what to do with their kids during Spring Break right here.GWADAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - China is lavishing vast amounts of aid on a small Pakistani fishing town to win over locals and build a commercial deep-water port that the United States and India suspect may also one day serve the Chinese navy.
A general view of Gwadar port in Gwadar, Pakistan October 4, 2017. Picture taken October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Drazen Jorgic
Beijing has built a school, sent doctors and pledged about $500 million in grants for an airport, hospital, college and badly-needed water infrastructure for Gwadar, a dusty town whose harbor juts out into the Arabian Sea, overlooking some of the world’s busiest oil and gas shipping lanes.
The grants include $230 million for a new international airport, one of the largest such disbursements China has made abroad, according to researchers and Pakistani officials.
The handouts for the Gwadar project is a departure from Beijing’s usual approach in other countries. China has traditionally derided Western-style aid in favor of infrastructure projects for which it normally provides loans through Chinese state-owned commercial and development banks.
“The concentration of grants is quite striking,” said Andrew Small, an author of a book on China-Pakistan relations and a Washington-based researcher at the German Marshall Fund think tank.
“China largely doesn’t do aid or grants, and when it has done them, they have tended to be modest.”
Pakistan has welcomed the aid with open hands. However, Beijing’s unusual largesse has also fueled suspicions in the United States and India that Gwadar is part of China’s future geostrategic plans to challenge U.S. naval dominance.
“It all suggests that Gwadar, for a lot of people in China, is not just a commercial proposition over the longer term,” Small said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Beijing and Islamabad see Gwadar as the future jewel in the crown of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative to build a new “Silk Road” of land and maritime trade routes across more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.
The plan is to turn Gwadar into a trans-shipment hub and megaport to be built alongside special economic zones from which export-focused industries will ship goods worldwide. A web of energy pipelines, roads and rail links will connect Gwadar to China’s western regions.
Port trade is expected to grow from 1.2 million tonnes in 2018 to about 13 million tonnes by 2022, Pakistani officials say. At the harbor, three new cranes have been installed and dredging will next year deepen the port depth to 20 meters at five berths.
But the challenges are stark. Gwadar has no access to drinking water, power blackouts are common and separatist insurgents threaten attacks against Chinese projects in Gwadar and the rest of Baluchistan, a mineral-rich province that is still Pakistan’s poorest region.
Security is tight, with Chinese and other foreign visitors driven around in convoys of soldiers and armed police.
Beijing is also trying to overcome the distrust of outsiders evident in Baluchistan, where indigenous Baloch fear an influx of other ethnic groups and foreigners. Many residents say the pace of change is too slow.
“Local people are not completely satisfied,” said Essar Nori, a lawmaker for Gwadar, adding that the separatists were tapping into that dissatisfaction.
Pakistani officials are urging Gwadar residents to be patient, vowing to urgently build desalination plants and power stations.
CAUTIONARY TALE
China’s Gwadar project contrasts with similar efforts in Sri Lanka, where the village of Hambantota was transformed into a port complex - but was saddled with Chinese debt.
Last week, Sri Lanka formally handed over operations to China on a 99-year lease in exchange for lighter debt repayments, a move that sparked street protests over what many Sri Lankans view as an erosion of sovereignty.
The Hambantota port, like Gwadar, is part of a network of harbors Beijing is developing in Asia and Africa that have spooked India, which fears being encircled by China’s growing naval power.
But Pakistani officials say comparisons to Hambantota are unfair because the Gwadar project has much less debt.
On top of the airport, Chinese handouts in Gwadar include $100 million to expand a hospital by 250 beds, $130 million towards upgrading water infrastructure, and $10 million for a technical and vocational college, according to Pakistani government documents and officials.
“We welcome this assistance as it’s changing the quality of life of the people of Gwadar for the better,” said Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the parliamentary committee that oversees CPEC, including Gwadar.
China and Pakistan jointly choose which projects will be developed under the CPEC mechanism, Sayed added.
When China suggested a 7,000 meter runway for the new airport, Pakistan pushed for a 12,000 meter one that could accommodate planes as large as the Airbus 380 and be used for military purposes, according to Sajjad Baloch, a director of the Gwadar Development Authority.
The scale of Chinese grants is extraordinary, according to Brad Parks, executive director of AidData, a research lab at the U.S.-based William and Mary university that collected data on Chinese aid across 140 countries from 2000-2014.
Since 2014, Beijing has pledged over $800 million in grants and concessional loans for Gwadar, which has less than 100,000 people. In the 15 years before that, China gave about $2.4 billion in concessional loans and grants during this period across the whole of Pakistan, a nation of 207 million people.
“Gwadar is exceptional even by the standards of China’s past activities in Pakistan itself,” Parks said.
HEARTS AND MINDS
There are early signs China’s efforts to win hearts and minds are beginning to bear fruit in Gwadar.
“Baluchistan is backward and underdeveloped, but we are seeing development after China’s arrival,” said Salam Dashti, 45, a grocer whose two children attend the new Chinese-built primary school.
But there are major pitfalls ahead.
Tens of thousands of people living by the port will have to be relocated.
For now, they live in cramped single-story concrete houses corroded by sea water on a narrow peninsula, where barefoot fishermen offload their catch on newly-paved roads strewn with rubbish. Many of the fishermen say they fear they’ll lose their livelihoods once the port starts operating.
Indigenous residents’ fear of becoming a minority is inevitable with Gwadar’s population expected to jump more than 15-fold in coming decades. On the edge of town, mansions erected by land speculators are popping up alongside the sand dunes.
Analysts say China is aware that previous efforts to develop Gwadar port failed partly due to the security threat posed by Baloch separatists, so Beijing is trying to counter the insurgents’ narrative that China wants to exploit Baluchistan.
“That weighs heavily on the minds of the Chinese,” Parks added. “It’s almost certainly true that they are trying to safeguard their investments by getting more local buy-in.”
Chinese officials, meanwhile, are promoting the infrastructure development they are funding.
“Every day you can see new changes. It shows the sincerity of Chinese for development of Gwadar,” Lijian Zhao, the deputy chief of mission at the Chinese embassy in Islamabad, tweeted last month.
NAVAL FACILITY
For its investment in Gwadar, China will receive 91 percent of revenues until the port is returned to Pakistan in four decades’ time. The operator, China Overseas Ports Holding Company, will also be exempt from major taxes for more than 20 years.
Pakistan’s maritime affairs minister, Hasil Bizenjo, said the arrival of the Chinese in the region contrasted with the experience of the past two centuries, when Russia and Britain, and later the United States and the Soviet Union, vied for control of the warm water ports of the Persian Gulf.
“The Chinese have come very smoothly, they have reached the warm waters,” Bizenjo told Reuters. “What they are investing is less than a peanut for access to warm waters.”
When a U.S. Pentagon report in June suggested Gwadar could become a military base for China, a concern that India has also expressed, Beijing dismissed the idea.
“Talk that China is building a military base in Pakistan is pure guesswork,” said a Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman, Wu Qian.
Slideshow (4 Images)
Bizenjo and other Pakistani officials say Beijing has not asked to use Gwadar for naval purposes.
“This port, they will use it mostly for their commercial interests, but it depends on the next 20 years where the world goes,” Bizenjo said.
(This story has been refiled to correct typos in spellings of names of Chinese officials in paragraphs 40, 46)The Sorrow of Missing Devcon2… and an Announcement
Dan Conway Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 12, 2016
Last night at the Silicon Valley Ethereum Meetup a number of people made plans to catch up next week in Shanghai. They asked me if I was going and I let them know I couldn’t make it.
Turning down an opportunity to attend Devcon2 in 2016 is like balking at getting a ride to Woodstock in 1969 or passing on a blind date with Beyoncé before she was famous.
Ethereum’s nickname should be “Holy Shit” because that’s what goes through your mind when you grasp what it is capable of. It is the first innovation I’ve experienced as a Drop Everything technology. Just leave your half eaten bagel and steaming cup of coffee on the table, run to the nearest group of Ethereum zealots and ask for an assignment.
Next week, they will all be in Shanghai while I’m having a nice little week with my projects and family duties. Maybe a trip to Bed Bath & Beyond. We’ll see.
But I have answered the call in another way. After twenty years of running public affairs and communications programs for AT&T, Safeway, Walmart and other large corporations I’ve unplugged from the Matrix and formed a new outfit, Zealot Communications with a lady I call my wife, the hyper savvy Eileen Stanley Conway.
We will be helping Web 3.0 projects tell their stories in a way that even a civilian can understand. My mission is to drive mainstream interest and usage of cryptocurrency in general and Ether in particular. To that end, I’ll also be continuing to build out my blog, Citizen Crypto, which offers color commentary on this wild space and tracks some of the more interesting storylines.
The only fly in the ointment as of this writing is that I won’t be at Devcon2. Someone has to walk the dog so she doesn’t pee on the carpet, etc. There isn’t a DAPP for that yet, my wife has reminded me.
Devcon3? Count me in.After announcing 110 million Redmi phones sold over the past few years we might be on the verge of seeing a new Redmi model launched to celebrate.
The current Redmi phones offer powerful specs (Snapdragon 652) decent levels of memory (3GB RAM), all metal bodies and even rear fingerprint scanners. In fact the Redmi’s well rounded spec even includes a large battery to boot!
With such a decent phone already available what could Xiaomi be planning to offer for the Redmi 4? Well purported leaked images show a new brushed metal finish and possible dual rear cameras.
The Redmi 4 could have more upmarket and better quality CNC chassis which would certainly give the phone a better feel and perhaps lighter stiffer body. Dual camera’s however seem a little too upmarket for the budget Redmi range, but then again Xiaomi have surprised us before and are likely to do so again.
A dual rear camera design would also probably mean that the fingerprint scanner will have moved to the front of the phone, likely in a physical button similar to the Xiaomi Mi5.
As usual with these leaks and rumours we currently have no news on a price or launch date, but you will be the first to know as soon as we get more details.Trainee barrister cried rape 11 TIMES landing her boyfriend behind bars for 30 days in bid to get out of taking law exams, court hears
Rhiannon Brooker claimed she was raped and assaulted by Paul Fensome
But when police investigated they found Mr Fensome had 'cast iron alibis'
All claims against him were dropped after detectives found no evidence
Experts said her injuries, which she showed to friends, were self-inflicted
She sat four law exams and failed them, then missed eight more, court told
The 30-year-old claimed 'extenuating circumstances' for those she missed
Brooker withdrew the allegations and confirmed they were false, court told
She said she made up the claims because of 'unresolved feelings of anger'
Prosecutors told jurors Brooker has a 'need to be the centre of attention'
She denies 20 charges related to perverting the course of justice
A trainee barrister falsely accused her boyfriend of raping her 11 times in an attempt to get out of taking her law exams, a court heard.
Rhiannon Brooker, 30, alleged Paul Fensome had repeatedly assaulted her, leading to the 46-year-old being arrested, charged and held in custody for 30 days.
But detectives could not find any evidence he had carried out the attacks. It emerged that Brooker had used the allegations as ‘extenuating circumstances’ in a failed attempt to dodge her bar exams, a jury was told.
Rhiannon Brooker, 30, is accused of falsely claiming her boyfriend raped and assaulted her before using the allegations as 'extenuating circumstances' in a failed bid to get out of her legal exams
She is accused of making 11 false claims of rape and nine of assault, two of which alleged false imprisonment.
Prosecutor David Bartlett told Bristol Crown Court: ‘One of the reasons for her false allegations was that she was living an active social life and not doing the work required to pass.’
She made up the claims to ‘give substance’ to her bid to be allowed to delay her exams.
The court heard how Brooker, a law graduate, had been studying for her barrister qualifications at the University of the West of England (UWE).
Shortly before she moved to Bristol in 2010, she appeared at a shop where she worked with injuries and complained her boyfriend had assaulted her, Mr Bartlett said.
At UWE she told fellow students she had been assaulted and raped, and occasionally displayed physical injuries, but had not reported the matter to police.
She claimed Mr Fensome had forced her to have sex on several occasions and once she told a friend she had lost a baby because he had punched her in the ribs.
Brooker leaves court, where she is on trial over claims she made 11 false allegations of rape and nine of assault against her boyfriend
She said facial injuries and bruising were as a result of her attempts to end the relationship against his will.
In March 2011 a domestic violence adviser encouraged her to keep a log of incidents and report them to police.
She finally went to police in May 2011 but all the allegations were denied by Mr Fensome, a railway signalman.
She told officers she had been grabbed by the throat and held against a wall after Mr Fensome accused her of cheating on him.
The court saw a video of a police interview in which she said: ‘He got increasingly irritated and angry because of the fact I was denying it.
‘He was accusing me of all sorts with all people.
‘As we got home he tripped me up as we were coming through the door and I fell down.
'I said to stop being so stupid, then he grabbed me by the throat and put me against the wall.
'He put his hand around my neck and throat, his grip was tight, I found it hard to breathe. He said I was malicious and nasty.’
However, Mr Fensome denied the allegations and had ‘cast iron alibis’, the court heard.
Texts from his phone and his work shift patterns either undermined or disproved the claims. Experts suggested Brooker’s injuries had been self-inflicted, Mr Bartlett said.
After charges against Mr Fensome were dropped, Brooker, of Frampton Cotterell, Gloucestershire, confirmed they were false, and admitted that injuries seen by witnesses, including her friends and doctors, were self-inflicted, the court heard.
She later told police: ‘The allegations were not true and I am sorry I made them. I find it very difficult to understand why I said these things.
Overstayer: Bristol Crown Court heard how a warrant had been issued for Hamidi's deportation
‘I believe that in some funny way I have hit out against Paul as he was close to me – the nearest target of those unresolved feelings of anger – and I regret the hurt that I’ve caused him as a result.
‘I am trying to work hard with these feelings and I understand that they have to be resolved and put behind me.
'Ordinarily I am a truthful and honest person which makes it all the more difficult for me to understand how this has happened.’
Brooker sat only the first four of her 12 assessments for her course and persuaded the Extenuating Circumstances Committee to let her sit the rest later. But she went on to fail because she exceeded the time limit.
Mr Bartlett said Brooker’s knowledge of criminal law was likely to be greater than that of most rape complainants.
‘The prosecution alleges that she knew that the course of justice was being perverted and intended to pervert the course of justice throughout that period.
'Brooker seemed oblivious to the impact of the false allegations on Mr Fensome’s family, causing distress, disruption and expense.
'In addition, Brooker deceived other students and her tutors, who committed time and emotional support to her cause.
‘We suggest that the defendant has an inherent tendency to fabricate allegations and needs always to be the centre of attention.’Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives at the town of Krymsk in the Krasnodar region January 11, 2013. Reuters/Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Pool
With the full support of a feckless policy elite and an uncritical media establishment, Washington is slipping, if not plunging, into a new cold war with Moscow. Relations, already deeply chilled by fundamental disputes over missile defense, the Middle East and Russia’s internal politics, have now been further poisoned by two conflicts reminiscent of tit-for-tat policy-making during the previous Cold War. Ad Policy
In December, Congress, in a fit of sanctimonious lawmaking and indifference to larger consequences, passed the Magnitsky Act. In effect a blacklist without due process, it will punish Russian officials (and perhaps their family members) alleged to be
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that have been done where the microbiota of an obese mouse is transferred to a germ-free mouse,” says Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, a microbiologist at Arizona State University in Tempe.
Germ-free mice, which lack gut microbes altogether because they are delivered by Caesarean section and raised in special aseptic cages, have lower body fat than conventionally raised mice. Gordon and his colleagues have found that when a germ-free mouse is colonized with gut microbes from a normal mouse, it experiences a 60% increase in body fat over the course of 2 weeks — despite eating less food than it did before the transfer6.
“That provided the first mechanistic evidence that something about the microbes in our gut is increasing our ability to store body fat,” says Peter Turnbaugh, a systems biologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Gordon lab.
Furthermore, the microbiomes of obese individuals have a different effect than those of normal-weight mice. “They gain about twice as much body fat over the course of two weeks if you colonize them with a sample that comes from an obese donor,” says Turnbaugh. “And that can be from a mouse that's obese because of a genetic mutation in leptin, or mice that are obese due to consuming a high-fat, high-sugar diet.” Researchers have even shown that germ-free mice that receive gut microbes from an obese human donor gain more weight than those that receive them from a lean person7.
But not everyone finds these data convincing. Germ-free mice given obesity-associated microbiota gain weight, but they do not actually become obese themselves, points out Eric Martens, a microbiologist at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. “The magnitude of the change never really comes back to anything above what a normal mouse would have,” Martens says. “You're not looking at transplantable obesity.”
Moreover, diet is a major factor in obesity, and diet also shapes the microbiota. Often, changes in the levels of gut microbes produced by healthy or unhealthy diets are broadly similar to the differences seen in lean versus obese individuals. “So you already have this diet-to-microbiota relationship that's difficult to disentangle from the microbiota-to-obesity relationship,” Martens says.
Others say the tight coupling of diet and the microbiota is the point. Zhao has shown that mice colonized with Enterobacter cloacae B29, a bacterial strain isolated from his obese patient, become obese themselves if they are fed a high-fat diet, but not if they are fed a normal diet. “As microbiologists we know for a pathogen to cause a disease you need many things,” Zhao says. “First you need the pathogen, but then you also need the right environmental condition to trigger the problem.”
Demonstrating similar causality in humans will require additional work, however. “What we really need is prospective studies where we see an altered microbiome before the disease onset,” says Bäckhed. Several groups are now beginning these investigations.
A bug's life
Meanwhile, these questions have not stopped researchers from starting to look at microbe-based approaches to treating obesity. But for this to be more than educated guesswork, scientists will have to figure out the precise molecular and biochemical mechanisms that link diet, gut microbes and body weight. They will also need to identify the particular bacteria, at species level, that may be involved.
Early work in this area suggested that the genes and biochemical pathways characteristic of obesity-associated microbiomes are more efficient at extracting energy from food than are those of normal-weight individuals. Essentially, an obese mouse gets more calories out of a cup of mouse chow than a lean mouse does. “Our hypothesis at that time was basically about energy harvest, that the microbiome helps to digest carbohydrates that would otherwise be indigestible to the host,” recalls Bäckhed, who worked on these questions as a postdoc in the Gordon lab.
But the picture soon got more complicated, as Bäckhed and others found that germ-free mice do not become obese when fed a Western-style diet high in fat and simple sugars — components of food that gut microbes have only a minor role in digesting. “The germ-free gut was still protecting these mice against obesity, suggesting that there are other mechanisms at play as well,” says Bäckhed.
Researchers have since shown that the gut microbiota can affect the body's signalling systems related to hunger and feeling full8, and even how quickly food passes through the gut9. Other studies have traced how diet and microbes can interact to produce inflammation and an impaired gut barrier, or 'leaky gut', which may contribute to obesity10.
In mice, it is possible to reverse many of these effects with prebiotics11, the most widely used of which is oligofructose, a type of indigestible carbohydrate found in foods such as bananas, garlic and Jerusalem artichokes. “We found that mice fed with oligofructose had an improved gut barrier function,” says Patrice Cani, a researcher into metabolism and nutrition at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. The mice that were given prebiotics also had improved metabolic markers, reduced fat mass and reduced inflammation, Cani adds.
Of microbes and humans
It is not clear, however, how well these outcomes translate to humans. Last year, Cani and his colleagues reported that obese women who took a supplement of oligofructose and a similar substance called inulin every day for three months showed a slight decrease in fat mass and a reduction in blood levels of an inflammation-promoting molecule12. But the results “were not really equivalent to the ones we observed in mice”, Cani says.
Prebiotics are only one of several strategies to manipulate the gut microbiota. Other possibilities include faecal transplantation — in which communities of bacteria from one individual are given to another — or consuming beneficial bacteria as probiotics.
But so far, these other approaches have also worked better in mice than in humans. For example, a small faecal transplantation study found that people who received microbiota from a lean donor experienced improvements in insulin sensitivity, but no change in body mass index.
The top candidate for a bacterial species that could be given as a prebiotic to decrease body weight is Akkermansia muciniphila. This bacterium is found in most people's guts, but at lower numbers in obese individuals. When people lose weight after gastric bypass surgery (see 'Lean operation'), A. muciniphila flourish.
Box 1: Lean Operation: Does the microbiota determine the success of gastric surgery? One of the most drastic approaches to weight loss in obese individuals is gastric bypass surgery. Surgeons make the stomach smaller and reroute the small intestine, reducing the body's ability to absorb nutrients from food. It is a profound reorganization of the digestive system. Yet recent studies suggest that a major portion of the weight loss triggered by bypasses — commonly 4.5–9.0 kg per month for the first year — may be attributable to changes in the gut microbiota that occur after surgery. Image: Visuals Unlimited/Getty Images A study of three normal-weight individuals, three obese individuals and three people who had undergone gastric bypasses provided the first evidence for this idea. “We analysed the bacterial communities in the three groups, and they were really different,” says study co-leader Bruce Rittmann, a professor at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University in Tempe. “Each community was relatively similar within the group, but the groups were very different from each other.” Despite the study's small size, the differences were statistically significant. “Patients with a gastric bypass had a higher population of Gammaproteobacteria,” says Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, a microbiologist at Arizona State University and the other co-leader. This large group of microbes includes, for example, the familiar gut bacterium Escherichia coli. “That was one of the most striking differences.” It is not yet clear why these shifts occur, but researchers hypothesize that the changes in gut anatomy, together with different dietary habits post-surgery, may favour the growth of different bacteria in the gut. Bolstering the observations in humans, similar changes have been found in the microbiota of rats and mice that undergo gastric bypass operations. In fact, if gut microbes from a post-surgery mouse are transferred to a mouse lacking gut microbes, the recipient mouse loses weight13. That is particularly striking because such mice, without any gut microbes to help them extract energy from food, start off with a lower than normal percentage of body fat. “It's surprising that given the right configuration of microbiota you can actually drive their weight even lower,” says study team member Peter Turnbaugh, a systems biologist at Harvard University who works on gut microbes. But some individuals who undergo gastric bypass surgery regain much of their weight after a few years. In an ongoing study, Rittmann and Krajmalnik-Brown are analysing the gut microbiota of up to 40 individuals several years after gastric bypass surgery to try to identify differences in the microbiota of successful and unsuccessful patients. The team also plans to follow about ten new gastric bypass patients to track the changes in their gut microbiota after the surgery. “We're trying to find a biomarker,” Krajmalnik-Brown says. “That would be really great if we could increase the success rate of surgery just by knowing the characteristics of the gut microbiota that are linked to success.” Perhaps one day these patterns will yield insights into how to manipulate the microbiota to produce weight loss even without surgery.
Mouse studies suggest that A. muciniphila strongly affects body weight. “If you take a normal mouse and give it a high-fat diet, it becomes obese. That's not rocket science,” says Willem de Vos, a microbiologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, who was part of the team that discovered the species in 2004. “But if you give a high-fat diet and you give Akkermansia at the same time, there's no obesity.”
Now, de Vos and his collaborators are beginning a clinical trial in which obese patients will be given A. muciniphila to see if the bacterium can help them to lose weight.
“Lab mice live tightly controlled lives, whereas we are constantly surrounded by temptation.”
It is probably too soon to get excited. Even if the science is straightened out, it will be hard to develop an effective microbiota-based weight intervention for humans. Lab mice, after all, live tightly controlled lives, whereas we are constantly surrounded by temptation. “It's so easy to be a nibbler,” as Bäckhed puts it.
People are also a lot more genetically diverse than lab mice. As a result, the effectiveness of diet and exercise interventions for obesity varies greatly between individuals, and the same is likely to be true for microbe-based treatments. “If you put two people on the same diet they're not going to come out with the same intestinal microbiota,” says Krajmalnik-Brown. A person's initial microbiota, metabolism and even their gut anatomy may influence the results of a prebiotic or probiotic regimen.
It may eventually be possible to analyse a person's existing microbiota to predict the effectiveness of various treatments. Already scientists have shown that individuals with a gene-rich microbiome respond differently to diets than those with fewer genes in their gut.
But that is still far away. “What we really don't know in humans is the question that is most relevant for a person who is obese, which is how much of your body fat is really caused by gut microbes,” says Turnbaugh. “And that might vary a lot from person to person.” So microbes may punch above their size, but the relationship between them and us is what finally matters, and that remains, well, complicated.
References 1. Fei, N. & Zhao, L. ISME J. 7, 880–884 (2013). 2. Xiao, S. et al. FEMS Microbial Ecol. 87, 357–367 (2014). 3. Ley, R. E. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 102, 11070–11075 (2005). 4. Ley, R. E. et al. Nature 444, 1022–1023 (2006). 5. Le Chatelier, E. et al. Nature 500, 541–549 (2013). 6. Bäckhed, F. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 101, 15718–15723 (2004). 7. Ridaura, V. K. et al. Science 34, 1241214 (2013). 8. Schéle, E. et al. Endocrinology 154, 3543–3551 (2013). 9. Wichmann, A. et al. Cell Host Microbe 14, 582–590 (2013). 10. Cani, P. D. et al. Diabetes 56, 1761–1772 (2007). 11. Everard, A. et al. Diabetes 60, 2775–2786 (2011). 12. Dewulf, E. M. et al. Gut 62, 1112–1121 (2013). 13. Liou, A. P. et al. Sci. Transl. Med. 27, 178ra41 (2013). Download references
Author information Affiliations Sarah DeWeerdt is a freelance science writer based in Seattle, Washington. Sarah Deweerdt Authors Search for Sarah Deweerdt in: Nature Research journals •
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Rights and permissions To obtain permission to re-use content from this article visit RightsLink.Moderate rebels in southern Syria are 'on the brink of war' with Al Nusra after the killing of a key commander from the powerful Shuhada Al Yarmouk Brigades, which is part of the Free Syrian Army, the western-affiliated rebel alliance.
Amman // A fragile truce was holding on Syria’s southern front on Tuesday after Jabhat Al Nusra killed a senior commander in a western-backed rebel group, accusing his faction of being sleeper agents for ISIL.
Mousab Ali Qarfan, who also went by the name Mousab Zaytouneh, was a leading figure in the powerful Shuhada Al Yarmouk Brigades. He was killed by the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra in Sahem El Golan, along with three other fighters from his group, on Monday.
The Yarmouk Brigades are part of the western-affiliated rebel alliance, still commonly referred to as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which have been supported by the Military Operations Command (MOC) in Amman.
According to opposition sources monitoring Al Nusra, and information published on social media by activists close to the Al Qaeda affiliate, senior Al Nusra commanders believed Zaytouneh was secretly in league with the extremist militant group ISIL.
The Yarmouk Brigades are headed by Mohammad Al Baridi, known as Al Khal. They operate in southern Syria, including suburbs of Damascus. The unit headed by Zaytouneh operates in the south-west region of Deraa province, near the borders with Jordan and Israel.
There have been persistent rumours in rebel circles that various FSA brigades have secretly aligned themselves with ISIL, although none have been publicly named.
Moderate rebel commanders on the southern front denied the allegations about Al Khal, some saying the killing was part of an effort by Al Nusra to weaken a strong moderate rebel front.
Others said the claims of an ISIL connection were part of a psychological warfare programme by forces loyal to President Bashar Al Assad, seeking to divide and weaken rebels as they make steady advances in the south.
Rebel commanders and activists in southern Syria said the situation was tense on Tuesday night, with fears moderate factions and Nusra were on the brink of war, fracturing what has been one of the most coherent fronts against Assad forces.
The House of Justice, a court set up with backing by both the FSA and Nusra, has managed to broker a temporary truce between the groups over the killing.
However, its likely effectiveness appears dubious after Nusra and another Islamic faction, Harakat Al Muthana, withdrew from the court – effectively collapsing the unified justice system they had so recently established – leaving only FSA-appointed judges.
Nonetheless, the House of Justice yesterday proposed an armed force of moderate rebels should act as a buffer zone between the Yarmouk Brigades and Nusra to prevent more violence, until the killing can be investigated by the court.
As part of that proposal, Al Nusra has been told to pull back from a checkpoint it currently controls. If it fails to do so, moderates backed by the House of Justice say they will force the Al Qaeda affiliate to move.
Events leading up to Zaytouneh’s death remain murky, although the raid appears to have been sparked after the Yarmouk Brigades detained of several Al Nusra members, including the wife of an Al Nusra fighter on Sunday, who were accused of being part of an assassination squad attempting to murder Zaytouneh.
Al Nusra demanded the detainees be freed. When the Yarmouk Brigades refused, Al Nusra and Harakat Al Muthana jointly launched the attack in which Zaytouneh was killed.
Intermittent clashes between Al Nusra and the Yarmouk Brigades had taken place around Sahem El Golan in recent days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights a group monitoring the conflict.
Sources involved with the House of Justice said those took place as Abu Maria Al Qahtani, an Iraqi and a senior figure in Al Nusra, demanded he be allowed to arrest and punish the Yarmouk Brigades commander Al Khal, and another of its senior officers, Qahtan Bani Yarrob.
Deraa Governorate Council, aligned with moderate rebel factions, urged Al Nusra and the Yarmouk Brigades to honour the ceasefire.
“We call on the brothers in Liwa Shuhada Al Yarmouk and the brothers in Jabhat Al Nusra to exercise self restraint and to refer their case to the court in Houran, in the House of Justice to achieve justice,” a statement released by the council said.
[email protected] the end of February, I arrived at the Fort Worth Federal Correctional Institution, where I’ll be serving the remainder of my five-year sentence, unless something unforeseen happens, like, say, the American people overthrow the federal government, release me from my cell, and declare me Dictator For Life of the Amalgamated Union of North American States. I’m not saying they should do that, mind you. It’s not for me to tell the American people what to do.
In some ways, this place promises to be far more exciting than the various jail units I’ve been calling home for the last couple of years. For instance, I’d been here a little over a month before certain elements within the prison administration began explicitly violating their own stated policies as well as U.S. law in an effort to disrupt my attempts to bring to public attention other instances of wrongdoing within the Bureau of Prisons in an incident that’s already made headlines and which now appears likely to end up in the courts later this year. So, that’s certainly exciting.
Before going into all that, I should probably explain something about the BOP as a whole. It is more likely than not that, in the history of mankind, there has never been an organization other than the Bureau of Prisons in which the high and noble ideals of technocratic reformers who decide on policy from afar are so often trampled underfoot by the low and beastly foot soldiers who are actually charged with carrying out these policies, with the obvious exception of the Democratic Party. This is not to say that the guards and mid-level administrators are all fascists or anything like that; I would put the figure at around 30 percent, which is not too far off from that of the adult population of the United States as a whole. But, as with the Republican Party, it is the fascists that so often end up setting the pace. (And on an unrelated subject, I can’t express how distressed I am, as a newly convicted felon, to have lost my right to vote.)
The above is an over-simplification, but, in my benevolence, I shall clarify a bit, as the nature of the BOP is such that it defies easy evaluation. One does not simply describe it all in one go; rather, one must circle around it a bit, taking little snapshots here and there until one can present it in all of its splendid angles. She is a coquette, but of no easy virtue. Contrary to what I put forth just a paragraph ago, for instance, it is often the bright-eyed policy wonks themselves who turn out to be misguided and overbearing, and the guards who serve as our protectors, shielding us from many of the burdensome and unnecessary little rules that officially govern our lives. In a typical BOP jail unit, each cell is afflicted with a vent that shoots out a never-ending stream of frigid air, thereby forcing inmates even in places like Texas to don heavy jackets in the middle of summer, at great cost to the taxpayer. Jail inmates are officially forbidden from covering up those vents, but if you ever happen to take a stroll through a jail unit, you’ll find every single vent is, in fact, blocked with some sort of makeshift cover. You won’t see this if you’re a prison administrator of the sort that makes monthly inspections of jail units, though, because just as prisoners conduct a collective and perpetual conspiracy by which to hide certain matters from the average guard, there are always a handful of matters that prisoners and guards conspire together to hide from the average administrator. And so in the hour before a scheduled inspection, the vent coverings come down, the fruit and milk that are not supposed to be in the cells are removed from the 90 percent of cells in which illicit fruit and unauthorized milk are kept, and the Potemkin jail unit is otherwise made ready for the useless and naïve administrators, who are quite correctly held in great contempt by inmates and officers alike.
Still, it is the sporadic and ever-shifting enforcement of petty regulations by the guards themselves that is most extraordinary. Back in the Seagoville Federal Detention Center, some officers had us return to our cells for 10 minutes after meals while the orderlies cleaned the floor around the tables; others merely relegated us to the top floor for the duration, while still others let us hang out wherever we liked during cleanup since we are sentient creatures who are plainly capable of keeping out of the way while someone sweeps the fucking floor.
There was similar diversity in schools of thought as to how long we should be confined to our cells before meals, and in what manner and grouping we should be let out to get our trays and eat. Some guards firmly believed that it was necessary for all 100 inmates to return to their cells, and for the guard to then lock each individual cell door behind us and then, five minutes later, to start unlocking those same doors one by one. (At this point there is additional variation, as some guards expect you to go eat as soon as your door is unlocked, while others expect you to remain confined in your now-unlocked cell until they call, “Chow!”) Likewise, some unlock only the bottom-floor cells and allow the inhabitants to eat while their top-floor counterparts remain confined, after which those who have eaten return to their cells to be locked back in before the top-tier cells are unlocked, and then, hey, why not have them return to their cells and lock them back in for another 20 or 30 minutes for good measure? One especially heroic specimen of an officer would let us out by the half-floor, thereby managing to double the time spent on all this. And then there was another fellow who didn’t have us go back to our cells before meals at all, but instead just yelled, “Chow!” and left us alone to eat like a reasonable human being. As such, the process of feeding inmates and cleaning up afterwards could take anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours, with there being a clear correlation between the duration and the extent to which the guard on duty was a toy fascist douchebag.
Indeed, a given federal detention facility is less a function of some universal array of procedures thought up by philosopher-bureaucrats in D.C. and more a sort of time-share fiefdom ruled over in turn by a succession of guards with a wide-ranging array of temperaments and psychological issues, which helps to keep things interesting. Again, using the Seagoville jail unit as an example, one officer forbade us from wearing our wool caps indoors, playing poker, or keeping items on our windowsills, regulations which were ignored by every other guard. Another wouldn’t let us stop and chat on the second-floor walkway. Still another forbade us to touch the second-floor handrail; yet another disallowed us from walking on the top floor for recreational purposes during such time as outside recreation was in effect, for reasons that I can only assume to be metaphysical in nature. Another guy rarely enforced any rules at all but would angrily tear down the strings we were in the habit of tying to the light switches outside our cell doors so as to be able to pull on the other end from inside our cells and thereby turn off our lights after being locked in for the night. A couple of others forbade us from removing our shirts on the rec yard. Some didn’t let us take leftover food back to our cells. One actually had us line up and give her our names and registration numbers so that she could check each of us off a list before allowing us to eat. Another forbade us to trot up and down the stairs for exercise; another didn’t allow us to do chin-ups on an exposed water pipe; one didn’t allow me to walk around the rec yard barefoot and evidently lacked the good breeding to at least make a show of pretending to believe my confused and half-mumbled explanation that I was only doing so for religious reasons; and another required us to walk clockwise to the stairway when he let us out for meals. As may be seen, we were not so much oppressed as harassed. And at any rate, many of these are indeed actual regulations that the guards are technically duty-bound to enforce rather than simply visible manifestations of their various emotional disorders (with the exception of the string-hating guard, whom I suspect to have been molested as a child by some unsavory heir to one of the nation’s twine fortunes).
But some of these are clearly not rules at all. What’s most striking is the selective enforcement by which the rules effectively change twice a day as the shifts change and in which the only element that remains consistent is that most rules are ignored altogether by staff and inmates alike; clearly there is an implicit agreement among these otherwise antagonistic groups that much of what the administrators come up with is unnecessary to the running of a safe and orderly prison. It also makes for a handy lesson as to how the rule of law upon which rests the lawful authority of state institutions is actually a fiction even aside from being counterproductive — as if any more such lessons were needed in a republic wherein the citizenry has gradually made criminals of about a quarter of its own adult population via drug, prostitution, and gambling statutes, and in which our continued survival above the level of a continent-wide gulag is thus entirely dependent on the state’s inability to enforce its own laws. But then, it’s certainly not my intention to criticize the noble American people, who will find themselves well-rewarded should they indeed decide to overthrow the current regime and make me their humble Dictator For Life. Not that I am putting myself forward as a candidate at this time. I just want the American people to be aware of their options. The office seeks the man.
And what of these administrators themselves? As with the guards and other government employees the world over, many are largely decent people trying to draw forth positive outcomes from what they recognize to be a deeply flawed system, whereas some are fools and others are knaves, and of course these three categories are not without some overlap. The mindset of the typical BOP administrator may perhaps be best illustrated by a review of the signs that befoul our prison walls. This is just as well; like the 17th-century Japanese nobleman who was delighted to find a broken leaf hanging at such an angle as to evoke some exquisite reflection, I am never really happy unless I am mulling over the sort of demented and quasi-literate nonsense that the typical 21st-century mid-level state functionary puts out when called upon to try to write something, which is why I was so thrilled by the NSA document leaks. Here at FCI Fort Worth, I have got my work cut out for me. Some examples follow. I’ll provide commentary where appropriate, but keep your eye out for such characteristic features as unwarranted belligerence, vague thrusts in the direction of accepted English grammar, and the use of overly formal terminology in the midst of sentences that are themselves broken beyond reasonable hope of repair.
“Beds are to be made military style, blankets tight on top with a 6” collar. A photo of a properly made bed is posted on the bulletin board. Classes will be given by the unit counselor on an as-needed basis one pillow per bed.”
Even setting aside the idea, so inherently totalitarian as to actually be kind of charming, that anyone ought to be required to fold one’s bed sheets within an inch-based margin of error, as if one were building the Ark of the Covenant and not simply arranging linen, and that this rule is so utterly necessary that a course of instruction should actually be made available to ensure compliance, and also setting aside the question of where the prison keeps the cryogenically frozen Nazi storm trooper who is presumably thawed out now and again to help the unit counselor teach such a class, I really like how the author of this deranged micro-treatise believes that, if a somewhat related sentence fragment happens to pop into his fevered little head, such as something to do with federal pillow quotas, it would be entirely appropriate to just throw it in at the end of whatever sentence he happens to be writing at the moment.
Here’s another one that begins reasonably enough by noting that one may check out clothing irons and related accessories by exchanging one’s ID card for them at an officer’s station, and then promptly descends into poorly phrased madness:
“Any of the above-noted items that are found in possession of an inmate without an ID card checked out, will be confiscated and subject to disciplinary procedures.”
As an actual American citizen who has spent a total of two months in the hole, I’d hate to see how the BOP goes about punishing a mere iron. Note also the flailing attempt to express the really very simple concept of “items that have not been properly checked out with one’s ID card.”
“Prior to releasing, turn your chair into staff.”
Well, I’m not much of a craftsman, but I’ll give it a go.
“There are no unauthorized hooks behind the door or on the walls and they must be removed immediately.”
The English language provides for countless ways by which one might properly convey the intended idea here, yet this sub-human somehow manages to choose one that fails on its own terms.
“ONE FAN, ONE PICTURE, AND ONE BOOK MAY BE PLACED ON YOUR TABLE, ALL OTHER ITEMS NEED TO BE PLACED IN YOUR LOCKER.”
This is actually relatively cogent, aside from the inevitable deployment of a comma where we might have prayed in vain for a period or a semicolon, and is only included here due to the amusingly unfortunate superficial resemblance of the initial clause to the old National Socialist tag “EIN REICH, EIN VOLK, EIN FUHRER!” At any rate, I’m not one of those lucky-ducky inmates who has their own “table,” by which this “person” seems to have been trying to convey “desk,” since that’s what some of us actually have, so I’m not confronted each day with the quandary regarding which picture to place on my desk for authorized picture-viewing sessions during federally sanctioned picture-viewing time or whatever the fuck was going through this war criminal’s diseased mind when he typed out this terrible nonsense.
“Two sets of clothes ironed and ONE coat is permitted to be neatly hung on hangers on your locker only.”
Four words into his latest masterwork, this guy apparently decides that English is, in fact, a romance language in which adjectives follow their subjects but at least refrains from taking this to its logical conclusion in ascribing gender to inanimate objects as in: “Zee coat, she must be well-pressed or you go to zee hole, yes?” Which I find kind of disappointing for some reason.
“Rooms will be of white paint only; no limes or other schematics. No arranging the rooms, all room must be uniformed.”
I stop by and read this sign at least five or six times a day, and it always make me smile. It’s not quite as good as the one about how we must remove the hooks from the walls that aren’t on the walls, but it has a certain subtlety all its own.
Anyway, that’s the mid-level BOP administrators for you. As for the upper-level honchos such as the wardens and D.C. appointees, we’ll have a chance to learn how they operate soon enough; on March 31, right after I used the inmate email system to get a journalist in touch with another prisoner who has information about BOP wrongdoing, my email access was taken away for a year without the written explanation that we’re supposed to receive in such an event. An internal security official who I asked about this claimed that I “wasn’t supposed to have it in the first place” and that a review of my recent messages showed that, by using it to talk to the press, I’d been “using it for the wrong thing.” A few days later, the prisoner I’d mentioned in the email had the typewriter he’d been permitted to keep in his cell taken away. As there are a half-dozen ways in which all of this violates both the BOP’s own policy and federal law, I have begun what’s known as the Administrative Remedy process, each documented step of which I will publish, along with the responses I receive as each step takes me up the chain of command to D.C. Naturally, I will provide additional commentary on their responses as needed, sort of like I’ve done with these signs.
***
Song Lyric of the Day:
“Her name is Aphrodite
And she rides a crimson shell!”
—Cream, “Tales of Brave Ulysses”
***
Editor’s note: Barrett Brown has been incarcerated since September 2012. Go here to read earlier installments of “The Barrett Brown Review of Arts and Letters and Jail.” If you’d like to send him a book, here’s his Amazon wish list.
Barrett Brown #45047-177
FCI Fort Worth
P.O. Box 15330
Fort Worth, TX 76119The UK Ministry of Defence began a campaign in 2008 to release all of their UFO files, a process which supposedly had come to an end in June, 2013. However, in a response to a letter inquiring about specific UFO files, the MOD says it is treating the letter as a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and as such has found the documents in question and will be releasing them. The FOI response says the files are being prepared to be released to The National Archives (TNA) of the UK, a process which may take 9 months.
The FOI response was released on September 16 as part of a weekly posting on the Ministry of Defence website listing FOI responses of the week. The document is titled, “Whether documents titled ‘UFO policy’ and 3 other documents still exist and if so are they still ‘classified’.”
Only an excerpt of the original letter to the MOD is included, and states the request as:
whether documents covering the period 1971-76 and 1996-2000 titled ‘UFO policy’ and three other documents covering the periods June-Dec 2000, Dec 2000-Mar 2004 and March 2004 exist, and if so are they still ‘classified’.
The FOI response outlines that the documents were found and that they will be released to the TNA, making them available in about 9 months. The document also includes a table of the 18 documents to be released. They include several documents titled “Air Traffic Control Low Flying UFOs,” several others titled “ADGE UFO Reports.” and then, among others, the specific files requested.
The name of the person who made the request is redacted, so it is unknown who or why the request was made. Or perhaps more importantly, how the requester knew to ask for these particular files.
Of even more concern to UFO researchers is why these files were not included with the UFO files already released. If a simple FOIA request results in the discovery of more UFO files, it begs the question, how many more files does the MOD have? Furthermore, this demonstrates that the MOD was either mistaken or dishonest when they claimed to have already released all of their UFO files.
Nick Pope, former UFO investigator for the MOD, told the Daily Star, “This is a huge embarrassment for the MoD and will have UFO enthusiasts up in arms.”
Pope continued, “When the government said that all its UFO files had been released, conspiracy theorists didn’t believe everything had been made public and it turns out they were right.”
As for the files themselves, Pope says, “The 18 files include ones from RAF radar specialists and from the ultra-secretive Defence Intelligence Staff, so there may be some fascinating revelations still to come.”
The MOD FOI response can be downloaded here.
Popular Posts:The White House is making it more difficult for groups of citizens to petition the government.
Yesterday, they announced that they’re raising the signature threshold for responding to petitions from 25,000 to over 100,000 signatures within 30 days.
Apparently, too many complaints (petitions) are reaching the previous threshold too quickly for them to respond adequately.
The White House writes:
As we’ve seen overall use skyrocket, more petitions are crossing the threshold — and doing so much more quickly.
In the first 10 months of 2012, it took an average of 18 days for a new petition to cross the 25,000-signature threshold. In the last two months of the year, that average time was cut in half to just 9 days, and most petitions that crossed the threshold collected 25,000 signatures within five days of their creation. More than 60 percent of the petitions to cross threshold in all of 2012 did so in the last two months of the year.
The White House called the increase in participation a “good problem” to have.
Turns out that ‘good problem’ is only getting better, so we’re making another adjustment to ensure we’re able to continue to give the most popular ideas the time they deserve.
The White House included a nifty infographic to illustrate the announcement:
Read other articles by Activist Post Here
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of spanking on child behavioral and cognitive development in a longitudinal sample from birth through 9 years of age.
What’s Known on This Subject: A large and growing literature has demonstrated significant associations between the use of spanking and later child aggression, but we know less about paternal spanking, effects of spanking on cognitive development, and longer-term effects.
What This Study Adds: Accounting for a broad array of risk factors, spanking predicts both aggression and receptive vocabulary across the first decade of life. Importantly, we include paternal spanking, cognitive outcomes, and a longitudinal span longer than that of much of the literature.
Corporal punishment remains a widely endorsed parenting tool in US families,1,2 and the United States stands out as one of the few high-income countries that have not followed Sweden’s lead in banning spanking.3 This is despite the warnings of the American Academy of Pediatrics about the potentially deleterious effects of spanking and recommendations for families to use other methods of discipline.4 The use of spanking is highest for preschoolers and school-age children, but even in the first year of life recent evidence finds 11%5 to 15%6 of children spanked and as many as 34% of 1-year-old children in impoverished families in the Early Head Start National Research and Evaluation Project.7 In a seminal meta-analysis of 88 studies, Gershoff2 demonstrated an association between corporal punishment and 10 of the 11 child outcomes examined across childhood. In particular, a large and growing literature points toward an association between spanking and higher levels of aggression among children.2,7–13 However, there remain some limitations in the research to date.14,15 First, few studies have used longitudinal samples to address the temporal sequencing of spanking and child outcomes.8 Second, analysts have called for greater inclusion of measures of stress and socioeconomic variables, especially in light of mixed results on the extent to which characteristics of parents, such as race or ethnicity, moderate the relationship between spanking and child aggression. Third, almost all studies have focused on maternal spanking to the exclusion of paternal spanking, which limits our capacity to understand whether parents are making differential decisions on corporal punishment and whether their spanking may be having differential effects on child outcomes. To the extent that mothers spend more time with children and are typically the primary caregivers, we might expect maternal spanking to be more strongly associated with behavioral outcomes. A fourth limitation is that much of the focus in the literature has been on child aggressive behavior, whereas cognitive developmental outcomes have received less attention.16–18 Two studies have examined spanking and cognitive outcomes prospectively but only in very young children. Berlin et al7 found links between spanking and early child Bayley scores in a large sample of low-income preschoolers and toddlers, and MacKenzie et al10 found evidence of associations between early spanking and lower child vocabulary scores at age 5. In this study, we analyze the links between maternal and paternal spanking and child behavioral and cognitive development, taking advantage of a longitudinal data set that follows a large and diverse sample of children from birth through 9 years of age, a wider time span than has been typically examined to date. The data set is extremely rich, allowing us to control for many possible confounds in family characteristics and risks with the potential to affect parenting stress and family functioning. Unusually for this topic, we are able to include data on paternal as well as maternal spanking in a longitudinal analysis. And we go beyond most previous studies in examining cognitive development as well as aggression.
Methods Data and Analysis Strategy We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being (FFCW) Study.19 FFCW is a longitudinal birth cohort study of ∼4200 children drawn from 20 US cities and representative of children born between 1998 and 2000 in medium to large US cities. FFCW placed special emphasis on tracking both mothers and fathers, and therefore we have data on both maternal and paternal spanking practices. We use the data from FFCW to analyze the association between spanking at age 3 and 5 and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) externalizing behavior and receptive vocabulary scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) at 9 years of age. Our analytic sample is limited to families in which there were valid responses on the key variables from these interviews including the outcome variables, and the use of a control variable for father absent in all regression models allowed us to maintain the full analytic sample and avoid dropping children whose fathers may have been absent at any 1 time. The resultant sample included 1933 families for the child externalizing behavior analyses and a subsample of 1532 families for the PPVT analyses. The families in our analytic sample do differ from the total FFCW study sample in some respects. For example, the families in the analytic samples were less likely to have babies with a low birth weight, and the child was less likely to be the mother’s first. Based on this comparison, the families making up the analytic sample have more resources in general and appear more stable at baseline than the rest of the FFCW sample. Nevertheless, as shown in the descriptive statistics in Table 1, they remain a fairly disadvantaged urban sample. TABLE 1 Descriptive Statistics for Sample From the FFCW Measures Maternal and Paternal Spanking Spanking was measured by a question asked of the mother and the father at the age 3 and 5 assessments regarding frequency of spanking in the past month because child was misbehaving or acting up. Specifically, the mother was asked, “In the past month, have you spanked (child) because (he/she) was misbehaving or acting up?” The parent’s responses were coded as no spanking in the past month, spanking once a week or less, and spanking twice or more each week. Child Externalizing Behavior The externalizing behavior scores at age 3 and age 9 drew on items asked of the mother from Achenbach and Rescorla’s20 CBCL. At age 9, the externalizing measure drew on 35 items that make up the aggression and rule-breaking subscales in the CBCL. At age 3, the measure was based on 24 items from the in-home interview, including the 19-item aggression subscale and the 5 unique items from the destructive subscale not included in the aggression subscale. Child Receptive Vocabulary The PPVT was available in the data set at multiple time points and is a well validated and widely used measure of child receptive verbal capacity, crucial to understanding an area of cognitive development associated with parenting behavior, and it has been standardized against a national sample of children based on age as a measure of receptive vocabulary.21 The mean PPVT score was 86.4 (SD = 16.4) at age 3 and 93.2 at age 9 (SD = 14.4). Child-Level Control Variables Five child-level demographic variables were included in the models: gender, age in months, low birth weight indicator (<2500 g), if child was first born, and mother’s report about the infant’s temperament assessed at age 1. The temperament measure used 3 items rated on a 5-point scale (“not at all” to “very much”): whether the child often fusses or cries, is easily upset, and reacts strongly when upset. The responses are summed to derive 1 score (range 3–15, with 15 indicating a highly difficult temperament), and the measure has been used to predict earlier spanking behavior in this data set.10 Table 1 provides descriptive statistics for all controls. Maternal and Family Characteristics The next set of controls focus on maternal and family characteristics that are key to understanding the potential risk and protective factors in the child’s environment. These include a continuous variable for the mother’s age at the time of the birth (in years); the family marital structure over the 9-year period, from baseline to the age 9 phone interview; the mother’s racial or ethnic affiliation (these include white, non-Hispanic; black, non-Hispanic; Hispanic; and other, comprising Asian Pacific Islander and American Indian); the mother’s level of education at baseline; household income-to-needs ratio at baseline (ie, the household’s annual income divided by the relevant family size poverty line level); maternal foreign-born status; a dummy variable for whether the mother reported living with both her parents when she herself was 15 years of age; whether the mother was employed in the week before the age 9 phone interview; the number of other adults living in the household at age 9; and the number of other children living in the household at 9 years of age. Prenatal Risks Four variables measure factors from the prenatal period: late onset of prenatal care (if care was initiated after the first trimester or not initiated at all), risky health behavior (if the mother reported either smoking, taking any drugs, or moderate to heavy alcohol use during pregnancy), whether the mother reported intimate partner violence (IPV) at the hands of the father before the child’s birth, and mother’s rating of the birth father’s supportiveness during pregnancy based on 4 questions. Maternal Risk Factors The next 4 control variables capture factors reported by the mother that may be associated with increased risk for both maternal spanking and child developmental problems. Mother’s parenting stress at age 5 was measured by using a 16-point scale based on 4 items from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics–Child Development Supplement’s Aggravation in Parenting Scale.22 Items are measured on a 4-point scale ascertaining the extent to which the mother agrees that being a parent is harder than she expected, she feels trapped by her responsibilities as a parent, she finds taking care of her children much more work than pleasure, and she often feels tired, worn out, or exhausted from raising a family. The scale is coded such that a higher score indicates lower levels of parental stress, and it has been shown to predict harsh parenting of preschoolers in this data set.10 Mother’s mental health risk was assessed by symptoms indicating depression or generalized anxiety disorder at any of the interviews where these concerns were included. At age 1 and 3, items assessing both depression and anxiety were included, whereas at ages 5 and 9, the interviews contained only items pertaining to depression. Maternal depressive symptoms are measured using an 8-point scale drawn from the Composite International Diagnostic Interview–Short Form (CIDI-SF)23 and scored by assigning 1 point for each affirmative response. The CIDI-SF depression measure has been widely used in previous research and can be coded as a dichotomous measure of major depression “caseness” for scores of 3 or higher. Mothers’ symptoms of anxiety are measured by using the CIDI-SF for generalized anxiety disorder.24 The stem conditions coupled with affirmative responses on at least 3 physiologic symptoms result in the respondent being coded with potential generalized anxiety disorder.25 Finally, we create a single summary mental health flag variable, which we set to 1 if the mother is identified as potentially suffering from either depression or anxiety at any point in time, and 0 otherwise. Mother’s impulsivity was based on 2 questions asked in the age 5 phone interview about whether she often says or does things without considering the consequences and whether she often gets in trouble for acting before thinking.26 The response options use a 4-point scale, with a resulting score range from 2 to 8, where the higher the score, the less impulsive is the mother. Mother’s cognitive level is based on a modified version of the Similarities subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Subscale–Revised (WAIS-R) administered to the mother at year 3. This subtest asks the respondent to identify how 2 objects or concepts are comparable. The values of the modified subscale for the mother range from 0 (lowest functioning) to 15 (highest functioning). The final variable in this group is the measure of mother’s frequency of potentially cognitively stimulating activities with the child at age 1. Specifically, the age 1 phone interview includes items asking the mother how many days a week she played peek-a-boo with her child, sang songs or nursery rhymes to her child, and read to her child. The positive parenting score reflects the average of the mother’s responses to these items. The values, then, range from 0 (the mother reports never doing any of these things with her child) to 7 (the mother reports doing all of these things every day with her child).
Results Prevalence of Maternal and Paternal Spanking at Age 3 and 5 As shown in Table 1, use of any spanking in the past month decreased from age 3 to age 5. At age 3, 57% of children were spanked by their mother and 40% by their father. By age 5, maternal spanking rates were 52% (with 5.5% spanking ≥2 times a week and 46% <2 times a week). At age 5, 33% of fathers reported spanking (with 3% in the more frequent group and 30.2% less than twice per week). Association Between Parental Spanking and Subsequent Child Externalizing Problems Table 2 displays the results of a series of 4 progressively more complex multivariate regression models predicting child externalizing behavior problems at age 9. In Model 1, high-frequency maternal spanking (≥2 times a week) at age 3 and 5 and less frequent maternal spanking (<2 times a week) at age 5 were associated with significantly higher levels of externalizing behavior at age 9 (as compared with the reference category of no spanking). Paternal spanking of any frequency at age 3 and 5 and maternal low-frequency spanking at age 3 were not significantly associated with externalizing at age 9. TABLE 2 Effect of Parental Spanking on Child’s Externalizing CBCL Scores at Age 9 In Model 2 we added child characteristics including child gender, age in months at the year 9 assessment, if the child was low birth weight, birth order, and child temperament at age 1 as well as indicators of family sociodemographics and risk behaviors. Although the same maternal spanking variables continued to be significant predictors of later externalizing behavior, we can begin to see the predictive power being somewhat diminished by the addition of controls, such as child gender and early temperament, which were significant predictors of age 9 externalizing (for full results including coefficients for the control variables, see Supplemental Table 4). In Model 3, additional controls were added to the variables from Model 2, including measures of maternal functioning and well-being, including parental stress, indication of depression or anxiety over the past 9 years, mother’s impulsivity, and mother’s cognitive capacity. Maternal high- and low-frequency spanking at age 5 remained as significant predictors of later externalizing behavior in Model 3, but maternal low-frequency spanking at age 3 no longer significantly predicted externalizing behavior at age 9. Finally, Model 4 built on Model 3 to add in an important control of earlier child externalizing behavior at age 3, which was, as expected, a significant predictor of later externalizing behavior at age 9, indicating continuity in child behavior. Despite the addition of this control to the existing broad battery of variables, however, both high- and low-frequency maternal spanking at age 5 remained significant predictors of greater externalizing problems at age 9. Association Between Parental Spanking and Child Receptive Language Development Table 3 displays the results of the multivariate regressions, with spanking predicting child receptive language capacity as assessed by the PPVT at age 9 (for full results including coefficients for all control variables, see Supplemental Table 5). In Model 1, only high-frequency paternal spanking at age 5 was significantly associated with lower PPVT scores at age 9. In Model 2, after controls were added for the child characteristics and family sociodemographic variables, high-frequency paternal spanking at age 5 continued to significantly predict later reduced PPVT scores. Similarly, in Model 3, even with the addition of the control for maternal cognitive capacity (WAIS-R Similarities score), high-frequency paternal spanking continued to be a more powerful predictor of later PPVT scores. Model 4 added in the final controls of child externalizing behavior and PPVT score at age 3, which as expected were both significant predictors of age 9 PPVT performance. Here we see a decrease in the estimated effect of high-frequency paternal spanking, but it continued to be marginally significant (P <.07). TABLE 3 Effects of Parental Spanking on Child’s Standardized PPVT Score at Age 9 Interaction Results In data not shown but available upon request, we tested a series of interactions in the models for both externalizing and PPVT scores, including spanking by gender and, importantly, spanking by race or ethnicity. Although gender and race or ethnicity were significant predictors of the outcomes, we did not find that they significantly moderated the association between spanking and later externalizing or receptive verbal ability.
Discussion These results provide additional evidence as to the prevalence of spanking among US families and the effects on child behavioral and cognitive development. Our analysis is distinctive in the breadth of control variables included in the analysis, drawing on a transactional perspective in conceptualizing how stressors and risks in the family and environment affect parental disciplinary practices and the risk for poor child outcomes.10,11,27 The current analysis also builds on recent work that has moved to improve our understanding of the antecedents and sequelae associated with paternal spanking in addition to maternal spanking.10,28–30 Our most fully specified regression model indicates that age 5 maternal spanking, at both low and high frequency, is a significant predictor of higher downstream age 9 externalizing behavior, even after an extensive set of child and family characteristics were controlled for, including earlier externalizing behavior and father spanking. The extensive set of covariates we were able to include in this model increases our confidence that this association is indicative of an effect of spanking on child behavior rather than simply a spurious correlation. One remaining limitation in the current study, however, is that we rely on maternal report of child externalizing behavior, which does not allow us to rule out the possibility that negative perceptions of the child have the potential to influence both the decision to spank and maternal ratings of child externalizing behavior. Three factors give us reason to believe this limitation was not a major factor in the data. First, the CBCL asks about specific child behaviors rather than just overall impressions of the child that would be more susceptible to bias from negative parental perceptions. Second, the effects in the broader spanking literature, which also suffer from this limitation, seem focused on externalizing behavior and not on a broader array of behaviors reported on by mothers, so if this were simply negative perceptions carrying the weight, we would not expect the associations with spanking to be domain specific. And finally, our results are in keeping with the recent findings of Gershoff et al,11 who used teacher reports of child behavioral problems. Building on recent work by MacKenzie et al10 on associations between spanking and lower receptive vocabulary in the preschool period, we also find evidence of an effect of paternal spanking at age 5 on the development of child verbal capacity at age 9, as measured by the PPVT. This is an important finding because fewer studies have examined cognitive outcomes,16 and it raises questions for future work, including whether spanking is having a direct effect on cognitive development through stress, trauma, and other physiologic or neural processes, or whether spanking is simply an indirect proxy for other unmeasured parenting practices that negatively affect cognitive development. However, our inclusion of controls such as maternal depression, maternal intelligence, and observations of cognitive stimulation in the home environment during earlier home visits gives us some confidence that these are in part direct effects that cannot be simply explained away as spanking families being also less likely to speak to or engage their child in ways important for cognitive development. These findings on the importance of paternal spanking to cognitive outcomes in middle childhood stand in contrast to work in the preschool period, where maternal spanking was associated with reduced receptive vocabulary,10 perhaps speaking to differential parent effects across periods of child development. Replication and additional examination of this association in future work will be important, as will attempts to better understand why the spanking behavior of mothers and fathers may be having differential impacts on child receptive vocabulary in different developmental periods. One unresolved question in the literature is whether the effects of spanking on child development are similar or different across groups. In line with some recent work,7,10,11 our analysis of interactions did not find a significant moderating role for race or ethnicity and gender. This result suggests that the adverse developmental consequences of spanking are not confined to particular groups of children. And although our models had controls for both family structure and the number of other adults in the home, we were not able to address the potential roles the disciplinary practices of other adult caregivers in the home (eg, grandparents, other extended family members) may have played in these developmental outcomes. This would be an important area for future exploration.
Conclusions These results represent a strong test of the links between spanking and a child’s aggressive behavior and vocabulary, using prospective longitudinal models controlling for a number of family, child, and parent variables and earlier child aggression and vocabulary. We add novel information about the role of fathers’ spanking and add to an emerging literature on the effect of spanking on cognitive outcomes. Future work should focus on providing families a clearer picture of the outcomes associated with spanking and more information about what discipline practices may have the desired effect on improving functioning, so that they can move beyond punishment practices to the incorporation of positive parenting behaviors with the potential to encourage healthy child trajectories.Smart lighting systems like Philips Hue are futuristic and awesome and, typically, expensive. But IKEA wants to offer this type of technology to the masses. The Swedish flatpack furniture empire is developing an entire smart home system, and it looks futuristic and awesome and, you guessed it, cheap.
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. IKEA’s been inching into the home electronics business very deliberately, and it’s only natural that it would want to upend the burgeoning smart home market. Creating with a connected lightbulb system makes good sense. We already saw IKEA’s affordable, motorized sit/stand desk last fall. Then, came IKEA’s versatile and customizable wireless charging system that hit stores this spring. But next fall, the so-called Home Smart II Lighting Collection will take things to a new level.
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Note: IKEA flew me to Sweden to check out its future products. They put me up in the IKEA Hotel, paid for my meals, and bought me a few glasses of wine. I also got a free tote bag, but I gave it to a friend.
At least, IKEA says it’s going to do this. I recently visited IKEA’s headquarters in Älmhult, where the company was showing off all kinds of new goodies, from vegetarian meatballs to couches made out of paper. At an event that I can only describe as a science fair for furniture, I learned a little bit about how the new lighting system will work. Since I didn’t test the products themselves, I’ll offer you IKEA’s description of the system, which is being developed in collaboration with Frog Design:
IKEA will offer home furnishing light kits that enable people to personalize their homes and create a sense of safety and wellbeing. For example, bedside lamps can imitate the sunrise while coffee is automatically brewed and different modes can be optimised to support each family throughout the home using wall switches or a smartphone app. All without any wiring or the need to call an electrician.
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And IKEA promises that it will be cheap—as cheap as possible. “Let’s create smart solutions that make everyday life at home easier,” Björn Block, the head of liking and IKEA Home Smart, said in a statement. “And let’s create these solutions [at] prices so low that as many people as possible can afford them.”
That’s a lofty promise! Once again, I have not touched this lighting system or basked in its life-improving light. But above is a sketch of what the system will look like. It’s dead simple. A connected, color-changing LED bulb and a switch. Here’s a grainy scan of some internal marketing materials:
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The switch is actually more like a remote, and like the IKEA statement says, the system can be personalized. It will be so personalized that, when you carry the remote into a room, the lights automatically adjusts to your preferences. There will also be a mobile app that could presumably perform even more functions than the remote. The whole system is designed to require no set up beyond screwing in the light bulbs
It honestly sounds too good to be true. IKEA offered more details about the Home Smart II Lighting Collection on a poster at the funny furniture science fair. One blurb read:
The mobile application and the physical products work seamlessly helping users personalize their spaces. Out of the box users can customize their lights by switching scenes and adjusting brightness. With a few additional taps they can customize and save personal scenes with colors and automated settings like vacation mode which would automatically turn on light.
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But wait there’s more:
Where the switch is everyday use, the application is what unlocks a new level of creating atmosphere with light, personalization, and safety. Users can create customer [sic] lighting scenes in their rooms, set up the lights to turn on automatically when they are away from the house, and create automatic sequences across their house when they wake up, or go to sleep.
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So that’s basically the definition of a smart home. Except instead of requiring a stupid hub that takes up space and tends to break, all of the brains are in the bulb. Or at least, that’s what IKEA is promising.
Obviously, we won’t know how well the Home Smart II Lighting Collection until we try it. We also won’t know how cheap it will be until IKEA official announces the product and price. What I do know is that this sounds like an amazingly easy and impressively versatile start to a smart home system for the masses. Since IKEA also makes appliances, you can imagine how that smart home could grow.
IKEA’s tagline for this initiative, by the way, is “The internet of better things.”
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So when do we get that IKEA smart TV? Probably never. One IKEA executive told me that IKEA wasn’t interested in making gadgets, but the company is looking to expand its offerings in home electronics. I’m not really sure what that means, but IKEA’s futuristic concept kitchen does provide some clues. Once again, none of these products are actually on the market yet, so we’ll have to wait and see if the company can pull it off.
IKEA wouldn’t provide me with any photos of the new lighting kit, but I took a few photos of the promotional posters. They’re a little blurry, but you get the point. IKEA’s getting in the smart home game, like everyone else. But, IKEA being IKEA, the company stands to change the game in dramatic fashion.
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All photos of photos by Adam Clark Estes
Contact the author at [email protected].
Public PGP key
PGP fingerprint: 91CF B387 7B38 148C DDD6 38D2 6CBC 1E46 1DBF 22Diagram of the reusable SABRE engine, which employs a revolutionary heat exchanger to chill incoming air dramatically before it is fed to the engines.
Within the next year, the U.S. Air Force plans to unveil novel spacecraft concepts that would be powered by a potentially revolutionary reusable engine designed for a private space plane.
Since January 2014, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has been developing hypersonic vehicle concepts that use the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE), which was invented by England-based Reaction Engines Ltd. and would propel the company's Skylon space plane.
In April 2015, Reaction Engines announced that an AFRL study had concluded that SABRE is feasible. And AFRL is bullish on the technology; the lab will reveal two-stage-to-orbit SABRE-based concepts either this September, at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' (AIAA) SPACE 2016 conference in Long Beach, California, or in March 2017, at the 21st AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference in China, said AFRL Aerospace Systems Directorate Aerospace Engineer Barry Hellman. [The Skylon Space Plane in Pictures]
The key SABRE technologies that AFRL, based in Ohio, will start work on later this year, and possibly fly in the future, are related to the engine's precooler. This device precools the air entering the engine at speeds greater than four times the speed of sound (Mach 4). SABRE's precooler will cool such air from more than 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius) down to minus 238 F (minus 150 C) in one one-hundredth of a second. The oxygen in the chilled air will become liquid in the process.
The British company Reaction Engines Ltd. hopes to manufacture Skylon, a runway-to-orbit space plane using hybrid air-breathing rocket engines. See how Skylon works in our full infographic (Image: © by Karl Tate, Infographics artist)
The AFRL precooler test program, which is called Durable Pre-cooling Heat Exchangers for High Mach Flight, consists of three phases, the last of which could involve test flights, according to an AFRL description. But AFRL officials told Space.com that there are no specific plans at this time for flight tests.
Applications for the program had to be submitted by companies by Feb. 17. No budgetary information is available, and Reaction Engines could not confirm that it will participate. The program's first two phases will replicate, in the United States, the precooler testing that Reaction Engines has already carried out at its own facility in Abingdon, England.
SABRE and the Skylon space plane were invented by Alan Bond and his team of engineers at Reaction Engines. Bond now works three days a week for the company in a chief scientist/chief engineer role.
Two SABREs will power Skylon — a privately funded, single-stage-to-orbit concept vehicle that is 276 feet (84 meters) long. At takeoff, the plane will weigh about 303 tons (275,000 kilograms). AFRL officials told Space.com that it views a single-stage-to-orbit Skylon space plane as "technically very risky as a first application [of SABRE]," and this is why the lab is developing two-stage-to-orbit concepts.
SABRE burns hydrogen and oxygen. It acts like a jet engine in Earth's thick lower atmosphere, taking in oxygen to combust with onboard liquid hydrogen. When SABRE reaches an altitude of 16 miles (26 kilometers) and five times the speed of sound (Mach 5), however, it switches over to Skylon's onboard liquid-oxygen tank to reach orbit. (Hypersonic flight is generally defined as anything that reaches at least Mach 5.)
Reaction Engines is planning to have a ground-test SABRE engine ready by the end of the decade. However, Jeremy Nickless, the firm's marketing and communication executive, distanced the company from the milestones described to Space.com previously.
Nickless did confirm that Reaction Engines has raised more than 30 million pounds sterling ($41.9 million at current exchange rates) in private funding. In November 2015, United Kingdom defense contractor BAE Systems, which has 37,000 employees in the U.S., invested 20.6 million pounds ($28.8 million) in Reaction Engines for a 20 percent stake in the company.
The AFRL cooperation with Reaction Engines is continuing under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement that was announced in January 2014.
Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office Austin Misiak, 28, is charged with lewd exhibition and assault.
He dove into trouble.
Austin Misiak was allegedly having sex with an unnamed woman in a community pool when observers asked him to stop and reminded him that kids were present.
Misiak, 28, flew into a rage and began chasing children while trying to hit them, the Okaloosa Sheriff's Office says.
But he eventually got decked. A 15-year-old defending his girlfriend punched him twice.
The drama unfolded Saturday evening at an apartment complex in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Misiak, said to be drunk in the arrest report, then began yelling at a man "for no reason." The man walked away out of fear he was going to be struck, the report says. Then the 6-1, 220-pound Misiak turned his attention toward a 15-year-old girl who told him to stop chasing the children.
Misiak appeared ready to attack her when the girl's boyfriend, also 15, stepped in and punched Misiak twice, according to the report.
Misiak was charged with felony lewd exhibition and misdemeanor assault.Creative Computer Graphics (1984)
Some original material here, as scanned from ‘Creative Computer Graphics’ (Cambridge University Press, 1984) this one I came across whilst searching through the Google Books archives, and intrigued I decided to order a hard copy. Google Books by the was is well worth a look, countless printed publications are logged and categorized dating from recent to way back. Most modern titles are subject to copyright so show just a selection of internal pages, but this is plenty to gain a flavour and if you have 10 mins to burn, I highly recommend a trawl through.
Above: A still from The Last Starfighter (1984) this ‘Gunstar’ model is comprised of almost 400,000 Polygons, this was four times more than had ever been attempted with any other computer generated model and each frame took 5 minutes or more to render on the most powerful computer available, a Cray X-MP.
So a little more about ‘Creative Computer Graphics’, this was then, I presume, one of the definitive coffee table books of the day, it’s easy to imagine it having pride of place in a mid 80’s Pixar studio, or Graphics Group as they were then known. Bound inside are 144 glossy pages chronologically charting the rise of computer graphics technology from the tentative first steps of the 1950’s right through to the early 80’s. The book contains some wonderful imagery (often horrendously crude), and in addition there’s some very insightful reading on early computer graphic pioneers like John Whitney and Jim Blinn, it’s definitely worth a look. Here then is a snapshot of that zeitgeist…
Above: Wireframe skeleton for an aircraft on Evans & Sutherland’s original picture system, an F15 Eagle I think? anyway great colours indicating the various sections of fuselage. This is of course something that could be pulled from any modeling program today, but back in 1984, this was the bleeding edge.
Above: A image developed for the 1983 David Cronenberg film Videodrome, a body shock horror (does he do any other?). It’s a long time since I’ve seen the movie, so I can’t say I remember this, the garish factor is obviously through the roof, and whilst undoubtedly somewhat vulgar there is something enticing here. One thing is for sure, it’s so very, very eighties.
Above: A nearly-solid wireframe image of a satellite in high orbit above Oceania, the density of the wireframe gives the Illusion of a sold surface.
Above: A still from an animation designed at Montreal University, this is a simulation of a collision, in fact, the scattered debris of a Chevrolet Corvette…
Above: A still from Tron (Disney 1982). Three video game warriors poised to transform in ‘Light Cycles’, the glowing red lines added optically over the top of the actors – I presume this means ‘in post-production’.
Above: The books most interesting chapter is on computer art and the early adopting artists. As with the other sections, it’s a mixed bag, with plenty of dated graphics but on the spin, there’s some really striking experimental imagery, which interestingly hasn’t really dated at all. Take for example the above image ‘Untitled’ by digital art pioneer Manfred Mohr, this is in fact a wooden construction, plotted by computer, of all the 24 diagonal paths of the diagonal 000-111, generated from a four-dimensional hypercube (also known as a tesseract). If this fascinating exercise in mathematical minimalism is slightly beyond you, don’t worry, without further reading I’m with you…
Above: Further experimentation with the tesseract, ‘Cubic Limit V: Restriction’ again by Manfred Mohr.
Above: ‘Skew f28’ by Mark Wilson. This one was a little tricky to scan, and due to the format I’ve had to scale it down, still it’s a very interesting piece and I imagine it’d look great run off a large format plotter printer.
Plenty more old school goodies inside but I’ll wrap up the post here, if your interested in checking out more, have a browse through the title over at Google Books or you could pick up the hard copy for just a few dollars via Amazon.Georgetown's tour through China turned ugly Thursday when a game between the Hoyas and the Bayi Rockets, a Chinese professional team, ended in a bench-clearing brawl.
Mex Carey, Georgetown's sports information director, told ESPN.com that the game was "very physical," with 57 free throws taken by Bayi to just 15 for Georgetown, and quickly spun out of control.
According to The Washington Post, coach John Thompson III pulled his team off the court with the score tied at 64 midway through the fourth quarter after the teams exchanged punches. One Hoyas player, Henry Sims, was reportedly hit by a chair.
The Hoyas dodged water bottles and other objects thrown from the stands as they made their way to the locker room. Carey said one Georgetown fan in attendance was knocked to the ground after being hit by a bottle.
"The situations we were put in went beyond losing your cool," Thompson said, according to The Post. "It went to, 'I need to protect myself.' That got to a level above and beyond competition and competing, and 'Oh, this is a rough day. The calls aren't going my way.' At the end of the day, you have to protect yourself."
Thompson and two Hoyas players met with members of the Bayi Rockets on Friday morning at the Beijing airport, sharing "a very cordial and friendly meeting" in which handshakes and autographed balls were exchanged, according to a statement released by Georgetown.
The meeting included Georgetown senior Jason Clark, junior Hollis Thompson, and Rockets players Chen Yu and Lehei De.
"Once it got out of hand, I was in great fear for everyone associated with Georgetown University, because if you look at it in terms of sheer numbers, we were very much outnumbered," Thompson said, according to The Post. "Once it got to that point, once all the skirmishes had ended, my only thought was to get our fans, our players, our family, our friends out of this building as soon as possible."
Georgetown next plays Sunday in Shanghai, where it will face the Shandong Flaming Bulls. The goodwill
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not allowed any contact between Peterson and the boy, following a request made by the county, the petition said.
According to the petition, Peterson admitted during interviews with child protection and police in Texas that he twice hit his 4-year-old son, once with a belt and once with a switch.
“I think what we see so far is tragic. It’s hard to look at.” Roger Goodell, NFL commisoner akasdf regarding Peterson plus this line acting as the cutline for the photo please Ref here to the other NFL story about Rice? C0
Peterson told the authorities he saw the marks on the child after hitting him with the branch.
The boy was taken for a well-child check in Minnesota on May 22, about four days after the alleged abuse, and the child showed his “owies.” A doctor photographed several skin injuries, including bruising and visible cuts and slash marks on his right thigh, a bruise and abrasion on his scrotum and switch marks on his back.
When asked what happened, the child responded, “I got whooped by a switch,” the petition said.
On May 23, the child was seen at the Midwest Children’s Resource Center in St. Paul, where an exam revealed “multiple skin injuries.”
On May 29, the boy was seen again at the Children’s Resource Center for a forensic interview, where he said Peterson hit him with a switch and belt and “that it hurt.”
The petition does not name the mother or the child after the judge sealed that information at the request of the mother’s attorney.
A Texas grand jury indicted Peterson on Sept. 12 for felony injury to a child. His first scheduled court appearance in that case is Oct. 8.
In a statement, Hennepin County Mike Freeman said his office filed the petition to comply with state law.
“State law requires us to file an action in child protection court when charges are filed in criminal court alleging serious injuries against a child living in Hennepin County,” Freeman said.
“Our own internal investigation has revealed that the injuries were serious enough to meet the legal threshold and, as a result, we have filed a Child in Need of Protection and Services petition (CHIPS) in Hennepin County District Court this afternoon. Due to state privacy laws, as well as the understandable desire of the mother to protect her child’s privacy, we will not comment further on this petition.”
Earlier this week, Freeman told the Star Tribune that if his agency receives “any credible concerns” that the child allegedly abused by Peterson could be hurt again by him, “we would take active steps to make sure that would not occur.”
The county also is asking a judge to order Peterson to cooperate with child protection, sign releases for service providers and complete and follow recommendations from a parenting assessment.
Typically, child protection petitions include parents’ past contacts with child protective services. However, there was no history included in Hennepin County’s petition on Peterson.
“Adrian is very willing to continue cooperating with authorities in every way in order for them to conclude he is a good parent,” Rusty Hardin, Peterson’s lawyer, said in a statement.
Attorneys for the child’s mother did not respond to a request for comment on Hennepin County’s child protection petition.Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff and head coach Dan Quinn meet with Trufant’s agents Doug Hendrickson and C.J. Laboy sat together to around midnight at a popular steak restaurant.
Dimitroff has repeatedly been clear about Trufant being the team’s first offseason priority.
“Our next major move is going to be Desmond (Trufant),” Dimitroff told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday. “Once we get that done, we have the next tier of guys that we are going to get finalized. Then we’ll keep our eyes open in free agency.”
Trufant, 26, was selected in the first-round (22nd overall) of the 2013 draft. He started immediately as a rookie and was named to the Pro Bowl in his third season.
Last season, Trufant was having a fine campaign and was matching up with the opponent’s No. 1 receiver before suffering a season-ending torn pectoral injury after nine games.
The Falcons would like wrap up Trufant’s deal quickly because they can start talking to agents for unrestricted players on Tuesday and the league’s new business year starts on Thursday. When the Trufant deal is done, the Falcons will know how much they have to spend in free agency.
The market value for top cornerbacks is lucrative.
Last April, Washington signed Josh Norman to a five-year, $75 million deal with $36.5 million guaranteed, which is the highest-valued contract at the position.
Janoris Jenkins signed a five-year, $62.5 million deal with $28.8 guaranteed with the Giants in free agency last March.
Detroit signed cornerback Darius Slay to a five year, $51.33 million with a $14.5 million signing bonus in July.
The Falcons are also trying to resign safety Kemal Ishmael, tight end Levine Toilolo and fullback Patrick DiMarco.
They re-signed cornerback Robert Alford (four-year, $38 million) and right tackle Ryan Schraeder (five-year, $32million) to contract extensions during the season.
“We have a fortunate situation right now, where we are able to sign two corners because we have the young linebackers, young safeties and a young defensive end,” Dimitroff said. “In time, we’ll have to be creative with that, but for now we are in a good spot.”When metro Atlanta residents set glass bottles in curbside recycling bins, they think they’ve done their part to clean up the environment.
Instead, those glass products frequently wind up in the dump. While piles of boxes left over from the holidays can be reused, glass gets trashed.
Used glass containers have become a victim of efforts to make recycling easier for residents.
In recent years, cities and counties have encouraged residents to combine all their recycled materials in one bin, which has increased the cost of sorting materials. Rather than go to the trouble of separating glass from other materials, recycling companies have decided it’s less expensive to ship glass-filled debris to area landfills.
Some recycling companies treat glass like garbage because it can slash more valuable recyclables like cardboard and paper. Shards can also damage recycling machinery or pose an injury risk to workers.
Every county in the core Atlanta area works with companies that reject glass from their recycling streams.
Meanwhile, government officials and environmentalists said they’re wary of telling residents not to recycle glass. They don’t want to send a mixed message after years of efforts to simplify recycling by allowing residents to combine their materials.
Carol Lambert, a recently retired public utility conservationist, said she got irritated after she called DeKalb’s recycling company and found out that her efforts to recycle glass were in vain, even as DeKalb’s website still says residents should place glass with other recyclable materials.
“The county should have let people know that they really don’t need to be doing any of this. They didn’t need to be saving the glass at all,” said Lambert, who lives in Tucker. “I think a lot of people have come around to doing some sort of recycling, but I don’t like the deception.”
Most glass picked up from houses in DeKalb and Cobb counties is sent to landfills. Gwinnett works with five different haulers that often drop off recycling materials at facilities that don’t process glass. Fulton leaves recycling to its city governments, and those living in unincorporated neighborhoods individually contract with recycling providers. The city of Atlanta’s recycling hauler’s facility rejects glass as well.
“Glass is considered a contaminant,” said Jeff Lipscomb, who works in sales for Pratt Industries, which contracts with DeKalb for residential recycling. “It’s of no use to us because it would damage our equipment.”
Pratt Industries stopped accepting glass when its Conyers facility opened in September, Lipscomb said. The new plant handles plastic, aluminum, metal cans, paper and cardboard.
Glass can still be recycled by dropping it off at several locations across metro Atlanta. The problem is with curbside residential recycling pickup.
Recycling companies could decide to resume accepting glass if prices go up. But in the last few years, the glass market has been suppressed by the strong dollar and decreased exports, among other factors.
“If we start cherry-picking what we recycle and then the market turns around, it would be confusing to the customers,” said DeKalb Sanitation Division Director Billy Malone. “We provide the material to the vendor, which includes glass. How they choose to process it depends on their business model.”
DeKalb’s recycling contract generates about $250,000 for the county annually, though it has reached as high as $1 million in the past, Malone said.
Glass is still recycled in metro Atlanta, even though less of it is coming from residents. A College Park facility run by Strategic Materials processes between 250 tons and 300 tons of mixed glass and garbage daily from across the southeast, much of it trucked in from surrounding states. The plant sorts, cleans and refines the materials, creating a sand-like product that’s sold for use as insulation.
Over the last five years, the quality of glass materials has decreased because many areas have told residents to mix glass with other recyclable materials, said Curt Bucey, an executive vice president for Strategic Materials. Glass used to make up 85 percent of raw materials received by the company; today haulers deliver loads that are at times little more than half glass.
“The frequency of really bad loads has drastically increased,” Bucey said. “It’s not that the market got worse, but it’s the quality that got worse.”
The Atlanta region isn’t alone in trashing glass. Nationwide, glass has become less desirable compared to other recyclable materials, said Gloria Hardegree, executive director for the Georgia Recycling Coalition.
“Keeping residents motivated to participate and recycle what is correct isn’t an easy task in this fluctuating, changing environment we’re living in now,” Hardegree said. “We’re just going through an unfortunate scenario right now. I think things are going to improve.”
In the meantime, the focus is on two of the three Rs: Reduce and reuse before you recycle, said Colleen Kiernan, director for Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club.
The glass recycling environment may get worse before it gets better.
Waste Management, a national disposal and environmental services company, is warning that market conditions “ultimately could make glass recycling obsolete,” said Marla Prince, a spokeswoman for the company.
Waste Management is continuing to collect glass from jurisdictions in the Atlanta area and haul them to recycling facilities run by Pratt Industries and WestRock — both of which landfill glass rather than recycle it.
All loads of residential recycling materials in Cobb County will soon need to be free of glass, said county spokeswoman Sheri Kell. Cobb contracts with WestRock as its recycling provider, which hasn’t processed glass since July 2014.
“With no other options for reuse, the mixed glass … has been and continues to be landfilled,” Kell said.By Palestine Chronicle Staff
B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories has published a report which detailed what the organization described as Israel’s practice of taking over rural Palestinian lands in the West Bank, by adopting a policy of fragmenting Palestinian communities and cities.
The report tells the history of the process of fragmentation imposed on Palestinians in the West Bank, by highlighting the case of three Palestinian villages in the Nablus District: Azmut, Deir al-Hatab and Salem.
The reported noted, “What these communities have experienced since 1980, when Israel established the Elon Moreh settlement nearby, is but one illustration of broader developments taking place throughout the West Bank. Their story is similar to that of hundreds of Palestinian communities on whose lands Israeli settlements were established.”
B’Tselem revealed that since 1967, the Israeli occupation authorities have employed various measures to disconnect villagers from their lands, and hand it over to Israeli settlers. Israel established the Elon Moreh settlement on governmental land, which was under the rule of Jordan until 1967 and later declared a nature reserve on some of the remaining land west of the settlement. “This resulted in the creation of an area, far exceeding that of the settlement’s jurisdiction, where Palestinians must receive Israeli permission for carrying out any development, construction, new cultivation, or pasturing livestock. In 1987, 170 hectares of the nature reserve were declared “state land”, and an illegal settlement outpost erected there in 1998,” the report noted.
B’Tselem adds that the next phase of fragmentation of these three Palestinian villages took place after 1995, following the Oslo Accords, where the villages’ lands were divided into areas B and C. “Ever since, use of the lands designated as Area C for practically any purpose – especially for building and development – is subject to Israeli approval, which is almost always denied to villagers. In so doing, Israel laid the administrative groundwork for separating the built-up areas of the villages from most of their farmland and pastures,” the organization continued.
Israel has later built a road connecting the settlement of Elon Moreh with the settlement of Itimar, which meant that Israeli settlers no longer needed to cross through the built-up areas of the three villages, and which also meant disconnecting Palestinian villagers from their farming land. The road was shut down in the face of Palestinians following the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000.
The report concluded,
“The forced separation of the Palestinian villagers from their farmland, pastureland and natural water resources severely infringed upon their rights, devastated the local economy, and propelled them into poverty and dependence on external bodies. Villagers were left in a state of insecurity on multiple levels: financial, food and social insecurity.”
(PalestineChroncile.com)The name Martin R. Delany (pictured) may not ring in the minds of many African Americans; however, the American Civil War veteran, abolitionist, writer, and explorer is often said to be America’s first supporter of Black Nationalism. Delany lived a long and fruitful life, passing at the age of 72 on this day in 1885. NewsOne takes a look back to honor this amazing Black pioneer.
SEE ALSO: Harlem Renaissance Poet Countee Cullen Died On This Day In 1946
Martin Delany was on born on May 6, 1812, in Charleston, Wv., which was still part of Virginia, a slave state. His father, Samuel, was a slave, as were his captured African paternal and maternal grandparents. Delany was born free, due to his mother, Pati, also being born free as well.
Delany’s parents drilled in to their son that he was of royal African lineage during his early childhood.
Delany and his siblings learned to read and write at a young age, using a book given to them by a stranger. Educating Blacks was seen as a crime in Virginia, and after authorities discovered the book, Pati fled north with her children to Pennsylvania without their father.
Samuel would later buy his freedom and join his family in Chambersburg. As he grew, Delany attended school intermittently and worked to help his family. At age 19, he moved to the big city of Pittsburgh to find his way.
Delany married Catherine A. Richards, the daughter of a successful businessman. The couple bore 11 children, with just seven surviving into adulthood. Delany entered Jefferson College and also became deeply involved in church activities. His fortunes would drastically change, though, when in 1833, a cholera epidemic seized the nation: Delany became an apprentice to abolitionist doctors to help treat the disease using old techniques of “fire cupping” and “leeching.”
Even though he would go on to open his own dentistry and leeching practice to acclaim from his mentors, Delany was largely rejected by prominent medical schools because of racism.
He finally was admitted to Harvard in 1849, one of the first three Black men to ever enter the hallowed institution’s halls. Delany’s presence caused a huge stir, and he had to leave the school after a few months. This instance fueled his anger toward the White ruling class and formed the basis of his book “The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered” (1852).
In the book, Delany suggested the Blacks take root in South America or in the West Indies. This book was seen as the first written work addressing Black Nationalism.
In 1859, Delany traveled to Liberia to see about creating a new Black nation for outside settlers. He made an agreement with eight chiefs to settle on unused land in return for goods and services. The treaty fell apart due to opposition by White missionaries, strife throughout the lands, and the impending American Civil War.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln called for a draft, and Delany recruited men for the Union Army. His efforts made him the first Black front line field officer of the U.S. Army, where he achieved the highest rank of any other Black soldier during the Civil War.
Radical and determined for equality, Delany argued that free Blacks should own the lands they once tilled. He eventually resigned in 1865.
Delany worked in the Freedman’s Bureau on behalf of former slaves fighting for voting rights and other such matters. In 1874, he came just short of winning an election for Lieutenant Governor in South Carolina on the Radical Independent Republican Party ticket.
During the next voting cycle, he ran as a Democrat and won, gaining a judge position in the process. Although he was still promoting nationalism and emigration for African Americans who wanted to return to Africa, he had to pull back on the work to support his college-aged children. He continued practicing medicine while his wife worked as a seamstress. Martin Delany died of tuberculosis in 1885 in Wilberforce, Ohio.
The story of Martin R. Delany is a fascinating example of a Mother’s defiant courage to make certain her children would live up to their greatest potential. It highlights the struggles our ancestors endured, and how many of our people remained dignified even in the face of detractors looking to silence us. What should be gleaned from this amazing tale is that we all are here for purposes much larger than we can ever imagine.
NewsOne salutes Martin. R. Delany.
SEE ALSO: Sammy Younge Killed For Using Whites-Only Bathroom On This Day In 1966
Also On News One:Europe’s only regulated crypto exchange, and one of the oldest as well as biggest bitcoin exchange, is to launch Bitcoin Cash trading within weeks. Trustnodes is told in a short statement:
“After careful consideration, Bitstamp will offer Bitcoin Cash (BCH) trading to its customers with an anticipated launch in late November or early December.
Bitstamp, a leading global digital currency exchange, takes a prudent approach and puts the interests of its customers first when evaluating whether a cryptocurrency is appropriate for trading – and has decided that BCH meets that benchmark.”
Bitcoin Cash has soared in popularity recently following segwti2x’s cancellation, with the currency rising to briefly take second position yesterday.
In three days of very volatile trading, it reached a brief high of $2,799, before settling at a current price of around $1,200.
Its trading volumes rose to an incredible $10 billion, before settling at around $5 billion in the past 24 hours, during some frenzied trading as the ecosystem remeasures the value of the two bitcoin chains.
The currency will now upgrade its network within hours to implement a better difficulty adjustment algorithm so that block times keep at ten minutes.
That will allow for as good as instant transactions for nearly free due to BCH’s significantly higher on-chain capacity which allows it to process all transactions in the next block.
Bitstamp will be the third biggest western exchange to add the currency, with Bitfinex and Kraken currently the only option in fiat trading.
Bitfinex, however, is under a banking blockcade. You can not therefore deposit or withdraw fiat there, with US citizens no longer to be allowed on the exchange.
While Kraken is currently experiencing some considerable difficulties in their trading interface, with many traders complaining it can take 20 minutes to place or cancel an order.
Something which may make Bitstamp an attractive alternative, not only because it is regulated, but also because they have been running fairly smoothly during this incredible year.One week after being handed their first defeat of the season, the Central League-leading Yomiuri Giants turned the tables on the Hanshin Tigers on Tuesday with a 4-2 come-from-behind victory at Tokyo Dome.
Shinnosuke Abe’s three-run homer overturned a two-run deficit in the third inning against Atsushi Nomi (1-1), who a week earlier had shut out the Giants on five hits, the first of three straight shutouts Yomiuri suffered last week at Koshien Stadium.
Ryosuke Miyaguni (1-1), who started on Opening Day for the Giants, allowed two runs, one earned, in eight innings. On the eve of his 21st birthday, the right-hander allowed three hits, walked three and hit a batter, while striking out five.
After two were out in the third, Miyaguni loaded the bases with two walks and a single before Takahiro Arai’s RBI single made it 2-0 Hanshin. But the right-hander didn’t let another Tiger reach base, recording 16 straight outs to hand the game over to Kentaro Nishimura, who notched his seventh save.
“He was trying to be too fine (in the third),” Abe said. “I told him it was OK to be daring, and after that I told him to let loose and come at them in the heart of the zone.”
Hisayoshi Chono singled in an insurance run in the fourth against Nomi, who allowed four runs, three earned, in six innings. The lefty gave up nine hits, struck out two and walked two.
BayStars 6, Carp 3, 10 innings
At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, Yokohama tied it 3-3 in the top of the ninth on an RBI single by Tatsuhiko Kinjo off Kam Mickolio, and took the lead in the 10th on a wild pitch by Takeru Imamura (0-1). Noriharu Yamazaki then iced the game with a two-run double.
BayStars manager Kiyoshi Nakahata was ejected for making contact with home plate umpire Kazuyuki Shirai after a close play at the plate allowed the Carp to take a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning.
Swallows 5, Dragons 2
At Jingu Stadium, two-time CL home run champ Wladimir Balentien hit his first homer of the season, a two-run shot in the seventh that brought Yakult from behind against Chunichi ace Kazuki Yoshimi (0-2).
First-year Dragon Hector Luna put the visitors in front with an RBI single in the sixth, as he extended his season-opening hitting streak to 16 games.
Pacific League
Lions 10, Buffaloes 1
At Seibu Dome, submarine right-hander Kazuhisa Makita (2-0) allowed just one run over eight innings despite allowing 10 hits as Seibu scored in double digits for the first time this season.
Orix right-hander Shun Tono (1-1) allowed seven runs in four innings thanks to five walks. Former Colorado Rockies outfielder Ryan Spilborghs hit his first homer in Japan, a two-run shot in the third that made it 6-0.
Marines 11, Fighters 3
At Sapporo Dome, Chiba Lotte had a season-high 16 hits, four by Tadahito Iguchi, who broke a 1-1 tie with Hokkaido Nippon Ham in the third with an RBI double. He had an RBI single in the fifth and a solo homer in the seventh, one of four Marines home runs.
Lotte’s Yuji Nishino, a 22-year-old right-hander who started his pro career in 2009 on a developmental contract, allowed three runs in 6⅔ innings to improve to 2-0 in three career PL games.
Hawks 6, Eagles 5 (10)
At Kleenex Stadium, Wily Mo Pena tripled in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning and scored an insurance run on a balk after Fukuoka Softbank tied it in the ninth and beat Tohoku Rakuten in extra innings.
The Eagles, who twice blew two-run leads, could only get one run back in the bottom of the 10th. Hawks reliever Brian Falkenborg recorded his first save since last May despite allowing Andruw Jones’ second homer of the year.Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, left, and his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, enter a room of the government's Iikura Guest House in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on Dec. 19. (Pool)
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, failed to rebuild bridges on the comfort women issue during a meeting in Tokyo on Dec. 19.
The pair got nowhere in trying to iron out differences of opinion regarding the agreement reached between the two countries in 2015 to resolve the issue permanently.
They also demonstrated differing stances on how to deal with North Korea’s nuclear and missile development programs.
It was Kang's first visit to Japan since becoming foreign minister in June 2017.
South Korea is eager to invite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to improve bilateral relations. However, Japan's distrust of South Korea is strong with many ongoing problems unresolved.
In 2015, Japan reached an agreement with the previous South Korean government on the comfort women issue as a final and irreversible resolution. In July 2017, however, the new South Korean government set up a team of experts to check the agreement under the direct supervision of the foreign minister.
According to South Korean government officials, that evaluation continues and it is inevitable that the results will include negative points.
Kang explained to Kono about the contents of the work and said that the results will be announced on Dec. 27.
Kang’s visit was aimed to soften Japan’s reaction to this work.Here's a collection of the best Black Friday CrossFit deals in the US.
The list will be updated throughout the week, including on Cyber Monday. So make sure you get back here to check out the updates.
If you find a nice new deal, make sure you post it in a comment.
BEST DEALS FOR NUTRITION PRODUCTS
MY PROTEIN
24-26 NOV
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Shop on My Protein
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PROGENEX
15% off all orders on 24th Nov.
Orders $100 and above get a free shaker and a $10 gift card.
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ONNIT
For now Onnit has a Black Friday presale. If you buy for $100 you get 5% extra on top of the Black Friday discount, if you buy for $200 you get 10% extra.
Shop at Onnit
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PROTEIN WORLD
40% off everything on the site with code: BLACKOUT
Shop at Protein World
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BODYBUILDING.COM
They've got 1 day deals, all week long.
Some good offers such as Buy 1 get 1 free for Xtend BCAAs from Scivation, or Buy 1 get 50% off for Syntha-6 protein blend.
Shop at Bodybyilding.com
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BEST DEALS FOR SHOES & CLOTHES
REEBOK
Black Friday lasts until 24th, end of day.
There are 50% off items in their Black Friday collections.
You get 30% extra discount by using the code: EARLYVIP
Shop at Reebok
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NIKE
25% off selected items with code EPIC25
Here's the collection on sale now
New releases in limited colours come on the 24th. Stay tunned!
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STANCE
20-30% off
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ROGUE
20-26 Nov
They have 5 for $5 - you buy 5 items, you’ll pay only $5 for shipment, Hot Deals, and Hundo Pricing - the more you buy the more you save.
They’re pretty aggressive in selling, so don’t get intimidate by stuff like “54% left”.
Shop at Rogue
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GET RX'D
16-27 Nov.
Up to 50% off.
All discounted products on this page.
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AGAIN FASTER
Check out the list of products they've got on sale.
A good deal is two wall balls for $99.
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22-29 Nov
Here's a list of stuff you can expect:
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NEW Grizzly Power Bar $250
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COMPEX
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They offer also a free gift and free shipping. Use the code: COMPEXPM20
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24-27 Nov.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Streaming data into a Node.js C++ Addon
Earlier this year I posted an article showing how we can build event-based and streaming interfaces for sending data from Node.js C++ addons to JavaScript. This mode of interacting with addons can be a lot easier in some situations, especially when your C++ code runs asynchronously.
In this post, I’m going to use the streaming-worker and streaming-worker-sdk modules - which I’ve adapted from the Streaming chapter in my ebook: C++ and JavaScript Integration. In the book, I cover the details of how streaming-worker and streaming-worker-sdk actually works internally - here I’ll just focus on using them.
Working with streaming-worker
The full source code for this example is here. Let’s start out by setting up two directories - /addon and /js. The C++ project and code will be in /addon. If you’ve never worked on addons before, stop here and check out my post on the basics before continuing. The /js directory will hold just the JavaScript program - which will have a dependency on the addon.
I’ve already covered how streaming-worker-sdk works here, but as a refresher - streaming-worker and streaming-worker-sdk are two halves of a library I’ve created to facilitate event-based and streaming interfaces between addons. For streaming data to JavaScript from C++, the streaming-worker-sdk C++ headers abstract away a lot of the details of working with asynchronous addons. The streaming-worker JavaScript module creates an API for communicating with these addons. In this post, we’ll create an addon that sits in a loop within a worker threads and reads data off a queue abstraction provided by streaming-worker-sdk. Data will be sent to our asynchronous addon using streaming-worker ’s JavaScript API.
The example
If you’ve read this far, you probably have your own use case for emitting data to C++ in mind - so I’m going to keep this example really short - we’ll build a simple accumulator. Before getting into how to build it, I think it’s helpful to see how the end-product will be used in JavaScript.
First, the event-emitter API:
"use strict" ; const worker = require ( "streaming-worker" ); const path = require ( "path" ); // we will build this... var addon_path = path. join ( __dirname, "build/Release/accumulate" ); const acc = worker ( addon_path ); acc. to. emit ( "value", 3 ); acc. to. emit ( "value", 16 ); acc. to. emit ( "value", 42 ); acc. to. emit ( "value", - 1 ); acc. from. on ('sum', function ( value ){ console. log ( "Accumulated Sum: " + value ); });
And alternatively, we’ll be able to use a streaming API:
"use strict" ; const worker = require ( "streaming-worker" ); const path = require ( "path" ); const streamify = require ('stream-array' ); var addon_path = path. join ( __dirname, "build/Release/accumulate" ); const acc = worker ( addon_path ); // create an input stream, with handler for the close event const input = acc. to. stream ( "value", function () { acc. to. emit ( 'value', - 1 ); }); streamify ([ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ]). pipe ( input ); acc. from. on ('sum', function ( value ){ console. log ( "Accumulated Sum: " + value ); });
In both cases, our C++ addon will collect data sent from JavaScript and when a sentinel value or close event is received it will emit a sum event with the sum of all numbers sent to it.
Setting up the addon project
Inside the /addon directory, let’s start out by creating a package.json for the accumulator addon.
{ "name" : "accumulator", "version" : "0.0.1", "gypfile" : true, "dependencies" : { "nan" : "*", "streaming-worker-sdk" : "*" } }
Note that the dependencies include NAN and the actual SDK, streaming-worker-sdk. Next we need to create the binding.gyp file. If you are using a relatively new version of clang/g++/msvs/xcode, the following file will be sufficient. If you are using an older compiler, you may need to add some additional flags to enable full C++ 11 support.
{ "targets" : [ { "target_name" : "accumulator", "sources" : [ "accumulator.cpp" ], "cflags" : [ "-Wall", "-std=c++11" ], "cflags!" : [ "-fno-exceptions" ], "cflags_cc!" : [ "-fno-exceptions" ], "include_dirs" : [ "<!(node -e \"require('nan')\")", "<!(node -e \"require('streaming-worker-sdk')\")" ] } ] }
Note above we’re going to create the C++ addon code in accumulator.cpp (sources). The most important part though is the include_dirs. When we compile the addon, we’ll be depending on NAN and the streaming SDK. The package.json file from earlier will instruct npm to download NAN and streaming-worker-sdk from the npm registry. Unlike normal modules, these aren’t JS code - they are C++ headers, but they will be placed in node_modules nonetheless. The <!(node -e \"require … magic is instructing node-gyp to include the actual directories of those modules in the build path.
Creating the Addon
Inside accumulator.cpp we now need to create a class that extends StreamingWorker from the streaming-worker-sdk. In it’s constructor, we pass along the callbacks that will be created by the other half of the application (JavaScript) and initialize a sum variable where we’ll accumulate our data.
#include <nan.h> #include <string> #include <algorithm> #include <iostream> #include <chrono> #include <thread> #include "streaming-worker.h" using namespace std ; class Accumulate : public StreamingWorker { public : Accumulate ( Callback * data, Callback * complete, Callback * error_callback, v8 :: Local < v8 :: Object > & options ) : StreamingWorker ( data, complete, error_callback ){ sum = 0 ; } ~ Accumulate (){} void Execute ( const AsyncProgressWorker :: ExecutionProgress & progress ) { int value ; do { Message m = fromNode. read (); value = std :: stoi ( m. data ); if ( value > 0 ){ sum += value ; } else { Message tosend ( "sum", std :: to_string ( sum )); writeToNode ( progress, tosend ); } } while ( value > 0 ); } private : int sum ; };
The StreamingWorker class will be instantiated in Node’s event loop thread when an instance of the addon is created. It itself extends Nan ’s AsyncProgressWorker class, and this functionality is used to queue up a new worker thread to run the Execute function. Execute just sits in a loop and reads individual messages from the fromNode queue, which is an inherited member from the StreamingWorker. This queue holds incoming data sent to the addon from JavaScript. The queue handles all synchronization issues related to bridging Node’s event loop thread and the worker thread Execute is running in. The read method on the fromNode queue is blocking.
You communicate with Node.js through Message objects - which are simple name value pairs (values are strings, feel free to extend the implementation to handle other types using templates!).
/// defined in streaming-worker.h class Message { public : string name ; string data ; Message ( string name, string data ) :
|
ings showed healthy, ciliated respiratory epithelial cells ( figure 4D ). At 18 months, he had his last fluoroscopic balloon dilatation because the malacic segment had strengthened such that he had not needed any further admissions to hospital. As of May 7, 2012, he was well, active, and had grown 11 cm and 5 kg since graft implantation. His lungs appeared normal on CT scan, without bronchiectasis or air trapping, and a ventilation-perfusion scan at 12 months was normal ( figure 5 ). As of May 13, 2012, there has been no serological or clinical evidence of rejection of the graft and a comprehensive screen of his serum at 15 months showed no anti-HLA antibodies.
(A) CT axial scan and (B) coronal scan done 12 months after surgery show the tracheal graft (arrows) surrounded by omental fat (*). The lumen of the graft is narrow (6 mm) and its wall is thick (3–4 mm). Growth in length of the graft was not seen on serial images, possibly because growth in height of the child was not matched by lengthening of the chest. (C) A lung scan (ventilation-perfusion) at 18 months showed normal bilateral ventilation (the left lung is contributing 45% to the total ventilation and the right lung 55%). There is a slight reduction in perfusion in the left lung (receiving 37% of the right heart output) compared with the right lung (63%).
Haematoxylin and eosin staining of (A) normal trachea compared with (B) the patient's previous tracheal homograft removed at the time of surgery, which shows an epithelialised lining but atypical gland formation. (C) A sample of the decellularised tracheal graft used in this study shows loss of cells but preservation of normal architecture. (D) Bronchial brushing taken from the middle of the graft 1 year after surgery shows a cluster of ciliated cells.
6 weeks after surgery the stent had dissolved and there was mild collapse of the proximal graft. A shorter (10×45 mm) PDO stent was implanted under fluoroscopy. The patient underwent bronchoscopy or balloon dilatation under fluoroscopy, or both, regularly for 6 months ( figure 2B ). The major reason for further bronchoscopy or balloon dilation was mucus retention and crusting within the native bronchi in which there were still embedded metal stents. At 5 months, after dissolution of the latest stent, we remained concerned about the rigidity of the proximal graft, and so overlapping, self-expanding Nitinol stents (S.M.A.R.T. Control, Cordis, Waterloo, Belgium) were implanted into the trachea. At 6 months after the initial surgery the graft seemed stable, the patient's airway was patent, and he returned to school.
There was bleeding on contact from the internal lumen of the graft by 1 week after surgery, which proved that angiogenesis was occurring. The patient needed regular bronchoscopy for removal of dense secretions for 8 weeks ( figure 2A ). Assessment of the secretions showed that they included no cells, had a high DNA content, and had a net-like microscopic appearance. The features were identified as those of DNA neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs).SDS gel fractionation, tryptic digestion, and nano-liquid chromatography mass spectrometry identified a protein profile consistent with this diagnosis ( figure 3 ).The secretions were treated with a combination of DNase and physiotherapy, and cleared as epithelialisation progressed. The patient was discharged on day 63.
Proteins in the tracheal exudate identified in the early weeks (sampled postoperative week 2) were separated using SDS-PAGE and stained with colloidal Coomassie Blue (A). Destained gel slices were digested with trypsin (Promega, Southampton, UK), fractionated by high-performance liquid chromatography (NanoAcquity, Waters, Manchester, UK), and analysed using an in-line Q-TOF mass spectrometer (Waters). (B) The table shows the proteins identified from at least two peptides and with a PLGS score greater than 10. PLGS=Protein Lynx Global Server.
(A) Microlaryngobronchoscopy 15 days after the transplant showing a dense web covering the stent and partially occluding the lumen (A), which was cleared by regular bronchoscopies and DNAase. (B) Image at 6 months, showing that reabsorption of the stent (white areas) caused so-called cobblestones of granulation tissue with little normal epithelium. (C) At 15 months after surgery, the graft seemed to be patent, with healthy mucosa.
Within 3 h of the surgery, ventilation became problematic and bilateral air trapping occurred. Fibreoptic bronchoscopy showed substantial narrowing of the origin of both bronchi due to the longitudinal rigidity of the absorbable stent. A temporary stent (Niti-S, Taewoong, Seoul, South Korea) was implanted in each bronchus under fluoroscopy, which resulted in an immediate improvement in ventilation. These stents were removed before extubation on day 26 after surgery. There was an initial increase in the number of circulating leucocytes (31·1×10/L [SD 6·6×10/L]) between days 2 and 8 after surgery, which corresponded to the period of application of G-CSF and hrEPO. This period was also the only time when circulating CD34+ cells (0·71×10/L [SD 0·05×10/L]) could be detected. Leucocyte counts normalised from day 9 (9·14 ×10/L [SD 1·18×10/L]; appendix ).
Discussion
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Jungebluth P
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Baiguera S
et al. Tracheobronchial transplantation with a stem-cell-seeded bioartifical nanocomposite: a proof-of-concept study. 1 Kocyildirim E
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et al. Long-segment tracheal stenosis: slide tracheoplasty and a multidisciplinary approach improve outcomes and reduce costs., 16 Elliott M
Roebuck D
Noctor C
et al. The management of congenital tracheal stenosis. We searched PubMed for all publications, including clinical trials, meta-analyses, and reviews, with the terms “graft” and “short-term” or “long-term”. However, we did not restrict our searches to only papers that included the phrase “stem cells” and identified only two similar case reports, both in adults and with 6 and 5 months' follow-up respectively.Although several conventional treatments are available for the treatment of congenital tracheal stenosis, no proven treatments exist for patients with end-stage disease.Evidence from studies in animals suggests that stem-cell-based tissue engineered tracheal implants could be useful as part of new treatment strategies for incurable tracheal stenosis or malacia in children. Interpretation This study describes a stem-cell-based organ transplant in a child and is the first in either adults or children to report long-term follow-up (2 years). We report a stem-cell-based tissue replacement in a child and long-term follow-up of a stem-cell-based tissue-engineered graft ( panel ). The child is well, growing, and had not needed medical intervention for 6 months by May 5, 2012.
5 Macchiarini P
Jungebluth P
Go T
et al. Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway. 17 Ripa RS
Haack-Sørensen M
Wang Y
et al. Bone marrow derived mesenchymal cell mobilization by granulocyte-colony stimulating factor after acute myocardial infarction: results from the Stem Cells in Myocardial Infarction (STEMMI) trial. 18 Jeong JO
Han JW
Kim JM
et al. Malignant tumor formation after transplantation of short-term cultured bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in experimental myocardial infarction and diabetic neuropathy. 10 Bader A
Lorenz K
Richter A
et al. Interactive role of trauma cytokines and erythropoietin and their therapeutic potential for acute and chronic wounds. 5 Macchiarini P
Jungebluth P
Go T
et al. Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway. Because the protocol used in this study was devised in an emergency, we applied empirically a new combination of technologies on the basis of previous clinical successes in non-airway settings (ie, bone, skin, and nerve regeneration). Thus, to minimise delays, there was no previous expansion of epithelial cells and MSCs, nor any chondrocytic differentiation of MSCs.Instead, we used an intraoperative protocol, which was similar to those used in clinical trials of MSCs for patients with myocardial infarction.Not undertaking long-term culture of MSCs also has the potential advantage of avoiding the risk of malignancy.We aimed to create an in-vivo microenvironment that represented some of the events that occur during the normal physiological response to injury. A similar method is in phase 2 clinical trials of bone, skin, and nerve regeneration.We hypothesise that this altered protocol, in addition to the length of the graft, the presence of an absorbable stent, and the underlying different physiology and regenerative potential of children's compared with adults' tissues, were responsible for the differences in clinical course and outcomes from the published adult case, at least at the 6-month timepoint.Specifically, the graft in the present study took longer to epithelialise and did not have proximal rigidity until almost 2 years. However, at last follow-up the boy was alive, growing, had normal lung function, and had returned to school.
19 Wurtz A
Porte H
Conti M
et al. Surgical technique and results of trachea and carinal replacement with aortic allografts for salivary gland-type carcinoma. 5 Macchiarini P
Jungebluth P
Go T
et al. Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway. A key criterion for paediatric implants is that of growth potential. In this study, although we were unable to measure graft length, there was no CT evidence of shortening of the graft, as has been previously described, for example, with an alternative aortic allograft approach.At age 13 years the child's torso is not expected to elongate much further as his height increases and so the growth demands on this graft are limited. However, experimental evidence of graft growth is crucial for the clinical use of similar protocols of transplantation for children of all ages. Equally crucial is rapid vascularisation. As with the adult case,touch bleeding on the internal graft surface was visible by 1 week, which proved that rapid angiogenesis was occurring.
5 Macchiarini P
Jungebluth P
Go T
et al. Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway. 20 Ott HC
Matthiesen TS
Goh SK
et al. Perfusion-decellularized matrix: using nature's platform to engineer a bioartificial heart., 21 Petersen TH
Calle EA
Zhao L
et al. Tissue-engineered lungs for in vivo implantation. In both this study and a previous case,a cadaveric donor trachea was decellularised, with successful removal of cellular components including MHCs. Neither patient had developed rejection by May, 2012, and the child had not developed anti-donor antibodies by 20 months. These findings, in addition to reports of preclinical success with similar methodologies for heart and lung grafts,suggest that decellularised scaffold-based technologies could be an immunosuppression-free alternative to conventional transplantation.
In the UK, patients operated upon under a Hospitals Exemption Certificate on compassionate grounds, as was the case with the patient in this study, are not treated as research patients. Thus, we did not label the applied cells and so cannot comment on whether the eventual stromal and epithelial cells originated from those implanted or from cells recruited from neighbouring tissues. Future preclinical and clinical trials should incorporate markers that will answer the question of the exact contribution of applied cells to the final result.
Many clinicians assume that decellularised scaffolds are inert composites of structural proteins. Proteomic measurement of non-structural, or minor structural, proteins has been difficult because of the dominance of collagen and elastin in protein preparations. In this study, with new techniques we identified 166 proteins with diverse functions relevant to regenerative medicine (eg, angiogenesis and immunity) that were preserved despite decellularisation, although no MHC molecules were found. We hypothesise that many of these proteins are crucial to revascularisation, cell migration, and differentiation in tissue-engineered organs and represent a major difference from synthetic scaffolds. Therefore, proteomic analysis might be a valuable addition to release criteria for biological scaffolds.
22 Siddiq S
Pamphilon D
Brunskill S
Doree C
Hyde C
Stanworth S Bone marrow harvest versus peripheral stem cell collection for haemopoietic stem cell donation in healthy donors. 12 Brouard N
Driessen R
Short B
Simmons PJ G-CSF increases mesenchymal precursor cell numbers in the bone marrow via an indirect mechanism involving osteoclast-mediated bone resorption., 23 Tatsumi K
Otani H
Sato D
et al. Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor increases donor mesenchymal stem cells in bone marrow and their mobilization into peripheral circulation but does not repair dystrophic heart after bone marrow transplantation. 17 Ripa RS
Haack-Sørensen M
Wang Y
et al. Bone marrow derived mesenchymal cell mobilization by granulocyte-colony stimulating factor after acute myocardial infarction: results from the Stem Cells in Myocardial Infarction (STEMMI) trial. 23 Tatsumi K
Otani H
Sato D
et al. Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor increases donor mesenchymal stem cells in bone marrow and their mobilization into peripheral circulation but does not repair dystrophic heart after bone marrow transplantation., 24 Kassis I
Zangi L
Rivkin R
et al. Isolation of mesenchymal stem cells from G-CSF-mobilized human peripheral blood using fibrin microbeads. TGFβ was added to the scaffold to induce chondrocytic differentiation, G-CSF to boost autologous MSC recruitment, and hrEPO to increase angiogenesis. G-CSF is used to mobilise bone marrow progenitor production before haemopoietic cell transplantation.Although some studies report a beneficial effect of G-CSF on MSC mobilisation,others suggest the opposite effect.Identification of the contribution of G-CSF to the survival and function of the graft in one patient in the short and long term is not possible. However, we hypothesise that systemic application of G-CSF increased leucocyte counts in week 1 and contributed to NET accumulation in the trachea in the first 6 weeks after surgery.
25 Rizzo JD
Brouwers M
Hurley P
et al. JDRizzoMBrouwersPHurley for the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology Practice Guideline Update Committee American Society of Hematology/American Society of Clinical Oncology clinical practice guideline update on the use of epoetin and darbepoetin in adult patients with cancer. 26 Rezaeian F
Wettstein R
Amon M
et al. Erythropoietin protects critically perfused flap tissue. 5 Macchiarini P
Jungebluth P
Go T
et al. Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway. hrEPO is used clinically to support erythropoiesis in patients with cancer and renal disease.Pretreatment with erythropoietin might improve the survival of cells within tissue where angiogenesis is not yet adequate to fully support respiration, by a mechanism mediated by nitric oxide and vascular endothelial growth factor.Angiogenesis, measured by appearance, contact bleeding, and laser doppler fluxmetry, was equally fast in the previously reported adult patientas in the child in the present study. Despite the substantial increase in graft mass in the child, we can only speculate about the added angiogenic effect of hrEPO. Findings are further confounded by the use of an omental flap, because the purpose of it is to provide an improved vascular bed for the graft. More research into angiogenic mechanisms in recellularised regenerative constructs is needed.
27 Moretti M
Wendt D
Dickinson SC
et al. Effects of in vitro preculture on in vivo development of human engineered cartilage in an ectopic model. 28 Antoshina E
Ostrowski LE TGF beta 1 induces growth arrest and apoptosis but not ciliated cell differentiation in rat tracheal epithelial cell cultures. 29 Valcourt U
Kowanetz M
Niimi H
Heldin CH
Moustakas A TGF-beta and the Smad signaling pathway support transcriptomic reprogramming during epithelial-mesenchymal cell transition. 5 Macchiarini P
Jungebluth P
Go T
et al. Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway. We hypothesised that TGFβ, a key signal for chondrocytic differentiation of MSCs,would enable repopulation of the preserved scaffold cartilage niche and provide adequate biomechanical support in the long term. However, TGFβ is also a powerful promoter of myofibroblasts and scar tissueand restricts epithelial cell survival and migration,both of which are undesirable actions during the regeneration of tissue-engineered trachea. The absence of rigidity in the proximal trachea suggests that TGFβ did not support adequate cartilage regeneration throughout the graft, although the length of the graft, presence of PDO stents, or the absence of a preoperative chondrocytic differentiation step in the processmight also have been responsible.
30 Novotny L
Crha M
Rauser P
et al. Novel biodegradable polydioxanone stents in a rabbit airway model., 31 Lischke R
Pozniak J
Vondrys D
Elliott MJ Novel biodegradable stents in the treatment of bronchial stenosis after lung transplantation. 31 Lischke R
Pozniak J
Vondrys D
Elliott MJ Novel biodegradable stents in the treatment of bronchial stenosis after lung transplantation. 32 Vondrys D
Elliott MJ
McLaren CA
Noctor C
Roebuck DJ First experience with biodegradable airway stents in children. PDO stentshave been used in six lung transplant patients who needed multiple insertions,which was also the case with the child in this study. All six patients were free of stenosis at a median of 24 months (range 7–44). Recent experience in children with airway stenosis is similar.The PDO stents were quick to apply and provided circumferential support for 8 weeks, but the absence of vertical elasticity was a problem and they might have contributed to NET formation.
14 Brinkmann V
Reichard U
Goosmann C
et al. Neutrophil extracellular traps kill bacteria., 15 Lögters T
Margraf S
Altrichter J
et al. The clinical value of neutrophil extracellular traps. 15 Lögters T
Margraf S
Altrichter J
et al. The clinical value of neutrophil extracellular traps. Analysis suggested that the problematic tracheal exudate in this study was DNA NETs.The macroscopic appearance of NETs is poorly described in man. Their perceived role is to prevent bacterial colonisation and dissemination, but formation can cause tissue damage.We hypothesise that neutrophil recruitment induced by the graft and stent plus G-CSF treatment were causative, and that NET resolution parallels the development of new epithelium.
5 Macchiarini P
Jungebluth P
Go T
et al. Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway. 5 Macchiarini P
Jungebluth P
Go T
et al. Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway. The epithelium was patchy by 2 months, although stents caused discontinuity. The presence of viable, ciliated epithelial cells was confirmed on cytology at 1 year, when mucosal continuity was noted throughout. Epithelialisation occurred later than in the previous adult case,where mucosal coverage was achieved at 1 month and mucociliary clearance by 6 months.The need for early mucosal coverage and mucociliary clearance for airway grafts in patients, many of whom have compromised bronchial or lung function, or both, means that research into mechanisms of regeneration of the respiratory mucosa is crucial, as is identification of key stem or progenitor cells and migration and differentiation factors.Jennifer Fontaine kisses her baby daughter, Morgan, at her parents' home in Methuen, Mass. on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014. After Fontaine's standard prenatal screening suggested her fetus might have Edwards syndrome, a doctor suggested a fetal DNA test, which suggested her fetus was fine. A simple test that looks for fetal DNA in a pregnant woman's blood is far more accurate at detecting or ruling out Down syndrome and other common chromosome disorders than other screening methods used now, a major study finds. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
A DNA test of a pregnant woman's blood is more accurate than current methods of screening for Down syndrome and other common disorders, new research finds. If other studies bear this out, it could transform prenatal care by giving a more reliable, non-invasive way to detect these problems very early in pregnancy.
That would let couples decide sooner whether to have an abortion or to prepare for a major medical problem. It also might cut down on the 200,000 more invasive tests like amniocentesis done each year in the United States to diagnose or rule out problems with a fetus.
"It offers women a safe and accurate alternative" for screening, said the study leader, Dr. Diana Bianchi, of Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
Several companies already sell these DNA blood tests, which can be done when the fetus is only 9 to 10 weeks old, a couple weeks sooner than current methods. They screen for disorders caused by extra or missing chromosomes, such as Down syndrome, which occurs in about one of every 700 pregnancies.
Current screening methods are imprecise. Ultrasounds and various blood tests can hint at a problem but don't directly test for one. The next step is diagnostic testing — amniocentesis, like a needle biopsy to collect fetal cells, or chorionic villus sampling, which takes a snip of the placenta. Both bring a small risk of miscarriage.
The DNA tests aim to improve screening and lower the number of women referred for these more invasive tests. Using a sample of the mom's blood, they sequence the alphabet of bits of DNA shed from the placenta and map them to various chromosomes. The numbers are compared to what's normal at that stage of pregnancy.
Groups like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists say these DNA tests can be an option for higher risk pregnancies — moms 35 and older, those with an abnormal ultrasound or blood test, or with a prior pregnancy involving abnormal chromosomes — but their accuracy in the general population isn't known.
The new study, published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, is the first to look at their use in a general U.S. population. Nearly 2,000 women had standard prenatal screening plus a fetal DNA test from Illumina Inc., a California company that sponsored the study.
Both methods detected eight chromosome abnormalities, including five of Down syndrome.
But the false alarm rate for Down syndrome with DNA testing was just a fraction of that for standard screening — 0.3 percent versus 3.6 percent. DNA tests also gave fewer false alarms for Edwards and Patau syndromes, less common chromosome abnormalities.
That means far fewer women would be advised to get diagnostic tests to rule out a problem. Women like Jennifer Fontaine, whose standard prenatal screening suggested her fetus might have Edwards syndrome, which causes massive abnormalities that can lead to stillbirth or death at a very early age.
"It was devastating, absolutely heartbreaking to think this is what I might be going through," said Fontaine, who lives in Groveland, Mass., north of Boston. A doctor proposed a DNA test, which suggested her fetus was fine, and she now has a healthy 2-month-old daughter, Morgan.
"I wanted to exhaust my options" before risking an amniocentesis, Fontaine said. "If something had happened during the procedure it would have just killed me."
Several independent experts called the new research a good first step, but not enough to warrant using the DNA tests now in the general population.
"It's encouraging," but doctors will want to wait for other and larger studies underway now of various fetal DNA tests, said Dr. Nancy Rose, a University of Utah professor who heads the genetics committee of the College of Obstetricians.
Dr. Susan Klugman, director of reproductive genetics at New York's Montefiore Medical Center, noted that nearly one-third of the women in this study had the DNA testing in their third trimester of pregnancy, and said doctors will want to see more evidence of how well DNA testing does in the earliest months.
"Cost is a huge factor," Klugman said.
Four companies sell the tests for $1,200 to $2,700, said Bianchi, the study leader, who has consulted for Illumina. Blood tests used for screening now cost $300 to $400, and ultrasound costs $200 to $300. Insurance coverage varies, depending on whether women are at higher risk for having a fetus with chromosome abnormalities, she said.Overnight, Zach Sill’s childhood dream became a reality, and he isn’t going to forget his first day as a Maple Leaf any time soon.
He greeted and thanked a hoard of Toronto media with a smile after morning skate Thursday, admittedly overwhelmed by the situation.
It’s faint, but immediately his East Coast accent was noticeable as he spoke for the first time as a member of the Leafs organization. Sill is the first player from Truro, Nova Scotia to suit up for the franchise.
“That is definitely an honour, I think that’s pretty awesome,” he grinned. “Grew up watching the Maple Leafs as a kid, so it’s pretty neat for me.”
For the first time in his 62-game NHL career, all with the Penguins franchise, the 26-year-old will have family and friends close by to watch his games in person.
“My dad works in Elmira [about 130km north-west of Toronto] every couple weeks, so he’s going to get a chance to see some games. I have family in Peterborough and Kitchener, and a lot of buddies here who moved up from Nova Scotia,” he said.
“It’s different for me, I’ve never played around so many family members, so it’s nice.”
The trade that brought him to Toronto caught him by surprise, but after going in and out of the Penguins lineup, the move provides a welcome chance to earn regular playing time.
“Coming here, I have an opportunity in front of me and just try and put my best foot forward and make an impression,” he said.
“I’m an energy guy, I’m a fourth liner, that’s usually not going to change. I’m not going to put up too many points, but I’m gonna give a spark when the team needs it and just try to show up every night.”
In 42 games with the Penguins this season, Sill – who’s known more for his physical game – racked up 60 PIMs in addition to his one goal and two assists. But, despite his inconsistent role with the club, Pittsburgh is still gearing up for a post-season run, while the Leafs aim for a run at the number one overall draft pick.
“It’s a little disappointing, that you’re not going to be on a playoff run with a good team, but for me it’s all about opportunity given. This team, we’re rebuilding here, and it gives a good opportunity for me in the future, if I come and do what I can here and they like me.”
His future with the club remains unclear and he may just be passing through, but Sill certainly seemed to enjoy the first moments of his time in Toronto.
Before his debut on the ice against the Flyers Thursday evening, Sill found himself sitting at his stall in the locker room smiling, wearing his No. 22 jersey for the Toronto Maple Leafs, soaking in the moment.
“This is the dream team, that I dreamt about as a kid, so it’s pretty special.”
With his parents, girlfriend, family, and friends watching back home, Sill played nine shifts in his debut, each averaging about 47 seconds in length for a total of 7:06 of ice time.
He recorded one shot on goal and one hit in his debut, joining Peter Holland and Brandon Kozun on the fourth line, and made a good first impression on Leafs interim Head Coach Peter Horachek.
“I like him. I like him as a person, he seems to be very into it and you know, he’s very motivated. I thought he did a very good job, I thought the whole line played well,” said Horachek. “I have confidence now and I think they’ve earned the right to play more and get more minutes.”
A whirlwind 24 hours, gave Sill’s NHL career a new direction; a new city, a new team, new teammates, and a congregation of media bigger than he’d ever seen. Despite everything that was thrown at him, he took it all in stride, with a smile.
“It didn’t really matter how much sleep I had last night, the adrenaline pushed me through the game. It was fun, it’s different for me,” he said. “I’ve never been on a different team, so just kind of rolling with the punches and trying to do my best.”China’s new national map re-affirms its historical South China Sea claims and incorporates a tenth ‘dash line’ off Taiwan. It has created a few ripples in Southeast Asia and beyond. Since the tenth dash itself isn’t new, there’s less novelty to this development than first meets the eye. But it raises important questions about China’s intentions, due to the basic ambiguity of its position.
The latest national map of China was published earlier this year by SinoMaps Press, under the jurisdiction of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping. In other words, it’s officially approved. As with past maps, Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea are represented by the familiar nine-dash line, which is duplicated on both sides of the map. Whereas the nine-dash line was previously included as an inset and without the tenth dash line off Taiwan, it’s now fully integrated into the new national map. The 10-dash line map also features as a background in China’s latest passports, which have drawn protests from Vietnam and the Philippines.
Close-ups of the front and back of the new SinoMaps Press map showing China’s ten-dash line in the South China Sea. Courtesy of SinoMaps Press.
The reappearance of the tenth dash has raised eyebrows in Japan because it’s drawn very close to Yonaguni, Japan’s westernmost island in the Ryukyu chain, only 70 miles from Taiwan. Yonaguni isn’t claimed by China – (unlike the Senkaku/Diaoyu islets lying to the north) but is practically obscured by the shading that emanates from China’s tenth dash. Beijing has previously asserted its South China Sea claims with reference to a nine-dash line ‘inset’ map, which for example was appended to China’s May 2009 official protest against Vietnam and Malaysia’s joint submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
China’s South China Sea ‘inset’ map showing the previous nine-dash line. Courtesy of SinoMaps Press. So while the tenth dash isn’t new, its re-unification with the other nine dashes in the latest map is politically significant. First, in a cross-strait context, it symbolically subsumes Taiwan’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, derived in parallel from the original Kuomintang claim. Moreover, Taipei still occupies the largest island in the Spratlys, Itu Aba or Taiping Island. Despite the improvement in cross-straits ties in recent years, Taiwan’s political leadership is wary of accepting overt support from China for its maritime claims, which also extend to the Senkaku/Diaoyu in the East China Sea. Beijing sees these maritime territorial claims as mirroring its own. For Beijing, they’re a means to narrow the cross-strait gap further by aligning Taipei and Beijing along a common nationalist axis, capitalising upon Taipei’s own recent tensions with the Philippines and Japan. Beijing’s overtures may in future extend to Taiwan’s scholarly community, with the aim of buttressing the evidential base for China’s historical claims. The symmetry is even closer in China’s ongoing confrontation with Japan over the Senkaku, since China’s claim to the islands runs through Taiwan. The tenth line on the map therefore hints at a broader linkage in Chinese minds to the East China Sea, where Beijing’s political and strategic priorities are currently centred. It’s also read as such by Japanese analysts.
Legend of China’s new map. Courtesy of SinoMaps Press.
The new map has attracted attention further south, given that the legend denotes the dash line as a ‘national boundary’ (国界), using identical shading to China’s land borders, radiating out from the nine dashed lines within the South China Sea. The shading has the visual effect of projecting China’s claims, however defined, closer to the coastlines of the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. However, close inspection, reveals that the nine-dashes are all in unchanged locations from previous Chinese maps. China probably wishes to maintain some ambiguity about the status of the dash line, as further suggested in the map legend, where the space in between the dashes is marked (in diminutive characters) as ‘boundary not defined’ (未定).
Southeast Asian reactions to date have been subdued, at least publicly—although the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs apparently sent a confidential note verbale to the Chinese Embassy, protesting against ‘the reference to those dash lines as China’s national boundaries’. Indonesia’s semi-dormant sensitivities in the South China Sea may be pricked by the fact that China’s westernmost dash line clearly bisects Indonesia’s gas-rich Exclusive Economic Zone off Natuna, potentially reviving concerns that Jakarta believed it had put to bed with bilateral reassurances received in the early 1990s. Thus far Indonesia hasn’t offered any official objection to the new map, perhaps preferring to dwell on the positive fact that China’s mapmakers have acknowledged the outer limit of Indonesia’s archipelagic waters to the north of Natuna. Yet China shouldn’t take Indonesia’s neutrality in the South China Sea disputes for granted. In reality, Indonesia’s maritime resource equities are potentially on the line, despite not being a claimant to the Spratlys. Jakarta previously queried the legal basis for China’s nine-dash claim in 2009 through the UN, while Chinese and Indonesian patrol boats faced off in an incident near Natuna in June 2010 (PDF). Equally, the PLA Navy’s late-March 2013 excursion to James Shoal, traditionally regarded as China’s southernmost claimed feature in the South China Sea (even though it is submerged), ruffled feathers in Kuala Lumpur which has traditionally felt less threatened by China’s claims (PDF).
Since maps don’t carry independent legal weight under UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), China’s overriding challenge remains the need to bring its South China Sea claims into conformity with international law. Privately, some Chinese interlocutors are conscious of the incompatibility between China’s UNCLOS obligations and a maximalist interpretation of the nine-dash line as a territorial enclosure. They seek to reassure foreigners that China’s claims extend to islands and other land features within the lines, as well as vaguely defined ‘historical rights’. A recent article for the American Journal of International Law co-authored by Judge Gao Zhiguo, China’s appointee to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, opined that the nine-dash line has three meanings:
‘it represents the title to the island groups that it encloses’ ‘it preserves Chinese historic rights in fishing, navigation, and such other marine activities as oil and gas development in the waters and on the continental shelf surrounded by the line’ ‘it may serve as a basis for ‘potential maritime delimitation lines’.
In such an ambiguous context, official assertions of the dash line will only continue to stoke unease among other South China Sea littoral states and China watchers further afield.
China’s recent announcement that it’s prepared to discuss a Code of Conduct on the South China Sea is welcomed by ASEAN members. But it appears aimed primarily at repairing bridges with the grouping following last year’s divisive denouement at the ASEAN Regional Forum, without committing to hard timetables. Meanwhile, the red-carpet treatment accorded to Vietnam’s President Truong, when he visited Beijing in June, suggests that Beijing is also intent on mending bilateral fences with Hanoi, as the most potentially problematic of China’s rival claimants in the South China Sea. It’s tempting to read into this an ulterior motive of further isolating the Philippines, currently the target of Beijing’s ire for unilaterally launching arbitral proceedings, formally under way as of 16 July, that have quizzed the legal basis for China’s territorial claim (PDF).
Although the disputed islands and rocks in the South China Sea are now receiving unparalleled international judicial scrutiny, China’s mapmakers can probably put away their dividers, safe in the knowledge that Beijing’s new leadership will preserve the ambiguity about the full extent of their South China Sea claims which the dashed line affords.
Euan Graham is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. This post is adapted from an article on the RUSI UK Newsbrief and is reprinted here with the kind permission of RUSI UK.(Adds police intervention, Council of Europe)
By Ayla Jean Yackley
ISTANB
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and Legionnaires’ disease, legal experts said. Some scientists have suggested that the corrosion may have allowed Legionella bacteria to thrive in the water supply during warm summer months.Moosylvania is a fictional island and micronation located in the Lake of the Woods along the Canada–United States border that served as a plot device in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.[1]
The island has no permanent population, and conditions are said to be harsh and unpleasant. The island is in a state of terra nullius, since neither Canada nor the United States wants to claim the land and each country says it belongs to the other. (See Bir Tawil for a similar real-life example of this.) Bullwinkle J. Moose serves as Moosylvania's presumed namesake and its governor but only stays two weeks at a time, since (according to Bullwinkle) "after two weeks here, anyplace else in the world feels like Heaven!"
In the series-ending story arc "Moosylvania Saved," Fearless Leader, the head of state of the Eastern European state of Pottsylvania, attempts to destroy Moosylvania. The plot is foiled when Bullwinkle, who was going to go down with his sinking country, asked Rocky for a stick of gum, which inspired Rocky the Flying Squirrel to raise up Moosylvania with bubble gum balloons. The plan worked and Moosylvania was saved, giving the series a happy ending.
In the fall of 1962, Jay Ward, producer of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, decided to campaign for statehood for Moosylvania. Ward sent Skip Craig to Minnesota to buy an island in the Lake of the Woods. Craig wasn't able to find one for sale on the U.S. side of the lake (most of the islands in that lake are claimed by Canada), but managed to lease one for three years.[2]:195 Ward and publicist Howard Brandy conducted a west-to-east cross-country tour in a decorated van,[3] gathering signatures on a petition for statehood for Moosylvania. While in Washington, D.C., they sought an audience with President John F. Kennedy.[2]:199 However, they arrived at the White House on the very day the Cuban Missile Crisis broke, and were ordered to leave.[4]
A national anthem for Moosylvania was included on the mini-album A Salute to Moosylvania!! Recorded Live at the Moosylvania Jazz Festival, self-released by Jay Ward in 1962.[5]
References [ edit ]Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports
Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry is having quite the week after being named the unanimous NBA MVP, helping lead his team back to the Western Conference Finals and boasting the NBA's best-selling jersey for the second straight season.
Per the NBA's official website, via ESPN.com's Darren Rovell, Curry led all players in jersey sales for the 2015-16 season, followed by Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
Rovell did not list the total number of jerseys sold for the players, but he did note that Curry's jersey was the top seller in every state except Ohio and Oklahoma.
Those two states are not surprising outliers since James basically owns the city of Cleveland and most of Ohio at this point in his career. Oklahoma City Thunder stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook finished fifth and sixth in jersey sales, respectively.
In a lost season for the New York Knicks, Kristaps Porzingis did give the franchise something to be happy about. The 20-year-old, who was famously booed on draft night, had the fourth-highest-selling jersey, which Rovell noted was "the highest season-ending spot on the jersey list for a rookie since James and Carmelo Anthony" during the 2003-04 season.
It's a testament to Curry's ever-growing popularity and dominance on the court that he finished ahead of Bryant, who figured to get a huge bump in sales after announcing early in the 2015-16 season this would be his final year.
Following Bryant's final game on April 13, Rovell reported the future Hall of Famer helped the Staples Center set a record for most merchandise sold, as Bryant memorabilia generated $1.2 million from fans in attendance. There are still some records Curry hasn't broken—at least so far.
The Warriors continue to grow in popularity, with Rovell noting the defending NBA champions led all teams in merchandise sales for the second straight season. Good things happen when you have the best player in the sport and set a single-season record with 73 wins.Welcome to my brief primer on how to win all 3 scenarios as O'Toole. This description contains SPOILERS in the descriptions below.
General Overview:
Skids is pretty average at everything, which makes me great for taking on all 3 scenarios solo:
Money: Emergency Cache, Burglary, and his broken Elder Sign trigger.
Damage: Machete, Vicious Blow, Backstab, Dynamite Blast, and Sneak Attack, mean you are a damage dealing machine. Don't use any of the other weapons. Machete is the best.
Health: Generally you will not take very much damage with Dodge, and Elusive and some damage absorption on Leo De Luca. Your high evasion keeps you safe. Low Willpower is dangerous, so 2x Physical Training will ensure you don't go insane to Treacheries.
Investigation: Skids has decent investigating at 3, and most scenarios do not need more than a Flashlight and Perception to beat solo.
Mulligan Strategy: Hard mulligan for Leo De Luca. He wins games by himself. Other cards I keep are Emergency Cache, Flashlight, and Machete. Everything else can go back except for in Scenario 3 (explained later).
Scenario 1: Generally a cakewalk for Skids. No real strategy needed. Save a Backstab or Sneak Attack for the priest and you will be fine. Save Flashlight for the Cellar.
EXP: Spend on 2x Leo De Luca, 2x Hot Streak (or 1 if you can't afford both). Replace Leos and Emergency Cache or Burglary.
Scenario 2: Now the real game begins. Try to get out Flashlight, Machete, and Leo De Luca. Our main goal for this scenario is to kill the dude who comes out of the first agenda, and maybe 1 or 2 other cultists. I have found that killing all 6 is completely impossible solo, unless you get incredibly lucky. This will not affect us in scenario 3, so don't worry about it.
Once you've killed the cultist who comes out of the agenda, it is CRITICAL that you resign before hitting the requisite amount of doom on the second agenda. You do not want to let it trigger, as it causes you to lose 2 cards at the beginning of scenario 3.
EXP: Personally, I only killed 2 ghouls here and received 2 EXP after my failed Hospital Debts. I had one EXP remaining from the previous scenario and opted to get 1x Sure Gamble for scenario 3. I replaced a Burglary.
Scenario 3: Here we are. The main event. Hard mull for Leo De Luca, Dynamite Blast, Vicious Blow, and Machete. Nothing else matters very much. Physical Training is nice to see early on.
My strategy for this scenario is as follows: Phase 1: Stay in the starting location and draw cards, gain resources, and play assets. Do NOT move around and look for clues. It is a waste of time and will just spawn more enemies. You are looking for 2x Dynamite Blast, 2x Vicious Blow, 1x Machete in order to win the game. Then, you need to save up resources to be able to play all of those cards. It also helps to have Dodge or On the Lam for the final turn.
You will draw enemies and horrible treacheries. Try to float some cash and play Physical Training to counter the terrible Willpower treacheries. Evade and move to any Woods when you draw an enemy. If it has hunter, kill it instead.
Phase 2: Make sure you get Physical Training for the horrible trigger of Agenda 2. You do not want that to happen.
Phase 3: Once enough doom accumulates (along with some acolytes in random forests), you will trigger the spawning of the boss. At this stage you need to have the cards in your hand and enough resources to play them. You also need to be in a Woods (preferably with no enemy). You now have one more turn to prepare while he moves into the main path from the ritual site. Once he moves into the main path, you are going to do the following:
Play 2x Dynamite Blast for 6 damage. Move into the Main Path. Attack with Machete and use 2x Vicious Blow. Ideally, you will also have Sure Gamble to ensure a win here. If you draw a Tentacle Chaos Token and auto lose, then the Elder Sign gods are not with you.
This will deal a total of 10 damage in 4 actions (which you should have with Leo De Luca or by using your ability).
If you made it this far, congratulations! If something ruined you in Scenario 3, just try it again.
Final note: If you have the weakness that discards all your resources or your hand, you can try this strategy, but you will probably fail. Bad luck!
I hope I helped some people beat Scenario 3. Good luck everyone! Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Love this game!
-DreadreaperArsenal manager Arsene Wenger has claimed that first choice goalkeeper Petr Cech is fitter than ever, before admitting that the former Chelsea stopper can go on to play into his 40s.
Cech has enjoyed a strong start to the season with the Gunners, seeming to be much improved compared to last term, and his boss has credited the 35-year-old's attitude for the difference
“He gets older, we all do that,” Wenger told Arsenal's official website. “But I think he is fitter than ever. He puts a lot of attention into the preparation. He is slimmer than before. I think he benefits from that.
“He has lost some weight. Not too much, two, three kilos only. But it’s a lot if you want to make a horse lose a race, you put a jockey with one or two kilos more on the back, and the horse is quite big.
“He looks after his whole lifestyle because he feels better and because he wants to be at the best. Petr Cech is a perfectionist. And you don’t make a career he has made if you have not that obsession, always to be at your best.
Jan Kruger/GettyImages
The Frenchman went on to compare Cech to former Manchester United keeper Edwin Van der Sar - who played until he was 40.
“I remember Edwin Van der Sar at Manchester United, I compare them. They are intelligent, they have great similar size, similar quality.
"Van der Sar stopped at the end because he decided to stop. Because Manchester United wanted him to stay one more year longer. I don’t rule out [Cech playing until he is 40], but that will only be down to the performances.”President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013, about the death of Nelson Mandela. Obama says the world has lost an influential, courageous and 'profoundly good' man with the death of anti-apartheid icon Mandela. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The approval rating of President Obama and Congress are both at or near record lows. Can historical precedent predict where the numbers will head next? Republicans are more likely than Democrats to dislike their party's candidates. And the Farragut North Metro escalators suck. Science! This is HuffPollster for Thursday, December 12, 2013.
IS APPROVAL DECLINE TEMPORARY? As HuffPollster reviewed yesterday, ten national surveys have tracked a year-long decline in President Obama's job approval. A different Pollster chart (below) shows that job approval for the U.S. Congress is also at a low ebb. Our poll average puts approval of Congress at roughly 9 percent, the lowest level since we began collecting results for this question in October 2008. Almost inevitably, the political punditry turns its attention to where the poll numbers will head next: Can or will perceptions continue to worsen in 2014 or have we hit a "floor" for both Obama and Congress? [HuffPollster; Pollster job approval charts for Obama and Congress ]
Consider, for example, Wednesday's analysis from the bi-partisan polling team behind the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll tackled that issue: "[Bill] McInturff, the GOP pollster, compares [Obama's] declining numbers to what happened to George W. Bush after his administration’s failed response to Hurricane Katrina, explaining that Bush experienced a similar drop in job approval, in his favorable /unfavorable rating and in key presidential attributes. 'We have a long way to go in [Obama’s] presidency,' McInturff says. But he calls Obama’s current poll numbers 'a very critical inflection point.' Democratic pollster [Fred] Yang counters, however, that the president is facing only one chief hurdle (health care) – like both Ronald Reagan (Iran-Contra) and Bill Clinton (Monica Lewinsky) encountered during their presidencies. By comparison, Yang adds, both Jimmy Carter (economy, energy shortages, Iran hostage crisis) and George W. Bush (Katrina, Iraq, 2008 financial collapse) faced multiple episodes that weighed down their years in the White House. 'As health care goes, so goes the Obama presidency for next year,' Yang says." [NBC News]
Political scientist Brendan Nyhan argues many of the "hyper-pessimistic assessments" of Obama's difficulties involve references "to the historical record, which suggests that second-term presidents struggle to regain their previous levels of popularity, and to the current resemblance between Obama’s current approval ratings and those of George W. Bush at this point in his term, which is illustrated by this graphic from USA Today [reproduced below]." Instead of covering individual polls "in search of evidence that Obama has 'turned the corner,'" Nyhan urges journalists to consult polling aggregators like HuffPost Pollster. "Just as it’s too soon to say Obama’s presidency is over or that he’s destined to follow Bush down in the polls, we don’t have sufficient data to say that his standing has rebounded either." [CJR]
"The most common fallacy of journalism, and one of the most common fallacies of the human brain in general," writes New York's Jonathan Chait, "is the assumption that whatever is happening at the moment will continue to happen forever." [NYMag]
The same can be said for the interpretation of public opinion data. The notion that polls are just a snapshot has become a cliche, but it has the virtue of being true. Congressional approval may be nearing a "floor," if only because it cannot possibly fall below zero percent, but Obama's ratings could change meaningfully in either direction depending on future events. The current batch of polls may yield a few clues to future attitudes, but little more.
The just completed NBC/Wall Street Journal poll provides one such example in the form of different sort of question probing overall feelings about the Obama presidency. Just 28 percent described themselves as "proud" or "satisfied, " exactly half (50 percent) described themselves as "disappointed" or "dissatisfied" and 22 percent said their feelings were "mixed." Does that very low 28 percent portend more room for Obama to fall, given that the same poll gave him an overall approval rating of 43 percent? Not necessarily. [NBC News]
A cross tab provided to HuffPollster by the NBC/WSJ poll shows that roughly a third of those who approve of Obama's job performance also describe their overall feelings as something less than satisfied, indicating the sense of unease that extends to many many Democrats. Yet virtually all of Obama's unhappy approvers choose to describe their feelings as "mixed" rather than "disappointed" or "dissatisfied," suggesting that the partisan polarization that has kept Obama's approval ratings hovering in the mid 40 percent range for much of his presidency may keep them in that range going forward.
GOP HAS HIGHER INTRAPARTY DISSATISFACTION - Julie Bykowicz, writing on a Bloomberg poll released earlier this week: "Republicans are three times more likely than Democrats to dislike their own political candidates, the latest indication of an intra-party power struggle that will play out in primary elections next year. Forty-one percent of Republicans say they are unsatisfied with the party’s choices for president and Congress, while 14 percent of Democrats are unhappy with their party picks, according to the Bloomberg National Poll. Republicans are also more inclined to view their party unfavorably than their Democratic counterparts, and are twice as likely to blame their partisan colleagues for dysfunction in Congress….The Tea Party’s image is at a record low since the poll began measuring it in March 2010 after the activists burst onto the political scene in 2009 to oppose passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. " [Bloomberg]
HUFFPOLLSTER VIA EMAIL! - You can receive this daily update every weekday via email! Just enter your email address in the box on the upper right corner of this page, and click "sign up." That's all there is to it (and you can unsubscribe anytime).
THURSDAY'S 'OUTLIERS' - Links to more news at the intersection of polling, politics and political data:
-42 percent of Americans prefer "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays; 46 percent say it doesn't matter. [Pew Research]
-Clinton and Christie would run neck-and-neck in 2016. [Marist]
-Bruce Drake reviews the polls since Newtown, finds little change in views on guns. [Pew Research]
-Frank Newport considers Pope Francis in light of survey results on whether Americans consider religion relevant to today’s problems. [Gallup]
-Jamelle Bouie says demography is not destiny for the GOP. [Democracy Journal]
-Sean Trende looks at the Senate seats most likely to flip in 2014. [Real Clear Politics]
-A Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund/Democracy Corps(D) survey shows Americans favor implementing and fixing Obamacare over repealing and replacing it. [WVWV]
-Stan Greenberg (D) advises Democrats to go on the offense on Obamacare. [WaPost's Plum Line]
-Glen Bolger (R) urges Republicans "to stop being the dysfunctional equivalent of the Washington Redskins.” [WaPost]Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has gone public with his quest to acquire LeBron James.
In an interview this week posted on CNNMoney.com, Cuban expressed his interest in James as a free agent and said that the NBA star needs to play in a place where he trusts the organization.
If James does not reach an agreement with the Cavaliers by July 1, he would become an unrestricted free agent.
"Come July 1st, yeah, of course, anybody would be interested in LeBron James, and if he leaves via free agency, then it's going to be tough," Cuban said. "If he does like I'm guessing, hoping he will, which is say, 'I'm not going to leave the Cavs high and dry,' if he decides to leave -- there's still a better chance he stays -- then he'll try to force a sign-and-trade, and that gives us a chance."
Cuban's comments could fall under the NBA's tampering rules, although he dismissed that notion Thursday. In 2008, the league sent a memo to the 30 NBA teams detailing specific guidelines when discussing potential free agents with the media.
The memo read: "If a member of your organization is asked by the media about a potential free agent prior to the July 1 following the last season covered by the player's contract, or about any other person under contract with another NBA team, the only proper response is to decline comment."
Penalties outlined in the memo could include suspension, prohibition of the offending team from hiring the person being tampered with, forfeiture of draft picks and individual and/or team fines of up to $5 million.
Asked if he believes James will stay in Cleveland or sign with New York or elsewhere, Cuban said:
"I don't know, don't know. What I do know about LeBron in the minimal time I've spent talking to him is he just wants to win. Money's not his issue. He needs to be some place where he trusts the organization. And look, [owner] Dan Gilbert in Cleveland did everything he possibly could, that's just the way the game works. If there was a template that we all could follow, we'd all have championship rings."
Cuban said Thursday that he is not concerned that his comments could be construed as tampering by the league.
"No. It's not tampering. Not even close," Cuban replied via e-mail.
NBA spokesperson Tim Frank said Thursday that the league is looking into Cuban's comments.
Dallas' interest in pursuing a sign-and-trade deal for James has been the subject of speculation for months, but Cuban's comments are believed to be his first public acknowledgment of that plan.
Jeff Caplan covers the Mavericks for ESPNDallas.com. You can follow him on Twitter or leave a question for his weekly mailbag. ESPNDallas.com's Tim MacMahon contributed to this report.Did you just get an e-mail from Twitter letting you know that your account had been locked? You’re not alone — not at all.
There seems to be a MASSIVE spike in the number of users complaining about their accounts being locked right now.
It’s unclear whether this is intentional on Twitter’s part, or if it’s an automated tool getting a bit overzealous.
Update: It was the latter. Twitter is currently working on the issue.
Many users are assuming it’s because they “follow back” — meaning they quickly (and generally automatically) follow anyone who follows them. Done right, it’s a way to boost your follow count in a mostly artificial and arguably useless way.
Others, however, argue that they’ve done nothing wrong — they just tweet a lot.
The email from Twitter to users says that each locked account “appears to have exhibited automated behavior that violates the Twitter Rules,” and that the lock was put in place to “protect Twitter from unauthorized logins.”
Given the recent increase in high-profile account hijackings of late — including that of Twitter’s own CFO, Anthony Noto — it’s likely that Twitter is hastily toiling away at its automated account-moderation tools. Crank the sensitivity too high too fast, and it’s easy to imagine lots of not-so-guilty accounts getting pulled in and locked by mistake.
We’ve reached out to Twitter for insight into what’s going on and will update this post if we hear back.
Update: Twitter writes:
We are aware of an issue where some users are unable to Tweet and have received a notice telling them they’ve been locked out. Our engineers are currently investigating”
Update #2: Roughly an hour after the first locks hit, Twitter tells us the issue should be fixed. We’re still seeing reports of lock-outs trickle in, but they should start tapering off.Big freeze in Europe shows no signs of letting up as Venice's famous waterways ice over
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The big freeze shows no sign of letting up in Europe as Venice's famed waterways fell victim to sub zero temperatures this morning.
Water buses were stranded in some of the Italian city's canals after they froze solid in temperatures as low as -10C.
More than 60,000 homes were left without power in Milan and officials declared a gas supply emergency as the cold temperatures saw pipes burst.
Chilly attraction: A small passenger boat makes its way through ice on a Venice canal as temperatures dropped to -10C
Big freeze: A water bus makes slow progress of the ice-choked canals in the picturesque Italian city No go for gondolas: A view of the frozen north lagoon in Venice Ice breaker: Another boat struggles along a lagoon in Venice. In nearby Milan, more than 60,000 homes were left without power and officials declared a gas supply emergency A woman strolls down the street in the center of Skopje, capital of The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Winter wonderland: The frozen canals of Amsterdam became a giant playground as residents cycle, skate and walk along the ice Making use: People skate across frozen canals in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which have been closed to commercial shipping Team effort: Dutch volunteers clear of the snow from the ice floor of the frozen river the Luts in Balk, north Netherlands
Seemply freezing: Two meerkats at London Zoo get to grips with the snowy conditions
Bath time: Two Ukrainian men take a dip in an ice hole in the Dnipro river in Kiev
Countries across Europe have been battling a severe cold snap for the last two weeks, with schools closed, public transport ground to a halt and snow melt threatening flooding to built up areas.
Another four people were killed by floods in southern Bulgaria, with 10 people still missing authorities said today, after a dam collapsed.
Temperatures have plummeted as low as -36C in Ukraine, the hardest-hit country, with hundreds of people - many homeless - reported to have died across Europe.
Last night, the Serbian government declared a state of emergency, after intense snowfall. Emergency officials said 70,000 people were cut off.
Schools will also be closed in the Italian capital of Rome on Tuesday, as Italy copes with unusually heavy snow for the Mediterranean country.
Rescue: A man is evacuated in Biser, southern Bulgaria, after a dam wall broke and flooded the town
Iced in: People walk along the promenade on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, as a 4x4 stands completely covered by ice Slippy: A woman walks on the frozen waterside of the boardwalk of the Lake Geneva, in Gland, Switzerland
Mush! A competitor speeds through the snow with his Siberian huskies during a dog race in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany
One for the album: A tourist takes a picture of the Bartholdi fountain in Lyon, eastern France
Snow covered alpine houses on the mayen Lafet, 1,855 metres above sea level in the canton of Grisons, eastern Switzerland
So far, ten deaths have been linked to winter weather, including two people who were crushed under a collapsed roof south of Rome, and a 91-year-old woman in the northeast port of Trieste who was knocked down by strong winds.
In Bosnia, hundreds of villages were stuck behind snowed-in roads and avalanches and authorities were using helicopters to evacuate the sick and deliver food. Authorities said they have had no contact for 72 hours with about 120 people in the central village of Zijemlja, where residents have no electricity or phone lines.
In Poland, the Interior Ministry reported Monday that nine people died of hypothermia over the past 24 hours. Two elderly people were found frozen in Serbia and Bosnia, and Croatia reported four snow-related deaths.
Ukraine's Emergency Situation Ministry said today the country's death toll now stands at 135, including many homeless people. Some 2,000 have been hospitalized for frostbite or hypothermia, it said.
In the Netherlands, however, Europe's deep freeze means the country's almost mythical 'Eleven Cities Tour' ice skating marathon could be staged later this month for the first time in 15 years.
Thick ice covers of the anchor of a ferry ship making her way among ice-floes floating in River Danube in Budapest, Hungary
Unseasonably cold: Even Algeria, in north Africa, has borne the brunt of the freezing weather with rare snowfall A rare visit from Mr frosty: Two women walk past a snowman in Algiers, Algeria. Meteorology reports suggest that the last time Algiers saw this amount of snow was at least seven years ago in 2005
Cut off: An isolated village is surrounded by heavy snowfall in Bosnia and Herzegovinia. Hundreds of people have been killed as temperatures plummeted as low as -36C in Eastern Europe
A man walks past snow-covered trees on top of the 1,493-meter-high Feldberg mountain in the southern German Black Forest region
The race, held along a 125-mile network of canals connecting 11 towns and cities in Friesland province, would cause a national frenzy, drawing thousands of participants and more than a million spectators. It was last held in 1997.
Treacherous conditions threatened Britain's return to work today as the weekend snow that blanketed the country turned to ice, striking at transport on road, rail and in the air.
While thousands ventured outside to enjoy the snow at the weekend, the onset of the working week is likely to bring widespread disruption with problems reported on the roads, railways, at airports and even on the ground as people struggle with icy pavements.
On the roads the RAC today said it had had the busiest February weekend in its history, with 41 per cent more calls than usual, while the worst overnight problems saw a 25-mile long stretch of the A1 closed after a series of accidents that included four jack-knifed lorries. The A27 is also partly closed this afternoon after a serious crash involving three vehicles.
Icicles hang from a roof in Hochfilzen, in the Austrian province of Tyrol
Frozen: King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, perform a 41-gun salute to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Queen's accession in the snow in Hyde Park, London
Monument: York Minister surrounded by snow. Britain has also been hit by snow as flights were cancelled at Heathrow and roads were blocked
In the air, Heathrow airport passengers were enraged that just three inches of snow led the third busiest airport in the world to cancel half of its flights over the weekend. However, the airport issued a statement this afternoon which read: 'We're operating a normal schedule today. Please continue to check your flight status with your airline.'
A Downing Street spokesman said the return to normal service was a victory for the airport's snow plan following major disruption in December 2010, when the Spanish-owned airport authority BAA was heavily criticised by an inquiry for its ‘low state of preparedness’ as thousands of passengers were stranded.BARCELONA—While I'm certainly not a prude, I still found it somewhat unnerving to strap a Galaxy Gear VR headset to my face and watch some porn while sitting in a cafe surrounded by dozens of other people. It was kind of like when you watch porn with friends, "for a laugh," but exponentially more awkward. What is the etiquette of watching porn in public, exactly?
As I watch the three actors (yes, of course, the first VR clip is a threesome) do their stuff, I find myself wondering about my responsibilities as a tech journalist. How do you objectively review some VR porn? "This is just another gizmo that you're putting through its paces, Seb. Focus on the tech. Focus on the big-picture stuff, the long-term repercussions of millions of people watching VR porn in their bedrooms. Don't stare directly into the—oh shit, too late. It's coming right at me! Oh no! Aiiiiiiieee..."
VR porn is really quite something
You will probably be unsurprised to hear that VR porn is awesome. It's like porn, but better. The porn I was sampling—made by Naughty America—was essentially a standard first-person-perspective film, but with the ability to look around. Unlike some VR experiences that are just two-dimensional 360-degree panoramas, Naughty America's porn is stereoscopic; stuff actually sticks out, or comes flying at you. You really do want to reach out and touch things.
I watched three different scenes as I sat there in the cafe. In all three of them, "I" (a male actor) was reclining on some kind of sofa, looking down at my muscular physique and giant appendage. In some scenes, other people did things to me—in other scenes, I was much more proactive.
To be honest, it was a bit weird, looking down and seeing someone else's body. But, after a few minutes of watching, I began to feel a sense of agency; I began to feel that yes, those rippling muscles were mine; I began to feel that it was me being tended to by two other beautiful people.
And of course, just as I was starting to get into it, the demo ended and I found myself back in the real world, being grinned at by a couple of guys from Naughty America. "Pretty cool, eh?"
All I can do is nod. Why did the demo have to end so soon?
Tumescent tech
Right now Naughty America's films only allow for a 180-degree field of view, primarily because a standard porn scene doesn't require anything greater, but also because it's technologically quite challenging as well. Different varieties of porn—orgies and the like—would require a 360-degree field of view, but it doesn't seem that Naughty America is working on that just yet.
When I asked Ian Paul, the company's CIO, about how they actually film the VR scenes, he refused to tell me anything. "I can't give away anything right now." Basically, according to Paul, it's quite hard to shoot a 3D VR film from an actor's perspective, and lots of porn studios are currently trying to find the optimal setup. "Some of our early efforts weren't as good. It's much better now," he said. I tried to get some tech details out of him, but he really wouldn't budge. My guess would be some kind of head-mounted camera, or perhaps something around the actor's neck.
Paul said that one of the difficulties with the VR process is that the director can't immediately see the output from the VR camera rig; they have to finish filming, get the footage onto a computer, and then check it out. Another thing: in all of Naughty America's VR videos, the camera viewpoint was fixed: it didn't move around at all. Presumably this is another technical issue that'll need to be ironed out before the studio can produce more adventurous, free-roaming porn.
How do you distribute VR porn?
Right now, if you want to watch some VR porn, you have to download a file to your smartphone, slot it into some kind of virtual reality device (Gear VR, Google Cardboard), and press play. The files aren't small, either: about 4GB for a 45-minute film (and obviously, a 360-degree film would be even larger). Each playback device needs a slightly different file, too. We're a few years away from some kind of standardised VR film format, I expect.
Naughty America would love to distribute its VR porn through other channels, of course, but at the moment Samsung won't allow adult content onto its Gear VR store. "We're hoping Samsung will see the light," Paul said. That's actually the main reason Paul is at Mobile World Congress: to see if Samsung's arm can be twisted.
In the meantime, though, manually downloading VR porn probably won't be too much of a barrier. I expect most VR early adopters will be PC gaming types who have no problem sideloading a video.
If you have a VR headset and want to try out some VR porn, you have a couple of options: find some free VR porn by doing some googling, or sign up for a free trial at Naughty America and give it a whirl. The company currently has about 30 VR films for your delectation.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and buy a VR headset.
Update: We now have a guide to buying the best VR headset. If you can't choose between Gear VR, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, or Oculus Rift, check it out.By The Associated Press | Posted - Aug 4th, 2014 @ 10:56am
NEW YORK (AP) — A 9-year-old boy who got separated from his family at the Central Park Zoo says being lost for two hours in New York City was the greatest day of his life.
The Daily News reports that Chris Villavicencio of Union City, New Jersey, got separated from his parents and younger sister Saturday afternoon.
He left the zoo and wandered around Times Square until police found him at the Port Authority Bus Terminal more than a mile away.
Meanwhile, the boy's panicked parents reported him missing to police in Central Park.
When the family was reunited, Chris's father clutched him tightly and wept.
The boy told the Daily News, "This was the greatest day of my life because this was the first day I was at the police station!"
___
Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
×Has it dawned on anyone in higher education that situations like this are setting back race relations? Or is that the whole point?
From Truth Revolt:
White Students Blocked from Lounge Designated as ‘Sanctuary’ for Blacks
A cafe/lounge at American University, a private institution in Washington, D.C., was designated a “sanctuary” for black students and white students were barred from entering.
According to The College Fix, The Bridge Cafe was only opened six weeks ago as “a community space that student organizations can use however they would like,” including open-mic nights and slam poetry. But because of an incident two weeks ago, black student activists issued a demand list to the administration and got them to agree to make the cafe their own private “sanctuary” for the rest of the spring semester.
The incident in question involved bananas with “Harambe” and the name of a black sorority written on them hanging from nooses in a couple of places on campus. That gave the student activists enough leverage to issue strong demands to Provost Scott Bass, which included three things:Grover Norquist isn’t happy with the Defunders. The Americans for Tax Reform president told reporters today that they have a lot of apologies to make and bridges to re-build.
“It’d be a good idea if they stopped referring to other Republicans as Hitler appeasers because they opposed the strategy they put forward which failed,” Norquist says. “I think if you make a mistake as big as what they did, you owe your fellow senators and congressmen a big apology — and your constituents, as well, because nothing they did advanced the cause of repealing or dismantling Obamacare.”
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Norquist refrained from naming the specific people who he thinks owe apologies to the rest of the conservative movement, but his reference is transparent — during his lengthy floor speech, Senator Ted Cruz said Republicans who supported a CR that would fund Obamacare were comparable to Neville Chamberlain.
Norquist adds that the defund effort has hurt its proponents’ goals.
“They hurt the conservative movement, they hurt people’s health care, they hurt the country’s
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our findings for Australia/Oceania, hoping for reader feedback on additional studies or alternative interpretations. Up to now we have identified 15 study locations in the region (Figs. 1 and 14). Red symbols on the map mark studies where the MWP was characterized by a warming phase, green dots show areas which were wetter during the MWP, yellow dots regions where the MWP saw a reduction in rainfall.
At first sight, green symbols dominate Australia and New Caledonia, indicating that the MWP brought additional rain into the region, compared to proceeding and subsequent times (Fig. 1). This also includes Hawaii (Fig. 14). Temperature reconstructions are only available in the southernmost temperate part of Australia and New Zealand. All available studies show a prominent warming during the MWP (red dots). No studies were found in which the MWP would have been colder than the climate before or afterwards.
Figure 1: Studies covering the MWP in Australia/Oceania that are included in the MWP Online Map and are discussed in this article.
1. Cave KNI-51, Ningbing Range, eastern Kimberley region
Denniston et al. 2013 in Quaternary Science Reviews
The study covers the last 9,000 years and is based on delta18O isotopes in stalagmites. A strong increase in monsoon precipitation was found for 1000-1200 AD, corresponding to the Medieval Warm Period (Fig. 2).
Figure 2. Delta18O isotopes in stalagmites in Cave KNI-51, Ningbing Range, eastern Kimberley region, Australia. From Denniston et al. 2013.
2. Swamps on the Atherton Tableland in north Queensland
Burrows et al. 2014 in The Holocene
The study covers the last 4,000 years and is based on peat humification, lithostratigraphy and magnetic susceptibility. A series of wet phases occurred during 900-1400 AD (Fig. 3). The climate was drier before (Dark Ages Cold Period) and after (Little Ice Age) this phase.
Figure 3. Proxy records of wet phases in Bromfield Swamp, north Queensland. From Burrows et al. 2014.
3. Fournier Swamp, New Caledonia
Wirrmann et al. 2011 in Quaternary Research
The study covers the last 7000 years and is based on pollens and foraminifera. A wet phase is documented for 920-1250 AD, preceded and followed by dry phases.
4. Lake Callabonna
Cohen et al. 2011 in Geology
Cohen et al. 2012 in Quaternary Science Review
Gliganic et al. 2014 in The Holocene
The studies cover the last 50,000 years and feature a paleoshoreline chronology, dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages. Cohen et al. 2011 and 2012 found a major pluvial / wet episode in southern central Australia between 1050-1100 AD associated with the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, that briefly interrupts a generally arid playa-dominated period. During this pluvial interval, Lake Callabonna filled to 10-12 times the volume of the largest historical filling (1974) and reached maximum depths of 4-5 m, compared to the 0.5-1.0 m achieved today. Also Gliganic et al. 2014 found an elevated lake level, centred around 1000 AD (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4. Lake-filling curve for Lake Callabonna. From Gliganic et al. 2014.
5. Blue Lake
Gouramanis et al. 2010 in Paleo3
Climate reconstruction of the past 6000 years based on ostracod assemblages, stable isotope (delta13C, delta18O), Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca and Na/Ca analyses on ostracod valves. The Lake level begins to rise 1000 AD with peak lake filling reached 1300 AD (Fig. 5). High lake level indicates wet phase. Subsequent fall of lake level.
Fig. 5 Modelled lake level for Blue Lake, South Australia. From Gouramanis et al. 2010.
6. Lake Surprise, Victoria
Barr 2010 in a PhD thesis at the University of Adelaide (unpublished elsewhere?)
The study covers the last 15000 years and is based on diatom flora and diatom conductivity (high values=arid, low values=humid). Barr found a series of droughts 680-1400 AD (with a wet interlude 800-900 AD). Wet conditions 1400-1900 AD were associated with Little Ice Age. This is the only study from Australia/Oceania so far that found a drying trend during the MWP in the region. Nearby studies #5 and #7 did not find similar droughts. We are not aware that the results from Barr 2010 have been published in a peer-reviewed journal, therefore interpretations have to be treated with caution.
7. Lake Keilambete
Wilkins et al. 2013 in The Holocene
The study covers the last 10,000 years and looks at lake levels reconstructed from sediment particle size and ostracod valve chemistry (delta18O and Sr/Ca). A major phase of lake filling, i.e. wet phase was found for 1000-1300 AD (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Lake level history of Lake Keilambete, South Australia. From Wilkins et al. 2013.
8. Core MD03-2611, Murray Canyon, S-Australia
Moros et al. 2009 in Quaternary Science Reviews
The study covers the last 10,000 years and looks at delta18O in foraminifera. A warm period prevailed 1000-1600 AD, flanked by cold events 600 AD (Cold Period of the Migration Period) and 1600 AD onwards (Little Ice Age).
Fig. 7. Oxygen isotope curve as temperature proxy for the last 10.000 years for foraminifera in a sedimentary core from Murray Canyon, South Australia. From Moros et al. 2009.
9. Mt. Read, western Tasmania
Cook et al. 2000 in Climate Dynamics
The study covers the last 3500 years and is based on tree rings which allowed reconstruction of warm season temperatures. A warm phase occurred 950-1500 AD, followed by Little Ice age cold phase (Fig. 8).
Fig. 8. Warm season temperature development for Mt. Read in western Tasmania, reconstructed based on tree rings. From Cook et al. 2000.
10. Fiordland, New Zealand (Aurora, Doubtful Xanadu, Waiau, and Calcite Caves)
Lorrey et al. 2008 in Quaternary International
The study covers the last 4000 years and is based on delta18O in stalagmites. A warm phase was found for 900-1400 AD (with a short cool phase 1150-1250 AD) (Fig. 9).
Fig. 9. Oxygen isotope curve for cave stalagmites in Fjordland, New Zealand. From Lorrey et al. 2008.
11. Oroko Swamp, New Zeland
Cook et al. 2002 in the Geophysical Research Letters
The study covers the last 1100 years and reconstructs summer temperatures based on tree rings. A warm phase has been reported for 950-1500 AD, with a short cold interlude 1000-1050 AD (Fig. 10). A cold phase 1500-1800 AD corresponds to the Little Ice Age.
Fig. 10. Summer temperatures in Oroko Swamp, New Zealand. From Cook et al. 2002.
12. Cave in NW Nelson District, South Island, New Zealand
Wilson et al. 1979 in Nature
The study covers the last 900 years and is based on delta18O isotopes in stalagmites. The authors report a warm phase 1000 AD (start of data set) to 1400 AD (Fig. 11). Subsequent cooling towards Little Ice Age, with brief renewed warming episode centred around 1500 AD.
Fig. 11. Oxygen isotope curve for a cave in NW Nelson District, South Island, New Zealand. From Wilson et al. 1979.
13. Caves in Waimoto district, North Island
Williams et al. 2004 in The Holocene
The study covers the last 12,000 years and is based on d13C and d18O isotopes in stalagmites. The authors report a warm phase 1000-1550 AD, peaking around 1250 AD (Fig. 12). Subsequent to 1550 AD, significant cooling occurred associated with the Little Ice Age.
Fig. 12. Oxygen isotope development in cave stalagmites in Waimoto district, North Island. From Williams et al. 2004.
14. Hawkes Bay (Disbelief and Te Reinga Caves)
Lorrey et al. 2008 in Quaternary International
The study covers the last 4000 years and is based on delta18O in cave stalagmites. A warm phase occurred 750-1250 AD (Fig. 13).
Fig. 13. Oxygen isotope development in Disbelief and Te Reinga Caves in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. From Lorrey et al. 2008.
15. Kealia Pond, Maui Island, Hawaii
Pau et al. 2012 in Annals of the Association of American Geographers
The study covers the last 2600 years and is based on palynology, charcoal, and sedimentological analysis of a lake sediment core. The authors report a wet phase 850-1200 AD, plus subsequent short wet spikes around 1350 AD and 1550 AD (Fig. 15). Climate was more arid during other times.
Fig. 14. Location of the Hawaiian Kealia Pond study by Pau et al. 2012.
Fig. 15. Precipitation evolution in Kealia Pond, Maui Island, Hawaii. From Pau et al. 2012.
Previous regional syntheses
The PAGES 2k Consortium (2013) has recently published a climate reconstruction on a nearly global basis where they present a clear warming for the Medieval Warm Period in Australasia, followed by cooling of the Little Ice Age and warming of the Modern Warm Period (Fig. 16). Closer inspection of the database shows, however, that only a very small number of studies have been used from Australia/Oceania that actually reached back to MWP times. Results therefore need to be treated with caution.
Fig. 16. Temperature reconstruction on a continent basis for the past 2000 years, as proposed by PAGES 2k Consortium (2013).
Conclusions
The existing studies document, that the MWP is clearly developed in Australia/Oceania. Temperatures have been elevated 950-1500 AD, with only short cooler interludes. Clear subsequent cooling is reported towards the Little Ice Age. Renewed warming occurred during ramp-up towards Modern Warm Period. There is currently no basis to say that the Modern Warm Period might be much warmer than the MWP in the region.
The MWP Mapping Project
The MWP Mapping Project is supported by crowd funding and has now reached a funding level of nearly 50%. If you like what you see, you may consider supporting us with a donation, small or large, which will allow us to reach our funding target and complete this important project. More information here.
The author would be very interested in any reader suggestions, additional literature from the region or alternative interpretations. Contact Email here.
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RedditTony Perkins, president of anti-LGBTQ group Family Research Council and radio host, advised yesterday that Christians “bear in mind” the “biblical truth” that marriage is between a man and woman before attending the wedding of a gay couple.
Yesterday, the day before lawyers delivered arguments in the Supreme Court case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Civil Rights Commission, which could set a legal precedent regarding whether businesses can deny services to patrons based on their sexual orientation, Perkins answered calls from listeners and discussed the significance of the case. One caller asked whether it was imperative that Christians do not attend same-sex weddings or if Christians should be compassionate toward gay people.
“I get the whole argument about love—‘we just need to show love.’ Sometimes expressing love is standing for truth, and I think we could lull people into a false sense of security by simply going along with what is culturally acceptable in some circles,” Perkins said.
He continued, “Now, I’m not going to tell people across the board you shouldn’t go. I haven’t gone that far. I would tell people to be very prayerful about it, but I personally—it’s not something I could do. I don’t think it would be a good representation, people knowing very clearly my stand on biblical truth, and I think other Christians need to bear that in mind as well.”Color television is a television transmission technology that includes information on the color of the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It is an improvement on the earliest television technology, monochrome or black and white television, in which the image is displayed in shades of gray (grayscale). Television broadcasting stations and networks in most parts of the world upgraded from black and white to color transmission in the 1970s and 1980s. The invention of color television standards is an important part of the history of television, and it is described in the technology of television article.
Transmission of color images using mechanical scanners had been conceived as early as the 1880s. A practical demonstration of mechanically-scanned color television was given by John Logie Baird in 1928, but the limitations of a mechanical system were apparent even then. Development of electronic scanning and display made an all-electronic system possible. Early monochrome transmission standards were developed prior to the Second World War, but civilian electronics developments were frozen during much of the war. In August 1944, Baird gave the world's first demonstration of a practical fully electronic color television display. In the United States, commercially competing color standards were developed, finally resulting in the NTSC standard for color that retained compatibility with the prior monochrome system. Although the NTSC color standard was proclaimed in 1953 and limited programming became available, it was not until the early 1970s that color television in North America outsold black and white or monochrome units. Color broadcasting in Europe was not standardized on the PAL and SECAM formats until the 1960s.
Broadcasters began to switch from analog color television technology to digital television around 2006. This changeover is now complete in many countries, but analog television is still the standard elsewhere.
Development [ edit ]
The human eye's detection system, which is in the retina, consists primarily of two types of light detectors: rod cells that capture light, dark, and shapes/figures, and the cone cells that detect color. A typical retina contains 120 million rods and 4.5 million to 6 million cones, which are divided among three groups that are sensitive to red, green, and blue light. This means that the eye has far more resolution in brightness, or "luminance", than in color. However, post-processing of the optic nerve and other portions of the human visual system combine the information from the rods and cones to re-create what appears to be a high-resolution color image.
The eye has limited bandwidth to the rest of the visual system, estimated at just under 8 Mbit/s.[1] This manifests itself in a number of ways, but the most important in terms of producing moving images is the way that a series of still images displayed in quick succession will appear to be continuous smooth motion. This illusion starts to work at about 16 frame/s, and common motion pictures use 24 frame/s. Television, using power from the electrical grid, tunes its rate in order to avoid interference with the alternating current being supplied – in North America, some Central and South American countries, Taiwan, Korea, part of Japan, the Philippines, and a few other countries, this is 60 video fields per second to match the 60 Hz power, while in most other countries it is 50 fields per second to match the 50 Hz power.
In its most basic form, a color broadcast can be created by broadcasting three monochrome images, one each in the three colors of red, green, and blue (RGB). When displayed together or in rapid succession, these images will blend together to produce a full-color image as seen by the viewer. One of the great technical challenges of introducing color broadcast television was the desire to conserve bandwidth, potentially three times that of the existing black-and-white standards, and not use an excessive amount of radio spectrum. In the United States, after considerable research, the National Television Systems Committee[2] approved an all-electronic system developed by RCA which encoded the color information separately from the brightness information and greatly reduced the resolution of the color information in order to conserve bandwidth. The brightness image remained compatible with existing black-and-white television sets at slightly reduced resolution, while color televisions could decode the extra information in the signal and produce a limited-resolution color display. The higher resolution black-and-white and lower resolution color images combine in the eye to produce a seemingly high-resolution color image. The NTSC standard represented a major technical achievement.
Early television [ edit ]
Experiments in television systems using radio broadcasts date to the 19th century, but it was not until the 20th century that advances in electronics and light detectors made development practical. A key problem was the need to convert a 2D image into a "1D" radio signal; some form of image scanning was needed to make this work. Early systems generally used a device known as a "Nipkow disk", which was a spinning disk with a series of holes punched in it that caused a spot to scan across and down the image. A single photodetector behind the disk captured the image brightness at any given spot, which was converted into a radio signal and broadcast. A similar disk was used at the receiver side, with a light source behind the disk instead of a detector.
A number of such systems were being used experimentally in the 1920s. The best-known was John Logie Baird's, which was actually used for regular public broadcasting in Britain for several years. Indeed, Baird's system was demonstrated to members of the Royal Institution in London in 1926 in what is generally recognized as the first demonstration of a true, working television system.[3][4] In spite of these early successes, all mechanical television systems shared a number of serious problems. Being mechanically driven, perfect synchronization of the sending and receiving discs was not easy to ensure, and irregularities could result in major image distortion. Another problem was that the image was scanned within a small, roughly rectangular area of the disk's surface, so that larger, higher-resolution displays required increasingly unwieldy disks and smaller holes that produced increasingly dim images. Rotating drums bearing small mirrors set at progressively greater angles proved more practical than Nipkow discs for high-resolution mechanical scanning, allowing images of 240 lines and more to be produced, but such delicate, high-precision optical components were not commercially practical for home receivers.[citation needed]
It was clear to a number of developers that a completely electronic scanning system would be superior, and that the scanning could be achieved in a vacuum tube via electrostatic or magnetic means. Converting this concept into a usable system took years of development and several independent advances. The two key advances were Philo Farnsworth's electronic scanning system, and Vladimir Zworykin's Iconoscope camera. The Iconoscope, based on Kálmán Tihanyi's early patents, superseded the Farnsworth-system. With these systems, the BBC began regularly scheduled black-and-white television broadcasts in 1936, but these were shut down again with the start of World War II in 1939. In this time thousands of television sets had been sold. The receivers developed for this program, notably those from Pye Ltd., played a key role in the development of radar.
By 22 March 1935, 180-line black-and-white television programs were being broadcast from the Paul Nipkow TV station in Berlin. In 1936, under the guidance of "Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda" Joseph Goebbels, direct transmissions from fifteen mobile units at the Olympic Games in Berlin were transmitted to selected small television houses (Fernsehstuben) in Berlin and Hamburg.
In 1941, the first NTSC meetings produced a single standard for US broadcasts. US television broadcasts began in earnest in the immediate post-war era, and by 1950 there were 6 million televisions in the United States.[5]
All-mechanical color [ edit ]
The basic idea of using three monochrome images to produce a color image had been experimented with almost as soon as black-and-white televisions had first been built.
Among the earliest published proposals for television was one by Maurice Le Blanc in 1880 for a color system, including the first mentions in television literature of line and frame scanning, although he gave no practical details.[6] Polish inventor Jan Szczepanik patented a color television system in 1897, using a selenium photoelectric cell at the transmitter and an electromagnet controlling an oscillating mirror and a moving prism at the receiver. But his system contained no means of analyzing the spectrum of colors at the transmitting end, and could not have worked as he described it.[7] An Armenian inventor, Hovannes Adamian, also experimented with color television as early as 1907. The first color television project is claimed by him,[8] and was patented in Germany on March 31, 1908, patent number 197183, then in Britain, on April 1, 1908, patent number 7219,[9] in France (patent number 390326) and in Russia in 1910 (patent number 17912).[10]
Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the world's first color transmission on July 3, 1928, using scanning discs at the transmitting and receiving ends with three spirals of apertures, each spiral with filters of a different primary color; and three light sources, controlled by the signal, at the receiving end, with a commutator to alternate their illumination.[11] The demonstration was of a young girl wearing different colored hats. The girl, Noele Gordon, later became a TV actress in the soap opera Crossroads.[12][13] Baird also made the world's first color broadcast on February 4, 1938, sending a mechanically scanned 120-line image from Baird's Crystal Palace studios to a projection screen at London's Dominion Theatre.[14]
Mechanically scanned color television was also demonstrated by Bell Laboratories in June 1929 using three complete systems of photoelectric cells, amplifiers, glow-tubes, and color filters, with a series of mirrors to superimpose the red, green, and blue images into one full color image.
Hybrid systems [ edit ]
As was the case with black-and-white television, an electronic means of scanning would be superior to the mechanical systems like Baird's. The obvious solution on the broadcast end would be to use three conventional Iconoscopes with colored filters in front of them to produce an RGB signal. Using three separate tubes each looking at the same scene would produce slight differences in parallax between the frames, so in practice a single lens was used with a mirror or prism system to separate the colors for the separate tubes. Each tube captured a complete frame and the signal was converted into radio in a fashion essentially identical to the existing black-and-white systems.
The problem with this approach was there was no simple way to recombine them on the receiver end. If each image was sent at the same time on different frequencies, the images would have to be "stacked" somehow on the display, in real time. The simplest way to do this would be to reverse the system used in the camera: arrange three separate black-and-white displays behind colored filters and then optically combine their images using mirrors or prisms onto a suitable screen, like frosted glass. RCA built just such a system in order to present the first electronically scanned color television demonstration on February 5, 1940, privately shown to members of the US Federal Communications Commission at the RCA plant in Camden, New Jersey.[15] This system, however, suffered from the twin problems of costing at least three times as much as a conventional black-and-white set, as well as having very dim pictures, the result of the fairly low illumination given off by tubes of the era. Projection systems of this sort would become common decades later, however, with improvements in technology.
Another solution would be to use a single screen, but break it up into a pattern of closely spaced colored phosphors instead of an even coating of white. Three receivers would be used, each sending its output to a separate electron gun, aimed at its colored phosphor. Although obvious, this solution was not practical. The electron guns used in monochrome televisions had limited resolution, and if one wanted to retain the resolution of existing monochrome displays, the guns would have to focus on individual dots three times smaller. This was beyond the state of the art.
Instead, a number of hybrid solutions were developed that combined a conventional monochrome display with a colored disk or mirror. In these systems the three colored images were sent one after each other, in either complete frames in the "field-sequential color system", or for each line in the "line-sequential" system. In both cases a colored filter was rotated in front of the display in sync with the broadcast. Since three separate images were being sent in sequence, if they used existing monochrome radio signaling standards they would have an effective refresh rate of only 20 fields, or 10 frames, a second, well into the region where flicker would become visible. In order to avoid this, these systems increased the frame rate considerably, making the signal incompatible with existing monochrome standards.
The first practical example of this sort of system was again pioneered by John Logie Baird. In 1940 he publicly demonstrated a color television combining a traditional black-and-white display with a rotating colored disk. This device was very "deep", but was later improved with a mirror folding the light path into an entirely practical device resembling a large conventional console.[16] However, Baird was not happy with the design, and as early as 1944 had commented to a British government committee that a fully electronic device would be better.
In 1939, Hungarian engineer Peter Carl Goldmark introduced an electro-mechanical system while at CBS, which contained an Iconoscope sensor. The CBS field-sequential color system was partly mechanical, with a disc made of red, blue, and green filters spinning inside the television camera at 1,200 rpm, and a similar disc spinning in synchronization in front of the cathode ray tube inside the receiver set.[17] The system was first demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on August 29, 1940, and shown to the press on September 4.[18][19][20][21]
CBS began experimental color field tests using film as early as August 28, 1940, and live cameras by November 12.[22] NBC (owned by RCA) made its first field test of color television on February 20, 1941. CBS began daily color field tests on June 1, 1941.[23] These color systems were not compatible with existing black-and-white television sets, and as no color television sets were available to the public at this time, viewing of the color field tests was restricted to RCA and CBS engineers and the invited press. The War Production Board halted the manufacture of television and radio equipment for civilian use from April 22, 1942 to August 20, 1945, limiting any opportunity to introduce color television to the general public.[24][25]
Fully electronic [ edit ]
This live image of Paddy Naismith was used to demonstrate John Logie Baird's first all-electronic color television system, which used two projection CRTs. The two-color image would be similar to the basic telechrome system.
As early as 1940, Baird had started work on a fully electronic system he called the "Telechrome". Early Telechrome devices used two electron guns aimed at either side of a phosphor plate. The phosphor was patterned so the electrons from the guns only fell on one side of the patterning or the other. Using cyan and magenta phosphors, a reasonable limited-color image could be obtained. He also demonstrated the same system using monochrome signals to produce a 3D image (called "stereoscopic" at the time). Baird's demonstration on August 16, 1944 was the first example of a practical color television system.[26] Work on the Telechrome continued and plans were made to introduce a three-gun version for full color. However, Baird's untimely death in 1946 ended development of the Telechrome system.[27][28]
Similar concepts were common through the 1940s and 50s, differing primarily in the way they re-combined the colors generated by the three guns. The Geer tube was similar to Baird's concept, but used small pyramids with the phosphors deposited on their outside faces, instead of Baird's 3D patterning on a flat surface. The Penetron used three layers of phosphor on top of each other and increased the power of the beam to reach the upper layers when drawing those colors. The Chromatron used a set of focusing wires to select the colored phosphors arranged in vertical stripes on the tube.
FCC color [ edit ]
In the immediate post-war era the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was inundated with requests to set up new television stations. Worrying about congestion of the limited number of channels available, the FCC put a moratorium on all new licenses in 1948 while considering the problem. A solution was immediately forthcoming; rapid development of radio receiver electronics during the war had opened a wide band of higher frequencies to practical use, and the FCC set aside a large section of these new UHF bands for television broadcast. At the time, black and white television broadcasting was still in its infancy in the U.S., and the FCC started to look at ways of using this newly available bandwidth for color broadcasts. Since no existing television would be able to tune in these stations, they were free to pick an incompatible system and allow the older VHF channels to die off over time.
The FCC called for technical demonstrations of color systems in 1948, and the Joint Technical Advisory Committee (JTAC) was formed to study them. CBS displayed improved versions of its original design, now using a single 6 MHz channel (like the existing black-and-white signals) at 144 fields per second and 405 lines of resolution. Color Television Inc. demonstrated its line-sequential system, while Philco demonstrated a dot-sequential system based on its beam-index tube-based "Apple" tube technology. Of the entrants, the CBS system was by far the best-developed, and won head-to-head testing every time.
While the meetings were taking place it was widely known within the industry that RCA was working on a dot-sequential system that was compatible with existing black-and-white broadcasts, but RCA declined to demonstrate it during the first series of meetings. Just before the JTAC presented its findings, on August 25, 1949, RCA broke its silence and introduced its system as well. The JTAC still recommended the CBS system, and after the resolution of an ensuing RCA lawsuit, color broadcasts using the CBS system started on June 25, 1951. By this point the market had changed dramatically; when color was first being considered in 1948 there were fewer than a million television sets in the U.S., but by 1951 there were well over 10 million. The idea that the VHF band could be allowed to "die" was no longer practical.
During its campaign for FCC approval, CBS gave the first demonstrations of color television to the general public, showing an hour of color programs daily Mondays through Saturdays, beginning January 12, 1950, and running for the remainder of the month, over WOIC in Washington, D.C., where the programs could be viewed on eight 16-inch color receivers in a public building.[29] Due to high public demand, the broadcasts were resumed February 13–21, with several evening programs added.[30] CBS initiated a limited schedule of color broadcasts from its New York station WCBS-TV Mondays to Saturdays beginning November 14, 1950, making ten color receivers available for the viewing public.[31][32] All were broadcast using the single color camera that CBS owned.[33] The New York broadcasts were extended by coaxial cable to Philadelphia's WCAU-TV beginning December 13,[34] and to Chicago on January 10,[35][36] making them the first network color broadcasts.
After a series of hearings beginning in September 1949, the FCC found the RCA and CTI systems fraught with technical problems, inaccurate color reproduction, and expensive equipment, and so formally approved the CBS system as the U.S. color broadcasting standard on October 11, 1950. An unsuccessful lawsuit by RCA delayed the first commercial network broadcast in color until June 25, 1951, when a musical variety special titled simply Premiere was shown over a network of five East Coast CBS affiliates.[37] Viewing was again restricted: the program could not be seen on black-and-white sets, and Variety estimated that only thirty prototype color receivers were available in the New York area.[38] Regular color broadcasts began that same week with the daytime series The World Is Yours and Modern Homemakers.
While the CBS color broadcasting schedule gradually expanded to twelve hours per week (but never into prime time),[39] and the color network expanded to eleven affiliates as far west as Chicago,[40] its commercial success was doomed by the lack of color receivers necessary to watch the programs, the refusal of television manufacturers to create adapter mechanisms for their existing black-and-white sets,[41] and the unwillingness of advertisers to sponsor broadcasts seen by almost no one. CBS had bought a television manufacturer in April,[42] and in September 1951, production began on the only CBS-Columbia color television model, with the first color sets reaching retail stores on September 28.[43][44] But it was too little, too late. Only 200 sets had been shipped, and only 100 sold, when CBS discontinued its color television system on October 20, 1951, ostensibly by request of the National Production Authority for the duration of the Korean War, and bought back all the CBS color sets it could to prevent lawsuits by disappointed customers.[45][46] RCA chairman David Sarnoff later charged that the NPA's order had come "out of a situation artificially created by one company to solve its own perplexing problems" because CBS had been unsuccessful in its color venture.[47]
Compatible color [ edit ]
While the FCC was holding its JTAC meetings, development was taking place on a number of systems allowing true simultaneous color broadcasts, "dot-sequential color systems". Unlike the hybrid systems, dot-sequential televisions used a signal very similar to existing black-and-white broadcasts, with the intensity of every dot on the screen being sent in succession.
In 1938 Georges Valensi demonstrated an encoding scheme that would allow color broadcasts to be encoded so they could be picked up on existing black-and-white sets as well. In his system the output of the three camera tubes were re-combined to produce a single "luminance" value that was very similar to a monochrome signal and could be broadcast on the existing VHF frequencies. The color information was encoded in a separate "chrominance" signal, consisting of two separate signals, the original blue signal minus the luminance (B'–Y'), and red-luma (R'–Y'). These signals could then be broadcast separately on a different frequency; a monochrome set would tune in only the luminance signal on the VHF band, while color televisions would tune in both the luminance and chrominance on two different frequencies, and apply the reverse transforms to retrieve the original RGB signal. The downside to this approach is that it required a major boost in bandwidth use, something the FCC was interested in avoiding.
RCA used Valensi's concept as the basis of all of its developments, believing it to be the only proper solution to the broadcast problem. However, RCA's early sets using mirrors and other projection systems all suffered from image and color quality problems, and were easily bested by CBS's hybrid system. But solutions to these problems were in the pipeline, and RCA in particular was investing massive sums (later estimated at $100 million) to develop a usable dot-sequential tube. RCA was beaten to the punch by the Geer tube, which used three B&W tubes aimed at different faces of colored pyramids to produce a color image. All-electronic systems included the Chromatron, Penetron and beam-index tube that were being developed by various companies. While investigating all of these, RCA's teams quickly started focusing on the shadow mask system.
In July 1938 the shadow mask color television was patented by Werner Flechsig (1900–1981) in Germany, and was demonstrated at the International radio exhibition Berlin in 1939. Most CRT color televisions used today are based on this technology. His solution to the problem of focusing the electron guns on the tiny colored dots was one of brute-force; a metal sheet with holes punched in it allowed the beams to reach the screen only when they were properly aligned over the dots. Three separate guns were aimed at the holes from slightly different angles, and when their beams passed through the holes the angles caused them to separate again and hit the individual spots a short distance away on the back of the screen. The downside to this approach was that the mask cut off the vast majority of the beam energy, allowing it to hit the screen only 15% of the time, requiring a massive increase in beam power to produce acceptable image brightness.
In spite of these problems in both the broadcast and display systems, RCA pressed ahead with development and was ready for a second assault on the standards by 1950.
Second NTSC [ edit ]
The possibility of a compatible color broadcast system was so compelling that the NTSC decided to re-form, and held a second series of meetings starting in January 1950. Having only recently selected the CBS system, the FCC heavily opposed the NTSC's efforts. One of the FCC Commissioners, R. F. Jones, went so far as to assert that the engineers testifying in favor of a compatible system were "in a conspiracy against the public interest".
Unlike the FCC approach where a standard was simply selected from the existing candidates, the NTSC would produce a board that was considerably more pro-active in
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coal when many experts say that most fossil fuels should remain buried to avert the most disastrous effects of climate change.
But the administration has resisted calls from governors in Washington and Oregon to evaluate and disclose such global fallout, saying that if the U.S. didn't supply the coal, another country would.
SEN. MCCONNELL: Obama on 'jihad' against coal
WATCHDOG EARTH: No additional coal plant closures expected from EPA rule
SENATE 2014: Alison Grimes visits underground coal mine
White House officials say U.S. coal has a negligible global footprint and reducing coal's use worldwide is the best way to ease global warming. The U.S. in 2012 accounted for 9 percent of worldwide coal exports, the latest data available.
"There may be a very marginal increase in coal exports caused by our climate policies," said Rick Duke, Obama's deputy climate adviser, in an interview. "Given that coal supply is widely available from many sources, our time is better spent working on leading toward a global commitment to cut carbon pollution on the demand side."
Carbon dioxide, regardless of where it enters the atmosphere, contributes to the sea level rise and in some cases severe weather in the U.S. and the world.
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THEY AGREE?: McConnell, Grimes decry proposed coal rules
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'DUMB-ALL POLICY': Greg Stumbo blasts Obama coal plan
Changing the global system to account for production would carry political risks, especially for the U.S., which is trying to boost production of energy and exports even as it addresses global warming.
Over the past six years, as the U.S. cut coal consumption by 195 million tons, about 20 percent of that coal was shipped overseas, according to an AP analysis of Energy Department data.
Less coal being burned here has helped the power sector reduce carbon emissions by 12 percent and left more U.S. coal in the ground. But a growing share is finding its way abroad.
Analyses suggest U.S. exports could be reducing by half or wiping out completely the pollution savings in the U.S. from switching power plants from coal to natural gas
The nexus of the challenge can be found in and around Norfolk, Va., which exports more coal than any other place in the U.S. and is already experiencing one of the country's fastest rates of sea level rise.
When the Prime Lilly, a massive cargo ship, set sail from Norfolk recently, its 80,000 tons of coal were destined for power plants and factories in South America. The 228,800 tons of carbon dioxide contained in that coal disappeared from America's pollution ledger. But they still pollute the planet.
It's a planet hungry for American coal. U.S. exports to Germany have more than doubled since 2008, providing a cheaper alternative to cleaner-burning natural gas and a replacement for nuclear power, which is being phased out after Japan's nuclear accident.
Last year, Germany's carbon dioxide emissions grew by 1.2 percent, in large part because the country burned more coal.
German environmental officials say the recent boom in coal-fired power is making it harder for the country to meet its climate-protection goals, even as it has increased renewable energy and participates in a carbon market that has lowered emissions throughout Europe.
Activists partly blame the U.S. "This is a classic case of political greenwashing," said Dirk Jansen, a spokesman for BUND, a German environmental group. "Obama pretties up his own climate balance, but it doesn't help the global climate at all if Obama's carbon dioxide is coming out of chimneys in Germany."
CLOSE McConnell and Grimes both say new carbon emissions standards proposed by the EPA would hurt Kentucky. Joseph Gerth, The Courier-Journal
Kentucky, Indiana coal numbers
• Kentucky ranked third, Indiana seventh in U.S. coal production, 2012.
• Kentucky's share of U.S. coal exports, 2011: 7 percent.
• Indiana's share of U.S. coal exports, 2011, 1 percent.
• Indiana coal production dropped 1.9 percent from 2011 to 2012.
• Kentucky's coal production dropped 16.5 percent from 2011 to 2012.
It dropped 30 percent between 2007 and 2013, even as production in
Western Kentucky has been increasing since 2001.
Sources: U.S. Energy Information Agency; Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet;
"U.S. Coal Exports: National and State Economic Contributions," a report prepared by
Ernst & Young for the National Mining Association.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Being poor and trying to raise children is stressful on a host of levels, but it’s especially tough for people who can’t afford diapers. New research from Yale University’s school of medicine finds that depressed, low-income mothers might need Pampers far more than they need Prozac. The study found that women who lack an adequate supply of diapers for their babies are more likely to report symptoms of depression and anxiety than other low-income mothers. Maternal depression and mental health problems, the researchers say, can have longterm and debilitating effects on children’s well-being and their performance in school.
The researchers, who have been studying mothers in a Connecticut low-income housing project, found that the lack of an adequate supply of diapers was a better predictor of a mother’s mental health need than even food insecurity. The average baby needs between eight and 10 diapers a day, at a cost of around $120 a month, according to the DC Diaper Bank, a nonprofit that provides free diapers to poor families in DC. But Yale researchers found women who were trying to stretch a single diaper for an entire day, thanks in part to their lack of cash and the high price of the products in their neighborhoods. Not only does a diaper shortage lead to mental health problems in the mother, it’s also been directly linked to child abuse. After all, a wet, smelly baby is a very unhappy baby, and one likely to have a raging case of diaper rash to boot.
In a way, the study seems like a no-brainer: Of course not being able to buy diapers is stressful! But the study has special relevance for American poverty policy. Since 1994, when the nation ended welfare as we know it, the safety net has become increasingly organized around food stamps, not cash grants, for poor mothers. You can’t buy diapers with food stamps.
Very few low-income families are able to get cold hard cash from government safety net programs, as they did before welfare was “reformed.” Today, only about 4 million Americans receive benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF), compared with 14 million in 1996, even though the poverty rate is higher today than it was back then. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, of every 100 families with children in poverty today, only 27 receive any form of TANF benefits, compared with 68 in 1996. Those who do get some cash are getting far less of it, as the monthly benefits—never large to begin with—have fallen as much as 30 percent since welfare reform began. In 14 states, a family of three receives less than $300 a month.
Not surprisingly, the program no longer lifts many kids out of deep poverty (defined as living at below 50 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $9700 per year for a family of three). In 1995, the program kept 2.2 million kids out of deep poverty, about 62 percent of the kids at risk of those dire circumstances. By 2005, that number had fallen to about 650,000—just 21 percent of the children at risk for deep poverty.
All those figures mean that far fewer poor moms can afford diapers, and that one factor is now linked to a significant and also avoidable problem with long-term implications for the nation’s poor children. The irony, too, is that by changing federal policy to make it impossible for poor women to buy the critical things they need to care for their babies, policymakers have also inadvertently made it difficult for poor women to go to work or receive work training, one of the key goals of the ’94 welfare overhaul. That’s because child care providers won’t take poor women’s children if they can’t provide an adequate supply of diapers.
In the wake of welfare reform, nonprofits like the DC Diaper Bank have sprung up to try to distribute free diapers through neighborhood service organizations and other programs that serve low-income moms. It’s not nearly as effective as having a better national poverty policy, but a good idea nonetheless. You can find a local one and ways to donate here.Buffalo Airways is a family-run airline based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, established in 1970. Buffalo Airways was launched by Bob Gauchie[3][4] and later sold to one of his pilots, Joe McBryan (aka "Buffalo Joe"). It operates scheduled passenger, charter passenger, charter cargo, firefighting, and fuel services. Its main base is at Yellowknife Airport (CYZF). It has two other bases at Hay River/Merlyn Carter Airport (CYHY) and Red Deer Regional Airport (CYQF). The Red Deer base is the main storage and maintenance facility.[5] The airline is also the subject of the History television reality series Ice Pilots NWT.
Clothing company, television show, and media [ edit ]
In 2007, Buffalo Airways began producing a clothing line that included T-shirts, hoodies, and hats. With the introduction of the Canwest Global (now Shaw Media) television show Ice Pilots NWT, Buffalo has expanded its clothing company to feature over 30 products and launched a full service product website called BuffaloAirWear.com. The show, which is produced by Omnifilm Entertainment and shown on History, features the day-to-day operations at Buffalo Airways.[6][7]
Buffalo School of Aviation's Fleet Canuck
Yellowknife base of Buffalo Air
In 2011, Buffalo Airways was involved in a recreation of the historic Dam Busters raids of World War II, flying the mission, with their own plane and pilots. Buffalo dropped an inert reproduction of the 'Upkeep' bouncing bomb from their Douglas DC-4. The project was documented in the television show Dambusters Fly Again in Canada, Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb in the UK, and Nova season 39 episode "Bombing Hitler's Dams" in the US. A behind-the-scenes look was also filmed in the Ice Pilots NWT season 3 episode 2 show "Dambusters".[8][9][10][11][12][13]
In 2012, Arctic Air, a Canadian aviation drama, used Buffalo Airways hangar as a backdrop for scenes in the show. During a tour of Buffalo Airway's hangar, given by Mikey McBryan the Director of Operations, he explained how the TV show used tarps to cover the Buffalo Airways insignia.[14]
On 27 July 2012, Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden, flew up from Edmonton to Yellowknife with Buffalo Airways. On 28 July, Dickinson, who holds an Airline Transport Pilot Licence, flew a Douglas DC-3 to Yellowknife and spent a day as a guest star for a season five episode.[15]
Buffalo Air Express [ edit ]
Buffalo operates a courier service as Buffalo Air Express which started in 1982-1983. It offers service throughout the Northwest Territories (NWT) and Northern Alberta. In association with Global Interline Network it can ship around the world from bases in Yellowknife, Edmonton and Hay River.[16][17]
Firefighting [ edit ]
The first DC-3 bought by "Buffalo Joe"
Under contract for the NWT Government, Buffalo Airways operate and maintain aircraft used in the aerial firefighting program. Aircraft include both bird dog and waterbombers. The waterbombers are assisted by smaller aircraft known as "bird dogs" which are used to help spot wildfires as well as guide waterbombers during operations
Current water bomber aircraft include eight amphibious Air Tractor 802 Fireboss and two specially converted Lockheed L-188 Electra. Bird Dog aircraft include the Gulfstream/Rockwell 690, and the Beech King Air.[17][18][19][20]
Former aircraft used include the amphibious Canadair CL-215, the Douglas C-54/DC-4, and the Canso PBY-5.
Buffalo School of Aviation [ edit ]
Buffalo's aviation school offers an aircraft maintenance engineer program and several other courses. According to Transport Canada listings, it has three aircraft, two are single-engine fixed wing, an Aeronca Champion and a Fleet Canuck, the third a helicopter is a Robinson R22. The Buffalo website also lists a Bell 206 helicopter and a Beech 90 King Air.[1][18]
Destinations [ edit ]
The airline operated scheduled passenger services between Hay River and Yellowknife from August 1986 until November 2015. However, due to the suspension of the Air Operator Certificate scheduled service was replaced in December 2015, when the company chartered aircraft to make the run. The charter service was cancelled 24 December. As of 10 March 2016 Buffalo were working on restoring the service, which they expected to have running by the summer. It carried over 186,000 passengers from 1986 to 2015.[19][20] Scheduled cargo services transport supplies from Yellowknife to Deline, Fort Good Hope, Norman Wells, and Tulita under contract with the Government of the Northwest Territories. The service also includes an airport shuttle and a medical transfer bus. Buffalo also offers charters on their passenger aircraft across Canada and also offers cargo charters.[21]
Fleet [ edit ]
As of December 2016, according to Transport Canada the Buffalo Airways fleet numbered 46, with three more aircraft registered to the Buffalo School of Aviation.[1] In addition the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had one aircraft registered to Buffalo Airways USA.[2]
The Buffalo Airways web site lists a Canso[28] and is listed, since 2013, by Transport Canada as being owned by Exploits Valley Air Services.[29]
KG330 (C-GWZS) [ edit ]
This Buffalo Airways DC-3 flew on D-Day dropping paratroopers over Normandy as part of 512 Squadron. KG330 left RAF Broadwell for Operation Tonga at precisely 23:15. It would have been part of 'C' flight as it crossed the English Channel towards its drop zone. The exact location for the drop was 3 mi (4.8 km) inland between Cabourg and Ouistreham just north of the heavily defended city of Caen. It would be dropping the 9th Parachute Battalion as part of the 6th Airborne Division. The paratroopers it was dropping were sent to destroy a heavy coastal battery and to position themselves on the canal between Caen and the port at Ouistreham. The coastal defence had earlier been successfully bombed by 100 Avro Lancaster bombers of RAF Bomber Command. The visibility is said to have been good, no casualties were reported and the aircraft returned to base at 03:35.[30][31][32]
Air Operator Certificate [ edit ]
On 30 November 2015, Transport Canada suspended Buffalo Airway's Air Operator Certificate, citing the airline's poor safety record. This prohibited Buffalo Airways from operating commercial air services, until it could prove that it is capable of meeting all safety regulations on a consistent basis.[33] Service was maintained using chartered aircraft.[34] On 12 January 2016, the licence was reinstated.[35]
Accidents and incidents [ edit ]
Buffalo Airways has nine accidents listed by the Aviation Safety Network, none of which had any fatalities.[36] In addition to the Aviation Safety network, there are two more reported incidents that were investigated by the Transportation Board of Canada. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is an independent agency that advances transportation safety by investigating occurrences in the marine, pipeline, rail and air modes of transportation.
See also [ edit ]
Era Alaska - another airline with a reality TV show based on itA house bombed in Gaza. Ronen Zvulun, Reuters, 26 July 2014
From 8 July 2014, when the recent bout of fighting in Gaza began, through 10 August 2014, at least 1,767 residents of the Gaza Strips were killed. This according to initial figures B'Tselem collected in the course of the fighting. This number includes 431 individuals under the age of 18 (including one of whom it is known that he took part in the hostilities); 200 women under the age of 60; and 85men and women over 60.
To the best of B'Tselem's knowledge, at least 70 residential buildings were bombed or shelled, with three or more relatives from a single family killed in each case. A total of 542 persons, mostly minors and women, were killed in these 70 homes: 242 minors; 126 women under the age of 60; and 25 men and women over 60.
Airstrikes on homes formed a major part of the policy implemented by the Israeli military from the start of this bout of fighting in Gaza. The scope of these airstrikes as well as the length of time that they persisted indicate that they were likely authorized by senior military and political officials, and were also granted advance sanction by the Military Advocate General Corps and the Ministry of Justice.
As part of that policy, homes were bombed every day, more and more civilians were killed and entire families were obliterated. Even compared to previous bouts of fighting in Gaza, the number and frequency of incidents this time around was unusually high, with many people killed each time, mostly civilians who did not take part in the hostilities. For instance, on 20 July 2014 an airstrike on a building in Bani Suheila – a neighborhood northeast of Khan Yunis – killed 26 people from the Abu Jame' family, including 19 minors and five women; the bombing of a residential buildings on 26 July 2014 killed 20 members of the a-Najar family, including 12 minors, six women, and a 60-year-old man; an airstrike on an apartment building in Khan Yunis on 29 July 2014 killed 35 people from four families – including 18 minors and eight women.
Nevertheless, to date – either during the fighting or subsequently – no official Israeli authority has troubled to offer an explanation for so many civilian fatalities, except with regard to a few cases in which an explanation was demanded by international bodies. It may be that the government and military consider these results reasonable and proportionate, or perhaps they see no need to explain to the public how and why so many people were killed in Gaza. Be that as it may, their silence implies that such extensive harm to civilians is seen as legitimate.
The grave consequences lend a hollow ring to Israel's repeated claims that it has no intention of harming civilians. The massive bombardments of civilian locations were the rule rather than the exception in the last operation, routinely killing dozens of people a day. Whoever authorized the strikes must have known that they would result in many civilian fatalities, yet the bombardments continued day after day and even intensified. Authorizing attacks from the air, sea and artillery fire at heavily populated civilian areas and specific homes, constitutes willfully ignoring the inevitable killing of civilians – men, women and children – who did not take part on in the hostilities.
But Hamas is to blame – right?
Israeli officials – military and otherwise – repeatedly state that the military is doing all it possibly can to minimize harm to civilians. However, they argue, Hamas is endangering the lives of the civilian population, and is therefore solely responsible for the consequences of Israel’s actions: people killed, injured or displaced, and homes and infrastructure ruined.
In this vein, in response to a joint letter by several human rights organizations, including B'Tselem, the Israeli Attorney General wrote on 5 August 2004 to Att. Tamar Feldman of Israeli NGO ACRI (Association for Civil Rights in Israel) that Israel is committed to upholding the law, but "terrorist organizations make cynical, criminal use of the civilian population as human shields in the face of IDF activity. In this reality, unfortunately, even legal, proportionate attacks carried out in keeping with international law may cause unintentional and unwanted harm to civilians and civilian property". Similarly, Israeli Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said in a press conference on 6 August 2014 that "the result in Gaza has been devastation, and the tragic blame lies with Hamas leaders, who operated from within concentrations of population".
Hamas did, indeed, violate international humanitarian law (IHL) during the fighting: its operatives fired at civilians and civilian locations within Israel, concealed weapons in civilian buildings and institutions in the Gaza Strip, and even fired from locations close to civilian structures or from within such structures. In doing so, Hamas endangered civilians within Gaza, forcing the civilian population to be a part of the sphere of fighting. Such conduct is unlawful, as B'Tselem has repeatedly stated and wishes to underscore once more.
However, Israel is wrong in shirking responsibility for the consequences of its actions and in laying them at Hamas' door. Israel and Hamas are each responsible for their own actions. The Israeli premise is faulty, on legal, factual and moral grounds:
From a legal standpoint, IHL – which stipulates rules of war for exactly such circumstances – actions during hostilities are not dependent on "reciprocity": one party's breach of the law does not give the other party carte blanche to do so. Israel is well aware of this issue. Therefore, along with depositing responsibility at Hamas’ doorstep, Israeli states it carefully abides by IHL. Those statements, however, issued by government and military officials, do not hold water:
Israel states that all the attacks on Gaza were only aimed at military targets – yet it defines "military target" so broadly that the term loses all meaning. In the last operation, the term came to encompass civilian buildings, such as the family homes of Hamas military operatives. This violates the fundamental IHL principle of distinction.
Israel states that all its strikes in Gaza were proportionate, and that the fact that civilians were killed does not in itself contradict that. Yet after dozens of strikes, each killing many uninvolved civilians, while Israel did not prove or even claim military gains significant enough to render such damage proportionate, this argument is no longer tenable. This conduct violates another central tenet of IHL – the principle of proportionality.
Israel states that the military warned residents in Gaza prior to attacks – but issuing warnings is not enough in itself. True, hundreds of thousands of Gazans – including children, the elderly and sick individuals – were given warning that they should leave their homes. Yet, if there is nowhere to go, when there in not always enough time to complete the evacuation, and when traveling is unsafe – as many Gazans reported in recent weeks – it is unreasonable to expect the entire civilian population to evacuate. Indeed, many civilians did not leave their homes, either for fear or because they could not. Under such circumstances, Israel should not have assumed that all civilians have indeed left their homes and fully heeded its warnings.
IHL places important restrictions on combatants, in order to minimize harm to civilians. While Israel argues that it operates within these parameters, in actuality it shifts them to its convenience, ignoring accepted interpretations of the law. The practical implication is sending the military to act in accordance with an unlawful policy, inevitably resulting in extensive damage to civilians in Gaza.
As for the facts: Israel did not bomb only those places that it claims Hamas used for military activity but also civilian locations, including dozens of homes with families in them, killing many civilians. As yet, the military has not provided proof that it attacked only targets used by Hamas' military branch. Unlike previous incidents, almost no attempt has been made to explain the high civilian death toll. Instead, officials made only general claims about Hamas' conduct and published footage of several instances in which Hamas concealed rockets at civilian sites, instances in themselves of unacceptable and unlawful conduct.
Morally: because civilians have paid a terrible price for this policy. Initial data gathered during the operation indicate that in four weeks of bombardment and shelling, more than 600 minors, women, and men over 60 were killed. It is certain that none of these persons took part in the hostilities nor did they threaten Israeli civilians or targets. Almost half a million people (more than a quarter of Gaza's populace) were displaced on short notice, leaving behind all most of their belongings. It is unclear how many of them will have homes to return to. This is the direct result of the policy led by senior Israeli officials, who considered it a legitimate response to rocket fire into Israel and the threat of infiltration into Israel via tunnels. These officials must have had the capacity to predict such grave consequences, and the moral responsibility for choosing this course of action lies with them.
Hamas does fire at civilians, does operate within its own civilian populace, and does conceal weapons in civilian locations. These actions are breaches of the law and Hamas must be held accountable for such violations. However, Hamas’ responsibility does not absolve Israel of responsibility for its own actions. Hamas is not – and cannot be – responsible for the extreme damage that Israel caused civilians in Gaza. Holding Hamas responsible for Israel's actions is tantamount to freeing Israel of any restrictions in its response, no matter how horrendous, to violations of the law by Hamas. This position is unjustifiable, either morally or legally: the responsibility for the harsh consequences of Israel's policy in the last month lies with Israel's government and top military commanders who authorized it, despite the foreseeable horrific results.To describe their past relationship as frosty would be kind.
Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, who will campaign together in Florida on Tuesday in Miami, were two rising Democratic stars who reached the peak of national prominence in the reflected sunshine of Bill Clinton. Together, they gave the flawed Arkansas Governor the moral backing to survive his own political career.
Story Continued Below
But they fought for influence within the White House. And after leaving, they were in competition for their party’s money and attention as they pursued their political ambitions outside.
For Clinton, the journey she began in 2000 with her successful run for New York Senate is what set her on the path to where she finds herself now -- roughly a month from Election Day, and leading her Republican rival by a substantial margin. For Gore, the 2000 election -- which he lost after the Supreme Court decided to discontinue the Florida recount -- marked an unbelievable ending to a career in politics and a retreat from political life.
This year, Gore, now a Nobel peace prize winner and a leading voice on climate change, was one of the last big-name Democrats to stay mum on the 2016 election. He declined to offer an endorsement in the primary, and quietly issued a written statement in support of Clinton before the Democratic National Convention last July -- which he did notably not attend.
The campaign has been highlighting in web commercials its “squad,” which includes President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But until now, Gore has remained far, far away from that in-crowd.
On Tuesday, however, Gore will break his silence and help his former rival achieve his onetime dream when he joins Clinton in Southern Florida for a voter registration rally.
Gore no longer has the political stature -- and he never had the natural skills on the stump -- to be a closer in the same way that President Obama or the popular First Lady are performing for Clinton. But his participation in politics is rare and it becomes more valuable because of it -- in addition to the symbolism he carries. Gore's appearance alone in South Florida, the site of the 2000 recount, will be a powerful reminder to voters in the critical battleground state that every vote matters.
It was not clear if Gore plans to make an explicit mention of Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate from 2000 who many blame for costing him the election. But his presence alone will be a reminder to voters who may consider peeling off to vote for candidates like this year’s Green Party nominee Jill Stein or Libertarian Gary Johnson, both of whom are siphoning votes from Clinton, according to polls.
“Vice President Gore knows more than anyone how every vote matters,” said Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon. “We have long felt that a good number of those who are right now telling pollsters that they’re inclined to support a third party candidate are still persuadable voters to us. Among the many voters that he can speak to are those that might be on the fence about potentially voting for a third party candidate.”
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta -- who played a central role pushing President Obama’s most aggressive environmental policies and has worked with Gore on climate change issues -- reached out to Gore’s camp on behalf of Hillary Clinton, an aide said.
Gore will also be making the case about climate change, an issue that motivates millennial voters, especially in Florida, the state with the most property and the biggest population currently at risk from rising sea levels.
“He’s seen as a kind of prophet, a truth teller, especially with millennials, about an issue they care about,” said Democratic strategist Robert Shrum, who helped guide Gore’s 2000 presidential bid. “He thinks Donald Trump is a big deal and electing Hillary Clinton is essential to making any progress on climate change.”
Gore might be there to enliven the youngest voters, but for the boomer generation, the tableau of the two aging Democrats will also bring back memories of the 1990s, two days after Donald Trump revisited the decade by bringing up the sex scandals of Bill Clinton’s past at the second presidential debate.
And it was in large part because of those scandals that Gore tried to cut ties with the Clintons when he launched his presidential campaign in 1999, and initiated what became a famously strained relationship.
That year, Bill Clinton wanted Gore to run, essentially, for a third Clinton term. But Gore’s team decided a connection to the scandal-tarred president would be a problem in the battleground states and chose to run away from Bill Clinton instead. Gore announced his presidential run on June 16, 1999, in Tennessee, when the Clinton family was vacationing in Europe. The morning when Gore was set to accept his party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, Bill Clinton called up Shrum, Gore’s chief adviser, and asked him to read him the speech. Gore instructed him not to share it with the president -- he had found a different, more populist voice, and didn’t want the heavy-handed Clinton meddling.
Gore’s personal revulsion over the Monica Lewinsky scandal even seeped down into whom he chose as his running mate: Joe Lieberman, who in 1998 took the Senate floor to publicly denounce Bill Clinton’s behavior as “not just inappropriate. It’s immoral.”
In 2000, the big difference between Hillary Clinton and Gore was that she chose to stay connected to her husband, heeding his political advice, while Gore chose to cut the cord with the insulted outgoing president, who felt his vice president needed his help.
But the anger -- Gore was reportedly furious that Bill Clinton had never personally apologized to him for the Lewinsky affair -- wasn’t directed only at the president.
One former White House staffer recalls Gore going “ballistic” that Hillary Clinton would run for Senate in New York while he was running for president, taking away money and oxygen from his campaign. He harbored a deep mistrust of the First Lady, even interpreting her foray into politics as a deliberate move against him, the person she had tried to push out of the sphere of influence and replace as her husband's real no. 2.
Hillary Clinton, in return, was “generally caustic about him,” the former adviser said. The irony of the tension is that Hillary Clinton and Gore appear, on some level, to be cut from the same political cloth. Both are introverts, more comfortable enmeshed in policy details and briefing books than on the campaign trail.
In the years since Gore has retreated from public life, focusing solely on his work around climate change and spending most of his time as chairman of the non-profit Climate Reality Project, he and the Clintons, who have never retreated from public life, have had little to do with each other. They are not in touch on a regular basis, said a political consultant who remains in touch with both. But the relationship, the source said, has matured over the years into mutual respect.
“You’ll hear a message on climate and a message on the importance of voting,” said one former Gore adviser who has been helping to coordinate the appearance. The adviser described Gore as “enthusiastic” about campaigning for Clinton.
But other former White House advisers expressed some skepticism at Gore’s late-stage entry into the game. “He waits until she’s almost dead certain to win the election, after everything is safe?” said one former adviser, speculating that “he doesn’t want there to be open accusations that he didn’t do his best to help elect her against the egregious Donald Trump."
But Gore's team said he was motivated solely by the importance of what's at stake in the election on his driving issue -- Trump has tweeted that climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese. The timing of the former vice president's rally, they said, was designed to pack the most punch.
“He’s eager to speak with Florida voters about the climate crisis and strongly believes that for those who care about solving it, the choice in this election clear,” a Gore spokeswoman, Betsy McManus, said in an email. “With the stakes so high for our country and the planet, he’s very happy to convey that message.”
When the two connect on the campaign trail in Miami, however, longtime Clinton observers will be reading their body language for signs of a thaw. There is no doubt, former aides said, that they are united against a common enemy. But they wondered about the true level of warmth among such big names in the Democratic party, with so much entangled history.
The Clinton campaign said there are no plans for any more joint appearances.While in Colorado last week, my very-cautious daughter did the very-brave thing of trying one of those bungee-jumping contraptions that have popped up at every adventure park on the planet these last few years.
In line in front of her were two boys — brothers, ages 3 and 6. The 3-year-old had bungeed before and was clearly excited; his older was inexperienced and decidedly unexcited. But, with some encouragement from his mom, he overcame his fear and stepped into the bungee harness.
We all watched as the boy sprung up and down for some time, gripping the ropes tightly, but smiling faintly, too, as his mom snapped pictures on her phone. Finally, after a couple of minutes, he signaled that he was finished, stepped out of the harness and joined his mom on a bench nearby.
“You did so great!” his mom said, hugging him. “I’m so proud of you. Did you like it?”
“I hated it,” the little boy told his mom, barely audible.
“No, you didn’t,” she said.
“I hated it,” he repeated in the same voice.
“You were smiling the whole time! You enjoyed it,” his mom insisted.
“I hated it,” he said.
“Stop saying that word. I mean it,” she said.
“I hated it,” he said.
“Don’t say that,” she pleaded. “Your daddy is going to be so proud of you.”
“I hated it,” he said.
Two things American parents do really well are encouraging their kids to try new things and praising them for their bravery. Two things American parents don’t do very well are allowing children their feelings and treating those feelings as important.
And that’s unfortunate.
When we deny our kids’ feelings, we deny them their voices. We let them believe their thoughts, opinions and feelings are not valid. And when kids can’t trust their feelings, or respect them, they are put in a position to question themselves, dislike themselves and hide parts of themselves from others. (All the things that keep therapists in business.)
I’ll be honest: The whole thing with the “hated-it” kid was very funny to watch. He was just so deadpan the whole time; all of us sitting around him had a hard time not giggling. But when his mom said “Your daddy is going to be so proud of you” — almost as consolation for his unhappiness— my stomach sank.
Not only was Mom denying the little guy’s feelings; she also was teaching her son that it’s good to do things he hates as long as Dad is proud of him.
Of course, she was just trying to be honest with her son and encourage his bravery — but, in doing so, she overshadowed what was really important in that moment: meeting her little boy on an emotional level.
So what could she have done instead?
She could have acknowledged his feelings — “Wow, you really didn’t like that! I’m glad you thought to end the ride early.” She could have given him kudos for trying something that scared him — “Great job for giving it a go, buddy! You never would have known you didn’t like it unless you’d tried it.” She might even have given him a little power to boost his self-esteem — “You didn’t enjoy this ride, and your brother did, so why don’t you decide what we do next?”
As for my Maxine, she held on to those ropes for dear life. She smiled, but it was a strained smile, and seemed relieved when the whole thing was over.
“Great job!” I told her. “Did you like it?”
“Kind of,” she said, “but I’m never doing it again.”
I think we, as parents, are very good at encouraging our kids’ bravery; we just need to get better at encouraging their feelings, too.News No 2016 Special Session – What Now for Minnesota United? by Brian Quarstad on 18 August 2016
One step forward – one step back. A day after the St. Paul City Council passed crucial resolutions allowing Minnesota United to start work on their stadium at the bus barn site in St. Paul, the team was thrown a setback on Thursday. There will be no special session of the Minnesota State Legislature in 2016.
“I’ve concluded that after three months of futile effort, I’m not going to call a special session,” said a frustrated Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton on Thursday afternoon.
Dayton had just emerged from what was a final attempt to reconcile differences between the Democrats and Republicans to make way
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in the ledger.
The double spending problem and how the network generates consensus
The transaction cycle
The double spending problem described above is solved by a unique validation process within the network, where each transaction must pass several steps to be verified from the time it’s issued until it’s added to the blockchain. The steps in the transaction cycle are the following:
The sender makes the transaction to the account address of the receiver. This transaction is signed by the sender’s private key (a cryptographic random password) and then broadcasted to the rest of the network Other nodes that are part of the network receive the transaction and validate it, verifying that the signature is valid and that the sender has sufficient funds to make the transfer. The transaction is propagated through the network and added to a pool of verified transactions that haven’t yet been linked to the chain of blocks. Some users secure and validate the network by collecting transactions from the transaction pool and prioritize them according to the ratio given by {fee/(data size)}, putting this transactions into a block, which must be added to a “chain” of blocks where each block is linked with previous one. Now, in order to link a new block to the blockchain, these users must solve a mathematical puzzle by trial and error (imagine trying totally random numbers between 1–9 to find the solution of a Sudoku). This puzzle is solved when the user finds a number (nonce) that when passing it as the input of the puzzle, generates an output with a certain amount of zeros at the beginning of that output that is below a certain target. The more zeros, the greater the difficulty of the puzzle. With the nonce found that solves the puzzle, the user proves that he has done the verification step (i.e. the puzzle has been solved) and the block is then validated. This proof that the puzzle has been solved is known as Proof-of-Work and once done, the user can announce that he has found the solution by broadcasting the block to the network and linking it to the blockchain. The validating user receives a reward in cryptocurrencies by computing the Proof-of-Work. This process is known as mining, while the users who perform this work to solve the puzzle are called miners. Currently, the mining reward is 12.5 BTC for Bitcoin and 5 ETH for Ethereum.
Finally, the chain becomes immutable (unless one malicious actor gets with the majority of the network). For example, to modify a transaction on block 3, you would have to compute the mathematical puzzle again in order to find the nonce for that block and the following ones until you solve the most recent block.
Blockchain Use Cases
So far, the main use cases for blockchain are investing in cryptocurrencies and ICOs, which are the form of capitalization for these new decentralized companies. Nevertheless, there are many other applications that go beyond finances.
In general, there are three main use cases for blockchain applications:
Financial: Cryptocurrencies, ICOs, digital wallets, savings accounts with multi signature, etc. Semi-Financial: Escrow systems, supply chain finance, decentralized marketplaces (OpenBazaar), decentralized prediction markets (Augur), etc. Non Financial: Decentralized storage systems (IPFS and Storj), provenance of goods in the supply chain, decentralize ballots and voting, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), etc.
Conclusion
Blockchain builds trust in a network of users without having to trust the in the individuals thanks to their immutable public ledger, in which each new block committed to the blockchain is linked to its predecessor and also because each node validates the existing transactions going on in the network.
The fact that blockchain cuts down intermediation costs allows use cases to go far beyond financial applications and investments in cryptocurrencies.
I also recommend you to check this blockchain reading list compiled by Ashley Lannquist, consultant at Blockchain at Berkeley.“If man puts his honor first in relying upon himself, knowing himself and applying himself, this in self-reliance, self-assertion, and freedom, he then strives to rid himself of the ignorance which makes a strange impenetrable object a barrier and a hindrance to his self-knowledge.”
-Max Stirner
“The following is a guest post by the Infernal Accountant Mage.”
In modern gaming parlance there’s a lot of talk about “auteur theory;” this is the concept that a single person holds a controlling role over all the creative aspects of a given work. In film, it typically comes up when we discuss filmmakers like David Lynch who are believed to have an indelible impact on productions they’re associated with. In games, it’s a go-to idea when we’re talking about the work of Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear), Fumito Ueda (Shadow of the Colossus), Hidetaka Suehiro (Deadly Premonition) and so on.
When we’re talking about auteur theory in games, it’s often less as a means of understanding a game from an artistic perspective – such that we consider games to be art – and more as a sort of devoted loyalty, something like what a sports fan might feel for their favorite team. It’s not hard to find scathing criticism of Konami’s new entry in the Metal Gear series, Metal Gear Survive, because it won’t have Kojima at the helm. This isn’t to say that there shouldn’t be skepticism or even outright criticism of the concept behind Survive, but outright dismissing a game because it lacks a particular individual on the development team is short-sighted and neglects the collaborative effort involved in the creation of a game. In other words, yes, not only do I believe it’s entirely possible that Metal Gear exist without Kojima, but it’s also possible that good Metal Gear can exist without Kojima.
The point of all this is that while we can’t really discuss Vagrant Story without at least touching on Yasumi Matsuno, whose work certainly played some role into making the game what it would eventually become, we also need to look at the game as a whole without assuming that it was entirely Matsuno’s presence that created it. Matsuno’s work before Vagrant Story included the vaunted Final Fantasy Tactics and its cousins Tactics Ogre and Ogre Battle; he was primarily involved with strategy-RPGs, in other words, games that were seemingly a far cry from the action/turn-based RPG hybrid Vagrant Story.
Hallmarks of these games appear in Vagrant Story regardless, namely a sharp focus on inter-character intrigue and on presenting several different perspectives of events as viewed from different interested parties. If we are to look at Matsuno’s past and future work, I believe that this is the telltale sign of his influence; we later see similar touches in Final Fantasy XII, the 3DS-exclusive Crimson Shroud and even the mobile RPG Terra Battle. These are games that allow for a less strict interpretation of right and wrong; heroes have flaws and at times are only “heroic” because they’re who we happen to be siding with, villains might be redeemed if only the circumstances would allow it, and the world is shrouded in shades of gray. As the framing device of Final Fantasy Tactics shows us, history truly is written by the victors; what we know as “evil” or “wrong” is only seen as such because those who came before us decided that was the case.
The cursed city of Leá Monde, much as the worlds of Ivalice and Valeria before it and Crimson Shroud’s Sun-Gilt Palace of the Rahab after it, is subject to a conflict between multiple factions that are each interested in its exploitation for differing reasons. Backs get stabbed, allegiances are shifted, and the player ends up questioning the motives of each and every character as the story progresses. Indeed, the main theme of Final Fantasy Tactics centers around whether or not an absolute view of morality is effective or desirable (put another way, whether the ends justify the means) as portrayed in the conflict between the idealist protagonist Ramza and his pragmatist friend-turned-rival Delita.
Even outside of Matsuno’s influence, Vagrant Story stands proudly as one of the most esoteric console RPGs to have ever been produced. In a period where party-focused adventures were common and popular, Vagrant Story presents a lone hero whose only companions are his swords, sorcery and wits, and it is these that will see him through rather than the power of friendship; in a genre where young, hot-blooded protagonists were considered vital to appealing to the key demographic of Japanese boys and young men, we control an older, more experienced man with a defined past and a gruff personality. Games of the era were all about bombastic graphical display and simple, easy-to-grasp plots that could easily lead to the next expensive cutscene or summon sequence. Vagrant Story, meanwhile, displays a certain degree of production “zazz” but on the whole aims for a lower-key experience. Your victories come through hard-fought, bloody combat rather than by summoning the biggest, most impressive god that destroys the world in the most complete manner…well, in theory anyway.
When we step into Leá Monde, we step into uncharted territory, particularly if we consider the time at which the game was released. In both the Western and Eastern markets, Vagrant Story would share shelf space with games that would have been considered safer bets by far; Final Fantasy VIII and Chrono Cross were unusual in their own right but had the might of an established franchise behind them, while Final Fantasy IX and The Legend of Dragoon were more immediately accessible titles. This, meanwhile, was a wild card, a game moving in bold new directions without a popular series to back it up. One assumes that many Western players were thankful for the prominence of video game rental stores at the time!
We’re introduced in media res to our hero, Ashley Riot, a Riskbreaker of the Valendia Knights of the Peace, or VKP. He is, in essence, a fantasy take on a special ops agent, a sort of Medieval Solid Snake chosen to undertake the most dangerous missions for the government of the New Valendian Kingdom. In this case he’s sent to address a hostage situation at the manor of Valendian noble Duke Bardorba, who, along with his family, have been taken captive by the cult called Mullenkamp. The situation rapidly deteriorates as Riot meets and is subsequently forced to kill cult leader Sydney Losstarot, the man who will become his rival throughout the game to come.
Sydney’s seeming return from the dead and subsequent conjuring of a wyvern make it clear that more is going on than meets the eye; magic is largely if not completely unknown in this setting, after all. Defeating the beast, Riot and VKP intelligence agent Callo Merlose pursue Sydney to Leá Monde, a forbidden city sealed away for centuries after an cataclysmic earthquake. Meanwhile, the Duke is shown scheming, ordering the manor to be burned despite his family remaining inside and sending an agent of his own to infiltrate the city.
One point to consider is that, in a surprising show of confidence, it’s actually possible to skip through all of the events of the preceding paragraphs despite Riot’s assault on the manor, encounter with Sydney, and battle with the wyvern being playable. A player who mashes away at the Start button will find themselves at the entrance to the Wine Cellars of Leá Monde where the game proper begins, no questions asked. Skippable cutscenes were rare during this era of gaming, presumably because said cutscenes were the result of a sizable portion of any given game’s budget; being able to skip entire playable sections of a game was practically unheard of. Vagrant Story places trust in the player: either they care enough about the plot to take it in of their own volition or they don’t, with the game accepting that if they don’t care then there’s no forcing them to do so and offering a direct route to gameplay instead rather than forcing the issue. This degree of player agency, a rare quality even today, will prove central to Vagrant Story’s gameplay.
The 8-Bit Review
Gameplay: 9/10
Standing at the gate to Leá Monde proper, Riot shrugs off Merlose. “An agent with no combat experience would just be a liability,” he says, stepping into the depths alone. With this, we’re given our first chance to experiment with Vagrant Story’s interface. Ostensibly, this is an action-RPG; you control Ashley in real time, allowing you to run around, clamber up ledges and move boxes. Ashley is able to jump, and the very specific distance and height that he can jump is central to puzzle-solving and navigation as the game progresses. While he’s clearly fit and not wearing much in the way of armor, Ashley’s not an Olympic gymnast, so while he’s easy to move around he’s no Prince of Persia or anything.
Ashley can also sheathe or unsheathe his weapon, essentially determining whether or not he’s ready for battle. Naturally, you’ll want your sword out if baddies are around, but otherwise it’s best to put it away. With a weapon out, Ashley’s mobility is hindered so he can’t grab ledges or move boxes, not to mention that he takes a hit to health, magic and Risk regeneration. Risk, incidentally, is likely to be the most obvious point of confusion for new players, and we can’t really discuss what it means without talking about Vagrant Story’s combat.
Combat in Vagrant Story shifts the gameplay over to a sort of pseudo-turn-based mode, something akin to the system seen in 1998’s Parasite Eve. With a weapon unsheathed, pressing the unsheathe button again will stop time and allow you to select an enemy to attack, as well as where you intend to strike them. Smaller foes, like the bats and wolves you’ll encounter in the Wine Cellars, only have a single body part and therefore you’ll always be aiming for that when you strike. These are a minority, however, and most of your adversaries will be large enough that you’ll have to determine which part of their body you’re going to try and hit.
It’s this targeting system that defines Vagrant Story’s gameplay. This is, in essence, an RPG where you play as a single character whose gear is so central to his abilities that it almost serves as a replacement for the traditional party setup. Ashley and his opponents alike have different degrees of defenses: you have levels of protection against Types of attack (Edge, Piercing and Blunt), against Classes of attacker (Human, Beast, Undead, Dragon, Phantom and Evil) and against elemental Affinities (Physical, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light and Dark). Each part of a character’s body will have different defenses against each of these aspects as well as being more or less difficult to hit, and again, this also applies to Ashley himself.
What’s more, attacking raises Ashley’s Risk level. Risk represents… well, that’s kind of hard to say, but a good comparison might be battle fatigue. You have a baseline of zero Risk and the value will rise slightly each time Ashley swings; as Risk increases, Ashley’s critical hit rate increases slightly as well, but his accuracy and defense drop precipitously as the value climbs toward its maximum of 100. At higher levels of Risk, Ashley is essentially fall-over drunk, incapable of hitting anything or defending himself and taking massive damage from enemy attacks. This can be fatal as soon as several hours into the game. Risk management, therefore, is absolutely vital – you need to make the most of each attack since it’s generating Risk to perform, along with being smart with the use of Risk-reducing items.
Risk is also accrued as Ashley uses Chain Abilities, timed attacks unlocked after the game’s first boss around an hour in. By assigning Chain Abilities to the controller’s face buttons, the player can add additional hits to Ashley’s attacks; these have varying effects, ranging from additional damage to applying status effects to repairing the weapon in use. Defensive Chain Abilities are also available, blunting the damage of attacks, countering enemy status effects and restoring HP or MP on hit. The common factor among all of these is that using Chain Abilities generates Risk, with enormous amounts resulting from extended Chain combo attacks. Being able to do damage without fear of reprisal is all well and good… but if an overzealous player then fails a Chain Ability input, they’re likely to be taken down in a single shot thanks to their enormously inflated Risk.
In practice, the multi-layered defense system and necessity of Risk management mean that hacking and slashing won’t get you very far in Vagrant Story, though the game tries its hardest to make you think otherwise during the first couple hours where you’re mostly fighting lesser beasts and undead. You need to match the right weapon to the right foe. A giant stone Golem encountered shortly into the game is likely to be the first situation where this is driven to the forefront of the player’s consciousness, since the construct’s solid body is extremely resistant to Edge and Piercing attacks. Your swords, daggers, spears and crossbows will do little to no damage against such an opponent, assuming you’re able to land a hit at all. Switch to a club or mace, however, and you’ll find that you’re once again able to do appreciable damage, as well as making informed decisions regarding accuracy vs. damage when determining where to attack.
Later, this is further complicated. Slaying dragons is a dicey proposition in most games, but Vagrant Story takes the strategy required to prevail to another level entirely. Dragons tend to have strong elemental affinities, after all, and have numerous deadly attacks, so you’ll need to fight smart. You might go on the offense by enchanting an Edged weapon with the proper elemental Affinity and aiming for the dragon’s Edge-weak tail, but any fantasy aficionado knows that dragon tails can be deadly weapons in their own right if the creature becomes agitated enough. A more defensive approach is also possible by equipping a Piercing weapon and shield, enchanting Ashley’s armor against the dragon’s elemental Affinity and aiming for the Piercing-weak head; in this case, you’re inviting the dragon’s deadly breath attack, but if you’re able to close the gap and stand beneath its head you can avoid this damage – and the one breath attack you’re likely to have to endure on the way in will be rendered less effective by your shield and enchantments, dulling an otherwise fatal blow.
The system grows even further in complexity as you go on, of course, but to really understand the depth of Vagrant Story’s gameplay we also need to touch on itemization. Ashley, like Solid Snake, is a one-man army for the vast majority of Vagrant Story. He fights alone and relies on his wits and gear to survive. There are no shops in Leá Monde and no currency to concern yourself with. Instead, everything Ashley uses is looted from defeated foes or treasure chests. The lack of an economy means that consumable items are in limited (if not necessarily short) supply, and smart play in order to conserve non-renewable resources is vital – Risk-reducing items, in particular, begin to show their value before long, encouraging the player to ration them out in order to keep their Risk at a reasonable point. The player’s reliance on items to survive lends a bit of roguelike flavor to Vagrant Story, especially when one considers that it’s not possible to just go back to town and purchase more.
This focus on itemization encompasses the function of your equipment as well as the way you obtain it. As mentioned, characters have varying levels of defense on each of their body parts, and for characters who use equipment (including Ashley) that’s what primarily determines those defenses. When it comes to gear, Vagrant Story presents an interesting take on the value of objects with a history. In a sharp contrast with something like Skyrim or World of Warcraft, Vagrant Story believes that your old sword isn’t just a tool to be thrown away when you find an upgrade – it’s a friend that’s served you well through trials and tribulations.
In gameplay terms, this means that gear’s Type, Class and Affinity levels are altered based on how an item is used. For example, swords are typically bladed weapons, dealing damage of the Edge Type when used. A sword that’s often used to slash bats and wolves will grow stronger against the Beast Class and, more slowly, will lose effectiveness against other Classes – this is on a continuum, so a common strategy is to use three weapons, each of which are strong against two Classes that are unlikely to conflict with each other’s development on a weapon such as Human and Phantom. Further, that same sword will gain and lose elemental Affinity based on what it’s used against. The variety of creatures in the cursed city combined with the need to pay attention to Class development on a weapon means that Affinity is typically managed using attachable gems that can provide temporary boosts where necessary as well as Affinity-buffing magic.
Rules are made to be broken – in this case via Break Arts, special attacks that Ashley learns by defeating enemies with various types of weapon. Break Arts cost HP, but may be worth using regardless. Not only do they deal plenty of damage, but Break Arts may also have their own Type or Affinity that don’t necessarily match that of the weapon they’re used with. Thus, it’s possible to use an Edged sword to battle Piercing-weak enemies by using the first sword Break Art, Rending Gale, which deals Piercing damage. Learning and managing Break Arts is yet another means of ensuring that Ashley is as versatile as he needs to be; in an interesting touch, it’s even possible to learn special Break Arts that are only usable when Ashley is weaponless, which is ordinarily not an especially viable combat strategy.
Armor, of course, is also subject to Type, Class and Affinity growth, meaning that if Ashley doesn’t change his gear, he’ll gradually become better at defending against the sort of attacks he tends to take often and worse at defending against everything else. Magic becomes available early in the game, and as MP is a much more readily available resource than healing items, the player is likely to become attached to the Heal spell. This leads to an interesting conundrum, because this is a spell with Light Affinity, so as Ashley uses healing magic on himself his armor will gradually become stronger against Light and weaker against other Affinities. As Light offensive magic isn’t especially common in Leá Monde, this is almost entirely a downgrade, so keeping an eye on how healing is affecting one’s Affinity is a worthwhile consideration.
An extended crafting system ties all of the weapon and armor systems together. As Ashley progresses through the city, he’ll discover workshops that allow him to repair his gear, attach the aforementioned gems to boost Affinity or Class levels, assemble and disassemble weapons and combine weapons and armor to make new equipment. The particulars of this system are vast, arcane and out of the purview of this piece, but most players will rapidly discover helpful basic concepts, like combining bronze and iron gear to produce more powerful Hagane steel items. Collecting weapons, armor and parts from defeated foes, then returning to a workshop to experiment and discover improvements is a central gameplay loop throughout Vagrant Story.
There’s more, of course; as mentioned, Ashley develops into a capable magician over the course of the game, so fighting with attack magic is a possibility and equipment that supports such a strategy is available. Outside of that, enhancing and debilitating spells are common and vital to success; the strength-boosting Herakles spell enhances Ashley’s Strength, providing a boost to accuracy, damage and defense alike, while the strength-sapping Degenerate has the opposite result on enemies. Combining the two can lead to victory from seemingly impossible odds. Affinity-boosting spells, mentioned earlier, can also turn the tide by enhancing Ashley’s offense or defense against a given element. It’s not long into the game before mastery of every aspect of Vagrant Story’s combat system – Risk management, item usage and conservation, awareness of one’s gear and the effects it has as well as crafting new gear when possible, and the proper use of magic – is necessary to continue to progress.
In complete fairness, that point does tend to come a bit quickly and the game doesn’t do much to ease the player into it. What is likely to happen is that the player will encounter a boss they’re unable to harm in any fashion – every one of their attacks is either incapable of hitting or damaging their target. They’re stuck; either they stop playing or resort to flailing away with Chain Abilities, which are guaranteed to do damage after a long enough chain but will leave Ashley defenseless due to Risk accrual afterwards. It’s unsurprising that many players have tried and abandoned Vagrant Story given the lack of guidance offered in a situation like this. Others, of course, have persevered, finding fulfillment in overcoming such a challenge.
Visuals: 7/10
Looking back at previous eras of gaming, it’s interesting to note how some titles benefit from being freed from the shackles of their native hardware. Vagrant Story is notable for being a prime example of this phenomenon; this is a lovely game held back by the foibles and limitations of the 32-bit era. Interestingly, Final Fantasy XII, another Matsuno project, shows similar improvement when given some room to breathe via emulation or its remaster on the PlayStation 4.
Vagrant Story’s human characters are detailed and interesting, particularly with regards to their clothing, but they suffer from muddy texturing. Drastic upscaling on an emulator reveals a much more impressive look throughout, but on native hardware the game struggles a bit. Significant characters are often defined by their models moreso than any textured detail as a result; Ashley’s trademark hairstyle, for instance, sets him apart, as does Sydney’s gaunt appearance. The game’s rogue’s gallery tends to fare a bit better thanks to Vagrant Story’s unique take on classic fantasy creatures and a reduced emphasis on realism. Harpies are a particular favorite, as the typical concept of a half-woman, half-bird creature is replaced by a spherical creature that appears to be a walking, disembodied head.
Lea Monde itself is both lovely and destitute, with the environments that Ashley explores whispering of greatness long forgotten. There’s some degree of variety in the locations one explores throughout the game, but it’s not one of Vagrant Story’s strongest suits. Aside from a memorable foray into a forest, you’ll spend a lot of time going through catacombs, dungeons, and ruined streets. Dark, mellow tones are a theme throughout the game. This is a relic of an era before complaints regarding the prevalence of “brown” in games came into fashion, and it serves a more slow-paced, mature experience well.
Audio: 7/10
Vagrant Story’s audio comes courtesy of Hatoshi Sakimoto. It’s no secret, as this game’s score is resoundingly similar to previous Sakimoto titles like Final Fantasy Tactics as well as future works like Crimson Shroud and Final Fantasy XII. Epic, bombastic fantasy is the order of the day, particularly when it comes to combat, while exploration is typically scored with darker and more solemn fare suiting the cursed city.
Sound effects, meanwhile, are largely standard for the era. The game isn’t voiced, though some characters shout battle cries and grunt during combat. Monsters have their own unique sound effects, which can be helpful in determining what is present in a new room, and players are bound to remember the iconic sounds of weapons clashing against armor and crates alike.
Accessibility: 4/10
When we’re talking about Squaresoft games, the go-to subject is the Final Fantasy series, and most of these aren’t especially difficult past the NES era. We’re not interested in that side of Squaresoft here. No, Vagrant Story is more in line with the SaGa games. It’s a complex and interconnected set of systems that will each demand mastery before the game is through, with no compunctions against barring progress to players who fail to rise to the challenge.
The issue here is that Vagrant Story is a product of its era, and as a result it’s not especially well-documented within the game. That’s despite the presence of an in-game manual, which does its best to impart the basics but still doesn’t clearly elucidate how everything is meant to work together. Save for the very beginning of the game, Vagrant Story is uninterested in revealing its depths to new players; it’s certainly possible to discover them with effort, but there’s very little hand-holding here. Learning what the game expects and how to deliver requires extensive, time-consuming experimentation.
“Time-consuming” also defines Vagrant Story’s crafting system thanks to one crucial flaw. Ashley’s inventory space is, unsurprisingly, limited, and as such it behooves the player to store extra weapons, parts and items in storage boxes found in each workshop throughout the game. This is reasonable, but here the flaw in question rears its head: the player is required to save their game each and every time they interact with a storage box in any meaningful way. This being the original PlayStation, read and write times for the memory cards were lengthy, and a significant portion of any particular playthrough will be spent watching the game save yet again after interacting with a storage box. This discourages excessive experimentation with crafting, which is ironic given the absolute necessity of crafting for completing the game. Patience, moreso than the vast majority of games even today, is key here.
Challenge: 8/10
As one might expect from a game that’s uninterested in welcoming new players, Vagrant Story is tough. After the first several hours it becomes positively unforgiving; if one is unprepared, unperceptive or lacks understanding, it’s entirely possible to encounter seemingly invincible foes fairly early into the game. A second or third playthrough with a greater degree of knowledge reveals how simple many challenges actually are when one already has the answer, but an initial, fresh run can feel insurmountable, to say the least.
Vagrant Story’s roguelike elements play a significant role here. Ashley is powerful, but he’s only one man. He’ll often find himself facing down multiple enemies each with their own weaknesses and attacks to consider, and no cleric is present to mend any wounds that result from battle or resurrect a fallen hero. Healing and reducing Risk are performed using items, which are available in limited quantities and can’t simply be restocked at a (nonexistent) town – farming more consumables is possible, and may be important for a new player’s first run through the game, but it’s never a matter of spending gold to load up. Likewise, status effects are brutally effective, crippling Ashley by slowing him down, dealing damage or preventing him from attacking or spellcasting altogether, and the items necessary to cure them are also a limited resource. Wasteful players – or those used to other RPGs – are likely to be thrown for a loop, while those with a little creativity may discover the value in inflicting status effects of their own on their hapless enemies.
Vagrant Story is notorious for its difficulty spikes, as mentioned in the Gameplay section, and these stem largely from the game suddenly expecting a greater degree of intersectional mastery from the player; striking the correct body part ceases to be enough to prevail because now the player must use the right Type of attack as well, for instance, and this complexity increases the further one progresses. Rank-and-file monsters eventually become capable of using area-of-effect magic, an extremely dangerous prospect despite this being a game featuring only a single adventurer as these attacks instead hit multiple times for massive damage on various parts of Ashley’s body. A frustrating death or two is often necessary to solidify in the player’s mind which foes are worth prioritizing over others.
Replayability: 8/10
The inaccessible and challenging nature of Vagrant Story makes it a treat for players who thrive on conquering games that don’t wish to be conquered. Multiple playthroughs are possible and encouraged; without spoiling the story (that comes later), completing and restarting the game will reward the player with a special key that opens the most dangerous areas of Lea Monde. These areas are closed off during the first playthrough, and with good reason, as powerful equipment and a mastery of Vagrant Story’s various systems are necessary to prevail.
The height of the game’s challenge begins with the Iron Maiden, an extensive secret dungeon concluding with a powerful superboss. Even this isn’t as difficult as Vagrant Story can get, though. The reason to explore the Iron Maiden is to find a set of additional keys which can be used to unlock more powerful, timed versions of many of the game’s toughest bosses. The final challenge is a timed rematch against the aforementioned superboss, who is equipped with some of the most powerful gear available and must be defeated multiple times if one wishes to obtain it for themselves. None of this is any joke, and players seeking a goal to work towards over many sessions and multiple playthroughs will be pleased with Vagrant Story.
Uniqueness: 8/10
Well, it’s a Japanese fantasy RPG released during a period when Japanese fantasy RPGs were big… but Vagrant Story doesn’t have much in common with its contemporaries or with many games to come afterwards. In an era before roguelikes became a popular choice for indie developers that would saturate the market with this style of gameplay, titles that incorporated many of their unforgiving mechanics were uncommon and unusual. Likewise, the “one-man-army” concept was normally reserved for shooters and stealth titles like Metal Gear Solid, yet here was a fantasy hero fighting on his lonesome and relying on wits and versatility to survive. One assumes that Ashley would be able to compare notes with Geralt of Rivia, as the Witcher’s approach to problem solving often mirrors his own. In many ways, Vagrant Story was a prescient game, a title released before its time that continues to hold up today despite some flaws inherent to its age.
My Personal Grade: 9/10
Without going down the long and dark New Games Journalism road of making this piece about myself rather than the game in question, Vagrant Story holds a fond place in my heart for multiple reasons. It was released during an interesting time in my life, a point where a younger me both had the curiosity to explore its many intertwining complexities and the free time to fully devote myself to them. Ever since spending the sweltering summer of 2000 in an air-conditioned bedroom hammering away at the game, my only companions a printed GameFAQs guide, a bowl of chips and my resolve, I’ve been particularly fond of games that exist on their own terms.
This is an aspect of Vagrant Story that makes it a special game, even today. I’d later come to love the SaGa games, titles like The Last Remnant, and more arcane RPGs and roguelike adventures still. These are games that offer you every chance to claim victory… but at the same time, they demand that you persevere and grasp it for yourself instead of offering a helping hand. That sense of determination, of getting back up and trying again even when things are darkest and the challenge seems too much to overcome, has served me well throughout the seventeen years since that summer, through school, college and trials in my personal life alike. I like to think that in some small way, Vagrant Story helped me learn how just how important “gitting gud” and rising to the occasion really was. You can’t always turn the difficulty down, after all.
“Narrative summary and analysis coming soon in another post!”
-TWRM
Aggregated Score: 7.5
The Infernal Accountant Mage believes the pen is mightier than the sword…well, depending on how sharp the pen and sword are. A child of the ’90s and a prolific writer, he strews his work about like Legos made of words, just waiting for your brain to step on them. He enjoys a devilish challenge, so when it comes to talking about some of the more difficult games out there, you might just run into the Infernal Accountant Mage. Some advice: hold on to your soul around this guy, and don’t sign anything. Read more at popzara.com
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And very late, so let’s start catching up:
KlangKuenstler – Amelie (Rework)
Here is a (free) Christmas present from Michael Korb, a.ka. KlangKuenstler. I recently discovered this Berlin-based producer (don’t call him a DJ; if anything, he may even take offense to be called that). His sets are performed live, and plays only his own creations. That way, when “people celebrate and rejoice, he really is the hero of the evening,” says his Facebook page. His style is melodic, often mellow, and quite danceable. KlangKuenstler combines instrumental and electronic elements.
This particular track is a rework of the title song to one my favorite films, Amelie, “Comptine d’un autre été,” by Yann Tiersen. Follow Micah on SoundCloud here and check out more of his great tracks. Through his own record label, Zuckerton Records, which he created in 2011, he has provided a great platform for himself and other musicians.
A2 Davis & Dembowski – 9am (Oliver Schories Remix)
Let’s switch gears here to this superb minimal track, re-released on January 10th as part of Ton Liebt Klang’s “Our Lovely Sounds 2012“. I’ve been following Oliver Schories, now a common household name, for over a year. Mollono.Bass’ remix of his Wildfang, which I came across in December 2011, found its way onto my playlists well into the middle of 2012. Minimal instrumental, via piano, is found here, and tons of punchy, crisp bass that is dark and cool. Follow Oliver Schories on Facebook and SoundCloud, and show big love to Wolfgang Dembowski on his SoundCloud too.
Support these great artists and buy this track on Beatport here!
Spark Taberner & Oliver Kucera – Turn of The Screw
Into third, with techno: Turn of The Screw. This was a recent re-release, on “Best of Hybrid Confusion,” with the original release back in February 2012. This clearly is a high-energy heavy hitter and not one you want to open your set with. For me, personally, a set consisting entirely of this type of music gets boring very quickly, right before a headache sets on. Having said that, a set that features a track of this massive magnitude at precisely the right time for the crowd is sure to be remembered as a massive set. Dutch DJ Spark Taberner’s style is super dark, so for more tracks like this, visit his SoundCloud and follow him on Facebook. The track is for sale on Beatport here.
Bernstein (Mollono.Bass Remix)
Speaking of Mollono.Bass, here’s
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with a distinct dorsoventral contraction and mediolateral thickening into a compressed cylindroid at mid-length. The dorsal surface becomes thin and sharp anteriorly, culminating in a broad and deep, basin-like medial depression, contrasting with Montsecosuchus depereti in which the entire element is flat (Buscalioni & Sanz, 1990a). The proximodorsal edge overhangs this depression, a feature not observed in other atoposaurids, and is considered to be a diagnostic feature of A. bavaricus. Posteriorly, the scapula flares out in a similar fashion to the anterior blade, but the distal portion is mostly absent, so the complete morphology is unknown. A posteroventral process projects out from the posterior blade, twisting from the ventral surface into a short, thickened rod. Forelimbs: The right forelimb is nearly complete, with an articulated humerus, radius and ulna, but the manus is crushed. The proximal third of the humerus is also crushed, with the external cortices of the exposed shaft removed, revealing the internal bone. The humerus expands slightly proximally, and the shaft is straight and broader mediolaterally than anteroposteriorly. The morphology of the deltopectoral crest cannot be determined. The radial condyle is broad and directed anteriorly. The distal articular surface of the humerus is strongly rugose, and oriented at 40° to the long axis of the shaft. The shaft is relatively straight, similar to more advanced neosuchians such as Shamosuchus (Pol, Turner & Norell, 2009). The anterior intercondylar groove is not visible, but the supracondylar fossa forms a deep posterior furrow, terminating a short distance up the shaft, and is bound medially by the relatively weaker ulnar condyle, the morphology of which is mostly obscured. The external surfaces of the condylar heads are smooth. The humerus is slightly shorter than that of A. beaumonti, but the radius is proportionally longer. The stylopod to zeugopod ratio in both limbs is proportionally lower than in all other atoposaurids, a feature that we consider diagnostic of A. bavaricus. The radius is slightly longer than the more robust ulna, the two resting against each other without twisting sharply; as such the respective proximal and distal articular surfaces have long axes in the same orientation. The radius is gently longitudinally arcuate in its proximal third, conforming to the gentle curvature of the distal ulnar shaft. The radial head is mediolaterally expanded, and is about two-thirds the size of the ulnar head it rests against. The ulnar head is damaged, and the radial head and the associated humeral condyle actually appear quite mismatched in size, suggesting a large volume of cartilage or muscle attachment at this joint, also emphasised by the heavily rugose articular surface. The lateral part of the radial shaft thins to about 70% of its width and becomes ridge-like at around two-thirds of its length. The ulnar shaft is equidimensional through its entire length, and finishes with a triangular-shaped distal articular surface. The carpus cannot be fully observed. Little of the left forelimb is preserved: the distal humerus is crushed, with the proximal ulna and entire radius missing, preserved only as impressions. However, aspects of the morphology of the carpus can be observed. The radiale is long and slender, with expanded proximal and distal ends, much like A. beaumonti in which the elements are well-preserved in the holotype. The ulnare is slightly shorter, with a stronger mediolateral compression of the shaft, and overall more gracile morphology. In A. beaumonti, the ulnare has a proximal groove on the lateral surface, terminating at 80% of the length of the element, but whether this is present in A. bavaricus cannot be determined. However, the ulnare in A. bavaricus is not ‘hatchet shaped’ as in A. beaumonti or the specimen assigned to Alligatorellus sp. by Schwarz-Wings et al. (2011). Furthermore, the radiale in A. beaumonti is larger than the ulnare, distinguishing the two species of Alligatorellus. All additional carpal elements in A. bavaricus are crushed to the point where their morphology cannot be meaningfully observed. The entire manus is bent backwards, indicated by its impression and in a similar manner to the pedal orientations. All of the elements are highly distorted and crushed, with only moderate lateral compression indicated by the slight crushing of the more gracile elements. Pelvic girdle: Only fragments of the pelvic girdle are preserved. The ilium forms an elongated S-shape in dorsal view, and is thickened anteriorly. Much of the morphology is obscured by the orientation of the specimen on the rock slab, but the postacetabular process appears to be fenestrated at its tip (although this might be a post-mortem artefact), greatly thickened, and leads into a deep and broad acetabulum. An element just below this on the slab is one of the pubes. Much of the morphology is again obscured by the orientation in which it is embedded in the matrix. The proximal head is expanded into a broad wedge-shape and twists slightly to become oblique to the stouter distal end, which is more circular in cross section. The proximal portion of the shaft is transversely flattened and sub-elliptical in cross-section, and has a strongly rugose surface, partially obscured by an overlying displaced rib. There is a fan-shaped structure situated anterior to the ilium, which we interpret as a fragment of the anteriorly displaced ischium. The distal end is thin and gently convex, with a slightly crenulated distal extremity. Gentle striations from the distal end are directed towards the transversely thickened shaft, which increases in breadth more proximally on the dorsal margin and has a more slender ventral margin. The proximal end is hidden underneath the skeleton so that the remaining morphology cannot be observed. Hindlimbs: Overall, the hindlimbs are about 1.4 times the length of the forelimbs. The right hindlimb is mostly complete with a laterally flattened tarsus and pes. The femur is missing from the left hindlimb (although it is possibly hidden underneath the skeleton), and the tibia and fibula are both crushed. The left pes is well-preserved, with partially crushed tarsal and pedal elements. The femur is the most robust limb bone of the skeleton, and is morphologically similar to the ulna, being gently sigmoidal down the length of the shaft. The femoral head is moderately expanded and equidimensional to the distal end of the femur. The femoral head grades smoothly into the posteriorly placed fourth trochanter, which is weakly developed, ridge-like, and distally thickened, terminating at one-sixth of the length from the proximal end. Adjacent to this, on the lateral surface, there is an accompanying groove for attachment of the femoral-pelvic musculature. The distal end of the right femur is damaged and fractured, and the distal condylar morphology cannot therefore be determined. The left tibia and fibula are mostly concealed within the slab and underneath other bones, and only the straight shafts are exposed. The lateral surfaces of both elements from the right hindlimb are fully exposed, and demonstrate that they are equal in length to the femur. Both ends of the tibial shaft are anteroposteriorly compressed, with the distal end slightly more so. The proximal portion of the tibia is slightly posteriorly deflected, but to a lesser degree than in Alligatorellus beaumonti. The tibial shaft becomes slightly anteroposteriorly expanded at mid-length. Distally, the lateral margin of the tibia thins anteroposteriorly, culminating in a sharp ridge at the distal end, and resulting in a triangular cross-section. The proximal half of the fibula is gently twisted to accommodate the mid-tibial expansion, and articulates with the posterior face of the proximal head of the tibia. As a result of the fully articulated nature of the tibia and fibula, the morphology of the proximal and distal articular surfaces is obscured. Furthermore, the distal end of the fibula is damaged. In lateral view, the fibula is much more slender than the tibia, and has a more circular cross section than the elliptical to triangular tibia. The astragalus is not visible in either hindlimb. The calcaneum is present, but is obscured by matrix and glue. On the right hindlimb, metatarsals I–III and part of metatarsal IV are preserved, as well as a poorly preserved, vestigial fifth metatarsal that is less than one-third the length of the other four metatarsals. Their long axes are parallel to one another, with the proximal and distal ends resting against each other. The nature of the distal articulations is obscured. The left pes is preserved in an oblique view, and provides a better perspective of the metatarsal morphology, although metatarsal V is not visible. The tarsal phalangeal formula, as stated by Wellnhofer (1971), is 2-3-4-4-(1). The metatarsals are long, gracile, and transversely expanded at their proximal ends with an overall similar morphology to one another. Their distal ends have been slightly anteroposteriorly compressed, and the straight shafts all have an elliptical cross-section. On the left pes, the proximal tip of metatarsal I is obscured beneath metatarsals II–IV but, where visible, the metatarsal is anteroposteriorly compressed, and twists anteromedially towards its distal end, at which point it thickens and broadens into a sub-oval cross section. The distal articular surface of metatarsal I is only partially visible; this rugose surface curves medially to occupy the distal-most edge of the medial surface. Metatarsal II is slightly longer than metatarsal I, with a mediolaterally compressed proximal end, and a ventral surface that forms a thin ridge. Metatarsal II gradually thickens distally, and the shaft twists in a similar manner to metatarsal I, but instead the ventromedial edge becomes more prominent as a ridge, bounding the medial edge of a small distal depression on the ventral surface. The distal end of metatarsal II is convex, and the articular surface is obscured. Most of metatarsal III, except for the shaft, is obscured, with the shaft appearing to be as long as metatarsal II but thickened to a lesser degree distally. Metatarsal III is slightly more gracile than the others. The sharpness of the proximoventral ridge is also less apparent in metatarsal III. Metatarsal IV is mostly obscured, but has a straighter, less twisted shaft that is more continuously oval in cross-sectional morphology than the metatarsals.House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) thinks Washington has an “illness.” And according to him, that illness is spending.
“The debt is a symptom of that illness,” Boehner reportedly said at a Republican retreat in Baltimore Saturday. “The American people want it cured.”Boehner aimed his remarks at President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, saying they “have been on a job-destroying spending spree that has left us with nothing but historic unemployment and the most debt in U.S. history.”
Boehner’s remarks come in advance of a big showdown in Washington over the possible raising of the $14 trillion debt ceiling before the government defaults on its debts.
“If they want us to help pay their bills, they are going to have to start cutting up their credit cards,” Boehner added.What does it mean to design?
Interview with Daniel van der Velden /
Metahaven
That New Design Smell:
What does it mean to design? Many designers say they do things because they “feel like it.” Of course, guts can be a part of what you do. But to what degree? Is design all guts? Or can design think with its brain too?
Daniel van der Velden:
Intuition plays an important role in everything aesthetic and beautiful. As well as in everything political. The most important things in design are decided in a split second. Without any justification. And the crucial point is to talk about that moment; to talk about the moment when you decided ‘it should be like this’.
If someone brings up “they feel like it” as a justification for design, of course, that’s uninteresting. But if intuition tells you what needs to be what, that’s interesting. Because it refers back to the capacity of designers to observe. They observe a certain reality around them, a certain state of things around them, and at some point, they think: this is the best expression. That moment is important for design.
TNDS:
Not to say guts should be denied, but to what extent are they exercised? Ask designers about their aesthetic habits; those who always use the same forms or colors. They’ll tell you its because their intuition told them to. Aren’t they behaving like stylists who employ standards? Shouldn’t they be developing new standards for each new project or new context?
DVDV:
Those standards can be collectively re-assuring conventions. In the age of social media this is of course pervasive. You can be totally copying your friends’ friends aesthetics because these give you access to more “likes”, a bigger network, kudos from your masters, etc. That is being a smart entrepreneur, not a copycat. But does it make for great design? Not having enough time is also a decisive factor; if you opt for these standards you apparently don’t have time to make your own. How do you then create that time? And where do you decide to comply?
TNDS:
Maybe there’s nuance between gut feelings and a kind of comfy zone?
DVDV:
Exactly. There’s “I feel like”. Or there’s a gut feeling which brings you out of your comfort zone. Why are design students always perceived as better than their teachers? Even if they’re not good, or not always good. Maybe it’s because students, being younger than their teachers, have a more complete knowledge of their world as it is. Rather than how the world was. And, they have a readiness to embrace it.
That’s why I think our own practice would like to be—in some aspects—like a student’s practice, as some would say. Even though its a professional practice. I would say its about preserving the special quality of not having a routine formula. And looking for that moment when you think: this is the gut moment.
If you don’t address the politics behind the aesthetics, there will be no real change. Like in “critical design.” So basically, there’s are still people today, who do the stuff Droog designed back in the 1990s. They do it even better than Droog did it. But Droog did it when it was also politically relevant. Of course the politics of those aesthetics have been re-defined in the meantime. So you can’t do the same thing now, and imply the same thing. We perceive it differently now. We’ve all ingested that material and, in the meantime, we’ve seen other things. They don’t produce the same effects they once did.
Now I’m interested in the sort of politics that point to the hidden ideology of critical design itself. If you talk about the ideology of critical design in the late 90s, you could talk about Dunne & Raby, Design Noir and the hidden narratives of consumer objects. What are the secret narratives of electronics?
Its interesting that those were the politics of that time, defined by the information age, a global capitalist society, a post-Wall world, the idea of a risk society and hyper-individualization. But again, critical design from the 90s no longer produces the same effect. We’ve seen other things. And we’ve seen a total breakdown of the free market and social democratic ideology, yet without another model taking over. We fully experience the ‘lack’ or shortage of a new model that Ulrich Beck talked about in his “Risk Society” thesis, written over two decades ago.
There’s this group we’re interested in, called DSG, or the Deterritorial Support Group. They’re a self-proclaimed ultra-leftist propaganda group, based in London. And someone said on Twitter: DSG made Metahaven look like Adbusters. And I thought this was great, because that’s really how it should be.
It should be like in music. Maybe there’s a band. And then there’s another band, and they’re doing something even more extreme and heavy. The band that came before is labeled ‘sort of okay’, people say ‘but now you’re like Bon Jovi’ and that’s no longer interesting. That sort of evolution going in design is an absolute dream for me.
TNDS:
Going into places you’re not sure of, instead of settling into comfy zones?
DVDV:
Exactly. They challenged us. And that’s so valuable. That’s innovation. You can’t hold the truth. You can never really say ‘this is what we’re about, that’s the absolute’. If you start something successful, other people will do it too, and force you to do something else. It’s a healthy rebuttal.
——————————
Daniel van der Velden is a designer based in Amsterdam, co-founder of Metahaven with Vinca Kruk.
——————————With React’s popularity and widespread usage on the web, it was bound to bleed over into the mobile space. And bleed over it did with React Native. React Native allows us to write mobile applications using JavaScript. This way, as web developers, we get to implement the language we are familiar with to write apps for Android and IOS with native performance. A large part of what React Native does is abstract platform APIs by way of what are called native modules. Besides the modules that React Native needs to actually run, there are many others that let us for example, change the status bar color, interact with the keyboard, use native date pickers, etc.
As mentioned before, React Native provides an impressive amount of native modules that give you direct access to core platform APIs on both Android and IOS. However, there are many APIs that React Native does not give you access to out of the box. It would be an untenable undertaking for the React Native team to provide an abstraction for every single available API on Android and IOS. As such they have made React Native extensible in this regard. This allows us to create our own native modules. With this, if there’s a native functionality we need access to, we can write the abstraction ourselves or look to the community for someone who has. While the latter will usually get you what you need, there are times where you’ll need to write your own. And that is exactly what we’re about to do! The following tutorial will consist of us writing a React Native native module from scratch.
We’re going to be making a native module that gives us access to the Android navigation bar. Our objective is to allow for changing the color of the bar. The module we make will behave very similarly to the StatusBar module that is included with React Native. Our expected outcome is to make the following work:
View the code on Gist.
To accomplish this, we’re going to need to write some Java. Let’s get started!
Note. This tutorial will require a working React Native app. If you need help getting one going, take a look at the getting started guide. Make sure you have the app ready to build for Android as the module we are making will interact with an Android platform API.
Before we begin, we’ll create a React Native component where we will eventually use our native module. We’ll use the following as a start.
View the code on Gist.
This will render:
To start, we’re going to need to create a Java package for our module. In android/app/src/main/java/com/[app name], create a folder called navigationbar. In that folder, create a file called NavigationBarPackage.java.
That file should consist of the following:
View the code on Gist.
This file, as you will see later when we build on to it, provides a point of registration for the module.
Next, we will create the module itself. In the navigationbar directory, create another file. Name this one NavigationBarModule.java. To start, this file will contain the following:
View the code on Gist.
The item to note in this file is the getName method. This is where we will supply the name of the module for its JavaScript counterpart. The name we provide here is exactly the name that will be used in our JS.
Next, in our module class we will expose a method to our JavaScript module. Our first one will be the setColor method. It’s important to note that to properly expose the method to our JavaScript, we must annotate it using @ReactMethod.
View the code on Gist.
Our set color method will have a return type of void (all exposed methods must return void). It will take a single string argument. Before we continue on with this method we first need to import some dependencies needed for this method to do its job. Place the following snippet above the module’s class definition.
View the code on Gist.
Now, back to the method. The first thing we need to do is get the running Android activity.
View the code on Gist.
Next, we need to take the color string we were given, then convert it color integer that we’ll use as our value when setting the navigation bar color.
View the code on Gist.
Finally, we will actually set the color of the navigation bar with the activity we just retrieved.
View the code on Gist.
The completed method should look like:
View the code on Gist.
Now that we have completed our setColor method we have, in effect, written the core functionality of our native module. Now, we need to register it.
Back in the NavigationBarPackage.java file, we will register the module. In the createNativeModules method, add the following:
View the code on Gist.
This will let our package know about our module. Now that our package is in the know, we need to register our package in our app. One directory up, open the MainApplication.java file. At the top of the file import the navigationbar package using
View the code on Gist.
In the getPackages method, add the following instantiation to the returned list.
View the code on Gist.
The package and module are now fully registered on the Java side. All that is left to do is implement the module on the JavaScript side. Our module now resides in React Native’s NativeModule. We will now create a file for our module that will make it easier to import and utilize in the rest of our app. Create a new JS file that contains the following:
View the code on Gist.
All done! We can now import our module and use it.
View the code on Gist.
Our final result rendered out will look like:
Pretty cool, right?
With that, we have successfully created a React Native native module. While this is a simple example, we now have a peek at the power of native modules. This just scratches the surface of their capabilities. Take a look the the React Native docs for more information.Looking for news you can trust?
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There are plenty of reasons to worry about fracking—groundwater contamination, methane leaks, that flaming tap water thing. But can it really cause earthquakes? That’s the question the US Geological Survey set out to answer after a spate of tremors in the Midwest—an area not usually known for earthquakes—alerted scientists to the possibility that some of them might be man-made.
Seismic activity in the Midwest started increasing around 12 years ago but picked up significantly in the past few years, says seismologist Bill Ellsworth, the lead author of a new USGS study examining potential links between fracking and earthquakes in the region. Since 1970, the baseline for earthquakes in the Midwest measuring above a 3.0 hovered at around 21 per year, but beginning in 2001, that number began to rise. There’s been a “remarkable increase” in the past few years: The number of 3.0-plus earthquakes rose from 29 in 2008 to 50 in 2009, then to 87 in 2010, and in 2011 to a staggering 134. Something unusual was going on, but what? As Ellsworth and his colleagues at USGS ask in the study, “Is this increase natural or manmade?” And if it’s man-made, is fracking—which has ramped up in the region in the past several years—to blame?
According to the study, the answer to the first question is “almost certainly.” But the second one is a little more complicated. Though fracking does cause tiny tremors, the USGS scientists found no links between the process of fracking itself and the larger earthquakes that have been occurring more frequently. They did, however, notice that earthquakes have clustered around wastewater wells in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and neighboring states. Disposing of wastewater by pumping it deep into the ground is standard practice in many industries, including mining, chemical manufacturing, and oil and gas extraction, and the oil and gas industry alone operates tens of thousands of wastewater disposal wells. But the recent surge of fracking activity, which uses millions of gallons of water to crack rock deep in the ground and release natural gas, has boosted the volume of wastewater being injected into the ground.
Stresses are everywhere in the earth’s crust, Ellsworth explains, and drilling activity can affect them. Many wastewater wells actually go deeper than gas drilling wells, reaching an older layer of rock known as basement rock, where stresses and faults are more common. The high pressure used to pump water into waste wells can cause those faults to shift, and the water itself can lubricate already-stressed faults, easing their movement and making an earthquake-causing slip more likely. As Ellsworth told NPR, “Small perturbations can tip the scales, allowing an earthquake that might not otherwise happen for a very long time.”
Most earthquakes caused by fracking-related processes are relatively small. But it’s possible that wastewater disposal could induce larger earthquakes: A new study by University of Memphis geologist Stephen Horton concluded that a 5.6 quake in Oklahoma last November “was possibly triggered by fluid injection” at nearby wastewater wells. It’s not news that deep-earth fluid injection can cause increases in seismic activity: Nearly 50 years ago, scientists traced a series of earthquakes near Denver to huge injections of wastewater at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. And scientists have long observed that the extraction of large quantities of gas, oil, and water from the ground can affect existing stresses in unpredictable ways.
Still, researchers caution, the new data is preliminary, and plenty of questions remain. We don’t yet know why only a few of the tens of thousands of wastewater disposal wells have induced earthquakes, or whether any specific planned well is particularly likely to cause a quake. It could be because production has ramped up and the sheer quantity of wastewater has increased, or because oil and gas companies are using new techniques for injecting waste fluids. And while there have been no confirmed cases of major earthquakes resulting from the injection of wastewater into the ground near major faults, the possibility can’t be eliminated, says Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes.
Many regulators aren’t taking any chances. After a series of earthquakes in northeastern Ohio, including a 4.0 quake in Youngstown on New Year’s Eve, state regulators ordered natural gas drillers to suspend development of several deep-injection wastewater wells and issued a new set of standards for frack-water disposal. In Arkansas, dozens of earthquakes near wastewater disposal sites related to the state’s huge Fayetteville Shale deposit led the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission to shut down an existing disposal site and issue a moratorium on the development of new ones. But because oil and gas companies are exempt from the provisions in hazardous waste regulations aimed at preventing induced earthquakes, there’s a gap in regulation at the federal level, though the EPA is currently working to draft recommendations for state regulators.
So, does fracking cause earthquakes? Not exactly, but the way companies dispose of fracking waste can, which means that other types of energy-related activity that rely on fluid injection—enhanced oil recovery, enhanced geothermal systems, carbon capture and sequestration—also have the potential to cause quakes. Still, the evidence suggests that we can add earthquakes to the growing list of fracking-related hazards, alongside air pollution, tainted drinking water, and potentially outsized carbon emissions.When Valve announced Steam Machines last year at CES 2014, one of the main things that stood out was the lack of a cheap, simple machine dedicated solely to streaming PC games from one source to another. After all, Valve had implemented Steam in-home streaming into its venerated games service and pigeon-holed it as a cornerstone of the Linux-based SteamOS—a much-needed one, given the relatively small (but exploding) number of native Linux games. But everything we saw at CES was a computer in-and-of itself, capable of running games of its own accord.
Nothing for me, in other words. I already have a perfectly capable gaming computer.
Enter Steam Link. Announced Tuesday, Steam Link is Valve’s streaming solution. “Designed to extend your Steam experience to any room in the house, Steam Link allows you to stream all your Steam content from any PC or Steam Machine on the same home network,” Valve wrote in a prepared statement.
And Steam Link will be cheaper than I imagined: Only $50 when it launches in November. According to Valve, Steam Link will support 1080p, 60Hz streaming “with low latency,” which puts it a step above the streaming offered by the $100 NZXT Doko box (which tops out at 30 frames per second).
For an additional $50 you can purchase a Steam Controller, the final design of which we’ve yet to see, but is rumored to be revealed here at GDC. That $50 price apparently only applies to the U.S. though. Worldwide pricing will be announced closer to launch.
There are also more traditional Steam Machines being showed at GDC this week—Valve name-drops Alienware and Falcon Northwest in its statement, and Syber already shared details of its Steam Machine initiative earlier today.
Valve’s apparently rethought the entire Steam Machine initiative. While last year we had machines with four GeForce Titans—basically, dream PCs if you have a lot of money to throw away—the new direction seems to be this: “Steam Machines will start at the same price point as game consoles, with higher performance.”
We’ll find out more tomorrow when we get a look at Valve’s booth! For now, consider me tentatively interested in Steam Link at least—I’m still looking for the perfect in-home streaming solution, and with Valve’s reputation for perfection, this could be it. Assuming it actually launches this November as planned, that is.
Fool me once, Valve.8 Interesting Chutney recipe Ideas
Chutneys are an amazingly varied array of sweet, tangy or hot condiments. They originally hailed from India as a type of preserve as an alternative to the subcontinent’s scarcity of sugar. Today, chutneys, by and large, all contain spices and chilli but then their recipes can veer off to practically include any fruit, vegetable or herb. If you are grow your own fruit and veg then you’ll be most likely have encountered a time where your harvest is more prolific than you expected. Making chutneys from a surfeit of crops is a great way to prevent waste and to have some tasty treats to add to side dishes or to use as dipping sauces to your future meals.
Here are eight of our favourite chutneys. For full preparation method please follow the links.
Onion Chutney
Ingredients
2 – 4 onions
1 tsp salt
1 – 2 cans tomato puree
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp garlic sauce
Spicy Chilli Chutney
Ingredients
10 red chillies
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
1 tsp salt
½ tsp tamarind paste
Beetroot Chutney
2 onions (chopped)
1.5 lb cooking apples (chopped)
3 lb cooked beetroot
1 pt vinegar
6 oz Demerara sugar
Juice of one lemon
1 tsp dry mustard
Pinch of ground ginger
Salt to taste
Apple and Raisin Chutney
Ingredients
1 tbsp seedless raisins
1 medium apple (peeled, cored and chopped)
1 pinch of Cayenne pepper
1 pinch of paprika
1 pinch of granulated sugar
¼ tsp salt
Juice of one lemon
Green Tomato Chutney
This is ideal for home tomato growers who plants are still cropping towards the end of the season when it looks like it’s too late for them to ripen.
Ingredients
3lbs green tomatoes
2 pints malt vinegar
1 lb sultanas
1 lb sour apples
1 lb onions
12 oz brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
Spice bag
Coriander Chutney
Ingredients
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
1 small onion (finely chopped)
25g coriander (chopped)
25g sultanas
3 tbsp olive oil
1tsp cumin seeds (lightly crushed)
Tomato Chutney
Ingredients
2 onions (chopped roughly)
1.35kg ripe tomatoes (plunged into boiling water for 1 minute, then skinned)
1 pint white wine vinegar
1lb granulated sugar
Spiced Beetroot and Orange Chutney
Ingredients
1.5kg raw beetroot (trimmed, peeled and grated)
700 g golden granulated sugar
700 ml red wine vinegar
3 onions (finely chopped)
3 eating apples (peeled and grated)
3 oranges (zest and juice of)
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp mixed herbs
Why not use some of the above recipes as inspiration to experiment with your own combinations of fruits, vegetables, spices and herbs?"The kernel change appears to be primarily a packaging decision that makes things less convenient (likely for companies such as Oracle), but Red Hat's change with kernel packaging appears on its surface to be GPL compliant," Kuhn told iTWire in response to a query.He said that a recent blog post that he had made was in no way a comment on the change in Red Hat's policy as some have concluded. "My blog (post) wasn't a comment on that topic; it wasn't even in my mind at all when writing it. The RHEL business model plan I was talking about has been standing policy from long ago (going back to at least 2003).Kuhn said the kernel thing could be part of Red Hat's desire to make sure its business model works as it is "supposed to". "But I am not aware of any change in official Red Hat policy on these issues since the institution of the current RHEL business model," he said.Asked about the additional restrictions that Red Hat is now placing on its customers - anyone who redistributes its GPL-ed code will lose support from the company - Kuhn said: "To my knowledge, Red Hat is in compliance with GPLv2 and GPLv3 on all their distributions and business models. I have no evidence to the contrary; I'm sorry if you got that impression from my blog post; I did try to remain clear that it was GPL-compliant and I was commenting on whether it was good for the community or not (which is often an orthogonal issue to pure compliance)."The GPLv2, under which the Linux kernel is licensed, says "You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein." Red Hat's telling customers that they will lose their support if they do redistribute the source could well be interpreted as imposing additional restrictions and thus violating the licence.But Kuhn doesn't see it this way. "The question comes down to whether or not telling someone 'your money's no good here, I don't want to provide services to you anymore' is a 'further restriction'. I'm not persuaded that it's a 'further restriction'. I agree it's an unfortunate consequence, but if we interpreted the GPL to say that you were required to keep someone as a customer no matter what they did, that would be an unreasonableinterpretation."As I've said recently on identi.ca to Richard Fontana of Red Hat (and he agreed): the business model that RHEL uses could have been structured in a way that was not compliant with the GPL if they failed to be careful about it. However, the Red Hat lawyers who designed the business model were extremely careful to make sure it was GPL-compliant. I'd agree it's close to the line but it's clearly on the compliant side of it.Kuhn said the question of whether the business model was nice and/or reasonable was an entirely different matter. "I've been told by sources inside Red Hat that they rarely go to the auditing option in the contract and 'fire their client'. Typically, my Red Hat sources say they have a reasonable conversation with the client to work it out."For example, I'm told Red Hat sometimes gets a support request under a RHEL contract for a CentOS machine. Obviously, they don't support CentOS, so they tell the client 'if you want to get support, you have to buy a RHEL support contract for the machine in question'. That seems reasonable and GPL-compliant to me. Nothing in the GPL mandates that Red Hat give service and support for a CentOS machine!"He said it appeared to him that the bigger issue for Red Hat now was companies like Oracle redistributing CentOS-derivatives wholesale, offering support and taking customers away."Oracle is well known for unfriendly and aggressive business practices, so I'm not surprised that Red Hat is getting aggressive themselves in response with making it more difficult to figure out the kernel patchsets," he said."But, again, that's a different issue than the one I was commenting on, and while I haven't studied the kernel distribution by Red Hat in detail, I highly doubt that Red Hat has failed to comply with the letter of the GPL. I'd be quite surprised if Red Hat violated the GPL; I've never heard a report in my life of Red Hat violating the GPL."Kuhn conceded that what Red Hat was doing with the kernel sources was not particularly collaborative and also unfriendly."But, I also believe they are doing it primarily to fight with Oracle, and given the kind of company Oracle is, I can see it from Red Hat's point of view. This is why *I* don't run a for-profit business - I'm too nice of a guy and I wouldn't make the kind of decisions that fail to maximize (sic) collaborative software development because a competitor is causing me trouble
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of the state.
Being a maverick and an innovator in an industry does not make one an artist. It makes one a smart businessman. The serious artist and the successful businessman could not be more fundamentally different in their aims and approaches. The businessman endeavors to give us what we want, devoting hours upon hours to researching the various shifts in the marketplace and spending great gobs of money in the process. The serious artist, heeding an inner dictate, gives us what we don’t want—disturbing us, shaking us from our complacency, waking us up to the truth before our eyes.
The reward for this truth-telling typically ranges from obscurity to disdain to outright hostility to threats of death. As a rule, it does not bring fortunes.
I don’t doubt that Jobs saw himself as a creator with a higher purpose; many public figures have believed themselves to be almost mythic creatures, endowed with gifts that elevate them into the realm of the saintly (and beyond the morals and norms of their day).
The question is: why did so many people choose to accept his legend of the self as truth? Why do they seem to want to believe that the tech world is a different world—a cleaner, better, and more enlightened world, a world in which businesses are not cutthroatedly capitalistic but instead speak to our highest and most civilized ideals?
A more insightful film would have situated the story of Jobs in the context of the American project, and shown us that here, again, what looks to be new is not really new at all.
Jobs was the product of two strains in the culture. One is easy to identify—the rugged romanticism that continues to define the American self-image, even as the country has grown into a vast and mighty empire with de facto colonies spread across the globe. Jobs burnished its myth, as one of those cowboys of industry for whom we reserve our greatest rewards, a dreamer-schemer who sets out alone and doesn’t play nice and triumphs against all odds. The other is harder to see because, although the culture turns on money, it doesn’t take kindly to discussions or examinations of its sources. But you can draw a line from Jobs all the way back to the Puritan thinkers, who saw something almost holy in the accumulation of a vast wealth. Those who amassed great fortunes were endowed with something otherworldly. They were possessed of the divine, and therefore closer to God. Here’s a little taste of Richard Baxter, the noted English Puritan and church leader: “If God show [sic] you a way in which you may lawfully get more than in another way (without wrong to your soul, or to any other), if you refuse this, and choose the less gainful way, you cross one of the ends of your calling, and you refuse to be God’s steward.”
You can hear, in this, a kind of precursor to the English theorist Adam Smith, who was not a Puritan but whose economic ideas became foundational in America in the 19th century. Smith coined the term “enlightened self-interest”: If you pursue and win a fortune, not only do you benefit yourself; you benefit your community.
Toward the end of the film, Gibney gives us an interview clip of Jobs reflecting on his accomplishments—an odd and fascinating interview, which somehow links Smith’s notion of a selfless selfishness with a kind of Hollywoodish Buddhism. Jobs, taking the long view of technological progress, says that the products of tech are not meant to last–an acknowledgment, I thought, of the built-in obsolescence that keeps Apple and businesses like it flush with money. I was stunned by this admission. What I was listening to, it turned out, was a piece of Jobspeak, which meant that a shrewd business practice was being pitched to the public as something else—something deeper, something purer. In rolling out a new, disposable product every couple of years, Jobs wants us to know, Apple is contributing to an ever-growing ladder of knowledge, with each update of phone, laptop and tablet leading the human race to greater and greater insights and collective wisdom.
In other words, we should not for a second think that its CEO was motivated by dreams of money, power, and influence. He was animated by visions of transcendence and the desire to better the human race.
Gibney, to his credit, devotes considerable time, near the end of the film, to examining the aftermath of the fire that killed two employees at the Chinese factory that manufactures Apple’s products, along with the unsafe and often abusive conditions under which the shiny toys of the First World are cranked out. There is another passage, also toward the end, that shows Jobs to be as sinisterly vindictive as a mob boss in punishing a Gizmodo journalist who happened to obtain a prototype of an unreleased iPhone.
The filmmaker wants us to be shocked—shocked—that Apple is responsible for such scandalously abhorrent behavior, and that the quintessential businessman of the age turns out to be just another businessman. The shock is that the public was so credulous as to believe that a corporate behemoth and its leader were as clean and pure as they were portrayed.
The name Bob Dylan is invoked more than half a dozen times in the two hours of running time, and the singer’s music accompanies many key moments in the narration of Jobs’s life. I also heard the names John Lennon, Einstein, and Edison. The name I did not hear—the name I expected to hear—was that of Henry Ford, who seems to me to be a far more plausible comparison.
Ford did not invent the car, just as Jobs did not invent the computer. He popularized the car, taking an invention that was, until then, for the elite, and democratizing it. He did this not just by making it affordable to the middle class; he also sold the public on the idea that his cars were essential to their lives, expressions of American vigor and independence. Eventually, the car supplanted the horse, forever altering American society.
Ford shifted the car from being a status symbol to another kind of symbol, a more resonant and powerful symbol: something without which life was impossible to imagine. He created a need, where before there had been none.
Sound familiar?
What both men did was to innovate within their industries, to “disrupt” (as the business world likes to say now) the existing modes of thinking and producing. They built better mousetraps.
You can say, as Jobs did, that you stand for the rebel, and all those dreamers and visionaries who seek to smash the idols. You can play Dylan at your product launches, and you can even invoke the language of the monk. But that doesn’t make you not a business, or even a different kind of business.
Only in America could we confuse art and commerce. Only in America could we think that money turns a man into a god.
In 1842, Charles Dickens made a tour of America that turned him from a believing idealist to a churlish skeptic. The writer was enamored of the noble, democratic republic he had read and heard about, but what he encountered was nothing even remotely as idyllic. America was callow, vain, and ill-mannered, and he couldn’t wait to return to England. Not only were the people depressingly ignorant of art and culture and the value they possess, but they were proud of the fact. In Boston, one captain of industry told him, with an apparently straight face, “Dollars, banks, and cotton are our books, sir.”
OtherWise is Todd Kliman’s weekly column.CJEU hearing could find IPBill incompatible with EU law
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will today hold an emergency hearing that could have implications for the Investigatory Powers Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament.
The CJEU has been asked to explain its April 2014 Judgment in a case brought by Digital Rights Ireland, which ruled blanket data retention severely interfered with rights to respect for private life and the protection of personal data. The Court also declared the Data Retention Directive invalid.
Open Rights Group’s Legal Director, Myles Jackman said:
“The Court found that you shouldn’t collect people’s data unless there is a specific reason and that there should be strict controls for allowing access to this data. With both DRIPA and the IPBill, the British government has ignored this call to respect our human rights.
We look forward to the CJEU’s clarification of their ruling and hope that it rejects once and for all the blanket collection of our personal data.”
ORG intervened in the case with Privacy International. Their Legal Officer Camilla Graham Wood said:
"The UK, in enacting legislation that is almost identical to the European Data Retention Directive which the CJEU ruled unlawful, is mandating data retention on a widespread, indiscriminate and untargeted basis. Such a broad and wholesale retention of communications data is in violation of European law.”
Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA)
Three months after the Digital Rights Ireland Judgment, the British government fast-tracked the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA) through Parliament. This enabled the continued retention of personal communications data by Communications Service Providers in the UK.
DRIPA was challenged by the MPs David Davis and Tom Watson in a judicial review brought by Liberty with ORG and Privacy International acting as intervenors. The High Court ruled that DRIPA was inconsistent with EU law.
The ruling referred to two criteria laid down by the CJEU in the Digital Rights Ireland case:
1. DRIPA did not provide clear and precise rules about access to and use of the retained communications data.
2. Under DRIPA it is not a mandatory requirement for a court or an independent administrative body to authorise access to the retained data.
When the Government appealed the High Court’s decision, the Court of Appeal asked the CJEU court to explain how the DRI ruling should be applied in the UK.
Investigatory Powers Bill
The IPB would extend the data that is retained by Communication Service Providers to include Internet Connection Records, which have been broadly described as records of users’ browsing history. The CJEU previously said that data should not be retained without a specific reason.
The IPB would also continue to allow the police and government departments to authorise internally access to this data. This would fail to meet the criteria that independent courts or bodies should authorise access to data.
For more information, contact [email protected][+]Enlarge Scientists found increased phosphorus during sampling of remote North American lakes. Janice Brahney gathers water from a site in Canada. Credit: Greg Dumas
A new study reveals that an unknown continental-scale process is dumping phosphorus into streams and lakes across the U.S. (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b05950). Rising phosphorus measured in these water bodies could lead to toxic algal blooms and degraded habitat for fish, birds and frogs.
High phosphorus levels in streams and lakes typically result from sewage discharge and agricultural runoff. But the new work finds phosphorus pollution in remote areas far from such sources, leaving researchers scratching their heads about where it came from. What evidence they have suggests the phosphorus inputs are probably linked to climate change, and are unlikely to be tamed anytime soon.
Phosphorus is an essential nutrient. But when levels top 10 µg/L in water bodies, ecosystems start to change. The kinds of algae that feed a healthy ecosystem begin to disappear, and undesirable species take over, says Emily H. Stanley, an aquatic biogeochemist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not part of the study. One group of undesirables, cyanobacteria, can produce toxic blooms that threaten drinking water sources and cost the U.S. economy over $2.2 billion per year.
To track the health of the nation’s waters, the Environmental Protection Agency monitors a selection of lakes and streams, measuring the concentration of important ions and nutrients every five years.
EPA stumbled on the new result while analyzing these data, says John L. Stoddard, a biogeochemist with the EPA. Phosphorus was the only measured nutrient that changed, he says. Uniformly across the country, median total phosphorus in streams more than doubled from 26 µg/L to 56 µg/L over the last 10 years. In lakes, levels rose from 20 µg/L in 2007 to 37 µg/L in 2012.
The researchers used national data on land cover to determine whether the landscape at each sampling site was urban, farmed, or wild. Stoddard also estimated rainwater runoff at the remote sites based on U.S. Geological Survey records.
“The change was most dramatic in the more pristine parts of the country,” he says. In 2004, nearly 25% of stream kilometers in the U.S. had total phosphorus levels in the healthy range, below 10 µg/L. By 2014, only 1.6% of stream kilometers fell in that range.
Wastewater and farm runoff are not to blame, Stoddard says. These sources carry excess nitrogen along with phosphorus, but nitrogen levels did not rise at the sampled sites. And the largest phosphorus increases were in remote areas far from sewage plants and big agriculture.
“Because the phosphorus increases were continental in scale, there are two major processes that might be responsible,” Stanley says. Big storms, which have increased in the last 20 years, can wash soil particles rich in phosphorus into streams and lakes, she says. Although the researchers did not find evidence of large-scale increases in runoff, Stoddard cautions that their data sources may not be fine-grained enough to capture an increase in episodic high-runoff events.
Atmospheric deposition of phosphorus is the remaining explanation, Stanley says. “Phosphorus sticks to soil and clay particles in dust and gets blown around by wind.” In studies focused on the western U.S. and Spain, researchers have measured increased dust deposition in water bodies and linked it to higher phosphorus concentrations and increased algal biomass. Other research suggests that atmospheric deposition of phosphorus is on the rise largely due to increased dust and emissions from burning biomass, Stoddard says.Exclusive The peer leading the second Climategate enquiry at the University of East Anglia serves as a director of one of the most powerful environmental networks in the world, according to Companies House documents - and has failed to declare it.
Lord Oxburgh, a geologist by training and the former scientific advisor to the Ministry of Defence, was appointed to lead the enquiry into the scientific aspects of the Climategate scandal on Monday. But Oxburgh is also a director of GLOBE, the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment.
GLOBE may be too obscure to merit its own Wikipedia entry, but that belies its wealth and influence. It funds meetings for parliamentarians worldwide with an interest in climate change, and prior to the Copenhagen Summit GLOBE issued guidelines (pdf) for legislators. Little expense is spared: in one year alone, one peer - Lord Michael Jay of Ewelme - enjoyed seven club class flights and hotel accommodation, at GLOBE's expense. There's no greater love a Parliamentarian can give to the global warming cause. And in return, Globe lists Oxburgh as one of 23 key legislators.
At its blog, GLOBE wears its heart on its sleeve
In the House of Lords Register of Lords' Interests, Oxburgh lists under remunerated directorships his chairmanship of Falck Renewables, and chairmanship of Blue NG, a renewable power company. (Oxburgh holds no shares in Falck Renewables, and serves as a non-exec chairman.) He also declares that he is an advisor to Climate Change Capital, to the Low Carbon Initiative, Evo-Electric, Fujitsu, and an environmental advisor to Deutsche Bank. For a year he was non-exec chairman of Shell.
GLOBE is conspicuous by its absence, however. Oxburgh joined GLOBE in 2008. The University of East Anglia appointed Oxburgh after consulting the Royal Society.
"We are grateful to the Royal Society for helping us to identify such a strong panel and to the members for dedicating their time to this important matter," said the University in a press statement. It may not be the smartest advice the UEA has ever received - the Royal Society's partisanship is well known.
(A parallel enquiry, headed by Sir Muir Russell, is already underway.)
One insider, who declined to be named, described Oxburgh's appointment as "like putting Dracula in charge of the Blood Bank".
GLOBE has not returned our request for comment. Nor has the University. The network hasn't had much luck with its UK appointments, as key figures have become caught up in the MP expenses scandal.
GLOBE's worldwide secretary Elliott Morley and its British branch secretary David Chaytor were two of three MPs to face criminal charges last week. Brent MP Barry Gardiner, co-chairman of the GLOBE Dialogue on Land Use Change & Ecosystems claimed for a second home eight miles from Westminster, and worked the system for £200,000.
In 2007 Oxburgh won a Lifetime Achievement Award from Platts. The judges said they were also impressed by “his very high ethical standards". ®SEATTLE — Drug deals are nothing new at Cal Anderson Park in Capitol Hill but a father dealing drugs with his two children in tow takes it to another level.
The city has increased security at the park but residents say the park is still too dangerous.
“I feel like the activity that has come to the park has kind of come to a heinous level,” Yolt Kilgore said.
Most recently a man was busted for dealing meth out of a stroller carrying his 1- and 2-year-old children.
“Wow, when people are getting creative, how do you combat that?” Grant Hanson said. “That’s terrible.”
Seattle Police allege Paul Asher tried to sell meth to an undercover cop. The father of two allegedly had about 8 grams of meth in the stroller with his kids.
“That was pretty stupid,” Alexander Allen said.
Allen says he used to bring his son to the park’s playground all the time until the criminal element at the park got really bad.
“They have needles out here on the floor – all these drug addicts and stuff out here,” Allen said. “This is crazy.”
“We’ve had several stabbings in this park – assaults, rapes,” Aaron Morrison said.
The park is also packed with transients with nowhere to go.
Aaron Morrison with Lifelong Aids Alliance is trying to reach out to homeless youth afraid they will fall victim to the same fate.
“I’m very worried,” Kilgore said. “I’m a little scared for them. Where do you send them?”
The group says the community has given up on cleaning up the Capitol Hill landmark.
“This used to be a homey place you could bring your kids to the park,” Kilgore said. “As you can see there are no kids here.”
Last summer, the city hired more park rangers to help deter crime. Those rangers now visit the park up to 15 times a day. But neighbors say it hasn’t helped much.
“They say never carry a backpack in this area you know that usually means you have a laptop and you will get mugged,” resident Anna Christopherson said. “It is just a shady area don’t walk here at night.”
Asher has been previously convicted of selling meth.This information is written to the best of my knowledge using publicly available resources. No security was bypassed to obtain anything marked confidential, and Carrier IQ made no effort to protect said documents. You can take the Carrier IQ training yourself here – https://dis1.water.carrieriq.com/dis/training.jsp I have made a mirror of all materials referenced here for download for the sole purpose of allowing others to understand and verify my security research on Carrier IQ. http://www.androidfilehost.com/main/.TrevE/CIQ/ mirror1 – http://www.multiupload.com/BAAKNNSM3J
What is Carrier IQ?
Written by Trevor Eckhart
Carrier IQ (CIQ) sells rootkit software included on many US handsets sold on Sprint, Verizon and more. Devices supported include android phones, Blackberries, Nokias, Tablet devices and more.
From carrieriq.com:
Carrier IQ is the market leader in Mobile Service Intelligence solutions that have revolutionized the way mobile operators and device vendors gather and manage information from end users.
Recognizing the phone as an integral part of a mobile service delivery, and using the device to measure key parameters of service quality and usage, the Carrier IQ solution gives you the unique ability to analyze in detail usage scenarios and fault conditions by type, location, application and network performance while providing you with a detailed insight into the mobile experience as delivered at the handset rather than simply the state of the network components carrying it.
From http://www.bgr.com/2011/09/01/htc-sensation-and-evo-3d-revealed-to-be-spying-on-users/
Carrier IQ is used to understand what problems customers are having with our network or devices so we can take action to improve service quality.
It collects enough information to understand the customer experience with devices on our network and how to devise solutions to use and connection problems. We do not and cannot look at the contents of messages, photos, videos, etc., using this tool
Great! Less dropped calls, better network experience. It sounds good on the surface. I was also able to obtain a stock copy of carrier IQ before it gets modified by third parties, and it has surveys users can fill out if they get a dropped call, browser ends unexpectedly, etc. It makes its presence known by putting a checkmark in the status bar. This could potentially be pretty useful information from a network administration standpoint, and is made clear to users its running. Unfortunately this is not always the real world case, it can be modified to be completely hidden.
What does CarrierIQ do?
Carrier IQ is able to query any metric from a device. A metric can be a dropped call because of lack of service. The scope of the word metric is very broad though, including device type, such as manufacturer and model, available memory and battery life, the type of applications resident on the device, the geographical location of the device, the end user’s pressing of keys on the device, usage history of the device, including those that characterize a user’s interaction with a device. (From http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20110106942)
Carrier IQ software, which consists of embedded software on mobile devices and server-side analytics applications, enables mobile operators and device OEMs to understand in detail a wide range of performance and usage characteristics of mobile services and devices. These include both network-facing services such as core voice and data offerings, as well as non-network-facing capabilities such as music players, cameras and other side loaded media, in order to assist with product and service development and roll-out. (From http://www.carrieriq.com/company/PR.CIQ-SeriesC.2009-01-27.pdf )
When is information logged?
Gathering information from the training videos, we see everything is broken down into two categories – Metrics and Triggers.
Metrics appears to be what data to log/send when a trigger is encountered. From the functions we have found already on our devices we knew the list was big, but even the below list only begins to scratch the surface.
Triggers appear to be when to collect metrics. For example when a user installs or opens an app any given metric can be called getting information. When a user browses a webpage HTTP header information can be grabbed along with detailed information on the page, or CarrierIQ can log keypresses made on what webpage. When location is changed the phone can report in. When a call is placed or data is started any metrics can be queried. There is alot more, these are just what was shown in public documents. These triggers seem to be menu items shown in the hidden Carrier IQ Test UI.
Known triggers found on HTC Phones:
Key in HTCDialer Pressed or Keyboard Keys pressed:
Intent – com.htc.android.iqagent.action.ui01
App Opened –
Intent – com.htc.android.iqagent. action.ui15
Sms Received –
Intent – com.htc.android.iqagent. action.smsnotify
Screen Off/On –
Intent – com.htc.android.iqagent. action.ui02
Call Received –
Intent – com.htc.android.iqagent. action.ui15
Media Statistics –
Intent – com.htc.android.iqagent. action.mp03
Location Statistics –
Intent – com.htc.android.iqagent. action.lc30
Known Samsung triggers provided by provided by XDA member k0nane
UI01: screen tapped in any location, or InputMethod (any soft keyboard) key pressed.
NT10: HTTP request read.
NT0F: HTTP request send.
UI11: unknown, located in the View class, which has its own IQClientThreadRunnable subclass.
AL34: loading started in a browser frame – URL.
AL35: loading started in a browser frame – data receive begin and end, page render begin and end.
AL36: data length.
(The above two are also found in LoadListener and WebViewCore classes. Web metrics are not found on the Skyrocket, but are on the Epic 4G and Epic 4G Touch.)
HW03: battery status changed. (Also not found on Skyrocket.)
How does Carrier IQ work?
As mentioned before, Carrier IQ is rootkit software. It listens on the phones for commands contained in “tasking profiles” sent a number of ways and returns whatever “metric” was asked for.
Profile transmission can occur in a variety of ways, including “pushing” the data collection profile to the target device, sending a message, such as an SMS, to the target device prompting it to retrieve the data collection profile, and preparing the data collection profile for download the next time the target device contacts SQP 201 such as when it uploads a metrics package. Such profile transmission to the SQC 402 residing on the target device(s) may be achieved using any of a variety of transport mechanisms and standards including Short Message Service (“SMS”), Hypertext Transport Protocol (“HTTP”), Hypertext Transport Protocol Secure (“HTTPS”), Wireless Application Protocol (“WAP”) Push, IP-based Over-the-Air (IOTA) protocol, OMA/DM, or other protocols that are known in the art or that may be developed in the future. From (http://www.patents.com/us-7609650.html)
IQ Insight Experience Manager uses data directly from the mobile device to give a
precise view of how the services and the applications are being used, even if the
phone is not communicating with the network. (From http://www.carrieriq.com/company/PR.Experience_Manager.CTIA-09.090325.pdf )
See the below process flow
So theres a remote portal?
From training documents found we get an insight to the Carrier IQ Portal. Devices are displayed to the portal operator by individual phone Equipment ID and Subscriber IDs. The “portal administrator” can put devices into categories and see devices in California that have dropped calls at 5pm.
The down side to all of this is the “portal administrator” is also able to “task” a single phone with a profile containing any combinations of metric and trigger. From leaked training documents we can see that portal operators can view and task metrics by equipment ID, subscriber ID, and more. So instead of seeing dropped calls in California, they now know “Joe Anyone’s” location at any given time, what he is running on his device, keys being pressed, applications being used.
Why do you keep calling CarrierIQ a rootkit?
The definition of rootkit from wikipedia is exactly what CarrierIQ is.
A rootkit is software that enables continued privileged access to a computer while actively hiding its presence from administrators by subverting standard operating system functionality or other applications. The term rootkit is a concatenation of “root” (the traditional name of the privileged account on Unix operating systems) and the word “kit” (which refers to the software components that implement the tool)
CarrierIQ as seen in real world usage (HTC Devices especially) is nothing like the stock copies shown on the first page. All menus have been stripped, hiding it from users presence without advanced knowledge. The service also runs as user Root in ramdisk. It checks in to a server (or receives commands through other various access) with commands to allow someone undetected access.
Who is using this data?
Verizon has publicly came forward with a statement regarding their usage on Carrier IQ statistics and give users a way to stop them from selling the information outside of Verizon
https://email.vzwshop.com/servlet/website/ResponseForm?OSPECC_9_0_9hg_eLnHs_uhmpJLE
Verizon Wireless will use the following categories of information:
Mobile Usage Information:
Addresses of websites you visit when using our wireless service. These data strings (or URLs) may include search terms you have used
Location of your device (“Location Information”)
App and device feature usage
Consumer Information:
Information about your use of Verizon products and services (such as data and calling features, device type, and amount of use)
Demographic and interest categories provided to us by other companies, such as gender, age range, sports fan, frequent diner, or pet owner (“Demographics”)
Sprint is known to collect carrier IQ data because users have the application running reporting to them, but have no privacy policy, retention policy, or public information on what they use the data for.
Do we have to Opt-In to this collection? Can it be stopped?
Devices are automatically entered into using Carrier IQ. Samsung android devices have an on off switch, but it is not easily accessible or made known to users that it’s even there. HTC android devices have no such off switch. Even if you purchase a phone on eBay completely off of sprint, use it on wifi only, Sprint will still be enabled to task your device with metrics because of no available off switch and Carrier IQs aggressive reporting nature across multiple protocols.
It also should be noted all the surveys and user facing dialogs have been stripped besides the below screenshots which require advanced skills to access.
Samsung screenshots thanks to k0nane on XDA See the full post where he removed carrier IQ here
Detection / Removal:
There are a few advanced methods that can be used to detect Carrier IQ. Logging Test App scanner will detect it in the kernel (use Check Props Feature), as well files used in the regular Loggers scan. This will detect Carrier IQ regardless if you are rooted or not. You can also use this app to bring out hidden menus for known versions of CIQ clients.
The only way to remove Carrier IQ is with advanced skills. If you choose to void your warranty and unlock your bootloader you can (mostly) remove Carrier IQ. Logging Test App can identify files used in logging and you can manually patch or use Pro version to automatically remove.Five Canadian children were rescued, and 150 people have either been charged or remain under investigation in a massive RCMP child pornography operation targeting online predators exploiting children, police said today from Dartmouth, N.S.
Operation Snapshot III involved 40 police agencies across Canada and included 167 investigations by hundreds of officers over several months.
Five prepubescent children — two from British Columbia, and one each in Ontario, New Brunswick and Quebec — were rescued.
More than 150 people were charged or remain under investigation.
A total of 343 charges of child sex assault, luring, possessing, distributing and making available child pornography were laid following the execution of Operation Snapshot.
RCMP Sgt. Mike Petrilli calls the problem of online child exploitation "widespread."
“Investigating these types of crimes is a serious matter. During the past four years working at the centre, I have seen how widespread this problem is, not only in Canada but worldwide," he said.
"Internet-facilitated child exploitation is one of the most horrific types of crimes a police officer has to investigate, yet there is never a shortage of volunteers that want to step up and make a difference for a child.”
More than 1 million images seized
Police seized more than a million images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, from Canada and around the world.
Insp. Bob Resch of the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children said these images were "not simply children having a bubble bath."
He and Petrilli said they are clearly children, including infants and toddlers, being sexually assaulted.
“Police officers who investigate these crimes know that the investigation never really ends, as the images are forever distributed on the internet. However, police officers know that they can make a difference. They stop the abuse and ensure the successful prosecution of the offenders,” said Petrilli.
Operation Snapshot III follows two other operations investigating targeting online child pornography.
Resch calls internet child exploitation "a borderless crime."
“The internet is something that's growing on a daily basis and I think we are always trying to keep up and catch up. I can say, truly... from Canada's perspective, that our police officers and the ones that you have before you are considered subject-matter experts in this country as well as subject-matter experts internationally and that we have led many training courses and distributions on how to do best practices," he said.
Resch said there is still much work to do.
'We will never be able to stop it," he said.
Operation Snapshot in 2012 targeted individuals in the Prairies and northern regions of Canada. Operation Snapshot II in 2013 focused on individuals in Atlantic Canada.Remi Garde will be named as the new manager of Aston Villa on Monday and has been backed to succeed in the Premier League by his mentor Gerard Houllier.
Garde has agreed to take over the struggling Midlanders after further negotiations this weekend and will fly in for Monday night’s game against Tottenham Hotspur.
The 49-year-old is understood to have signed a three-and-a-half year deal and is charged with the task of saving Villa from dropping into the Championship.
Garde, the former Arsenal midfielder, will watch the Spurs game from the stands and will officially take charge for Sunday’s home match against Manchester City.
It will be his first managerial post outside of France but the Villa hierarchy are convinced he can mount a revival, following the sacking of Tim Sherwood, and then build the club in line with their long-term vision. He first established his reputation working under Houllier at Lyon, later leading the French club to two successive third-placed finishes in Ligue 1 as manager.
And although Houllier, a former Villa manager, has admitted the club’s situation is a serious concern he is convinced Garde has the qualities to enhance his reputation.
He told Telegraph Sport: “Remi takes over a team in a state of urgency and his first job is to get the confidence back into the players.
“He’s got a task on his hands to save them from relegation but I fully expect him to be a success in the Premier League.
“There is already a lot of talk about how he has not managed in England before but the same applies to Jurgen Klopp, Rafa Benitez and even myself and they didn’t do too badly.
“He has spoken to me about Villa many times over the past week and I told him it was a great club with excellent facilities, a very good fanbase and they have a chairman that backs you.
“I will be here to assist him if he needs any advice but he will have good people at Villa that can help him. He is not somebody who has no experience, he speaks the English language and will get his ideas and philosophy across.
“His philosophy will be attack-minded, he likes to build his teams from the back.”
Villa have experienced frustration in their attempts to raid Lyon for Garde’s former assistants Gerald Baticle and Bruno Genesio, with a renewed move expected during the international break.
But Garde is poised to name Reginald Ray, who has been working at Bastia, as his assistant.
Kevin MacDonald will take caretaker charge for Monday’s game at White Hart Lane before returning to his post with the Academy.
Villa have only one win this season and have suffered six straight defeats.Modern hip-hop has long been intensely, consciously intertwined with the structures of capital and power around it. In hip-hop more so than any other music genre, the artist is the business, a force and entity on par with the surrounding universe of brands in search of a face. It goes without saying that it hasn’t always been this way; there’s a long evolutionary line between hip-hop’s Bronx origins in the 1970s and our modern-day universe of Apple acquiring Beats, the surprise Beyoncé album drop, and Chance the Rapper’s rejection of the major music labels. Later this month, a new six-episode documentary podcast from Gimlet Media and the Loud Speakers Network, in collaboration with Spotify, seeks to tell the story of one of the stewards who helped elevate hip-hop to this point: Violator’s Chris Lighty.
Mogul: The Life and Death of Chris Lighty will function as a biography of the high-flying music executive whose clients included Nas, Missy Elliott, LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, and Ja Rule. Lighty, for example, brokered the endorsement deal between 50 Cent and Vitamin Water in 2004 that gave the rapper a minority stake in the company, the first of its kind. He was one of the most powerful figures in the business, but his life was abruptly cut short: In 2012, he committed suicide at the age of 44.
“The show tells the grand, sweeping story of hip-hop through the story of one person,” said Matt Lieber, president of Gimlet Media. “He was there at all the key moments when hip-hop went from being a niche cultural phenomenon to becoming a global force of culture and business.”
Mogul will be hosted by Reggie Ossé (Combat Jack), co-founder of the Loud Speakers Network and a contemporary of Lighty, and the story will unfold through Ossé’s personal narration and interviews with people who were a part of Lighty’s life. It will also feature original music from DJ Prince Paul and Don Newkirk.
In different ways, the project is a first for both the Loud Speakers Network and Gimlet Media: It’s the first narrative show by Loud Speakers — which is more known for its popular conversational podcasts like The Read and The Combat Jack Show — and the first time Gimlet Media, home of Reply All and Crimetown, has collaborated with another network on a podcast.
Mogul is also distinct in being a timed Spotify exclusive. The podcast will debut first on the platform on April 27, before being distributed through the usual places — Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, NPR One, and so on.Deuteronomy 13-15 New International Version (NIV)
Worshiping Other Gods
13 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must
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lex and the Madoka Magica staff produced an image of Snow Miku, Kyubey, and Madoka Magica‘s Homura.
Of course, that’s not to say the digital diva herself will be forgotten, in the least. The event announced Hatsune Miku’s song for this year’s festival: Snow Fairy Story, which you can hear below:This Highland tape is made in the U.S.A. by the 3M company, so you’ll be assured of fine quality. The black dispenser goes well on any desk, and stays put with its weighted base and foam rubber non-slip pads. The tape rolls load easily by sliding the roller over. Don’t get stuck with poor quality taping materials- get the Highland dispenser and invisible tape before it disappears.
nuts & bolts
3M Highland Set Model 6200K12-DVP
3M Highland heavy-duty plastic dispenser
Metal blade, non-slip rubber base
3M Highland Invisible Tape Model 6200
Dispenser: 2.5”w x 2.75”h x 6”l
Tape:.75”w x 1000”l
Tape made in USA; Dispenser made in China
what’s in the box
(1) 3M Highland Desktop Tape Dispenser in Black with 12 rolls of 3M Highland Invisible Tape, New in retail packaging.Background
Between July 22 and September 12, 1942, the German authorities deported or murdered around 300,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. SS and police units deported 265,000 Jews to the Treblinka killing center and 11,580 to forced-labor camps. The Germans and their auxiliaries murdered more than 10,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto during the deportation operations. The German authorities granted only 35,000 Jews permission to remain in the ghetto, while more than 20,000 Jews remained in the ghetto in hiding. For the at least 55,000-60,000 Jews remaining in the Warsaw ghetto, deportation seemed inevitable.
In response to the deportations, on July 28, 1942, several Jewish underground organizations created an armed self-defense unit known as the Jewish Combat Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa; ZOB). Rough estimates put the size of the ZOB at its formation at around 200 members. The Revisionist Party (right-wing Zionists known as the Betar) formed another resistance organization, the Jewish Military Union (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy; ZZW). Although initially there was tension between the ZOB and the ZZW, both groups decided to work together to oppose German attempts to destroy the ghetto. At the time of the uprising, the ZOB had about 500 fighters in its ranks and the ZZW had about 250.
While efforts to establish contact with the Polish military underground movement (Armia Krajowa, or Home Army) did not succeed during the summer of 1942, the ZOB established contact with the Home Army in October, and obtained a small number of weapons, mostly pistols and explosives, from Home Army contacts.
In October 1942, SS chief Heinrich Himmler ordered the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto and deportation of its able-bodied residents to forced labor camps in the Lublin District of the Generalgouvernement. In accordance with this order, German SS and police units tried to resume mass deportations of Jews from Warsaw on January 18, 1943. A group of Jewish fighters, armed with pistols, infiltrated a column of Jews being forced to the Umschlagplatz (transfer point) and, at a prearranged signal, broke ranks and fought their German escorts. Most of these Jewish fighters died in the battle, but the attack sufficiently disoriented the Germans to allow the Jews arranged in columns at the Umschlagplatz a chance to disperse. After seizing 5,000-6,500 ghetto residents to be deported, the Germans suspended further deportations on January 21.
Encouraged by the apparent success of the resistance, which they believed may have halted deportations, members of the ghetto population began to construct subterranean bunkers and shelters in preparation for an uprising should the Germans attempt a final deportation of all remaining Jews in the reduced ghetto.
April 19, 1943-May 16, 1943
The German forces intended to begin the operation to liquidate the Warsaw ghetto on April 19, 1943, the eve of Passover. When SS and police units entered the ghetto that morning, the streets were deserted. Nearly all of the residents of the ghetto had gone into hiding places or bunkers. The renewal of deportations was the signal for an armed uprising within the ghetto.
ZOB commander Mordecai Anielewicz commanded the Jewish fighters in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Armed with pistols, grenades (many of them homemade), and a few automatic weapons and rifles, the ZOB fighters stunned the Germans and their auxiliaries on the first day of fighting, forcing the German forces to retreat outside the ghetto wall. German commander SS General Jürgen Stroop reported losing 12 men, killed and wounded, during the first assault on the ghetto.
On the third day of the uprising, Stroop's SS and police forces began razing the ghetto to the ground, building by building, to force the remaining Jews out of hiding. Jewish resistance fighters made sporadic raids from their bunkers, but the Germans systematically reduced the ghetto to rubble. The German forces killed Anielewicz and those with him in an attack on the ZOB command bunker on 18 Mila Street, which they captured on May 8.
Though German forces broke the organized military resistance within days of the beginning of the uprising, individuals and small groups hid or fought the Germans for almost a month.
The entire sky of Warsaw was red. Completely red.
—Benjamin Meed (oral history)
To symbolize the German victory, Stroop ordered the destruction of the Great Synagogue on Tlomacki Street on May 16, 1943. The ghetto itself was in ruins. Stroop reported that he had captured 56,065 Jews and destroyed 631 bunkers. He estimated that his units killed up to 7,000 Jews during the uprising. The German authorities deported approximately another 7,000 Warsaw Jews to the Treblinka killing center, where almost all were killed in the gas chambers upon arrival.
The Germans deported almost all of the remaining Jews, approximately 42,000, to the Lublin/Majdanek concentration camp, and to the Poniatowa, Trawniki, Budzyn, and Krasnik forced-labor camps. With the exception of a few thousand forced laborers at Budzyn and Krasnik, German SS and police units later murdered almost all of the Warsaw Jews deported to Lublin/Majdanek, Poniatowa, and Trawniki in November 1943 in “Operation Harvest Festival” (Unternehmen Erntefest).
Even after the end of the uprising on May 16, 1943, individual Jews hiding out in the ruins of the ghetto continued to attack the patrols of the Germans and their auxiliaries.
The Warsaw ghetto uprising was the largest, symbolically most important Jewish uprising, and the first urban uprising, in German-occupied Europe. The resistance in Warsaw inspired other uprisings in ghettos (e.g., Bialystok and Minsk) and killing centers (Treblinka and Sobibor).
Remembrance
Today, Days of Remembrance ceremonies to commemorate the victims and survivors of the Holocaust are linked to the dates of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
June 5, 2016, 10:00 AM GMT / Updated June 5, 2016, 12:17 PM GMT By The Associated Press
TOKYO — An American sailor was arrested Sunday on suspicion of drunken driving after an accident on Japan's southern island of Okinawa, where public anger has run high over crimes by U.S. military personnel.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Aimee Mejia, 21, assigned to Kadena base in Okinawa, was arrested after driving the wrong way on a freeway and smashing head-on into two vehicles late Saturday, said police spokesman Takashi Shirado. She was not injured but two people in the other cars were injured, one in the arm and the other in the chest, he said.
The U.S. military did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida spoke with U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy about the arrest, with Kishida asking the U.S. do more to prevent a recurrence, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Kennedy offered her regrets to the family of those injured, the ministry said. The U.S. Embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Okinawa is home to more than half of about 50,000 American troops based in Japan. Protests are common on the island, where residents feel they are being forced with an unfair burden of housing the U.S. troops under a bilateral security agreement.
Protesters hold signs outside Kadena Air Base on May 20. HITOSHI MAESHIRO / EPA
American military personnel are under a midnight curfew and off-base drinking is banned through later this month in Okinawa after a former U.S. Marine who worked on an American military base was arrested after he led police to a woman's body. He is being held on suspicion of abandoning the body, while police investigate.
The suspected murder of the woman was such a critical issue it came up during President Barack Obama's recent visit to Japan. Obama offered his condolences and promised that the U.S. would fully cooperate to have the man prosecuted under Japanese law.What to do in Veria
On the slopes of Mt Vermion, covered in fir, chestnut, beech and linden trees, and bordered to the northeast by the Pieria mountains and the river Aliakmonas, lies Veria. Through the centuries, the greater Veria region, the green and pleasant land of, has handed down the treasures of a glorious history to the next generations.Over the course of 2500 years, each era and its associated culture has left its imprint in every corner of the land. They survive and thrive through the habits and customs of different neighbourhoods, in works of art and the local cuisine. Wander around the alleyways of history; harken to the spirit of past times in a city that makes a worthy contemporary heir to its priceless heritage. All year round, the visitor is offered numerous opportunities for religious, archaeological and nature loving tourism
Aigai-Vergina Museum
Aigai used to be the cradle of the Temenid dynasty, which gave humanity two of its most imposing figures in Philip II and ultimately Alexander the Great, who would go on to change the course of Greek and world history.
The visit to the Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai is a unique, unprecedented experience that excites, moves and edifies. In the underground building that encases and protects the monuments, the visitor can unravel the threads of history and myth. The illuminated ancient objects shine all the more brightly in the dark and mysterious atmosphere that pervades there.
The sight of Philip II’s tomb and the treasures exhibited near the place where they were found leaves every visitor speechless with admiration and awe. The golden shrine with the sixteen pointed star, the sovereign’s gold wreath, his wife’s gold crown, her crimson and gold shroud and the unique frescoes are just a sample of some of the exquisite masterpieces you will witness.
In Aigai, the excavations of archaeologist M. Andronicos brought a whole new chapter of history to light! As a worthy successor to his father’s throne, Alexander the Great sought to glorify the legacy of his predecessor and carve out his own immortal tale.
The traditional 19th century neighbourhoods
Barbouta, the Jewish neighbourhood, retains its special character with the ornate stately homes, the simple houses with the inscriptions in Hebrew and the Synagogue building. In Kyriotissa, the Christian neighbourhood, admire the Byzantine churches, walk along the alleys of the Old Town and visit the Folklore Museum in a renovated stately home.
The Podium of Saint Paul the Apostle
St Paul preached in Veria in the 1st century AD where he was warmly welcomed by the residents. This historic monument is a landmark for Christians all over the world.
Skiing centres
For the lovers of winter sports the Seli National Ski Centre and 3-5 Pigadia, lend themselves to both tourist and athletic skiing. The modern facilities, prime weather conditions, the unobstructed horizon and copious sunshine offer the visitor moments of fun and revitalization. Both areas are ideal during the spring and summer months for mountain climbing, mountain biking and hiking as they are crossed by the European E4 footpath.
Images of Veria
Hidden treasures in Veria
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The history of viticulture and wine production is entwined in the mists of time. Imathia vineyards, especially those of Naoussa, have been moving French connoisseurs to mouth-watering recommendations from as early as the 19th century, when Naoussa was first recognized as a world-class wine producing centre.Today, honoured with the epithet of International City of Vine and Wine, it continues to produce wine that distinguishes itself both in Greece and abroad for its quality – namely its taste, texture and body- with Protected Destination of Origin status.How does the public library of a small city become a universal standard and a benchmark for people of all ages and educational levels? When creative people, with vision and will, believe in the potential of their fellow human beings, it is feasible. A winner of the, today it constitutes a “centre for the development of creativity, knowledge and innovation”. With numerous book titles, many of which are in digital format, an active online presence and particular attention paid to users with special needs, it leads the field when it comes to taking libraries into the new electronic era.There is no better setting for a music festival than the pine-clad banks of the Aliakmonas River. During July, you can enjoy a concert as night falls as well as many activities to pique your interest by day.A new email released by WikiLeaks in connection with its dump of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s email server suggests a senior aide to Vice President Joe Biden may have undermined his presidential aspirations to help Hillary Clinton.
Ron Klain, a Democrat stalwart who served as chief of staff to Biden and Vice President Al Gore, sent an email to Podesta suggesting the Clinton campaign wasn’t sitting idly by while Biden was agonizing as to whether or not to stage a campaign for president, just months after the tragic death of his son Beau.
“It’s been a little hard for me to play such a role in the Biden demise – and I am definitely dead to them — but I’m glad to be on Team HRC, and glad that she had a great debate last night,” he wrote to Podesta and Clinton Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri.
The rhetoric does not correspond to the campaign’s public posturing surround Biden’s months-long deliberation. “Vice President Biden is a friend of mine. He and I were colleagues in the Senate, I worked with him as first lady, I worked with him in President Obama’s first term, and I have a great deal of admiration and respect for him,” Clinton said in Ankeny, Iowa in August, 2015. “I think he has to make what is a very difficult decision for himself and his family, and he should have the space and opportunity to decide what he wants to do.”
The email was sent on Oct. 14, a full week before Biden’s Rose Garden announcement that he would not seek the presidency on Oct. 21. It is unclear what “the Biden demise” refers to, what role Klain played in Biden’s ultimate decision not to run for president, or how much the Clinton campaign was involved in that decision.
Klain’s defection from the administration further underlines the extent to which establishment Democrats rallied around Clinton in advance of the campaign.
The Daily Caller first reported Tuesday that interim Democratic National Convention chair Donna Brazile may have shared questions for a CNN town hall with the camp Clinton in advance. She strongly denied the allegation in a statement yesterday. (RELATED: Revealed: Donna Brazile Shared CNN Town Hall Questions With Clinton Camp)
The Clinton campaign did not comment on this story by press time.
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Software developers vary greatly in their ability to respond and patch zero-day vulnerabilities. In this study, the Linux platform had the worst response time, with almost three years on average from initial vulnerability to patch.
A security-oriented firm called Trustwave recently sent out a preview of an upcoming report [PDF] that features some focused criticism of how the Linux community handles security vulnerabilities. Indeed, it says: "" Whether or not one is happy with how security updates work with Linux, three years sounds like a rather longer response time than most of us normally expect. Your editor decided to examine the situation by focusing on two vulnerabilities that are said to be included in the Trustwave report and one that is not.
Three years?
As of this writing, Trustwave's full report is not available, so a detailed look at its claims is not possible. But, according to this ZDNet article, the average response time was calculated from these two "zero-day" vulnerabilities:
CVE-2009-4307: a divide-by-zero crash in the ext4 filesystem code. Causing this oops requires convincing the user to mount a specially-crafted ext4 filesystem image.
CVE-2009-4020: a buffer overflow in the HFS+ filesystem exploitable, once again, by convincing a user to mount a specially-crafted filesystem image on the target system.
The ext4 problem was reported on October 1, 2009 by R.N. Sastry, who had been doing some filesystem fuzz testing. The report included the filesystem image that triggered the bug — that is the "exploit code" that Trustwave used to call this bug a zero-day vulnerability. Since the problem was limited to a kernel oops, and since it required the victim's cooperation (in the form of mounting the attacker's filesystem) to trigger, the ext4 developers did not feel the need to drop everything and fix it immediately; Ted Ts'o committed a fix toward the end of November. SUSE was the first distributor to issue an update containing the fix; that happened on January 17, 2010. Red Hat did not put out an update until the end of March — nearly five months after the problem was disclosed — and Mandriva waited until February of 2011.
One might argue that things happened slowly, even for an extremely low-priority bug, but where does "three years" come from? It turns out that the fix did not work properly on the x86 architecture; Xi Wang reported the problem's continued existence on December 26, 2011, and sent a proper fix on January 9, 2012. A new CVE number (CVE-2012-2100) was assigned for the problem and the fix was promptly committed into the mainline. Distributors were a bit slow to catch up, though; Debian issued an update in March, Ubuntu in May, and Red Hat waited until mid-November — nearly eleven months after disclosure — to ship the fix to its users. The elapsed time from the initial disclosure until Red Hat's shipping an update that fixes the problem properly is, indeed, just over three years.
The story for the HFS/HFS+ vulnerability is similar. An initial patch fixing a buffer overflow in the HFS filesystem was posted by Amerigo Wang at the beginning of December, 2009. The fix was committed by Linus on December 15, and distributor updates began with Red Hat's on January 19, 2010. Some distributors were rather slower, but it was another hard-to-exploit bug that was deemed to have a low priority.
The problem is that the kernel supports another (newer) filesystem called HFS+. It is a separate filesystem implementation, but it contains a fair amount of code that was cut-and-pasted from the original HFS implementation, much like ext4 started with a copy of the ext3 code. The danger of this type of code duplication is well known: developers will fix a bug in one copy but not realize that the same issue may be present in the other copy as well. Naturally enough, that was the case here; the HFS+ filesystem had the same buffer overflow vulnerability, but nobody thought to do anything about it until Timo Warns quietly told a few kernel developers about it at the end of April 2012. Greg Kroah-Hartman committed a fix on May 4, and the problem was publicly disclosed a few days after that. Once again, a new CVE number (CVE-2012-2319) was assigned, and, once again, distributors dawdled with the fixes; openSUSE sent an update in June, while Red Hat waited until October, five months after the problem became known. The time period from the initial disclosure of the HFS vulnerability until Red Hat's update for the HFS+ problem was just short of three years.
One could look at this situation two ways. On one hand, Trustwave has clearly chosen its vulnerabilities carefully, then applied an interpretation that yielded the longest delay possible. Neither story above describes a zero-day vulnerability knowingly left open for three years; for most of that time, it was assumed that the problems had been fixed. That is doubly true for the HFS+ filesystem, for which the vulnerability was not even disclosed until May, 2012. Given the nature of the vulnerabilities, it is highly unlikely that the black hats were jealously guarding them in the meantime; the odds are good that no system has ever been compromised by exploiting either one of them. Trustwave's claims, if they are indeed built on these two vulnerabilities, are dubious and exaggerated at best.
On the other hand, even low-priority vulnerabilities requiring the victim's cooperation should be fixed — and fixed properly — in a timely manner, and it is not at all clear that happened with these problems. The response to the ext4 problem was arguably fast enough given the nature of the problem, but the fact that the problem persisted on the obscure x86 architecture suggests that the testing applied to that fix was, at best, incomplete. In the HFS/HFS+ case, one could argue that somebody should have thought to check for copies of the bug elsewhere. The fact that the HFS and HFS+ filesystems are nearly unused and nearly unmaintained did not help in this case, but attackers do not restrict themselves to well-maintained code. And, for both bugs, distributors took their time to get the fixes out to their users. We can do better than that.
Meanwhile, in 2013
Perhaps the slowness observed above is the natural response to vulnerabilities that nobody is actually all that worried about. Had they been something more serious, it could be argued, the response would have been better. As it happens, there is an open issue at the time of this writing that can be examined to see how well we do respond; the answer is a bit discouraging.
On January 20, a discussion on the private kernel security list went public with this patch posting by Oleg Nesterov. It seems that the Linux implementation of the ptrace() system call contains a race condition: a traced process's registers can be changed in a way that causes the kernel to restore that process's stack contents to an arbitrary location. The end result is the ability to run arbitrary code in kernel mode. It is a local attack, in that the attacker needs to be able to run an exploit program on the target system. But, given the ability to run such a program, the attacker can obtain full root privileges. That is the kind of vulnerability that needs quick attention; it puts every system out there at the mercy of any untrusted users that may have accounts there — or at the mercy of any attacker that may be able to compromise a network service to run an arbitrary program.
On February 15, the vulnerability was disclosed as such, complete with handy exploit code for those who do not wish to write their own. Most victims are unlikely to apply the kernel patch included with the exploit that makes the race condition easier to hit; the exploit also needs the ability to run a process with real-time priority to win the race more reliably. But, even without the patch or real-time scheduling, a sufficiently patient attacker should be able to time things right eventually. Solar Designer reacted to the disclosure this way:
I haven't looked into this closely yet, but at first glance it looks like the worst Linux kernel vulnerability in a few years. For distro vendor kernels (rather than mainline, which was patched almost a month ago), this is a 0-day.
Arguably this should not be a zero-day vulnerability: the public discussion of the fix is nearly one month old, and the private discussion had been going on for some time before. But, as of this writing, no distributors have issued updates for this problem. That leads to some obvious questions; quoting Solar Designer again:
The mainline commits from January are by Oleg Nesterov of Red Hat. Why wasn't(?) the issue handled with due severity within Red Hat, then - such that Red Hat would at the very least have a statement on whether and which of their kernels are affected by now.
One assumes that such a statement will be forthcoming in the near future. In the meantime, users and system administrators worldwide need to be worried about whether their systems are vulnerable and who might be exploiting the problem.It’s hard to believe the former Conservative government could have watered down gun control legislation more than it did when it closed the long gun registry in 2012. But it did. In the dying days of its government in 2015 it managed to pass Bill C-42, a law that made it tougher for police to keep a watchful eye over who buys guns by limiting the power of chief firearms officers. It also relaxed transport rules for guns and introduced a six-month amnesty for licence renewals, among other measures.
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders with guns seized in Toronto in just one bust this year. ( Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star )
At the time, the Trudeau Liberals were campaigning on a platform that included promises to repeal some of the changes Bill C-42 ushered in and to introduce further efforts aimed at reducing gun crime in Canada. It’s time the government acted on those promises to counter a worrisome increase in the number of firearms and a spike in gun crime. As noted by Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control, the number of restricted firearms, mostly handguns, has increased by 50 per cent over the last five years to about 795,000. And as she argues, it’s only logical that the more guns there are out there, the more chance some will end up in the wrong hands.
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In fact, Toronto is seeing a significant increase in the use of guns in violent crime. Consider that as of Monday the city had already seen 35 gun homicides in 2016, up from a total of 21 in 2015. Though it’s not quite “the year of the gun,” when Toronto saw 52 gun deaths in 2005, the trend is frightening enough. Also troubling is the fact that the majority of illegal firearms in the city now originate in Canada, not the United States. No wonder. It’s disturbingly easy for licensed gun owners to buy multiple guns with a single permit, and then sell them on the black market. As Betsy Powell reported in Saturday’s Star, security guard Andrew Winchester, for example, purchased an astonishing 47 handguns in a six-month buying binge. Though all of those handguns would have been added to the Canadian Firearms Registry at the time of purchase, no red flags were raised or followed up on by the chief firearms officers. It’s not clear why this is happening. It could be because of the watering down of the chief firearms officers’ powers by Bill C-42, or the fact police don’t have the resources to interview gun purchasers. Or, as one Toronto cop complained in a memo obtained by Powell, it could be because an internal conflict within the RCMP’s Canadian Firearms Program has created obstacles to police obtaining information from its registry.
But whatever the reasons, the Trudeau government needs to solve them quickly. Among the government’s most important promises: Require enhanced background checks to purchase a handgun or other restricted firearm.
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Require purchasers to actually show their licence when they buy a gun and for retailers to confirm it is valid. Repeal measures in Bill C-42 that allowed restricted and prohibited weapons to be transported without a permit. The Liberals recognized all those issues in last year’s election campaign. Now they are in power, they should act on them.
Read more about:Thank you so much Santa!! You are the most amazing Santa. So mych thought went into my gifts. thank you thank you!!
Was having one of the most frustrating days, so came home for lunch to find a package, I though Yay my Ds game arrived, they didnt need to put it in such a large box but nope was my socks exchange... EVEN BETTER!!!
My santa had drawn the cutest little meow meows on the box in socks!! Omg I knew I was going to love whatever was in side.
I opened the box and it was full. I was only expecting maybe 2 pairs of socks but there were 11 pairs of socks 4 of which are the softest most warm socks in the world!!Perfect timing because its going to be 4 degrees tonight.. Rory hates it when I wear socks to bed but one of these pairs is coming to bed tonight :D A pair of fluffy comfy slippers, toys for our little meow meows and Chocolates!! And best of all Legend of ZELDA THEMED SOCKS!! OMG I lost my shit with Joy!!
Im taking the slippers to work, they are going to go perfectly with my hello kitty onesie I got in an exchange and Yes I do wear onesies and slippers at work :P We are all a little crazy at work so it's totally acceptable.
The chocolates I will be sharing they look amazing!! Cant wait to try them.
The Zelda socks... I LOVE Zelda to the point one of our kittens is named princess Zelda so you have no idea how happy Zelda themed socks made me. Thank you sooo much!!!
I can honestly say lately I havent been able to find a matching pair of socks so ive been mix and matching, this couldnt have come at a better time :D
The kittens Love their toys, Zelda is currently pawing one of the balls all over the kitchen floor. Can never have enough kitten toys, I think one has already gone under the fridge.. i'll fish that out with a ruler soon :D Ellie was trying to eat the ribbon off the zelda socks.. Was not impressed. But thank you so much our little furzies will be soo happy!!
I can't thank you enough, This has been of of the best exchanges so far, I love the cute little drawing and the really nice card with a recipe on the back, Going to be trying that out soon :D I hope you get something just as wonderful!!Introduction
While I talked about Motorola’s issues in the launch article for the new Moto X, it’s well worth repeating. Motorola has been through a lot these past few years. Once the iconic symbol of Android with their Droid smartphones, Motorola had lost its way. It wasn’t unusual to see one phone launch after the other, with no real regard for strategy, and no real cohesive message to tie all of their devices together. If anything, there was a point where Motorola had become an ODM for network operators in the US, with no real international presence. After Google acquired it in 2012, we saw the launch of the Moto X in 2013. The amount of hype that I saw online before the announcement of the Moto X was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
Unfortunately, the device that launched didn’t quite fit with the hype. The Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset was decidedly mid-range by the time it launched. The display was good for the time, but AMOLED wasn’t quite the imminent LCD replacement that it is today. The camera was also rather unfortunate at launch. For better or worse, the Moto X was a phone with the right size and shape, but a lot of hardware choices that aged poorly. This leads us to the new Moto X. On the surface, this phone corrects a lot of issues that were present in the original Moto X. The new Moto X brings an SoC that is up to par with its competition, a new camera with a Sony sensor, and an improved AMOLED panel. Of course, I’m not going to spend too much time covering the basic specifications when a table will suffice.
Motorola Moto X (Gen 1) Motorola Moto X (Gen 2) SoC 1.7 GHz Dual Core Snapdragon S4 Pro 2.5 GHz Quad Core Snapdragon 801 RAM/NAND 2 GB, 16/32/64GB NAND 2GB, 16/32GB NAND Display 4.7” 720p Super AMOLED 5.2” 1080p Super AMOLED Network 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Qualcomm MDM9x15 IP block UE Category 3 LTE) 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Qualcomm MDM9x25 IP block UE Category 4 LTE) Dimensions 129 x 65.3 x 5.7-10.4mm, 139 grams 140.8 x 72.4 x 3.8-9.9 mm, 144 grams Camera 10MP Rear Facing, 1/2.6" CMOS size (OV10820), 2.1MP FFC 13MP Rear Facing, 1/3.06" CMOS size (Sony IMX135), 2.1MP FFC Battery 2200 mAh, 3.8V, 8.36 Whr 2300 mAh, 3.8V, 8.74 Whr OS Android 4.4.4 Android 4.4.4 Connectivity 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, MHL, DLNA, NFC 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.1, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, MHL, DLNA, NFC SIM Size NanoSIM NanoSIM
As with most reviews, physical impressions are always a good place to start. In terms of look and feel, the new Moto X starts off incredibly well. The metal frame is something that Motorola is especially proud of, as they've managed to enable an external antenna design without causing some of the infamous deathgrip issues. At any rate, it really feels great in the hand, especially because of the varying thickness. The metal frame can be as thin as 3.3mm in the corners, which really feels razor thin. Fortunately, the center is much thicker to provide for better grip. As a result, the phone is secure in the hand and I never really felt like I would drop it. Overall, I really think the feel of the phone is great. While the size is approaching an uncomfortable level, it manages to stay just short of it because the phone is so thin.
However, I’d like to cut this short as I’ve already given most of my initial impressions in the launch piece. While I haven’t been able to get around to writing my experience with Motorola’s tour, Motorola and their PR team have done an incredible job of introducing the product and allowing for plenty of time to get first impressions, photos, and ask all kinds of questions.
Cellular Architecture
Instead, given the amount of information disclosed by Motorola, I wanted to start this review with a discussion about cellular architecture, as it’s one of the few areas where we still seem to be working with black boxes. For those that are unfamiliar with the basics of how current RF architecture is set up, there are a few major components to talk about. We have antennas, antenna switches and duplexers, band filters, power amplifiers, a transceiver (which is made of multiple parts but that’s for another day), and the modem.
So let’s talk about what’s in the new Moto X. While antennas are still an area I’ve been working on learning more about, we can talk about band support on the Moto X. I’ve attached a table below with a full list of supported bands.
Motorola Moto X (2014) FCC ID Operator/Region Target CDMA Bands GSM WCDMA LTE CA IHDT56QA1 (XT1095/XT1097) AT&T/T-Mobile USA - 850, 900, 1800, 1900 850, 900, AWS, 1900, 2100 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 17, 29 - IHDT56QA2 (XT1096) Verizon 800, 1900 850, 900, 1800, 1900 850, 900, 1900, 2100 2, 3, 4, 7, 13 - IHDT56QA3 (XT1092)? 800, 1900 850, 900, 1800, 1900 850, 900, AWS, 1900, 2100 2, 4, 5, 12, 17, 25, 26, 41 - IHDT56QA4 (XT1093/XT1094) EU - 850, 800, 1800, 1900 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100 1, 3, 7, 8, 20 -
What might be notable is the lack of carrier aggregation on the new Moto X, which suggests that there is only a WTR1625L transceiver inside, with no WFR1620 companion chip to go with it. This is a rather conventional configuration at this point, and I suspect that phones with support for carrier aggregation will have to wait until WTR3925 which should be in most high end phones in 2015. The modem is also common at this point, as the MDM9x25 IP block in Snapdragon 800/801 has
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permitted by law.
7.8. Each Bidder and Buyer expressly agrees that Prop Store shall not be liable in whole or in part, for, and no Bidder or Buyer shall be entitled to recover, any special, indirect, incidental or consequential damages including loss of profits or value of investment or opportunity cost, for any breach of any warranty, representation, or guarantee set forth herein.
8. Other Important Tems
8.1. If any part of these Conditions is found by any arbitrator or court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that part shall be discounted and the rest of the Conditions shall continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.
8.2. The contract is between the Seller, the Buyer and Prop Store and no other person shall have any rights to enforce any of its terms.
8.3. If Prop Store fails to insist on performance of any of a Buyer’s obligations under these Conditions, or if it delays in doing so, that will not mean that Prop Store has waived its rights against the Buyer and does not mean the Buyer no longer has to comply with those obligations.
8.4. These Conditions shall be enforced in accordance with and governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its choice of law provisions.
8.5. Any claim or controversy arising out of or relating to the sale of the item between any Bidder/Buyer and Prop Store shall be submitted to arbitration in Los Angeles County, California before an arbitrator from the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc. (“JAMS”) and conducted under its Comprehensive Arbitration Rules, as the exclusive remedy for such claim or controversy. The parties further agree that the arbitration shall be conducted before a single JAMS arbitrator who is a retired California or federal judge or justice. By agreeing to arbitrate, the parties waive any right they have to a court or jury trial. The decision of the arbitrator shall be final and binding. The parties further agree that, upon application of the prevailing party, any Judge of the Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of Los Angeles, may enter a judgment based on the final arbitration award issued by the JAMS arbitrator, and the parties expressly agree to submit to the jurisdiction of this Court for such a purpose. The prevailing party shall be entitled to recover the party’s attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in connection with the arbitration.
BUYER'S GUIDE
Introduction. This Buyers’ Guide contains a brief overview of Prop Store’s auction process and the terms under which Lots are made available for sale at auction. A more detailed statement of our Terms and Conditions of Sale follow after this Buyer’s Guide. Please read the Buyer’s Guide and the Terms and Conditions of Sale carefully. By registering to bid and participate in a Prop Store auction, you will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by them.
Definitions
When the following capitalized words or terms are used in this Buyers’ Guide, they shall mean:
Auction A live sale by auction hosted by Prop Store
Bidder Any person, properly registered and approved by Prop Store to participate in the Auction who makes or considers making a bid to buy a Lot at Auction
Buyer The person or Company making the highest bid or offer for a Lot accepted by the auctioneer, including a principal bidding as agent
Buyer’s Expenses An amount equivalent to 3% of the Hammer Price charged to the Buyer if Buyer’s winning bid was made online
Buyer’s Premium A commission of 20% of the Hammer Price charged to the Buyer for a Lot
Company Any partnership, corporation, limited liability company, association, or any other business entity duly organized and qualified to conduct business under the laws of its state of formation
Credit Card Fee An additional 2% of the aggregate amount of the Purchase Price, plus any relevant sales tax, charged to the Buyer, if the Purchase Price is paid by credit card
Guarantee of Attribution Prop Store’s limited guarantee relating to the provenance of each Lot, as set forth in Paragraph 10 of the Terms and Conditions of Sale
Hammer Price The highest bid for a Lot accepted by the auctioneer at the Auction
Lot Each item or group of items consigned by the Seller to Prop Store to be made available for sale at an Auction, as detailed in the catalogue
Prop Store The Prop Store of London, Inc. of 9000 Fullbright Ave, Chatsworth, CA 91311
Purchase Price The Hammer Price plus the Buyer’s Premium, plus the Buyer’s Expenses, and any applicable sales tax, charged to the Buyer
Seller The person or Company offering the Lot for sale, including their agents or personal representatives
Terms and Conditions of Sale Prop Store’s terms and conditions of sale at Auction, from time to time as may be amended, a copy of which appears following the Buyer’s Guide
Before the Auction
3.1 Bidder Registration.
Every person or Company wishing to make a bid in the Auction is required to register with Prop Store before participating at an Auction.
To register, each person or Company must complete and return a bidder registration form available in this Buyer’s Guide or online at www.propstore.com, which must include a valid Visa, MasterCard or American Express credit card details to be held on file.
Each person registering to bid must also provide Prop Store with up–to-date, valid government-issued photo identification (e.g. passport, driver’s license) and proof of current address (such as a utility bill or bank statement dated within the last three months).
Each Company registering to bid must provide a certified copy or original articles of incorporation, articles of organization, or other documents satisfactory to Prop Store – contact Prop Store at +1 818 727 7829 for confirmation of what will be acceptable;
Any person seeking to participate in the Auction as an agent on behalf of a registered principal must complete and submit an Agent Information Form, and provide an up-to-date, valid government-issued photo identification (e.g., passport, driver’s license), as well as a written authorization from the principal confirming the agent’s authority to participate at the Auction on the principal’s behalf.
3.2. Pre-Auction Viewing. During the Pre-Auction Viewing period, as set forth in the Auction catalog, any Bidder may preview Lots free of charge by appointment with Prop Store.
3.3. Delivery Costs. At Bidder’s request, without any liability therefor, Prop Store can provide shipping estimates before the Auction. Any Bidder requesting this information should email [email protected] including the Lot number and shipping address at least 3 days before the start of the Auction.
3.4. Bidders Outside the US
If the Bidder is located outside the United States, it is the Bidder’s sole responsibility and obligation to ensure in advance of the Auction that any Lot purchased in the Auction can be exported from the United States and imported into the country of destination. No sale will be canceled because the Lot may not be imported into the country of destination.
PackAir Airfreight, Inc., a third-party independent freight vendor, can advise Bidders on relevant export licensing regulations and may submit export license applications upon request. Neither Prop Store nor PackAir Freight, Inc. can guarantee that any licenses, permits or consents will be granted, and shall have no liability arising out of or relating thereto.
At the Auction
4.1 No Reserve Auction. This is a No Reserve auction. There is no minimum selling price on any Lot of property offered for sale in the Auction. There are no pre-sale estimates provided on any Lot of property offered for sale in the Auction.
4.2 Bidding Process.
All bids are by individual Lot unless the auctioneer states to the contrary during the live Auction. Lots will usually be sold in their numbered sequence, unless the auctioneer announces otherwise at the Auction.
The auctioneer may accept bids from Bidders present in the sale room, via telephone, or via online at the time of the Auction. The auctioneer may also accept proxy bids delivered to Prop Store before the start of the Auction. Proxy bids may be submitted either by using the form in this Buyer’s Guide or the online form at www.propstore.com. Proxy bids will be executed at the lowest possible price.
Any Bidder wishing to place bids at the time of the Auction via telephone must provide to Prop Store a list of Lots on which they intend to bid at least 24 hours before the start of the Auction.
In addition to Prop Store’s Terms and Conditions of Sale, any Bidder placing bids online must comply with the terms for use of the online auction platform access provider. Any winning bid placed online shall be subject to the Buyer’s Expenses.
Except as expressly stated in this Buyer’s Guide or the Terms and Conditions of Sale, Prop Store shall have no liability arising out of or related to any errors or omission in respect of bids made online, by telephone or by proxy.
The auctioneer shall have sole discretion to accept or decline any bid.
After the Auction
Payment.
Prop Store will notify the Buyer and send (by email unless requested otherwise) a payment invoice setting out the Purchase Price and itemizing the Hammer Price, Buyer’s Premium, and if applicable Buyer’s Expenses, plus any applicable sales tax, within 7 business days of the end of the Auction. For all sales within California, sales tax at the prevailing rate (currently 9%) will be applied to the Purchase Price. Delivery addresses outside California will be exempt from sales tax.
Payment of the invoice is due within 7 business days from receipt of the invoice and must be made by the Buyer. Payments from any other source will not be accepted and shall be returned by Prop Store.
Payment must be in US dollars and may be made by electronic transfer, debit card, credit card (up to a maximum of $25,000), bankers draft or check (drawn on a US bank account – note check clearance can take between 5 and 10 working days), or cash (up to a maximum of $5,000). Please note that the Credit Card Fee will be charged and payable in addition to the Purchase Price on any amounts paid by credit card. Please quote the Lot number, invoice number and Bidder registration number when making payment to ensure it can be processed as efficiently as possible.
If payment is made by credit card, Buyer expressly agrees that such payment is nonrefundable nor may be credited to any other purchase, and that Buyer will not undertake any action or effort to stop payment, seek a refund, or attempt a charge back of such amounts – or any Credit Card Fee assessed thereon – by the issuer of the credit card.
5.2 Shipping and Storage.
The Buyer is solely responsible for all shipping, handling, and delivery costs. Prop Store can help you arrange packing and shipping through FedEx for smaller items or PackAir AirFreight, Inc. for larger items, or you can use your own licensed carrier, approved by Prop Store. Please contact Prop Store at +1 818 727 7829 for further details. Please be advised that certain Lots are highly fragile and should be handled with caution. Prop Store recommends that the Buyer collect such Lots locally from Prop Store, if possible. Prop Store does not warranty the Lots against and shall have no liability for any damage that any Lot may incur or suffer during the shipping or delivery process.
After 14 days after close of Auction, if Buyer has not made arrangements for and paid the shipping cost of the Lots purchased, or has otherwise failed to collect the Lots, a storage fee of 3% of the Hammer Price per month shall be charged to the Buyer. If the Buyer has failed to pay the Purchase Price and the cost of shipping and handling, Prop Store, at its option may cancel the sale.
PRIVACY POLICY
1. Introduction
This is our Privacy Policy. It tells you how we collect, process, and maintain data received from you on our site.
This privacy policy is effective as of February 25, 2015
If you have any comments or questions on this privacy policy, please email them to [email protected].
2. Who We Are
Our site address is www.propstore.com
Our company name is The Prop Store of London, Inc. d/b/a Prop Store
Our registered address is 9000 Fullbright Avenue, Chatsworth, California 91311
3. What we collect
We may collect, maintain, and use the following data about you:
Your first and last name;
Your home address or other physical address provided by you;
Your telephone number; and
Your email address.
In order to register to bid in our Auction and to use our site, you must create an online account. Once you have created your account, you may update or change your personally identifiable information at any time through your online account.
4. How we use what we collect
We use information about you to:
• Present site content effectively to you;
• Provide information, products and services that you request, or (with your consent) which we think may interest you;
• Carry out our contracts with you;
• Allow you to use our interactive services, if you want to;
• Tell you our charges; and/or
• Tell you about other goods and services that might interest you or for our general marketing purposes.
If you do not wish to have us use the collected data for our marketing purposes, you can opt out by checking the box on our registration form, or by contacting us at any time at [email protected].
5. Disclosing your information
You understand and agree that we are allowed to disclose your information in the following cases:
• To our consignors;
• If we want to sell our business, or our company, to the potential buyer;
• To any of our affiliates, subsidiaries, parents, or related companies;
• Pursuant to a court order or other requirement under applicable law; and
• To governmental agencies or other entities as necessary to protect against fraud.
6. Links to other sites
Please note that our terms and conditions and our Private Policy will not apply to other websites that you may access via a link from our site. Should you visit other websites through any links provided from our site, please be advised that these other websites will not have access to any personally identifiable information you provided to us. We do not share your personally identifiable information with these other websites.
7. Changes
From time to time, we may change our Privacy Policy. If we do so, we will post the changes on this page. At our option, we may also email you. However, it is your responsibility to review our website for any changes to our Privacy Policy, regardless of whether we notify you of the same.If you watched the ChefConf keynote,
attended last years’ community summits,
or follow our open source mailing lists, you’ve probably heard about
Policyfiles.
If you haven’t, here’s the deal: Policies are a new feature of Chef that
combine the very best parts of Roles, Environments, and client-side
dependency resolvers like Berkshelf into a single easy to use workflow.
Policies are built by defining a Policyfile, which looks similar to a
Chef Role combined with a Berksfile. When a Policy is ready for upload,
a workstation command included with the ChefDK compiles the Policyfile
into a Policyfile.lock file. This locked Policy, along with all of the
cookbooks it references, are treated as a single unit by the Chef
tooling. The bundle of Policyfile.lock and cookbooks are uploaded to the
server simultaneously. They are also promoted simultaneously through the
deployment lifecycle, from dev to QA to production.
Policies make your chef-client runs completely repeatable, because
cookbooks referenced in a Policy are identified by a unique hash based
on their contents. This means that once the lock file + cookbook bundle
has been generated, the code underlying it will never change.
For more information, see the
Policyfile README in the ChefDK repo.
Previously we’ve recommended that you only use Policyfiles in
specialized testing environments because using Policyfiles in
compatibility mode along side existing infrastructure could cause
unexpected behavior. With Chef Server 12.1 and ChefDK 0.7, Policyfile
data is now stored via specialized APIs, making it safe (and a lot
easier) to use Policyfiles in your existing Chef Server setup.
To help you get familiar with the workflows Policyfiles make possible,
we’ll walk through deploying a simple demo application using Policyfiles
to manage our dependencies across the application’s lifecycle.
The code here is based on
a demo my colleague created for the London Chef meetup.
It deploys the “Awesome Appliance Repair” Python application.
Getting Started With Local Development and Testing
To follow along with this example, you’ll need:
Initialize Shell
If you have previously installed ChefDK or Test Kitchen on your machine
using rubygems, you might have older versions of these tools in your
PATH. If that’s the case, you can use chef shell-init to setup your
environment variables, like so (I use zsh, be sure to update the
command for your shell):
eval "$(chef shell-init zsh)" which kitchen # => /opt/chefdk/bin/kitchen
Generate:
For this example, we’ll structure our code as if we were developing our
infrastructure code alongside the application, in the same source repo.
Note that Policyfiles don’t require you to manage your code this way,
you can use individual git repos per cookbook or a monolithic repo if
you prefer. Just follow along for now :)
We use chef generate to create the required files and directories for
us:
mkdir aar cd aar chef generate app. # Policyfiles will be the default someday, 'till then: chef generate policyfile
Commit
We’ll commit our work now so we can roll back to a fairly blank slate if
we make a mistake later:
git add. git commit -m 'initial policyfile demo commit'
Edit Policyfile:
We describe how we want Chef to compose our cookbooks to configure a
machine to run our application by editing the Policyfile.rb. This file
defines a few things:
name : This describes the kind of machine we are creating. We name
this “aar”, which is our abbreviation for “Awesome Appliance Repair.”
: This describes the kind of machine we are creating. We name this “aar”, which is our abbreviation for “Awesome Appliance Repair.” default_source : The place where we get shared cookbooks. The default
source is :community, which is the Chef Supermarket site. You can
also use an internal supermarket instance or a monolithic Chef Repo.
: The place where we get shared cookbooks. The default source is, which is the Chef Supermarket site. You can also use an internal supermarket instance or a monolithic Chef Repo. run_list : The list of recipes, in order, that you want Chef to
evaluate to configure your system. When using Policyfiles, you set the
run_list in the Policyfile instead of on the node.
: The list of recipes, in order, that you want Chef to evaluate to configure your system. When using Policyfiles, you set the in the Policyfile instead of on the node. cookbook : A Policyfile.rb can have multiple cookbook statements;
these can configure specific cookbooks to be loaded from alternative
sources or set additional version constraints on them.
: A can have multiple statements; these can configure specific cookbooks to be loaded from alternative sources or set additional version constraints on them. Default and override attributes: these define attributes at the ‘role’
precedence level. We’ll look at these later.
Edit the Policyfile.rb as follows:
# Policyfile.rb - Describe how you want Chef to build your system. # # For more information on the Policyfile feature, visit # https://github.com/opscode/chef-dk/blob/master/POLICYFILE_README.md # A name that describes what the system you're building with Chef does. name "aar" # Where to find external cookbooks: default_source :community # run_list: chef-client will run these recipes in the order specified. run_list "aar::default" # Specify a custom source for a single cookbook: cookbook "aar", path: "cookbooks/aar"
Chef Install
With our basic Policyfile.rb, we run chef install to fetch
dependencies and generate a Policyfile.lock.json. We haven’t specified
any dependencies yet, so we don’t need to fetch anything, but we will
need the lockfile to be generated before we can proceed to the next
step.
chef install
Let’s take a peek at the Policyfile.lock.json we just created. We’ll
go over each part individually:
Revision ID
"revision_id": "5f750bf464100b487cd7c276c5d532341b79fbeb5e8accd29538ae972896992b",
Each time we create or update the lock, chef will automatically
generate a revision_id based on the content. These values are used to
automatically version your policies, so that you can apply different
revsions of a policy to different set of servers. We’ll see this in
action a little later.
Name and Run List
"name": "aar", "run_list": [ "recipe[aar::default]" ],
The lock includes the name and run list we specified previously. The run
list is normalized to the least ambiguous form.
Cookbook Locks
"cookbook_locks": { "aar": { "version": "0.1.0", "identifier": "cff2d37260c04b21053ad30b68aa20e674e52e6c", "dotted_decimal_identifier": "58532310150070347.9294424438433962.36174175743596", "source": "cookbooks/aar", "cache_key": null, "scm_info": { "scm": "git", "remote": null, "revision": "3455fb415d56f9a7cabbb76f2063942a6547b2eb", "working_tree_clean": true, "published": false, "synchronized_remote_branches": [ ] }, "source_options": { "path": "cookbooks/aar" } } },
For each cookbook we use, there is a corresponding entry in the
cookbook_locks section. The exact data collected about each cookbook
is dependent on the cookbook’s source. In this case, we have a cookbook
sourced from the local disk which happens to be in a git repo. In the
event we need to debug this cookbook later, ChefDK has collected
information about the cookbook’s git revision. If we’d setup a remote,
git would tell us the cookbook’s git URL and whether we’d pushed this
commit to a branch on the remote.
Attributes
"default_attributes": { }, "override_attributes": { },
Policyfiles have attributes that replace role attributes. We’ll see
these a little later.
The Rest
"solution_dependencies": {
You can ignore the solution_dependencies section. It’s used to keep
track of dependencies in your cookbooks so ChefDK can check whether
changes to your cookbooks are compatible with their dependencies without
having to download the full cookbook list from supermarket every time.
Commit the lockfile
We’ll want to compare it to an updated version
later, to see what changed.
git add Policyfile.lock.json git commit -a -m 'updated Policyfile and created lock'
Edit.kitchen.yml
ChefDK ships with a policyfile_zero provisioner for Test Kitchen that
allows us to test our policies in local (or cloud) VMs. Note that
currently Chef Zero doesn’t fully support “native” Policyfile APIs, so
instead it runs in compatibility mode. This isn’t a problem on an
isolated server like Chef’s local mode, but it’s something you might
notice when debugging.
--- driver: name: vagrant network: - ["forwarded_port", {guest: 80, host: 8080}] provisioner: name: policyfile_zero require_chef_omnibus: 12.3.0 platforms: - name: ubuntu-14.04 suites: - name: default attributes:
Run TK with Empty Cookbook
To verify our test rig works, we’ll run kitchen with our empty
cookbook:
kitchen converge
If you get an error like Message: Could not load the 'policyfile_zero' provisioner from the load path
then you didn’t run the chef shell-init step above. Run that and try
again.
If that worked without a problem, you can throw that VM away:
kitchen destroy
Develop your Cookbook
This is where we’d normally run a TDD testing loop, but for the purpose
of this walkthrough, we’ll just import the aar cookbook fully formed:
cd cookbooks curl -LO https://github.com/danielsdeleo/aar/releases/download/draft-1/aar-cookbook.tgz tar zxvf aar-cookbook.tgz rm aar-cookbook.tgz cd..
If you inspect cookbooks/aar/metadata.rb, you’ll notice that our
cookbook now has some dependencies, but we haven’t yet downloaded them.
We’ll do that next.
Chef Update and Commit
Now that we’ve added some dependencies to our cookbook, we need to run
chef update to fetch them.
chef update
This will recompute our dependencies and cache all the cookbooks we
need for our Policy.
To see what’s changed since our last commit, we could just run git
diff, but chef diff gives us itemized output, listing added, removed,
and changed cookbooks. Let’s give it a go:
chef diff --head
Now that we’re satisfied with our changes, we’ll commit again.
git add. git commit -m 'Update aar cookbook and deps'
Run Kitchen Again
We can run test kitchen again to see the result of our changes:
kitchen converge
Visit the Site
With the port forwarding, we can visit
http://localhost:8080 and see the site. For
more info on using the application, see the awesome appliance repair README on github.
Deploy
We can use the chef provision feature to create a “staging” and then a
“production” node. We’ll use these to see how we can deploy different
revisions of a policy to different machines. Since chef provision is
new and somewhat experimental, it’s not yet integrated with chef
generate, however, we can generate a cookbook like this (make sure it’s
named “provision”, that name is special):
chef generate cookbook provision
Then overwrite the generated provision/recipes/default.rb with the
following. NOTE: It’s vital that you set the convergence_options
as shown here. Nodes currently don’t have any attributes to set
Policyfile options; instead you must set policy_group and
policy_name in the config file. The provisioning convergence options
will take care of that for you automatically.
If you’d like to extend this example to use something other than
Vagrant, you can learn more about Chef Provisioning on docs.chef.io.
context = ChefDK::ProvisioningData.context # Set the port dynamically via the command line: target_port = context.opts.port with_driver 'vagrant:~/.vagrant.d/boxes' do options = { vagrant_options: { 'vm.box' => 'opscode-ubuntu-14.04', 'vm.network' => ":forwarded_port, guest: 80, host: #{target_port}" }, convergence_options: context.convergence_options } machine context.node_name do machine_options(options) # This forces a chef run every time, which is sensible for `chef provision` # use cases. converge(true) action(context.action) end end
Notice that we are making the forwarded port configurable via the
command line. This lets us run multiple VMs on the same host without the
forwarded ports colliding with each other.
We can sync the policy to the server and create our “staging” node with
a single command:
chef provision staging --sync -n aar-staging-01 -o port=8000
That will sync our local policy lock to a policy group called ‘staging’
(creating that policy group in the process), then run an embedded Chef
Client which creates a VM (via Chef Provisioning), configures it and
converges it.
We can see the site running by visiting http://localhost:8000
(notice that’s port 8000 this time).
Since it works in staging, we’ll create a “production” node with the
same policy:
chef provision production --sync -n aar-production-01 -o port=8888
Update the Attributes via Policyfile
Policyfiles allow us to set attributes. Since Policyfiles don’t support
roles, these attributes replace role attributes in the precedence
hierarchy. In our Policyfile.rb, we set attributes using the same syntax
we use in cookbooks. In this example, we’ll change the version number
that appears on the home page. Add the following line to your
Policyfile.rb
default['aar']['version'] = "19.7.4"
To apply the changes to the Policyfile.lock.json, use chef update :
chef update --attributes
We can see the effect of our changes with chef diff :
chef diff --head
And we can see that our local policy differs from what we’ve deployed to
our staging group:
chef diff staging
Now that we’re satisfied with our changes, commit to git again:
git commit -a -m 'update aar version'
Deploy it to Staging:
In a normal TDD workflow, we’d run kitchen again to see our changes, but
this time we’ll just deploy it to staging by running chef provision
again:
chef provision staging --sync -n aar-staging-01 -o port=8000
If we visit the site at http://localhost:8000
we see “Awesome Appliance v.19.7.4” right under the login dialog.
Let’s suppose we’re not ready to apply the change in production, but we
want to run chef-client on our production machine. We can do this by
using the --policy-name option instead of the --sync option:
chef provision production --policy-name aar -n aar-production-01 -o port=8888
Note that since we did not update the policy, nothing is updated. If we
visit the web page at http://localhost:8888
we’ll see that nothing has changed. Though we only changed the
attributes, the same is true if we updated the cookbooks, since they’re
locked down by content in our policy.
Oh No! A Bug in Our Cookbook
To demonstrate how cookbook code is automatically versioned and
sandboxed by policyfiles, let’s introduce a “bug” into our cookbook. Add
this line to the top of cookbooks/aar/recipes/default.rb :
raise "OH NO THIS IS A BUG"
Since this cookbook is local, chef will automatically pull in updates
when we upload (no need to run chef update ). Lets upload to staging
and run chef-client again. This time, we’ll use chef push to upload
our changes without invoking provisioning (which is probably what you’d
want to do in your normal workflow).
chef push staging
We can invoke provisioning without syncing the policy like so:
chef provision staging -p aar -n aar-staging-01 -o port=8000
This will cause an error like this in the chef run on the VM (which will
cause another error in chef provision on your workstation):
================================================================================ Recipe Compile Error in /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/aar/recipes/default.rb ================================================================================ RuntimeError ------------ OH NO THIS IS A BUG Cookbook Trace: --------------- /var/chef/cache/cookbooks/aar/recipes/default.rb:1:in `from_file'
But if we run Chef on our production node, everything is roses and
sunshine:
chef provision production -p aar -n aar-production-01 -o port=8888 # => Chef Client finished, 0/41 resources updated in 10.634577518 seconds
We can also confirm that the policies applied to each group are
different with the show-policy subcommand:
chef show-policy aar
The output should be similar to:
aar === * production: 8312cd89c9 * staging: eb0fedf311
Cleaning Up
To shut down the Vagrant VMs, you can use the -d option to chef provision
to set the default action to destroy:
chef provision production --policy-name aar -n aar-production-01 -o port=8888 -d chef provision staging -p aar -n aar-staging-01 -o port=8000 -d
Fin
Policyfiles give us a consistent and repeatable description of how we
want Chef to configure our machines, with minimal hassle. Because
versioning is built-in and automatic at both the cookbook and policy
level, we can make changes to our infrastructure code safely and
explicitly. While we still have work to do to fill out the feature set
around Policyfiles, enough of it exists for you to get started today.
Currently, the most complete documentation is in the
Policyfile README in the ChefDK repo,
but we’ll be moving documentation to docs.chef.io
as we complete work on Policyfiles.
If you give it a try and find that any missing feature is a deal breaker
for you, let us know and we’ll do our best to make you successful.
Happy Cheffing!A few months ago, I was cutting some mat board to put with a framed drawing. Tragically, I lost my grip on the mat knife and accidentally sliced my left index finger. I grabbed my finger tightly and ran to the bathroom where, luckily for me, Momsy was there to assist me with my new wound.
The minute I released my hand on my finger, blood began to pour. It was like a horror movie, (if that horror movie was about Momsy and I standing in the bathroom, and I was just saying “ow, ow, ow”). TERRIFYING.
We wrapped it up quickly as a dull throb slowly began to overtake my whole hand. I’m lucky to be alive, honestly.
After a while, we re-wrapped the large cut with proper bandages and gauze. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized the doom which I now faced.
The new bandage monstrosity on my tiny finger was a huge sensory turnoff. I mean, HUGE.
I couldn’t for the life of me stop sensing the bandages on my finger. It wasn’t the pain, which was slightly annoying, rather, the heap of gauze, tape, and other junk piled onto my finger tip was like an assault on my entire sensory system. I’m not kidding you when I say that the illustration below displays the actual bandage to finger ratio:
Two days passed and still, the bandage predicament consumed my thoughts and will to live. My family informed me that I have been walking around the entire time with my finger stuck out awkwardly. Humiliated and moody, I told them that I had no idea that I was doing that, and further, I couldn’t seem to control it. I’d try to push it down into normal finger position, but it would pop right back up like a jack-in-the-box.
A week passed, and still my ugly finger wound was relentless in its quest to destroy me via sensory tactile WARFARE.
As a child, I had similar reactions to things like denim, tags in clothing, or socks that became awkwardly bunched in my shoe. I referred to the sock problem as a “coo-eee.” All were the cause of extreme distress. Parents with sensory kids, I know you feel me right now.
As an adult, I’ve managed to conquer the denim thing, but the same cannot be said for the clothing tags and sock cooees. Sensory adults, I know you feel me right now.
The giant band-aid was merely the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. If I was having a bad sensory day, my band-aid finger was sure to put me over the edge.
Thankfully, because the world is merciful, I was upgraded to a single band-aid after two weeks. I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps there was hope after all!
One morning, that glorious day had arrived where I needed no band-aid whatsoever. My finger was free! And so was I.
All that remains now is a scar on my finger tip – the memory of a harrowing three-week period of sensory insanity. I will never again underestimate the mental anguish that a bandage can cause. More importantly, my finger returned to its resting position, and life went on. My tiny scar and I became very close.
xo kelly
AdvertisementsAmazon has officially removed its Windows Phone app from the Windows Store. The good news is that if you already have it, the app will continue to work.
The firm pulled its app last week without warning, but Windows United was able to get a word with the online retailer.
Here's what Amazon had to say (translated from German):
1. Why is the available Amazon Shopping app no longer in the Windows Store?... The Shopping app is not available for Windows Phone available for download. We recommend customers visit Amazon.de via theirmobile browser, where they have access to all the shopping features. 2. Why can Windows Phone users not download the Amazon Shopping App? It is our first priority to offer our customers the best possible shopping experience, so our shopping app is no longer available for Windows Phone. We recommend customers visit Amazon.de via their mobile browser, where they have access to all the shopping features. 3. Is a new Amazon App for Windows 10 in development? Sorry, we have no information about our product planning. 4. Does this change have any effect on Windows Phone users who have already downloaded the app? No, currently there is no impact.
Indeed, the Amazon app for Windows Phone was not the best app out there. Obviously, Amazon decided that it was a better idea to pull the app than have a poor app available, and that it wasn't worth it to update it.
Also, it wouldn't be incredibly surprising if Amazon did make a Universal App, as the firm already has one for its Audible audiobook service, although it's still lacking one for Kindle.
In case you were worried, the Amazon app for Windows 8 is still available to Windows 8 and 10 PC users.
Users of Windows phones are all too familiar with this kind of bad news. At the end of this month, PayPal will be killing off its app for Windows phones. Of course, the Universal Windows Platform has offered a new solution for developers, offering them a broader range of devices to target. In fact, Bank of America just returned to the Windows Store today.
Source: Windows United via MSPUFor the uninitiated, the obsession might seem odd. Why import a high-maintenance small wagon for much more than the ‘blue book says it might be worth? In many cases, this is one’s only ticket to a reasonably priced, small, German, rear wheel drive wagon with a standard transmission, something that is akin to finding a unicorn with an on-board bacon dispensary.
One of the most loved automobiles among car nerds is now available in wagon form over here (thanks to lifted regulations from the National Highway Traffic
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the spring, Obama cut the screening period on Syrian refugees from 18-24 months down to three months by sending more screeners to the United Nations camps in Jordan and setting up a template that basically takes the refugees’ story of who they are and runs a search of social media and government databases to see if they can refute that story. Since there is little to no law enforcement data available on people who claim to be Syrians and false passports are easily purchased on the black market, we have no idea who these people are coming to our country as so-called Syrian refugees.”
Somali secret
With the Syrian civil war taking front stage in world news for some time, the massive number of refugees from Somalia – one of the most lawless nations on the planet – evades the attention of most.
“While many Americans worry about the influx of Syrians, the U.S. has taken in even more refugees from Somalia this year,” Bremmer stressed. “Through the first 11 weeks of FY 2017, the U.S. resettled 3,269 Somali refugees. At this rate, the country would absorb more than 15,550 by fiscal year’s end. At this point in FY 2016, the U.S. had only admitted 1,721 Somali refugees on its way to taking in 9,020 for the year. More than 99.9 percent of the Somalis admitted this fiscal year are Muslims, as was the case in FY 2016, as well.”
With numerous Somalis – who have wreaked havoc in many Minnesota communities in particular – having already unleashed a number of terrorist attacks on American soil of late, Hohmann believes that refugees from this lawless African nation are more dangerous than those from Syria.
“There’s been no debate in Congress or the media asking the obvious questions: Why is America still taking thousands of refugees every year from Somalia more than 25 years after that country’s civil war broke out?” Hohmann pondered. “How many is too many, and why aren’t the Somalis doing a better job of assimilating? Dozens have gone off to fight for overseas terror organizations, while even more have been charged, tried and convicted here at home of providing material support to overseas terrorists.”
Despite the fact that the Somali government collapsed more than 20 years ago, the Obama administration has been bringing in refugees from the eastern African nation at a breakneck pace, says Horowitz.
“Think about this: We’ve brought in 3,000 Somalis in just two-and-a-half months,” Horowitz emphasized. “That is outpacing our typical 8,000-10,000 that we’ve unprecedentedly brought in almost every year for over two decades. Thousands more have come from other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Clearly, Obama is trying to front-load refugee resettlement and set it in motion for the remainder of the fiscal year – even after he leaves office.”
The expert on immigration and legal matters is amazed that the Obama administration continues its push to bring more and more Somali refugees into Minnesota and Ohio – despite the fact that Minneapolis and Columbus have reported numerous terror recruitment problems inside of their communities dominated by relocated Somalis. He added that the “fundamental transformation” of America initiated by Obama has seen an inflated number of Somalis and Syrians infused into modestly to moderately populated cities – such as Erie, Pennsylvania, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Erie, Pennsylvania.
“This is a clear violation of the refugee law,” Horowitz argued. “The statute directs the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to ‘insure that a refugee is not initially placed or resettled in an area highly impacted by the presence of refugees or comparable populations.’ When making this determination, the director of ORR is supposed to take into account, among other things, ‘the proportion of refugees and comparable entrants in the population in the area.’ [8 U.S.C. 1522].”
Refugees not alone in the Lone Star state
Hohmann notes that this fiscal year, Texas has admitted 2,217 refugees – more than any other state. This is consistent with the fact that is has been flooded with refugees for more than a decade.
“Despite Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to pull his state out of the federal resettlement program, the refugees just keep coming,” he asserted. “Amarillo, Texas, has been particularly hard hit … It’s important to remember that the resettlement program has not been supported solely by Democrats, but also Chamber of Commerce Republicans who see it as yet another avenue for the importation of cheap foreign labor. We’ve seen many Republican governors, for instance, support the program enthusiastically. Governors like Nikki Haley in South Carolina, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan – they’ve all been on board with the program.”
Voters fed up over the refugee problem in their communities may have helped Trump’s victory over Clinton last month.
“In fact, seven of the top 10 refugee-receiving states so far this year were ones that voted for Trump on Nov. 8 (Texas, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky),” Bremmer pointed out. “Only three of the top refugee destinations (California, New York and Washington) voted for Hillary Clinton.”
There is believed to be a political motivation to the influx of refugees in specific states – in order to transform them from red to blue …
“Of course, it would take a while with refugee numbers, but add in the illegals, et cetera, in those states and, yes, it is about turning the state,” Refugee Resettlement Watch blogger Ann Corcoran asserted. “Consider it the California model – it worked there!”
According to Hohmann, the refugee problem unleashed by the Democrats may very well be getting out of control – much like what is happening in France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
“They are bringing the refugees in so fast right now that it’s difficult to find places to house them,” he revealed. “I’ve been hearing stories from my sources that some are being secretly housed in Muslim-owned hotels and being held there until openings can be found in local apartment complexes. Housing is always the key for this program. That’s why I often tell people to be wary of government-subsidized housing projects being built in your city because this is often a precursor to refugee resettlement, especially if you have a liberal mayor at the helm of your city.”The movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline is growing stronger by the day, and it’s time for all of us to rise up and play a role in this fight.
Join us on Tuesday, November 15 for a solidarity action and rally at the Army Corps of Engineers office at the Fountain at Foley Square, 111 Worth St, lower Manhattan at 4:00-6:30 pm calling on President Obama to instruct the Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the permits for this dirty oil pipeline.
This day of action is part of a broader call to action happening across the country targeting decision makers & stakeholders at every level. By gathering at the Army Corps of Engineers offices across the country, we hope to call attention to the brave water and land protectors at Standing Rock and encourage President Obama to stop the pipeline.
Let us know you're coming -- sign up on this page to receive action updates.
We would also appreciate your signing up (and sharing!) on the Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1146251982077543/
To date, the co-sponsors for this action are:
350 Brooklyn
350 NJ
350 NYC
Bohio Atabei Jaguar-Inaruono Yuka Aroa Guaribono
Bronx Climate Justice North (a 350.org affiliate)
Brooklyn for Peace
Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Food & Water Watch
Guerrilla Republik New York Chapter
Indigenous Peoples Power Project (IP3)
Jewish Climate Action Network
Labor for Standing Rock
Noble 9 Collective
NYC International Socialist Organization
NYC Stands with Standing Rock Collective-(NYC Indigenous academics and students organizing solidarity & support from Lenape territory for the Standing Rock Sioux Defenders.)
PCM-NY (People's Climate Movement-NY)
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network
Sane Energy Project
South Bronx Unite
The Peace Poets
The Ruckus Society
United Confederation of Taino People
World Can't Wait
Thank you to Isaac Murdoch, Ojibway artist, for his beautiful NoDAPL artwork.
Please bring art and banners -- and be sure to share on social media with #NoDAPL. Some sample messages for art include:From the December 2015 issue
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It’s amusing to watch the mainstream press sink its fangs into an auto scandal. Business-page reporters hurriedly scan the releases and the statements—quickly now, the home page needs updating every 17 seconds—and distill a basic, highly superficial narrative. Press agents for experts in all manner of non-automotive subjects, from business ethics to crisis management to consumer advocacy, flood the email inboxes of the news outlets, their clients desperate for the exposure that comes from getting a rote observation into quotes. The flames of public outrage get fanned for a few days with hyperbolic and often-inaccurate punditry.
Granted, Volkswagen’s diesel doomsday is not a simple story, rife as it is with technical inside-baseball. Basically, VW programmed an algorithmic routine into the controllers of its model-year 2009–2015 2.0-liter turbo-diesel engines that recognized the protocols of the EPA’s FTP-75 test, including the US06 and SC03 cycles, and altered the engine calibrations to selectively reduce oxides of nitrogen to make the engine compliant with U.S. EPA Tier 2, Bin 5 limits, all in violation of sections 203(a)(3)(B) and 203(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act.
Got it?
Legions of TDI owners who thought they bought a “Clean Diesel” (in spite of the slip-slap sound of the stinky, carbon-rich fuel going into their tanks) howled in indignation. Were they victims of a greedy corporate evil, or of ordinary people in the trenches trying to wriggle out of a difficult spot? Here’s a theory on why a carmaker that seemed to have the world conquered made such a heinously bad, unethical, and trust-eroding decision that equally battered both its reputation and its market value.
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The pressure on VW engineers to deliver a clean diesel, or one delivering both good fuel economy and low emissions, was titanic.
While other automakers pursued hybrids and electric cars, VW long ago bet its green-tech chips on diesels. The decision was emblematic of VW’s prioritization of Europe, where diesels are popular, over diesel-averse North America, a market the carmaker has traditionally dismissed as secondary. The pressure on VW engineers to deliver a clean diesel, or one delivering both good fuel economy and low emissions, was titanic, but the effort ran headlong into U.S. regulations.
The decision to cheat must have happened sometime before 2009, two years after the EPA’s Tier 2 emissions standards were in full effect. Tier 2 sets extremely difficult requirements for diesels, cutting allowable oxides of nitrogen by 83 percent over Tier 1 regs, to 0.07 gram per mile (fleet average). NO and NO 2 (NO x ), the strange chemical compounds formed by the high temperature and pressure of an internal-combustion engine, especially diesels, contribute to ground-level ozone, or smog. Tier 2 established by far the toughest NO x standard in the world.
It came at a bad time for VW. The most effective technology to cut NO x is called selective catalytic reduction (SCR), which involves spritzing small amounts of urea and water into the exhaust stream to facilitate the breakdown of NO x into nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The problem is that SCR requires a tank, a pump, and plumbing—not easy things to package on a small vehicle platform such as the PQ35, the aging component set comprising the fifth-generation Golf and Jetta.
VW faced spending millions on an aging product to make its diesel engines legal in the U.S.
There’s more to putting a urea tank on a car than just lashing it down with zip ties. The floorpan will likely change, the addition of a secondary filler can mean retooling a quarter-panel, and the reengineered car has to go through full crash certification. Golf V owners liked their multilink rear suspensions, a feature that probably would have to be scrapped in favor of a more compact torsion beam to leave room for the tank. (The larger Passat got a urea system in 2012, but VW programmed it so that, apart from the emissions test, it would be stingier with the urea injections, meaning that the owner wouldn’t be inconvenienced with refilling the tank as often.)
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With Tier 2 looming, VW faced spending millions on an aging product to make its diesel engines legal in the U.S., one of the smallest diesel-passenger-car markets in the world. In 2007, diesel passenger cars represented only about 0.2 percent of the American market. Factor in the contemporaneous collapse of the world economy and the plunge in U.S. vehicle sales, and VW’s engineers were painted into a corner.
But a new, totally compliant Jetta TDI appeared as a 2009 model. Its supposed silver bullet was an underfloor NO x trap, in which NO x is captured, then converted to nitrogen and carbon dioxide via occasional spurts of diesel fuel. Maybe it didn’t work quite as well as SCR, but it was a lot easier and cheaper to retrofit. And there didn’t seem to be a fuel-economy penalty. The companion 2010 Golf TDI advertised stellar city and highway figures of 30 and 41–42 mpg (depending on the transmission), and owners in forums claimed even higher mileage. What nobody knew then was that the engine was programmed to squirt less fuel into the exhaust when the car was off the test dyno, allowing more NO x out of the tailpipe and raising mileage.
Given the choice of reducing the global problem of CO 2 or the local problem of smog, VW’s engineers chose a middle path with a cheat that would give U.S. regulators the low NO x they demanded and TDI buyers the high mileage they wanted. As it happened, the fudge would only be needed for six years, until 2014, when Europe, the market that dominates VW’s decision-making, implemented its own tough NO x standards with the so-called Euro 6 regs. By then, the engineers may have figured, VW could phase in better NO x -eating technology through normal platform updating. Why VW continued to include the software cheat in engines built in 2014 and afterward is anyone’s guess.
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From a moral and legal standpoint, the fraud was a colossally bad decision.
The perpetrators likely believed they wouldn’t be caught, as self-certification is the norm under the EPA, which is too cash-strapped to test but 15 percent of the powertrains on the market and is perennially threatened with extinction by Congress. (Independent researchers discovered the ploy.) And if they were caught, VW probably figured, the penalty and market fallout would be small. Perhaps it was an easy choice to cheat. The European competitive environment is rife with deception. Just look at FIFA soccer, where officials are under indictment by U.S. prosecutors. Europeans have a win-by-any-means streak that sometimes emerges under intense pressure. There certainly was pressure. Then-CEO Martin Winterkorn, who took over Volkswagen AG in 2007 determined to make VW the world leader in volume and profit, ordered his staff to deliver a clean diesel that could be sold worldwide and could carry VW’s diesel religion to the New World to convert nonbelievers. And they did deliver. Did Winterkorn know the details? Maybe he didn’t want to. He has denied any knowledge of the deceit.
From a moral and legal standpoint, the fraud was a colossally bad decision. Whether it was a bad financial decision remains to be seen. A half-million cheater diesels were sold in the U.S., with 11 million sold worldwide. Meanwhile, the costs of the scam will take years to measure. It took four years for the federal government to slap a $1.2 billion penalty on Toyota for hiding evidence in its sudden-acceleration investigation, so it’ll be a while before we know how many pounds of VW’s flesh are in play. It almost certainly will be a fraction of the $18 billion widely speculated upon in the press. The rules allow Uncle Sam a lot of wiggle room. This was an emissions issue, after all, not a safety defect involving crashes and fatalities.
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Only VW’s accountants will ever know the whole truth.
If you look at the settlement pattern—$935 million for GM, $1.2 billion for Toyota—the fines tend to be starkly punitive but not crushing. Then again, European regulators will likely demand something and there will be civil suits to settle.
Once all the shouting is over, VW’s decision to break the rules may prove hugely damaging, a shattering of its recent momentum that distracts and dispirits the company, opens a crack in its armor for competitors, and scuttles demand for the diesel technology upon which VW has staked so much. Or it might just be a break-even, forcing both VW and government regulators into some uncomfortable but necessary changes while being a financial wash against the sales it generated. Or it may even prove to have saved the company some money over the alternatives available to the engineers at the time.
Only VW’s accountants will ever know the whole truth.
Clearing the AirBill Clinton greets Barack Obama on stage during day two of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
In his folksy speech at the Democratic National Convention, former President Bill Clinton introduced a clever new measure of presidential performance: the "jobs score."
Clinton pointed out that under Democratic presidents since 1961, the economy has added 42 million private-sector jobs, while under Republicans it has added just 24 million. He used the same concept to argue that President Obama has outscored both congressional Republicans and his GOP presidential opponent, Mitt Romney, in terms of creating jobs.
Clinton has some intriguing facts on his side. Aside from a rounding error, his historical numbers are accurate (figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the tally under Democrats since 1961 rounds to 41 million, not 42 million). I crunched the numbers a few different ways to see if Clinton was cherry-picking the best numbers. His figures measure job gains from the month a president took office until the month he left. Since it takes a year or so for any president's policies to go into effect, I also measured job gains from one year after each president took office till one year after he left. Here's the score by that measure: Democrats: 38 million new jobs, Republicans, 27 million.
Clinton only mentioned private-sector jobs, so I pulled the data for all jobs, including government. Again, the Dems have a big edge, accounting for 48 million new jobs, compared with 31 million for Republicans. If you push the boundaries out one year for each president, the gap narrows to 44 million new jobs under Democrats, and 34 million under Republicans.
Other measures also show that the economy performs better under Democratic presidents. Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist for S&P Capital IQ, conducted an analysis recently showing that GDP, stock prices, and corporate earnings have all increased more under Democratic presidents than under Republicans.
The S&P 500 stock index, for example, has risen 12.1 percent per year under Democratic presidents since 1900, and just 5.1 percent under Republicans. Since 1949, GDP has grown 4.2 percent per year under Democrats and 2.6 percent per year under Republicans. The same trend extends to corporate profits, which have grown 10.5 percent under Dems and 8.9 percent under Republicans.
The irony is obvious, since Republicans are considered the business-friendly party, while "tax and spend" Democrats are regarded as redistributionists eager to transfer wealth from those who have it to those who don't. But it's probably fallacious to simply ascribe the economy's strong performance under Democrats to Democratic policies, and vice versa.
For one thing, some economic policies take years to filter into the real economy, and it's possible that higher spending under Democrats gives the economy a short-term boost that drags down the economy in later years, after the Democrat has been replaced in the White House by a Republican. Plus, traditional labels don't necessarily apply to each party anymore. Though taxes fell under President George W. Bush, for example, spending rose substantially. The same trend has continued under Obama.
It's also possible that the economic-performance numbers are skewed by a few boffo years for Democrats, such as the eight years Clinton was in the White House. Democrats like to believe that Clinton's policies were responsible for strong job growth and a booming economy in the '90s, but Clinton also had the good fortune to preside over the second half of an economic surge that lasted nearly 20 years.
Between 1983 and 2001, the economy added nearly 44 million jobs, with a boom that began under President Reagan continuing under Clinton. There was a minor recession from 1990 to 1991, when George H. W. Bush was president, but in retrospect that seems like a temporary slowdown that simply allowed the economy to catch its breath. It's even possible that tax reform and other policies that Reagan implemented set the stage for a long growth spurt that fully flowered under Clinton.
That ended in 2001 and has never resumed. It's facile to blame President George W. Bush, who cut taxes, boosted spending, increased the national debt, and departed in 2009 amid a financial crisis and deep recession. But other factors have surely contributed to a deflated U.S. economy, including globalization and the digital technology revolution—which both entail cheaper alternatives to traditional American labor. The net effect of such trends on jobs and economic growth is something economists have already spent years trying to understand, with no firm conclusions so far.
President Obama is now grappling with the same abstruse forces, while trying to persuade voters that his policies will make a difference and help turn the economy around if he wins another four years in office. Bill Clinton may have made a strong case for the Democratic policies of yore, but the real question is whether such policies will work in the future. Or whether any policy will do much to harness economic forces that may be more powerful than any president.
Rick Newman is the author of Rebounders: How Winners Pivot From Setback To Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman.By Steve Rider
The man from Japan, Michihiro Matsuda, was born and raised on the distant archipelago nation. Guitar playing and handcrafting were always a part of his life. At age 29 he decided to venture forth into the world, moving to the United States to attend the famous Roberto Venn School of Luthiere in Arizona. After six months of training, he moved to Oakland, California to work under internationally renowned luthier Ervin Somogyi. He apprenticed with Somogyi for three years, developing his original style.
The master luthier had this to say of his former student, “Michi is really a phenomenon. There isn’t anyone else like him. He has a beautiful sense of line with design. His work is remarkably original.”
During Michihiro’s time apprenticing with Ervin Somogyi, he also began working at the renowned Gryphon Guitars repairing vintage and modern instruments. Co-founder Frank Ford speaks highly of Matsuda’s work, saying that he has been shown contours in guitars that he didn’t know were there before Michihiro showed them to him. Matsuda works from a very solid base of traditional methodology which allows him the foundation to explore and experiment each time he builds. He strives to combine these traditional methods with creative and innovative designs, taking his time on each individual instrument. Michihiro builds only ten to twelve guitars a year, putting his personal touch and originality into each and every work.
Innovative design is his hallmark. His typical rosette is anything but typical, combining super sleek and pencil-thin inlays with curving blocks of wood and mother of pearl. Most sport multiple, broken rings and an asymmetrical beauty all their own. Unique shapes and contours change his neck heels from structural necessity to elements of interest and enjoyable art. All the while, there is an unswerving commitment to utility and tone. The treble notes sing out and echo slightly, enhancing the player’s work, while bass notes are clear and punchy. One model has a split headstock, where the bass string can be adjusted independently using a floating nut. Some models are simply impossible to describe, and must be seen personally.
The Matsuda Mini custom parlor size features a scorched Italian spruce top, Cambodian rosewood sides and back, stained Mahogany neck, Mahogany inlaid Maple headstock, Wenge fingerboard and bridge, Gotoh stealth tuner, and handmade buttons resembling those used on traditional Japanese instruments. Michihiro shares this piece of his philosophy with us on his site:
“The guitar is the tool of the performer. Good guitars enable anybody to express themselves musically and artistically. But I start to think that guitars are not just the tool to make music, they are more than that. In the process of making the guitar, the wood becomes a musical instrument. I am the person who puts the voice into the guitar, and with my creative visual and sonic design choices, I am expressing myself artistically as well. My custom instruments not only meet the technical needs of the player; they are also personal creative works from my imagination. It is my hope that my artistic influence will inspire guitarists to even greater creative heights.”
To learn more about Matsuda Guitars please visit: matsudaguitars.com
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commentsThe Western Australian Institute for Medical Research will today take ownership of a private cloud solution built almost entirely of open source technologies to prepare for an influx of researchers over the coming weeks.
The $200 million medical research project - recently renamed the Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research - will house over 1200 external researchers in two greenfield Perth campus buildings. These researchers, from 40+ independent research groups, aim to solve complex problems such as the genetic and environmental causes of cancer and diabetes.
The project’s IT posture has been designed and delivered by independent IT consultant Titan ICT, which over recent months has built out data centres in each of the two locations, connected via high-speed fibre (MPLS) and wireless (802.1x) networks.
Around 140 researchers and support staff moved in this week, with the remainder to follow in staggered groups.
Titan ICT went to tender for a private cloud solution to host a set of shared services the Institute will deliver to research tenants, based on some unique requirements.
Bret Watson, a Titan ICT consultant named interim CIO during the build, sought a turnkey private cloud that was storage heavy (350TB of usable data per site) and replicated both across the two sites and within the stack to meet the strict data retention regulations governing medical research data.
The winning bid also needed to support 50-100 virtual desktop users per site, isolated from the private cloud.
Watson told iTnews to his disappointment, tender responses based on commercial software offerings came through prohibitively expensive.
He was intrigued by solutions based on the OpenStack framework, but found that when coupled with commercial storage offerings the price was again too high, whilst those without commercial storage involved an unacceptable level of risk.
“I was quite keen on OpenStack and Ceph - but it was hard to find anyone local to stand up and support it,” he said. “OpenStack is unbelievably good, but its a huge application that is changing every six months. It's still not quite mature enough at the moment.”
The best value solution that could provide stability and support was deemed to be Red Hat’s Enterprise Virtualisation, which runs on the KVM hypervisor, combined with the open source GlusterFS network attached file system.
The Institute’s implementation of GlusterFS - recently acquired by Red Hat - aggregates storage devices and runs RAID10 configuration for redundancy. Data storage is also replicated across the two sites using 20GB WAN links.
The six servers running this cloud - and the isolated server running the VDI service - are all on Dell boxes.
Watson said he felt confident Perth-based Red Hat advanced partner Open Systems could provide adequate support for the open source solution, which is relatively new to the Australian IT sector.
“Red Hat has made a good habit of taking over control of open source components but creating value from the GUI and [other] interfaces,” he said. “It’s pretty easy to use.”
Watson’s team will start loading virtual machines and applications for the Institute’s users later in the week, but will hand the keys to the cloud to Andy Crowhurst, newly appointed IT manager for the Institute.
The private cloud will also initially remain under management control - the IT team won’t hand over the GUI to researchers for self-service of new virtual machines and applications.
“It has all the authentication and reporting required for self-service, but as a brand new environment we felt it important to cuddle our baby for a little while first,” Watson said.I get a pretty healthy number of questions from readers each week (usually by my personal Facebook page), many of which find their way into the weekly “reader mailbag” article.
While most of the questions are pretty interesting, I do find a lot of patterns in the questions that people ask me. I see a lot of people who struggle with a mountain of student loan and credit card debt in the early years of their professional lives for example, a situation that really hits home for me.
Another thing that I see regularly is questions from people confused by some aspect of personal finance because they have one fundamental fact or another about the situation completely wrong.
I’ll give you an example: perhaps once a month, I’ll get an angry message from someone telling me that I’m selling snake oil by telling people to earn a little more money in their spare time and that I need to tell people to keep their income low to avoid all of their money being taken by taxes.
What rubbish.
Here are six key financial facts that people consistently get wrong. They use these facts as assumptions not only for questions that they ask me, but for how they behave in everyday life.
Fact #1: A Higher Tax Bracket Does Not Mean All of Your Income Is Taxed More
To get this discussion started, let’s look at the tax brackets for 2016 for a single person.
10% – $0 to $9,275
15% – $9,275 to $37,650
25% – $37,650 to $91,150
28% – $91,150 to $190,150
33% – $190,150 to $413,350
35% – $413,350 to $415,050
39.6% – $415,050+
Let’s say you’re a person making $37,500 a year. You’re just inside the 15% tax bracket. What happens if you make more?
The misconception is that if your income goes up to $38,000 a year, suddenly you have to pay 25% income tax on your whole salary. In other words, the thinking goes that if you make just $500 more in a year, your income tax goes from 15% of $37,500 – which is $5,625 – to 25% of $38,000 – which is $9,500. Under this incorrect thinking, earning $500 more would actually cost you $3,875. Obviously, earning a little more here would be a huge mistake.
But that’s not actually how taxes work.
In reality, when you make $37,500 a year, you pay 10% taxes on the first $9,275 of it (the first $9,275 of your income, in other words) and 15% taxes on the remaining $28,225 of it (since the rest falls into that $9,275 to $37,650 bracket). That adds up to a tax bill of $5,161.25.
If your income bumps up to $38,000 per year, the math doesn’t change much. You still pay 10% taxes on the first $9,275 of it. You pay 15% taxes on the amount between $9,275 and $37,650. You pay 25% taxes on the $350 that’s left over, which falls in the $37,650 to $91,150 bracket. This adds up to $5,271.25.
In other words, bumping up your income by $500 in this situation adds only $110 to your income taxes. You’re still keeping $390 more.
There is never a situation where increasing your income means you’ll have to give all of that increase to the government in taxes. That kind of idea comes either from people who struggle with math or people who are trying to mislead you.
Fact #2: When You Sell an Investment, You Only Owe Taxes on the Gains, Not on Everything
Let’s say you invest $100,000 out of your checking account into something – stocks, maybe. That investment does well, turning into $150,000. But then your uncle tells you to be very careful about taking that money out because you’ll owe lots of taxes on it.
Should you be worried? Maybe a little, but it’s not a doom and gloom scenario.
The misconception is that when you sell an investment, you’re going to owe taxes on all of the money that you receive. Let’s say this is an investment taxed at 15%, so under this misconception, when you sell that $150,000 investment, you’d owe $22,500 in taxes. That would eat up almost half of what you gained and, if that were the case, your uncle would be right. That would be painful.
But that’s not how it works.
The truth is, when you take money out of an investment that’s not in any sort of special account, you only pay taxes on the gains. You get your initial investment back without having to pay taxes on it. So, in this example, if you sell that $150,000 in stock, you’ll get your $100,000 back without taxes and only have to pay taxes on the $50,000. At 15% as described above, that’s only $7,500, not the incredibly painful $22,500 that your uncle might believe.
There are tax implications for selling investments, of course, but you simply don’t have to pay taxes on the amount that you originally invested unless something very unusual is going on.
Fact #3: Putting Money in Your 401(k) Doesn’t Mean Tax-Free Income, It Just Means You Pay the Taxes Later On
I have a friend of mine that acts like putting money into a 401(k) is some sort of secret ninja tax dodge. He’s very proud of the fact that every dollar that he puts into his 401(k) is a dollar of income that he doesn’t have to pay taxes on this year.
And he’s absolutely right. It’s true that money that you put into your 401(k) is money that you don’t have to pay taxes on this year. But the key word is this year.
Let’s look at those tax brackets again:
10% – $0 to $9,275
15% – $9,275 to $37,650
25% – $37,650 to $91,150
28% – $91,150 to $190,150
33% – $190,150 to $413,350
35% – $413,350 to $415,050
39.6% – $415,050+
Let’s say you make $40,000 a year. If you contribute nothing to your 401(k), you’ll pay $5,771.25 in taxes this year. But let’s say you contribute 10% of your salary to your 401(k). In that case, you’ll owe only $4,936.25 in taxes because you’ll only be paying taxes on the remaining $36,000. Your taxes actually go down by $835, meaning that the $4,000 you put away only actually costs you $3,165 in terms of your take-home pay. Sweet, huh?
But those taxes aren’t a freebie. When you get old and retire, you’ll start taking money out of that 401(k) and that will be taxed as normal income.
Let’s say you make $20,000 a year from your other retirement benefits when you’re old. That would add up to $2,536.25 in income taxes. However, let’s say you also withdrew $4,000 a year from your 401(k). That brings your income up to $24,000 a year and thus brings your taxes up to $3,136.25. That’s an extra $600 in taxes.
A 401(k) doesn’t mean tax free money. It just means you’ll be paying it later on in life when you take the money out. Hopefully, your tax rates are lower at that point (due to government changes or personal income changes), in which case the 401(k) will save you some tax money over the long haul, but that’s not a guarantee.
Fact #4: Renting Isn’t Just Throwing Money Away and Buying a House Won’t Make You Rich Due to ‘Equity’
One of the central tenets of the “American dream” is that, in order to establish yourself financially in the world, you need to buy a house. When you add into that the real estate bubble of the 2000s and the flood of reality shows and quickly-produced books that talked about getting rich off of buying a house and flipping it, you end up with many people under the strong belief that they have to buy a house in order to have any financial success.
Don’t get me wrong – a home can be a good investment in the right situation. It’s just not the right choice for every situation.
On the flip side of this is the impression that renting a house or an apartment amounts to just throwing money away. This implies that you’re not throwing money away in the process of buying and paying for a home – and most likely, you are.
Let’s compare the two.
When you rent a property, you have to pay rent on that property as well as renters insurance, which is fairly cheap. That’s money that’s lost to you.
On the other hand, when you buy a home, you have to pay the closing costs upon the initial purchase. After that, you have to pay your mortgage bill (most of which is interest), homeowners insurance (which is more expensive than renters insurance
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forward to say they were abused as children at the Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf in the northern city of Verona between the 1950s and the 1980s.
The allegations were first reported in the Italian press in January 2009.
Later last year the Associated Press news agency obtained a written statement from 67 of the school's former pupils naming 24 priests, brothers and lay religious men who they accused of sexual abuse, paedophilia and corporal punishment.
The diocese of Verona said it intended to interview the victims following a request from the Vatican to do so.
NETHERLANDS
In March 2010, Dutch bishops ordered an independent inquiry into more than 200 allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests, in addition to three cases dating from 1950 to 1970.
Allegations first centred on Don Rua monastery school in the eastern Netherlands, with people saying they were abused by Catholic priests in the 1960s and 70s.
This prompted dozens more alleged victims from other institutions to come forward.
AUSTRIA
A series of claims of sexual abuse by priests has emerged in the Vorarlberg region.
Some 16 people have reported 27 alleged incidents there, spanning half a century.
Ten children are also alleged to have been abused at a monastery in Mehrerau in the 1970s and early 80s.
Meanwhile five priests at a monastery in Kremsmuenster in Upper Austria have been suspended after complaints of sexual and physical abuse of boys there.
Separately, the head of a Salzburg monastery, Bruno Becker, resigned after confessing to having abused a boy 40 years ago, when he was a monk.
SWITZERLAND
A commission set up by the Swiss Bishops Conference in 2002 has been investigating allegations of abuse involving the Catholic Church there.
A member of the commission, Abbot Martin Werlen, said in a newspaper interview this month that about 60 people have said they were abused by Catholic priests. The alleged incidents are reported to have occurred over the past 15 years.
A priest in the canton of Thurgau was arrested on 19 March on suspicion of sexual abuse of minors, police said.
MALTA
Three priests have been accused of sexually abusing 10 orphan children in Malta during the 1980s and 1990s.
Pope Benedict visited the island in April and held an emotional meeting with victims, pledging to bring those responsible to justice and to protect young people in the future.
SPAIN
Police have launched an investigation into three members of staff at a care home run by a Catholic order.
There have also been formal accusations against a Carmelite monk in eastern Spain and Franciscan brothers in the south.Michigan's Denard Robinson is on the cover of the last NCAA Football 14 game. EA will not produce the game next year. (Photo: EA Sports) Story Highlights Organization cites "current business climate and costs of litigation" due to lawsuits
Universities will need to decide if they want to continue to license names and logos for game
EA Sports could make other changes to the game, such as going with generic players
The NCAA announced Wednesday it is not renewing its licensing contract with Electronic Arts for a college football video game, citing legal and business concerns.
The NCAA, EA and the nation's leading collegiate trademark licensing and marketing firm, Collegiate Licensing Co., are co-defendants in at least two federal lawsuits concerning the use of college athletes' names and likenesses. EA is the defendant in another, similar case.
EA is the defendant in another, similar matter involving former Rutgers quarterback Ryan Hart. Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson in New Jersey ordered that case reopened for further proceedings after the Third Circuit Court of Appeals overturned her dismissal in May and recently denied EA's bid to have that decision reviewed by the Third Circuit's full panel.
Hart's attorney, Timothy McIlwain, told USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday that he will pursue class certification and has verbal commitments from more class representatives, including a current college athlete he declined to identify.
Michael Hausfeld, the lead attorney for former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon and others in a case against NCAA, EA and Collegiate Licensing Co. (CLC), has said he plans to add an active college athlete as plaintiff by Friday.
In a statement about its decision regarding EA, the NCAA said: "We are confident in our legal position regarding the use of our trademarks in video games. But given the current business climate and costs of litigation, we determined participating in this game is not in the best interests of the NCAA."
Warren Zola, who teaches sports law at Boston College's Carroll School of Management, said the NCAA's decision indicates "they are no longer able to handle a jury decision against them. They are taking precautions against a judgment causing them significant financial hardship."
Zola said that a decision by the NCAA to continue its licensing arrangement with EA "would allow more members into the (prospective class of plaintiffs) able to claim damages."
The NCAA's agreement with EA pertains only to the use of the NCAA's name and logo -- not those of the individual schools depicted -- and its statement pointed to a more serious question: "Member colleges and universities license their own trademarks and other intellectual property for the video game. They will have to independently decide whether to continue those business arrangements in the future."
EA Sports and CLC issued statements saying that EA will continue to develop and market college football games featuring the teams and leagues customers "expect."
However, University of Kansas athletics department spokesman Jim Marchiony -- who identified his school as a CLC client -- said KU officials will want to digest the NCAA's decision. Marchiony said Kansas' agreement with EA, via CLC, for the current version of NCAA Football expires June 30, 2014.
"I'm not surprised CLC and EA Sports have a Plan B and we're looking forward to hearing from them about it, to see how we'll proceed in the future," Marchiony said. "We will certainly talk about it, where we go from here."
Stanford deputy athletics director Patrick Dunkley, who said his school also is with CLC, expressed similar sentiments. He said that prior to the NCAA's announcement Wednesday, the issue "was not on our radar."
Now, "given that the NCAA is taking the position that the legal risk outweighs the benefit, it's only prudent for us to analyze what the perceived risks are," Dunkley said.
One of the lawsuits against the NCAA, EA and CLC is awaiting U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken's ruling on whether to certify the case as a class action. That case currently involves a group of former college football and men's basketball players headed by O'Bannon.
If Wilken certifies the suit as a class action, it could allow thousands of former and current football and men's basketball players to join the case. That could create the possibility of a damages award in the billions of dollars. In addition, if the plaintiffs were to get everything they have said they are seeking, it would force the establishment of an entirely new compensation arrangement for current NCAA Bowl Subdivision football players and Division I men's basketball players -- one under which "monies generated by the licensing and sale of class members' names, images and likenesses can be temporarily held in trust" until their end of their college playing careers.
Another case that had been before Wilken pits former Arizona State and Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller against EA, the NCAA and CLC. That matter currently is pending before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with the defendants hoping to overturn Wilken's refusal to dismiss the case.
If the Ninth Circuit rules in Keller's favor, his lawyers likely also will seek class certification.
The NCAA said its current contract with EA expires in June 2014, "but our timing is based on the need to provide EA notice for future planning. As a result, the NCAA Football 2014 video game will be the last to include the NCAA's name and logo."
Gabe Feldman, director of the Tulane University Law School's sports law program, said "as long as the game continues to have the names and logos of the schools" it remains viable because "that's why a consumer buys the game."
Asked how the NCAA's decision not to continue allowing its name and logo to be associated with the game might affect individual schools, Feldman said: "There's no question the schools have been monitoring all of this and (the NCAA's decision) may factor into their decisions going forward."
"But," he added, "the really essential part of the game is the players.... A separate issue continues to be what (EA) will do with the players. Will they make the players completely generic, with no numbers? If they do that, there's no legal liability. There may be room somewhere between the game as we know it today and no game at all."A student accepted to Yale University who posted her big news on Facebook wasn’t congratulated -- but shamed, for what one critic called her “white privilege.”
In a Facebook post cited by the Daily Mail, an unnamed user wrote about her acceptance into the Yale School of Medicine. It wasn’t long before another user, named “Melissa,” said Yale accepted the future student because of her “white privilege.”
“Good job, might I add a shout out to your white privilege for you,” Melissa wrote.
A back-and-forth ensued on Facebook, with Melissa claiming that the future Yale student was accepted because she comes “from a white privileged background. You make it seem like you did all this yourself, but I’m just keeping things real by giving a nod to your privilege.”
But the student who got into the Ivy League school explained that she grew up in foster care after her alcoholic parents gave her up when she was 5 years old. She continued: “I had to take care of my brother for 2 years until we got adopted, and then we were both abused by that family and had to go back into the orphanage for another 2 years.”
WHITE PRIVILEGE BOLSTERED BY TEACHING MATH, UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR SAYS
“I spent long nights studying, and working part time in high school just to support myself and brother. I was lucky enough to have good grades to get into a decent undergrad,” the student wrote, according to the Daily Mail. She detailed the “8 years” she spent working hard to get accepted into college.
“I understand the concept of privilege but it sounds more like you are trying to condescend me rather than be helpful,” she continued. Melissa concluded the conversation with: “Umm okay sweetie, you claim to understand privilege but you can’t even self critique [sic] buh bye.”
The prestigious Yale School of Medicine is considered “highly competitive,” and only 6.5% of its 4,425 applicants were accepted into its Class of 2020, according to the university’s online figures.Southern California Edison customers in Los Angeles County soon will have an alternative way to get their electricity — from a new government-run utility promising lower bills and easier access to clean-energy options.
The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved the public energy program, which they say will help reduce power bills by as much as 5% below what customers pay Edison. Residents and businesses will have the choice to stay with Edison or join the county’s utility.
“It’s an alternative to Southern California Edison,” said Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who helped lead the effort.
“Individual residences, individual businesses, every single person can join,” Kuehl said in an interview
Kuehl said an important feature of the new option is that the public energy program will get much of its power from green sources, and provide it to customers at a lower cost.
Other than their bill totals, customers are unlikely to notice a difference. Electricity will still be delivered by Edison over its existing power lines. Edison will also continue to read the meters and send the bills.
But the county utility will buy the electricity from the market or under contract. The county can choose as much green energy as it wants and even build solar projects in the future.
In the last few years, more communities have been considering such community choice aggregation programs, also known as CCAs. Los Angeles County began studying the concept about two years ago, and its program has the potential to become the state’s largest.
L.A. County’s utility plan is part of a broad reshaping of the electric utility industry similar to what happened in telecommunications: a shift from centralized, universal service in which Ma Bell handled all aspects of the business, including maintaining telephone lines, to multiple players that provide many kinds of service on many devices. As technology redefined the role of the phone company, so it is with electric companies.
For consumers, it means more options. But with more competition from public utilities, Edison and other investor-owned utilities will have to revisit the structure of their business model.
“They will have to change,” said Mark Cooper, senior research fellow at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School. “The old system was in place for over 100 years.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas called the utility plan “a game changer.”
“It will allow us to buy and create new sources of green energy while leaving more money in ratepayers’ wallets,” he said.
Initially, as many as 500,000 residences and 200,000 businesses in unincorporated cities throughout the county will be eligible to join the county-run operation. Incorporated cities such as Long Beach and Torrance require approval by elected officials before their residents can participate.
The county decision does not affect customers of existing municipal utilities such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Pasadena Water and Power and Burbank Water and Power.
Southern California Edison said its “position is neutral” on such power programs.
For the last five years, state law has forbidden utility companies from publicly criticizing the energy programs.
But the state’s two other investor-owned utilities — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. — have raised questions about the efficiency and economics of public energy programs. They have urged more study before wider adoption takes place.
How the utility will work Governments from Southern California to Humboldt County in the north have been adopting the public energy alternative as consumers face higher electric bills and the state pushes for clean energy over centralized, fossil-fuel power plants. Under the CCA model, cities and counties become responsible for their customers’ power as well as setting rates and establishing customer programs. The L.A. County utility, to be governed by the Los Angeles Community Choice Energy Authority, is expected to start providing electricity next year. Customers who switch to it will be able to choose whether they want power from solar, wind or another clean energy source. Those decisions by customers will influence how much green energy — and what kind — the county invests in. The utility will start out buying electricity under contract from generators, but the plan also allows it to develop community-based solar generation, such as installing solar panels on top of warehouses. The supervisors approved initial funding of $10 million — $2 million for administrative costs and $8 million to buy power. By the end of three-year phase-in of the program, revenue is expected to reach $1.2 billion, according to the report to the county. But the CCA, as a local government entity, is not allowed to profit from customer rates. In 2002, the state passed legislation allowing public energy programs to operate as a way to give electricity customers more choice. Few cities and counties had taken advantage until recently. Falling solar power prices are driving the renewed focus on CCAs. Public energy programs can take advantage of the low cost by building large community solar energy systems that not only provide power to their customers but also feed the electric grid. Eight CCAs now serve customers in California, with seven more set to launch this year. In Southern California, Lancaster established its program in 2015 and Apple Valley in San Bernardino County began its effort April 1. Jason Caudle, Lancaster’s deputy city manager, said the city turned two years ago to community energy because “it allowed the city to take more of an active role to secure green power and more cost-effective power for our customers.” Now, 94% of the city’s possible customer accounts — about 50,000 customers total — are part of the public energy program, he said. Power bills have gotten lower, Caudle said, with the program collectively saving $1.9 million, or 4.5% for the average customer. Some customers were supportive of Edison and chose to stay with the utility, Caudle said, but “we don’t have any complaints about being members of the CCA.”
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ALSO
Californians are paying billions for power they don't need
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UPDATES:
6:30 p.m.: This article was updated additional analysis and comments from Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas
This article was originally published at 2 p.m.CHAOS IN ST. PAUL=> POLICE INJURED After #BlackLivesMatter Attacks Cops With Rocks, Rebar, Bottles, Fireworks, Molotov Cocktails
Several police officers have been injured by Black Lives Matter protesters who took over the I-94 freeway in St. Paul, Minnesota Saturday night over the deadly police shooting of Philando Castile, attacking police officers who tried to clear the road by throwing chunks of concrete, rebar, rocks, bottles, fireworks and Molotov Cocktails. The attacks have gone on for three hours.
More images of the protest that closed I-94 in St. Paul #PhilandoCastile #I94closed pic.twitter.com/2MkNwByhOK — Andy Rathbun (@andyrathbun) July 10, 2016
“More images of the protest that closed I-94 in St. Paul #PhilandoCastile #I94closed”
Fireworks thrown by Black Lives Matter protesters explode, injuring police, image via Twitter/Fox9
Video shows fireworks being thrown onto the midst of officers.
https://twitter.com/MisterMetokur/status/751970762899148800
“#Blacklivesmatter protestors using fireworks as improvised explosive devices to attack police in Minnesota.”
A spokesman for the St. Paul police said via Twitter that an officer was injured by the thrown fireworks.
Image of fireworks being thrown, injuring officer. #I94closed https://t.co/7QCFi64pMO — Saint Paul Police Department (@sppdmn) July 10, 2016
“Image of fireworks being thrown, injuring officer. #I94closed”
The St. Paul PIO also tweeted that two other officers were injured by thrown objects by Black Lives Matter protesters that have included chunks of concrete, rocks, bottles and rebar from a construction site.
The evening’s protest started off peaceful.
SPPD negotiating with protesters on I-94 to make symbolic arrests. Protesters in process of choosing those who will be arrested. #I94closed — Saint Paul Police Department (@sppdmn) July 10, 2016
“SPPD negotiating with protesters on I-94 to make symbolic arrests. Protesters in process of choosing those who will be arrested. #I94closed”
SPPD has given 16 dispersal orders. Protesters still not leaving the freeway, continue to create safety hazard. #I94closed — Saint Paul Police Department (@sppdmn) July 10, 2016
“SPPD has given 16 dispersal orders. Protesters still not leaving the freeway, continue to create safety hazard. #I94closed”
Protesters throwing objects at officers. #I94closed — Saint Paul Police Department (@sppdmn) July 10, 2016
“Protesters throwing objects at officers. #I94closed”
“Person with laser sight pointing it at officers. Fireworks being fired at officers by protesters. #I94closed”
“Officer injured by fireworks thrown by protesters. #I94closed”
“Protesters now arming themselves with rebar from construction site. #I94closed”
“Protesters on overpasses throwing objects at officers, dumping liquid on officers. #I94closed”
Officer injured after being hit with a glass bottle thrown by protesters. #I94closed
“Aggressors now throwing rebar from construction zone at officers. Rocks continue to fly at officers. #I94closed”
“Another officer has been injured by aggressors throwing objects. Three injured so far. #I94closed”
“Bricks now being thrown at officers, along with more rocks and bottles. #I94closed”
“An officer has been hit in the head with a rock. Unclear the extent of injuries. #I94closed”
“Another officer hit in the head with a large piece of concrete, possibly dropped from bridge. #I94closed”
“Molotov cocktail thrown at officers. Unclear if anyone injured. #I94closed”
UPDATES:
“Officers arrested 50 people for 3rd degree riot last night on I-94. #I94closed”
“Officers arrested 52 people for public nuisance and unlawful assembly during an incident at 4 this morning on Grand and Dale. #I94closed”
“Last night and this morning, 21 officers from multiple agencies were injured on I-94 and other areas of the city. #I94closed”-->
Das angesagte „App-Konto“ Number26 hat aktuell eine Kündigungswelle losgetreten. Diverse Kunden wurde ohne Angabe von Gründen das Konto gekündigt.
In den sozialen Netzwerken sammelt sich derzeit der Unmut zu Number26. Das Unternehmen hat aktuell diversen Kunden eine Kündigung zukommen lassen und das nicht nur in Deutschland. Uns liegen Bestätigungen einer auffälligen Menge betroffener Nutzer vor, das genaue Ausmaß ist allerdings noch nicht bekannt.
Number26-Kündigung ohne Grund
-->
Ohne Grund beendet man „im Namen und mit Vollmacht der Wirecard Bank AG“ (die Bank hinter Number26) die Geschäftsbeziehung zum Kunden und beruft sich dabei einfach nur auf einen Passus in den hauseigenen AGB (siehe Screenshot unten). Es ist aktuell keinerlei Schema erkennbar, warum gekündigt wird. Ganz „normale“ und aktive Kunden sind anscheinend genau so betroffen, wie weniger aktive Nutzer. Vermutungen, dass es mit der Anzahl an Bargeldabhebung pro Monat zu tun hat, können aktuell noch nicht bestätigt werden.
Das Feedback verärgerter Kunden kann man zur Stunde bei bei Twitter oder auf der Facebook-Seite von Number26 nachlesen. Der Support von Number26 scheint derzeit ebenso mit erhöhtem Anfrageaufkommen zu kämpfen.
[tweet 738022891434979328]
Noch keine Hintergrundinfos von Number26
Wir wollten natürlich wissen was da los ist, konnten aber die zuständige Mitarbeiterin in der Pressestelle telefonisch nicht erreichen und auch die Antwort auf unsere schriftliche Anfrage steht noch aus. In den Social-Media-Kanälen schweigt Number26 zudem ebenso zum Thema und auch der Support gibt den Kunden keine ergänzenden Informationen zu den Kündigungsgründen. Sobald es mehr Details gibt, reichen wir diese natürlich nach.
Stellungnahme von Number26
Bis dahin würde uns interessieren: Seid ihr oder Freunde von euch ebenso betroffen und wenn ja, habt ihr bereits mehr Details zu den Gründen in Erfahrung bringen können?Exclusive
On the heels of a rumor that Apple is working with OLED maker LG on a future iPhone that could fold in half, a new patent application from the company describes the very same thing.
Foldable tablet concept from Lenovo, via Jez C.
Via USPTO.
Via USPTO.
Samsung foldable display concept.
Foldable iPhone fan mockup concept.
AppleInsider first discovered the new application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday, very simply entitled "Electronic Devices with Displays." But within the application, Apple reveals its interest in future hardware that could be folded in half, making it more portable and easier to pocket.Specifically, Apple's application calls for a device that has a "flexible portion" that could be folded. The filing notes that a "flexible display" would be necessary to accomplish this without seams or a visible hinge.The intellectual property filing is particularly noteworthy, because it arrives just a day after a rumor claimed that Apple is secretly working with LG on the creation of a foldable OLED iPhone, potentially set to arrive by 2020.For the soon-to-arrive iPhone X, Samsung is believed to be the sole supplier of OLED displays, chiefly for quality reasons. But as Apple looks to the next big iPhone design breakthrough, it has been suggested that the company has instead partnered with LG, so that rival handset maker Samsung cannot get advance word of its future product plans.Fitting in line with the latest rumors, Apple's patent application specifically describes a foldable display with an organic light emitting display layer, or OLED. That display would be enclosed in a housing that could be made of a variety of materials, including plastic, glass, ceramics, fiber composites, stainless steel, or aluminum.While the latest rumors are regarding a foldable iPhone, Apple's application notes that this concept could apply to a variety of devices, also saying future MacBooks, iPads, Apple Watches and more could benefit from such technology.The filing also says that the technology could be accomplished with a micro LED display. Apple has invested in the next-generation display technology, which could lead to further power savings on portable devices.Apple's concept includes a device with a hinge point where the affected portion of the display would be outfitted with "enhanced flexibility regions." These would help reduce or eliminate bend-induced stresses, the company said.The newly published USPTO application is credited to inventors Terry C. Shyu, Paul. S. Drzaic, and Zhen Zhang. Apple first issued the invention to the patent office on Aug. 30, 2016.While the application is new, it's not the first time Apple has shown interest in bendable displays for future hardware. Last November, AppleInsider revealed that the company was granted a patent for a foldable iPhone with flexible display that could actually be clipped on to the user's clothing As iPhones grow larger, and with Apple rumored to debut an edge-to-edge 6.46-inch iPhone X in 2018, foldable technology could allow users the benefit of more pocketable devices. By allowing an iPhone to be folded in half, users could get the benefit of a large screen while also retaining the portable size of smaller devices.The federal courthouse in Milwaukee. A Delafield resident who claims to be a "sovereign citizen" was arrested July 24 and is in federal custody awaiting a probation revocation hearing. (Photo: Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
U.S. marshals on July 24 arrested Delafield resident James Stuart Jr. for failure to appear at his scheduled probation revocation hearing in federal court, an agency spokesman confirmed.
Stuart, 72, who considers himself a "sovereign citizen" not bound by U.S. tax law, was indicted and convicted in 2012 of tax evasion in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison, $6,000 in fines and three years of probation.
He was arrested, with the assistance of the Delafield Police Department, at his home in the 2400 block of Hirschman Lane.
Federal court records indicate that a magistrate judge issued an order July 25 committing Stuart to the marshals' custody pending further proceedings in his case.
The U.S. Probation Office has recommended revocation of Stuart's probation, records show, but it's unclear why. Revocation reports from the office have been sealed, so they are not publicly available.
According to the magistrate judge's order, Stuart has been "AWOL" from and has not cooperated with his supervision.
Stuart, the former president of New Age Chemical in Delafield, paid $631 in taxes for 2005 and did not file any tax returns for 2006 and 2007, when he earned more than $900,000. He owed more than $220,000 in federal taxes for those years, records show, but refused to pay them.
Stuart sent numerous letters to the IRS and other government officials making a variety of claims, including that his earnings were not taxable wages, he did not have a Social Security number, the IRS did not have jurisdiction, and he was not a U.S. citizen.
NEWSLETTERS Get the NewsWatch Delivered newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Todays top news delivered to your inbox Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-844-900-7103. Delivery: Mon - Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for NewsWatch Delivered Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
He's scheduled to appear for a preliminary revocation hearing Aug. 3.
Read or Share this story: http://www.lakecountrynow.com/story/news/crime/2017/07/31/u-s-marshals-arrest-sovereign-citizen-delafield-missed-court-hearing/525048001/GOD REST YE MERRY, HIPPOGRIFFS
words by Moglet, to the tune of ‘God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen’ (trad.)
(You can listen to the song here.)
God rest ye merry, hippogriffs,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Sirius will keep you safe
Upon this Christmas Day,
And save you from the Minister
Whose mind has gone astray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
Oh tidings of comfort and joy.
God rest ye merry, house elves,
Let nothing you dismay,
Hermione will keep you safe
Upon this Christmas Day,
And set you free from slavery
And give you weekly pay.
O tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy,
Oh tidings of comfort and joy.
God rest ye, acromantulas
Let nothing you dismay,
For Hagrid will protect you all
Upon this Christmas day,
And save you all from those who say
You should be sent away.
O tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy,
Oh tidings of comfort and joy.
Advertisements"The Potential for Moving people Thru Sound, Not Hype" has been the Sub.mission motto since inception. Our Agency is made up of like-minded individuals who plan to do just that. We focus on the development of innovative artists across the Americas, Europe and Australia. We are committed to the sustainable, long-term success of our artists, concert promoters, and partners which make up the heart of this company.
The Sub.mission Agency is known as a tastemaker and musical curator, spotting and nurturing a wide range of talented artists and focusing on the longevity of their careers. The company also ensures the most beneficial, seamless deals for its artists and creates new opportunities to bring exciting live performances to fans. We work with you before, during and after your events, making sure everything arranged meets your highest expectations.How Facebook Live Scales Tweet
I was recently watching Facebook's F8 conference - which was streamed on Facebook Live - and it got me curious as to how Facebook Live scales so seamlessly to millions of people around the world.
How does Facebook Live scale? Let's dig in and analyze!
F8 2017 was focused mostly around AR/VR
The Challenges
Before analyzing the architecture and how Facebook Live can scale to that extent, let's look at some of the challenges that building such a product comes with.
Chris Cox, the company's Chief Product Officer, had an interview with Wired1 back in April of 2016, where he enumerated the following challenges, considering that there were over 1.86 billion monthly active users on Facebook by the end of 2016:
Needs to be able to serve up millions of simultaneous streams
streams Needs to be able to support millions of users on the same stream
To quote Chris Cox, this "turns out it’s a really hard infrastructure problem", which makes it even more exciting to deconstruct and analyze.
Another unique challenge with live video is that traffic comes in spikes, and your infrastructure must be able to handle huge traffic spikes. For instance, when a celebrity starts a live video stream, there will be a huge traffic spike when users join and while the video is still streaming live, and then it'll slow down drastically when the video ends but it will still by viewable by users, even if it is no longer streaming live. The main challenge will be to gracefully handle the spikes while it's streaming live.
The Architecture
For the purpose of this article, I'll be exclusively focusing on the high traffic spikes that occur when a user with millions of followers (e.g. a celebrity) starts a live broadcast. In cases like this, more than a million people could be watching the broadcast at the same time, and when they all join around the same time, this causes major stress on the servers and infrastructure.
When all these requests come in at once - which is called the thundering herd problem2 - it can cause streaming issues such as lag, dropped packets, or even preventing users from joining the broadcast.
When there's a possibility you may run into such a problem, the first thing you should do is prevent all the requests from hitting your streaming server directly, which could be fatal and drop the server all together. Instead, you should aim at adding multiple layers that will filter these requests and ensure that only the necessary requests make it to the streaming server.
This can be achieved in many different ways, depending on the size of your product and the number of users. In Facebook's case, they chose the following architecture:
It's important to note here that Edge Cache servers are spread out across the globe to support Facebook's global reach. There's also a one-to-many relationship between the Origin Server and the Edge Cache, where multiple Edge Cache servers can send requests to the same Origin Server.
The flow works as follow:
1- The requests first hit the Edge Cache server closest to the user in order to reduce the latency between the user and the server. The Edge Cache servers are essentially a cache layer and do not do much processing.
2- If the requested packets are in the Edge Cache, then they are returned to the user.
3- If they are not in the Edge Cache, then the request is forwarded to the Origin Server, which is another cache server and has a similar architecture to the Edge Cache server.
4- If the requested packets are in the Origin Server, then they are returned to the Edge Cache who caches them before returning them to the user.
5- If they are not in the Origin Server, then the request is forwarded to the specific Streaming Server handling that live broadcast. The Streaming Server then returns the packets to the Origin Server, who caches them before returning them to the Edge Cache. The Edge Cache caches the response and returns the packets to the user.
6- Future requests for the same packets will then simply be handled by the Edge Cache and will not travel further than that layer, which speeds up the process incredibly and reduces the load on the Streaming Server.
As we can see, this architecture greatly reduces the number of requests that make it to the Streaming Server. For instance, if 5 requests make it to the Edge Cache sequentially, only the first one will go all the way to the Streaming Server and back, while the 4 others will immediately get a response from Edge Cache since it'll have cached it already.
However, this is still not enough for Facebook's reach. In fact, according to an article released by Facebook3, this architecture still leaks about 1.8% of requests to the Streaming Server. At their scale, with millions of requests, 1.8% is a huge amount to leak and puts a lot of stress on the Streaming Server.
Facebook's Global Reach: Edge Cache servers are in pink, and Origin Servers are in yellow. Source: http://cs.unc.edu/xcms/wpfiles/50th-symp/Moorthy.pdf
Why is it Leaking so many Requests?
The first flaw in the architecture above is that simultaneous requests to the same Edge Cache will make it through to the Origin Server. Since the Edge Cache forwards all requests for missing packets to the next layer, if simultaneous requests ask for packet A and it is not in the cache, all those requests will be forwarded. Extrapolating this at Facebook's scale, we can quickly see how so many requests are leaked.
The second flaw in the architecture is that multiple Edge Cache boxes can send the same packet request to the Origin Server, which will in turn forward all those simultaneous requests to the Streaming Server since the packet is not in its cache. This is similar to the first flaw but it's happening at the Origin Server level.
Again, 1.8% may not seem like a lot for normal products, but at Facebook's scale, it is indeed an important issue that needs to be resolved.
Adjusting the Architecture for High Scaling
Facebook's solution to this problem is creative, yet simple to understand. When multiple requests for the same packet hit the Edge Cache, they are grouped together in a request queue and only one goes through to the Origin Server. This is called request coalescing. Once the response comes from the server, it is stored in the cache and then the requests in the queue are responded from the cache.
For instance, when 10 simultaneous requests make it to the Edge Cache, they are all added to the same request queue and only one goes through, which helps reduce the leaking of requests. If we compare this scenario to the original setup, where all 10 simultaneous requests would have made it through, we see a huge increase in performance.
The same concept was also applied at the Origin Server level, where all requests for the same packet - coming from one or many Edge Cache endpoints - are grouped together and only one of them makes it through to the Streaming Server. Needless to say that this greatly reduces the overhead on the Streaming Server, especially consider the amount of requests a live broadcast may receive.
Load Balancing
Another important tweak that Facebook implemented was load balancing for the Edge Cache servers. In some cases, with huge traffic spikes, Edge Cache servers can get overloaded and no longer perform consistently, despite the use of request coalescing. To avoid such situations, the load balancer redirects requests to the closest Edge Cache with availability for the request. For instance, if the Edge Cache closest to you is already serving 200 000 requests, then the load balancer might forward you to an Edge Cache a little further but that is serving half the number of requests, which would mean you would still be getting a response much faster.
Facebook determines which Edge Cache is available by constantly measuring the load on these servers and keeping
|
during his trial trying to change his identity including social security number and had illegal firearms in his possession.
Court documents revealed by the defense, say that Force suffered from “mental health” issues, but it seems Judge Seeborg felt he deserved the maximum of his recommended sentence. There is no information on Bridges attempts to use “insanity” as an excuse for betraying the public’s trust and doing it again by changing his name. The Ulbricht family is not pleased with the light sentence recommendations and what they think is blatant double standards. The family will be using the evidence from Force and Bridges betrayal in their appeal for Ross’s freedom.
What do you think about Carl Forces 78-month sentence? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock and RedmemesMost of my trips recently have been to developing countries so I thought it would be an interesting post to write-up some travel tips and tricks I have learned over the years of traveling.
A sheep travels on top of a bus in Ecuador
You will run into a lot of people who will think you are crazy traveling to an under developed country without knowing anyone who lives there or being able to speak the local language. For me, these are the reasons that make a trip like this the most rewarding and adventurous.
Insurance. Have travel insurance/emergency evacuation insurance/health insurance while abroad. Always. This being said, if you decide to spring for travel insurance, read the fine print thoroughly. Some of them have so many exceptions as to make them worthless in the real world.
Scan a copy of your passport. Email it to yourself and send a full color copy of your passport to a trusted friend or relative.
Carry extra passport photos. Carry a couple of extra passport photos with you. You will never know when or why you may need them.
Carry a false wallet. Carry a decoy wallet with credit cards that aren’t active anymore, library cards, student ID, etc. Put a small amount of cash in this wallet and use this wallet when you are buying things in public and busy areas. If you get robbed, this will hopefully be the wallet that gets grabbed instead.
Call your credit cards and banks. Prior to traveling, call your credit card company and bank and tell them exactly where and when you’ll be going. Otherwise they tend to lock down the account when they see access from unfamiliar locations overseas.
Pack a Padlock. Always carry a combination padlock for easily locking things up. They come in handy and combination padlocks are prefered so you don’t have to keep track of a key.
Send yourself an email with a credit card number of a card (or two). Set up a dummy email and send yourself an email with the numbers of the credit cards you aren’t carrying. Develop your own encryption for this so you don’t send the actual number. For example, replace the number 1 with A, 2 with B, etc but make it more complicated than that. Another way of doing this is to use Gmail, save as draft, access anywhere without having to send anything.
Send yourself an email with phone numbers. Email yourself all your banks/credit card/travel insurance contact info so that you can access it should you lose everything. BCC a trusted friend or relative.
Looking for transport, taxi or overland. When you are looking for transportation by taxi or bus, if someone approaches you with an offer the answer is automatically ‘no’. Go find the guy who is waiting to be found.
Pay at the end. After securing transport, pay only after you arrive at your destination. If they insist on payment up front, find someone else (obviously, planes, trains, and buses are an exception to this rule).
Drink more Coke. Fanta and Coca Cola (in a heavily recycled glass bottle) is delicious when abroad in a way that bears no comparison whatsoever to the drink stateside. The use of sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup does wonders.
Don’t be too paranoid. There’s a ton of fear mongering out there. Most “3rd world countries” are quite safe, with the usual precautions and common sense.
Leave what you won’t use at home.
Packing light is the way to go. Don’t take too much stuff, and never take anything you wouldn’t want to lose. I just traveled for eight weeks from Peru to Colombia with only a carry-on, and would do so again.
Know what countries are next door. Before you go, familiarize yourself with the surrounding countries. You never know when you might want to change your plans and hop a bus over to the country next door.
Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask the locals about the next place you plan to travel to, the best place to eat, the easiest way to get somewhere, the best hike. Even if you don’t end up taking their advice, it is a good starting point on finding the information you need.
Carry two forms of payment. If possible, have an alternative form of payment with you–debit card, credit card, traveler’s cheque, etc. If counterfeiting is common where you are, non-local cash may not be accepted, even if it is the ‘mighty’ USD.
Hide your Rolex. Leave all your expensive jewelry, watches, and accessories at home. You don’t want to stand out more than necessary. If you are not traveling with your phone, carry a cheap travel watch with an alarm to help you wake up for early transportation departures.
Check your bills. Make sure the cash you take with you and obtain along the trip is perfect. No tears or wear marks. Many places won’t accept worn currency for exchange or payment. When you get change, if it is not in the local currency, do not accept it unless it is also perfect or you may not be able to spend it until you get home. The obvious exception to this is in places where nobody cares about the condition of the currency.
Want a ride to the hostel, man?
Avoid arriving at night. Try to avoid arriving into a new city after dark, and consider staying at a hotel that has a free shuttle service (even if it may cost a bit more) the first night if it’s going to be the end of a long 12-hour haul. Trying to orient yourself in a new city, deal with touts, in the dark, in the rain, while insanely fatigued is not fun at best or safe. Same goes for making camp in remote areas.
Bring a light. Pack a small flashlight that runs on AA batteries. 123’s are a first world luxury, but AA’s can be found almost anywhere.
Hide your passport. Keep your passport somewhere that isn’t easily accessible if someone reaches into your bag. Sew a secret compartment to stash it in.
Enjoy the adventure. Above all else, never forget to HAVE FUN. There’s just no point in traveling if you forget this rule.
Some more common sense travel tips:
Don’t open your money belt in the middle of crowded streets.
If you have a backpack, make sure the zippers are locked/well shut when you are walking down the street.
If someone starts chatting you up in the middle of a crowded street, be alert because they might be trying to distract you while their friend is trying to go through your bag. Pickpocketing is common.
Situational awareness is even more important when you’re traveling. Pay attention to who is around you. If you feel a bad vibe get out of there.
Carry TP, Cipro, a water bottle + iodine tablets.
Be prepared that a lot of services and transportation will not run on time and things might not be all that’s promised on the interwebs.
Don’t be that guy that pretends to know what’s going on to try to not look “touristy.” That guy sucks. Ask questions, even stupid ones, if you have them, talk to locals!
If you are being asked for a bribe, just act stupid if you don’t want to pay it. Most likely nothing will happen (this is assuming you’ve done nothing outright illegal).
Having your own mosquito net is pretty handy when travelling in malarial zones. Many guesthouses in places like East Africa have inadequate nets or no nets at all.
It’s one thing to avoid being ripped off, but it’s another thing entirely to expect locals to give you strict local prices across the board. Expect to pay a little more as a tourist.
Bribes are a way of life in some places. Expect it, budget for it…enjoy the trip.
Street food is much safer than you might think; the food at “nicer” restaurants is much dodgier than you might think.
Smile, learn a few words, even if you mess it up, locals appreciate the gesture.
Please comment and feel free to add any other great travel tips for our readers!
– Thanks for reading the Well Traveled MileIn late November, Marna Street, a violist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was walking to her car after a rehearsal. Street was shocked by what she discovered: Someone had painted a swastika, about 14 inches across, on the trunk of her car.
The vandals, Street said, had probably targeted her vehicle, which was parked in a garage not far from the University of Cincinnati, because she’d placed a magnet on it indicating that she is Jewish. Street eventually managed scrub off the graffiti. She put the magnet in the glovebox of her car.
“I had that feeling in the pit of my stomach, like somebody just punched me,” recalled Street, 68, speaking publicly for the first time. It was, she said, “a cross between fear and just plain hurt.”
Working with a coalition of organizations, ProPublica late last year launched “Documenting Hate,” an attempt to gather evidence of hate crimes and episodes of bigotry from a divided America. The account from Cincinnati is one of the anti-Semitic incidents the project has chronicled. But there are scores more.
Indeed, “Documenting Hate” recorded more than 330 reports of anti-Semitic incidents during a three-month span from early November to early February. The accounts — our list is by no means comprehensive — come via personal submissions, police documents and news articles. The majority, though not all, have been authenticated through either news reports, interviews or other evidence, like photos.
The incidents have taken place in big cities and small towns, along the country’s liberal coasts and in deep red states. Some of the episodes — swastikas and threatening messages spray-painted at schools and colleges around the nation — have been worrisome, though relatively minor. Others have been more serious, such as the 65 bomb threats targeting Jewish organizations across the country during the period we examined (there have been nearly 70 more since then). In many cases, the culprits singled out specific individuals for abuse, defacing their homes and autos with swastikas and menacing comments.
President Trump, after weeks of criticism for being slow to condemn the incidents, last week called them “horrible” and “painful” and “a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil.”
The remarks, however, came after a number of confounding comments about the issue. During a Feb. 16 news conference, Trump castigated Jake Turx, a reporter for Ami, a Jewish magazine, for asking what the government was doing to address the increase in anti-Semitic events. Trump accused Turx of lying about the question he wanted to ask, and instructed him to sit down. And without citing any evidence, Trump has wondered whether some of the recent anti-Semitic incidents were carried out by liberals, or Jews themselves, intent on discrediting him.
“There’s a push on the left to conflate anti-Semitism with Trump, while at the same time criticizing him for having Jared Kushner, who wears his Jewishness as proudly as anyone, as his most trusted confidant and in the highest echelons of the White House staff,” said Joe Borelli, a Trump supporter who represents Staten Island on the New York city council, according to Breitbart News. “It is mind-boggling.”
The White House would not comment for the record when asked whether President Trump had in any way contributed to the threats and violence.
On a national level, data on hate crimes and bias incidents is spotty at best. The FBI admits the information it collects is incomplete — many police departments don’t participate in the hate crimes tracking program — and the bureau has yet to release statistics on 2016 and 2017. As a result, determining with authority whether anti-Semitic events are rising or declining is difficult.
There is little question, however, that the incidents have generated genuine concern. In a rare show of unity, all 100 U.S. senators this week issued a public letter urging the Department of Justice, FBI and Department of Homeland Security to protect Jewish institutions and prosecute those responsible for terrorizing them. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced a $25 million grant to better protect day care and community centers from threats.
The available data does support the idea of an uptick. After years of decline, anti-Semitic crimes began trending upward in 2015, according to FBI data. Experts say that increase seems to have accelerated in recent months, as Trump’s unique brand of nativist populism has helped to pull more extreme right-wing groups, some of them avowedly racist, closer to the political mainstream. On Twitter, openly anti-Semitic figures have built vast networks of supporters and cultivated large audiences, while the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website geared towards millennials, has seen its traffic grow to roughly a half a million unique visitors per month. In New York City, the police department said anti-Semitic hate crimes nearly doubled in the first two months of 2017 as compared to the same period last year.
“One of the constituencies Trump mobilized was the KKK-style anti-Semitic extreme right,” said Lawrence Rosenthal, a scholar of fascist history and director of the Center for Right-Wing Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. These groups “had been absolutely on the fringe of American politics for at least my lifetime — and I am getting old.”
Oren Segal, who tracks anti-Semitic incidents in his role as director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, concurs. “The anti-Semites think they have a champion in the highest office,” said Segal, who believes that “divisive rhetoric” aired during last fall’s presidential campaign has emboldened racists and inspired them to strike out at their perceived enemies in the Jewish community.
“We have seen a significant uptick in the reports we’ve received, certainly starting around the election in November and continuing through the first two months of 2017,” Segal told ProPublica.
Amid the larger national debate about any responsibility Trump may bear for racist and anti-Semitic behavior, the accounts emerging from the “Documenting Hate” database offer a chance to appreciate the very personal experiences of violation and fear.
We identified:
ProPublica’s review, which did not involve incidents occurring online, where anti-Semitic trolling and abuse have become widespread, uncovered many episodes which had never before been reported by the media or investigated by police.
Our tally is almost surely an undercount. It consists of incidents covered in media reports, as well as accounts gathered by the Southern Poverty Law Center and a coalition of news organizations including ProPublica, Univision News, Buzzfeed News and The New York Times Opinion section.
The reports we examined generally fall into two categories. Most appear to have been committed by angry individuals who aren’t affiliated with any organized group. They are often teens or adolescents who defame Jews — and other minority groups — through graffiti or verbal taunting. In some cases, the Nazi symbol was specifically aimed at non-Jews.
A smaller number were orchestrated by extremist political groups, such as the New Order, an outgrowth of the long-dormant American Nazi Party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell, and the Atomwaffen Division, a new, youthful fascist group. A handful of cases involved a saboteur who remotely hijacked computer printers at Stanford and other colleges, programming them to spit out page after page of neo-Nazi propaganda.
Some experts tracking this wave of incidents said it was crucial to situate them within a wider historical context.
“Generally, we’ve seen a remarkable decline in anti-Semitism over the past 40 years,” noted Jonathan Sarna, a history professor at Brandeis University and one of the foremost chroniclers of Jewish-American life. “In the 1950s, we didn’t just have bomb threats — we had bombings. Synagogues in the south were bombed.”
Sarna added: “It’s important to be vigilant and concerned. But it’s also important to not to overreact.”
Across the nation, Jews were directly harassed with hateful imagery and messages in dozens of instances we examined.
During Hanukkah last year, vandals desecrated a large home-made menorah that stood in the front yard of a home in Chandler, Arizona, twisting the sacred symbol into a swastika. Days after the presidential election, New York State Sen. Brad Hoylman found a swastika carved into the elevator door in his Manhattan apartment building and received a flyer in the mail saying that Jews would be “punished” for failing to convert to Christianity.
Not everyone who has encountered Nazi imagery is Jewish — gays, lesbians, African Americans and others have also been targeted.
Consider the story of Karen Schaeffer, who found a swastika and the word “SCUM” drawn on her front door in mid-November.
“I was pretty scared,” said Schaeffer, who lives in Wyandotte, Michigan, a small blue-collar town outside of Detroit. “I’m not even Jewish, but I am a pretty loud-mouthed liberal woman in a town that doesn’t always appreciate that.”
She has an idea about what drew the attention of the anti-Semites: a campaign sign in her window for Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who unsuccessfully ran against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.
Police came to Schaeffer’s house to investigate, but made no arrests.
In Cincinnati, Street, who is the principal violist emeritus with the symphony and a music teacher, said the graffiti on her car left her “feeling very vulnerable.” Her father and grandmother fled Nazi Germany for the safety of the U.S. in the 1940s.
Several weeks after Street’s car was defaced, schools in her city began getting hit with anti-Semitic graffiti.
First, someone painted a large white swastika on a sign at Cincinnati’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the largest seminary for Reform Judaism in North America.
When the incident happened in early January, it was another psychic blow for Street. She worried about her friends who work at the college, and tried to understand the acts of ugliness taking place in her city. The crimes, she said, “are not huge, but compounded they are very frightening.”
Across the nation, similar graffiti appeared on the campuses of at more than 35 other colleges during the three months examined by ProPublica.
Late on the night of Jan. 21, a mask-wearing vandal equipped with a spray can defaced Withrow University High School, a public school on Cincinnati’s east side, painting “Trump” and swastikas all over the campus. The vandal, who tagged signs, sidewalks and buildings, also painted anti-gay and anti-black slurs.
Dozens of other schools were also tagged with anti-Semitic graffiti during the same time period.
At a high school in Newton, Massachusetts, somebody wrote “Burn the Jews,” “white power,” and “Trump!!!” on a bathroom stall. At Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven, Connecticut, red swastikas were spray-painted all over the athletic complex. In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, two teenage girls were expelled from Blackman High School for drawing a swastika in a bathroom stall.
“Some people will say that the swastika vandalism is just being done by a bunch of kids and dismiss it as irrelevant. I think it’s the opposite. The fact that young kids are doing this is potentially the scariest part of it,” said Segal of the Anti-Defamation League.
On college campuses, much of the new anti-Semitism has been coming from organized groups of extremists out to intimidate or recruit new members.
At the University of Washington, in Seattle, a pro-Trump student group calling itself the “UW Wall Building Association” flirted with Nazism in a public Facebook post suggesting that undocumented immigrants should be sent to “concentration camps.”
Neo-Nazis also crisscrossed the university campus at night, pasting up stark black-and-white posters threatening violence and uploading videos of their exploits to YouTube. One poster, featuring the death’s head, or Totenkopf insignia, used by the SS during World War II, promised to “Drive out the sodomites and degenerates of Seattle.” Another poster encouraged students to “join your local Nazis” and visit the website IronMarch.com, a fascist web hang-out that encourages people to exterminate Jews and start a “race war now.”
“People are just shocked. We can’t believe this is happening,” said a graduate student who requested anonymity for fear of being harassed.
When the student saw the posters, she said she felt physically ill. “I called my mom and was sobbing. I was so upset. My ancestors were slaughtered by the Nazis,” said the student, who is Jewish.
The neo-fascist organization did not reply to a request for an interview about its activities.
White nationalist groups including Identity Evropa, led by a California man convicted of attacking an Arab cab driver at gunpoint, and True Cascadia, which aims to promote “White ethnic consciousness in the Pacific Northwest,” are also propagandizing at the school.
Segal has tracked 112 instances of white supremacist groups posting flyers on college campuses since September 2016.
Over the past several months, synagogues and other Jewish institutions have come under sustained harassment.
In December, somebody repeatedly hurled rocks through the windows of Temple Menorah-Keneseth Chai, a historic synagogue in Philadelphia. On the opposite side of the country, in Las Vegas, a young man in jeans and a pull-over sweatshirt scratched a swastika into a black marble column during Shabbat services at Chabad of Southern Nevada.
In other states, Christian churches ministering to gays and lesbians or Latinos have also been tagged with swastikas.
But it is the array of bomb threats directed at Jewish community centers that has captured the most media attention and generated the most concern. Federal authorities on March 3 charged Juan Thompson, an erratic former journalist who once wrote for the Intercept website, with making threats to a small number of JCCs as well as other Jewish institutions.
But the figures responsible for the scores of threats to other JCCs remain at large. On March 7, another 17 locations of Jewish institutions in the U.S. received bomb threats.
Some faith leaders are urging President Trump to issue a stronger public condemnation of anti-Semitism before the problem worsens. “We need him to say very forcefully, ‘This is not acceptable’ — and to follow up with action,” said Rabbi Steven Fox, chief executive of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the nation’s most prominent rabbinical body.
Fox said Jewish community leaders have requested a meeting with the White House to discuss the surge in anti-Semitic activity, but, so far, have not been granted an audience with Trump or his advisors.
Within his denomination, Reform Judaism, “there is great concern about this uptick in hate crimes, this increase in hate speech,” Fox told ProPublica. “In the last two years we’ve seen this real hatred for anybody that’s different — hatred for Muslims, hatred for the LGBTQ community. We see it as a deeply troubling trend, not just in America, but in the world.”Game of Thrones was Sunday’s top cable original with a 2.6 up from last week’s 2.4 adults 18-49 rating. The NBA Playoffs came in second with a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating.
We only receive the top 100 cable shows for adults 25-54 for the whole day from our principal source. If you don’t see an original episode of a show here, it’s because it wasn’t in the top 100.
The list below is long but you can use your browsers “find on page” feature (usually CTRL+F or CMD+F) to search for specific shows.
Selected Sunday cable ratings: (all Live+Same Day ratings):
Show Net Time Viewership (million, Live+SD) Adults 18-49 rating (Live+SD) GAME OF THRONES HBOM 9:03 PM 4.87 2.6 NBA PLAYOFFS- ROUND 1 L TNT 7:10 PM 4.90 2.3 NBA PLAYOFFS- ROUND 1 L TNT 9:44 PM 4.28 2.0 REAL HOUSEWIVES ATLANTA BRVO 8:00 PM 3.75 1.8 BREAK HBOM 9:55 PM 2.69 1.4 VIKINGS HIST 10:00 PM 3.85 1.4 FAMILY GUY ADSM 11:30 PM 2.36 1.2 FAMILY GUY ADSM 11:00 PM 2.29 1.2 NBA PLAYOFFS PRE-GAME TNT 7:00 PM 2.57 1.1 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 10:00 PM 2.67 1.1 MARRIED TO MEDICINE BRVO 9:01 PM 2.28 1.1 SAVE THE EARTH DAY MARATH FX 4:30 PM 2.86 1.0 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 10:30 PM 2.37 1.0 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 9:30 PM 2.50 0.9 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 8:30 PM 2.58 0.9 NBA PLAYOFFS- ROUND 1 L TNT 1:09 PM 2.21 0.9 REAL HOUSEWIVES ATLANTA BRVO 10:01 PM 1.84 0.9 INSIDE THE NBA PLAYOFFS TNT 12:20 AM 1.77 0.9 BREAK HBOM 8:52 PM 1.71 0.9 MAD MEN AMC 10:00 PM 2.40 0.9 AX MEN HIST 9:00 PM 2.89 0.9 CHOPPED ALL-STARS FOOD 9:00 PM 2.38 0.9 ARMY WIVES LIF 9:00 PM 2.58 0.9 WATCH WHAT HAPPENS LIVE BRVO 11:01 PM 1.97 0.9 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 11:01 PM 2.02 0.9 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 8:00 PM 2.36 0.9 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 9:00 PM 2.33 0.8 CLIENT LIST, THE LIF 10:00 PM 2.11 0.8 CLEVELAND SHOW, THE ADSM 10:30 PM 1.75 0.8 LAW & ORDER: SVU USA 10:00 PM 2.12 0.8 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 11:31 PM 1.76 0.8 E! NEWS SPECIAL ENT 9:00 PM 1.49 0.7 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 12:01 AM 1.63 0.7 SPONGEBOB RUNAWAYROADTRIP NICK 6:30 PM 2.77 0.7 LAW & ORDER: SVU USA 9:00 PM 2.29 0.7 SUNDAY MOVIE FAM 5:56 PM 1.96 0.7 RESTAURANT IMPOSSIBLE FOOD 10:00 PM 1.94 0.7 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 7:30 PM 1.78 0.7 SAVE THE EARTH DAY MARATH FX 1:00 PM 1.78 0.7 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 12:31 AM 1.36 0.6 VEEP HBOM 10:01 PM 1.11 0.6 SPONGEBOB NICK 10:00 AM 2.90 0.6 NBA PLAYOFFS PRE-GAME TNT 1:00 PM 1.69 0.6 SPONGEBOB NICK 6:00 PM 2.61 0.6 LIFE AS WE KNOW IT (2010) TBSC 8:00 PM 1.26 0.6 SPONGEBOB NICK 10:30 AM 2.97 0.6 LAW & ORDER: SVU USA 8:00 PM 2.36 0.6 SPONGEBOB NICK 9:30 AM 2.79 0.6 PETER PAN (1953) DSNY 8:00 PM 2.72 0.6 RIVER MONSTERS APL 9:00 PM 1.50 0.6 SAVE THE EARTH DAY MARATH FX 10:00 AM 1.36 0.6 BREAK HBOM 10:27 PM 0.95 0.6 MOB WIVES 3 VH1 9:00 PM 1.07 0.6 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 4:30 PM 1.96 0.6 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 1:01 AM 1.11 0.6 CRIMINAL MINDS AEN 11:00 AM 1.40 0.6 FX MOVIE PRIME FX 8:00 PM 1.60 0.6 DISNEY HAVE-A-LAUGH SHORT DSNY 9:25 AM 2.32 0.5 FASHION QUEENS BRVO 11:31 PM 1.28 0.5 CRIMINAL MINDS AEN 10:00 AM 1.33 0.5 SPIKE TV MOVIE SPIKE 8:00 PM 1.62 0.5 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 3:30 PM 1.81 0.5 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 5:00 PM 1.86 0.5 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 4:00 PM 1.78 0.5 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 5:30 PM 1.96 0.5 WELCOME TO MYRTLE MANOR TLC 10:00 PM 0.98 0.5 VIKINGS HIST 11:01 PM 1.21 0.5 REAL HOUSEWIVES ATLANTA BRVO 12:01 AM 1.06 0.5 CRIMINAL MINDS AEN 9:00 AM 1.11 0.5 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 1:31 AM 1.04 0.5 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 1:00 PM 1.33 0.5 LAW & ORDER TNT 12:00 PM 1.60 0.5 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 3:00 PM 1.68 0.5 GAME OF THRONES HBOM 11:03 PM 1.03 0.5 AMC PREMIERE EVENT AMC 7:00 PM 1.66 0.5 MYSTERY DINERS FOOD 4:30 PM 1.28 0.5 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 1:30 PM 1.30 0.4 MLB SUNDAY NIGHT L ESPN 8:00 PM 1.55 0.4 FRIENDS TBSC 9:00 AM 0.80 0.4 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 10:00 PM 1.43 0.4 DINERS, DRIVE INS & DIVES FOOD 5:00 PM 1.16 0.4 MYSTERY DINERS FOOD 4:00 PM 1.16 0.4 LOVE IT OR LIST IT HGTV 12:00 PM 1.23 0.4 SPIKE TV MOVIE SPIKE 11:02 PM 1.01 0.4 DUCK DYNASTY AEN 7:00 PM 1.38 0.4 WICKED TUNA NGC 9:00 PM 1.26 0.4 HOUSE HUNTERS INTL HGTV 10:30 PM 1.37 0.4 LAW & ORDER TNT 8:00 AM 1.38 0.4 LAW & ORDER TNT 11:00 AM 1.55 0.4 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 6:00 PM 1.61 0.4 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 7:00 PM 1.50 0.4 LAW & ORDER TNT 9:00 AM 1.44 0.4 LAW & ORDER TNT 7:00 AM 1.44 0.4 DINERS, DRIVE INS & DIVES FOOD 5:30 PM 1.17 0.4 CHOPPED ALL-STARS FOOD 7:00 PM 1.10 0.4 HOUSE HUNTERS INTL HGTV 6:30 PM 1.50 0.4 CUPCAKE WARS FOOD 8:00 PM 1.19 0.4 YOU LIVE IN WHAT HGTV 8:00 PM 1.36 0.4 LAW & ORDER TNT 10:00 AM 1.33 0.4 EXTREME HOMES (2012) HGTV 9:00 PM 1.23 0.3
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To see past daily cable ratings posts click here.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2013 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.For many readers and supporters of Ben Swann’s Truth In Media Project, the fact that Swann asks tough questions and calls attention to issues and facts ignored by most of the mainstream media is nothing new. Over the past several years, Swann has developed a knack for delivering under-reported news that resonates with millions of individuals across the globe.
When reporting on any given topic, be it the drug war, mass shootings, politicians, terror attacks, police brutality, or our government’s foreign policy, Swann has never been one to gloss over these subjects or direct viewers and readers to reach any particular conclusion. This quickly becomes clear to most people who have watched Swann’s Truth In Media episodes examining a number of subjects including the origin of ISIS, medical cannabis, and police militarization. Swann’s Reality Check segments that have pointed out misleading statements as well as outright errors of GOP candidates, challenged common narratives about gun violence, and exposed questionable behavior at the CDC are not much different.
On Wednesday, a brief article, regarding a pro-Jeb Bush super PAC video ad which attacked Marco Rubio’s voting attendance record by using a portion of one of Swann’s Reality Check segments, was written in The New York Times by Maggie Haberman. The ad can be seen below:
The full version of the Reality Check segment, which the pro-Jeb Bush PAC Right to Rise pulled an excerpt from to use in its ad, is below.
However, the Times article did not focus on verifying the validity of Swann’s statements about Rubio’s voting attendance. The author instead chose to describe Swann as a “conspiracy-minded journalist” without delving into any examples of Swann’s so-called “focus on conspiracy theories.”
Haberman claims that Swann “examined questions about whether 7 World Trade Center could have collapsed as authorities said it did, and allegations that the gunman in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings didn’t act alone.” This is absolutely true, and Swann has always stood by these examinations. However, the leap that Haberman made to then identify Swann as a “conspiracy-minded journalist” is a large one.
It’s also a leap that was already made by Salon in 2013 in an attempt to label Swann as a “truther-reporter” for his coverage of the Sandy Hook shooting. Salon’s allegations were rebuked by Mic a few days later. “It is quite obvious that Ben Swann is striking a nerve with the national media,” wrote Mic’s Christopher McDaniel. “His latest piece, via his web-based, ‘Full Disclosure’ series, does not allude to any of the shootings being a ‘false flag’ or a ‘hoax.’ However, it does what we the people should demand of journalists— it asks questions.”
Merely asking questions that the mainstream media has never touched upon does not make a journalist “conspiracy-minded.”
Nor does it make one a “truther,” as Marco Rubio’s camp claimed while accusing Right to Rise, the pro-Jeb Bush PAC behind the ad, of using a “noted 9/11, Boston Marathon Bombing, and Sandy Hook Truther as the mouthpiece for their false attacks.”
The Washington Post’s David Weigel pointed out that Joe Pounder, an adviser for Marco Rubio, had once tweeted more favorably about Swann’s earlier work. “What was remarkable about Swann’s insta-infamy is that he had been reporting like this for years— and at least one of the people now ringing alarms about him had cited that reporting,” Weigel wrote. “After Swann saw his reputation battered on Twitter, he noticed that Pounder, in his old role at the oppo shop America Rising, had promoted his work at least twice. As a segment on Ohio’s Fox 19, ‘Reality Check’ seemed perfectly acceptable as a source.”
Right to Rise spokesman Paul Lindsay said that “What matters are the facts in the ad, and there’s no conspiracy over the fact that Marco Rubio has missed more votes in the last three years than any other U.S. senator.”
In response to Haberman’s article, Swann pointed out that Haberman had not spoken with him at all, and reached out to him after the article had already been published. “It’s a shame the New York Times did not bother to contact me prior to publishing the article,” Swann said, “and that the Rubio campaign felt the need to attack me personally rather than address the Senator’s voting record, which any journalist can look up as part of the Congressional record.”
When Truth In Media reached out to Haberman to ask why she declined to address Swann’s reporting of Rubio’s voting record, she only stated that she had reached out to Swann and did not receive a reply.
The word “truther” is a slang term commonly used to describe an individual who rejects media narratives as a whole and touts ideas about false flag stories as fact. These words are simply inaccurate for a journalist who has the courage and tenacity to express refreshing skepticism about one piece of information, or happens to bring forth facts that presidential candidates don’t appreciate. The word “conspiracy,” once meant to describe harmful actions planned in secret
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emani music simulation game series, has a foot pedal and five spinners, which can be pressed, held, or rotated, depending on the note type.
Like SOUND VOLTEX (in the Bemani series), notes appear from the background in the centre of the screen and travel towards the judgement line.
Notes are also color-coded depending on the input device they are associated with (blue for the top three spinners, yellow for the bottom two spinners, and white/red for the foot pedal).
Note types are the following:
• Hit Object: a normal, diamond-shaped note that can be hit by pressing the spinner.
• Charge Object: a long note that requires the spinner to be held down.
• Spin Object: a cone-like note that requires the spinner to be rotated. The spinner can be rotated in either direction.
• Storm Object: similar to Spin Objects, but they must be rotated with more force.
• Kick Object: a large, wide note that requires the foot pedal to be pressed and held.
• Directional Spin Object: A Spin Object that requires the spinner to be rotated in a specific direction. The direction in which the spinner must be rotated is indicated by an arrow above the note.
When holding down Charge Objects or Kick Objects, a "CHARGE" percentage indicator is shown.
The second of two judge ranks for the Object is based on how high the note was charged when the Object ends:
• 100%: CRITICAL
• 20%-99%: NEAR
• 0-19%: ERROR
The Object needs to be held entirely to receive 100% CHARGE.
Additionally, letting go of the Object will not break the player's CONNECT. It will simply stop increasing CHARGE until the Object is pressed again.
The gameplay interface itself is very similar to SOUND VOLTEX.
There are three difficulties: Green, Orange and Red.
The difficulty scale goes from 1 to 15.
Object judge rank names are also the same as SOUND VOLTEX: CRITICAL, NEAR, and ERROR.
Combo in this game is referred to as CONNECT, and a full combo is referred to as CONNECT ALL.
At the start of or during a song, some gameplay options can be changed: lane shape (curve or no curve, W or flat) and speed modifier (independent of song BPM). More options can be accessed in the song select menu by holding the foot pedal.
In 1+1/2, scores were given a ceiling cap of one million. Unlike other games that typically use alphanumerical letters to grade scores, MUSECA uses kanji for its score grading.
One of MUSECA's most notable aspects are the illustrations named Grafica.
In the earlier days of MUSECA's lifespan, the player had to clear STORY, one of MUSECA's unlocking systems, to access the Grafica system.
Most Grafica could've been obtained by purchasing them with one of MUSECA's currencies, COLORIS, while others were obtained via-STORY.
During gameplay, a Grafica could give the player GIFTs, which are in-game bonuses that are auto-triggered at some points of the charts, slightly modifying the chart lane's judgment line.
GIFTs included Life Support, Score Gain, Play Risk, and Item Collect.
With the reworking of the game in MUSECA 1+1/2, the GIFT mechanic has been removed and Grafica have mostly been relegated to primarily visual appeal during gameplay.
The game is now split into two modes, one focusing on the music game aspect and another focusing on the Grafica aspect.
In the latter mode, players can obtain Grafica by unlocking them through Release Missions.
At the beginning of a Release Mission, a canvas sits in the background. The player is tasked with "sketching" the Grafica by playing the given song with the aid of other Grafica.
The mission is marked complete if the player manages to finish the image of the Grafica before the song ends.
However, if the player fails to complete the Grafica within the allotted time, they will have to start from scratch.
A levelling system called MEDEL was also introduced in 1+1/2. Grafica earn experience points as they are used and their draw power and potency during Release Missions are increased as they gain levels.
A Grafica's MEDEL cap is dependent on the difficulty cleared for the Release Mission they're attached to:
• GREEN: up to MEDEL 8
• ORANGE: up to MEDEL 9
• RED: up to MEDEL 10
• PREMIUM: up to MEDEL 12
Some Grafica characters have their own voices that play when they're triggered in-game. In addition to original song contests, Grafica design contests are held as well.
Condition : Used Voltage : 110 Volts Location : Japan Shipping Terms : Ex Works Warranty : 7 days testing warranty Product Type : Music Machines Version Type : English Version
MUSECA Arcade Music Video Game - Reference Screenshots MUSECA Arcade Music Video Game Flyer MUSECA is a music arcade machine crossed with illustrationBelgian police in Brussels | John Thys/AFP via Getty Images Belgian terror sweep targets cousin of Brussels’ bombers Oussama Atar spent time in Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib jail.
Belgian authorities have identified the prime target of anti-terror raids on Thursday night as Oussama Atar, a cousin of two of the suicide bombers in the March attacks in Brussels.
Still at large, Atar is believed to have returned to Belgium from Syria about two weeks ago. He is a 32-year-old Belgian-Moroccan.
“Atar is the mentor and cousin of the El Bakraoui brothers. He radicalized them through the internet,” a senior Belgian law enforcement official told POLITICO.
Ibrahim El Bakraoui blew himself up at Zaventem airport, while his younger brother Khalid detonated his device at Maalbeek metro station. In all, 35 people died in the attacks.
Atar first travelled to the Iraq-Syria area in 2002 posing as a charity worker, but was arrested in 2005 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He served sentences in several jails including the infamous Abu Ghraib prison and Camp Bucca, where he reportedly met Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the current leader of Islamic State.
He returned to Belgium in 2012 after his family ran a campaign for his release. He was arrested in 2013 while trying to escape to Tunisia. But he was released and disappeared.
According to Le Parisien, a French newspaper, on June 21 French intelligence received a “message de vigilance” about Atar saying he intended to come to France through Albania.
According to another senior counter terrorism official, Atar has a dangerous network, which has included Malika El Aroud and Imam Bassam Ayachi.
El Aroud is the widow of one of two men who carried out a suicide bombing in Afghanistan that killed the anti-Taliban commander Ahmed Shah Massoud.
“Atar was a contact of the radical imam from Molenbeek, Bassam Ayachi, who was arrested in Bari, Italy in 2008 and then released,” the counterterrorism official said.
He added that the imam had celebrated the wedding of El Aroud with Massoud’s assassin.(Image: Shibai Xiao /naturepl.com/Alamy)
Easy weight loss always comes with a catch. A widely taken plant extract has helped obese mice burn off the calories without exercise – but there are concerns over its safety.
The fight against obesity gained ground in 2009 with the news that our bodies carry small deposits of brown adipose tissue – a type of fat that burns calories by turning energy into heat. Since then, researchers have been looking for ways to ramp up brown fat activity to realise the dream of weight loss without exercise or counting calories.
Enter berberine. A plant extract found in many Chinese herbal medicines, it has been linked to reductions in insulin resistance in animals. Guang Ning at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine have now shown that it helps weight control in obese mice by both activating brown fat and helping turn ordinary white fat brown.
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Weight control
Ning’s team gave the mice berberine every three days for a month. Scans showed that the brown fat between the rodent’s shoulder blades burned more calories than that in mice not given the extract. There were also signs that the white fat in their groin had begun to act like brown fat. As a result, the mice fed a high-fat diet had better control over their weight.
It’s a top quality bit of research, says Henri Huttunen at the University of Helsinki in Finland. “It nicely brings together some earlier isolated findings in a comprehensive package.”
Whether berberine can help obese people control their weight is a different matter, though. There’s been a lot of hype over the promise of brown adipose tissue, says Dominique Langin at the Institute of Metabolic and Cardiovascular Diseases in Toulouse, France. “But it remains true that adult humans, even lean ones, have much lower brown adipose capacity and ‘browning’ capacity than rodents.”
Toxic to rodents
This might not stop people with obesity from taking berberine, though. “My understanding is that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who use berberine,” says Huttunen. That might be a bad idea, though. A few weeks ago, Huttunen’s team published a paper in which they detail evidence of a link between the supplement and toxicity in the central nervous system of rodents, which raises concerns about its safety for human use.
“If this was a pharmaceutical we would begin by showing it’s safe and then looking at efficacy,” says Huttunen. “But because it’s a supplement there’s much less concern about the safety – which I find a bit disturbing.”
Ning points out that people have been taking berberine in China for 2000 years but agrees it’s imperative to test its safety profile. “Toxicology must be studied for the long-term application in obesity treatment”, he says.
Journal reference: Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6493Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II
The tragedy that Belarusian people have undergone during World War II is so deep that even today this topic is embedded in everyday surrounding and culture of Belarusians. After 60 years of peaceful life, Chernobyl, dismantling of the USSR, 14 years of sovereignty still WWII remains a major emotional rift in Belarusian soul. For 60 years after WWII BelarusFilm - the main Belarusian movie studio - was making movies centered on WWII Belarusian tragedy, to such an extent that some have jokingly renamed it into PartisanFilm. Even this year the two major Belarusian movies that came out - both State sponsored and independent movie, forbidden in Belarus - are dealing with WWII and Belarusian partisans. The literary heritage of the beloved Belarusian writer - Vasil' Bykau, referred by many as consciousness of Belarusian nation - was centered entirely on WWII. The march of ever diminishing number of the WWII veterans in Minsk every May 9 is a cherished national event televised not only in Belarus, but in many neighboring states. The WWII topic is too difficult emotionally and for years I was avoiding to write about it in the Virtual Guide to Belarus. Even now I shall probably restrict it to dry statistics as I write these lines on a sunny Californian Saturday of July 24, 2004 with a lump in my throat.
1930-ies in Belarus and generally in USSR weren't the happiest years. Stalinist doctrine grew, millions of people were prosecuted by NKVD. Fear and suspicion were nesting in every house. "Black crows" - the NKVD black cars were coming to the houses of your neighbor to pick him up in the midst of night, only to never see him again. The forced organization of collective farms - kolkhozes - from individual peasant families sparked many conflicts and resulted in many victims. 1937 was written into the history of USSR as perhaps the bloodiest year ever. Millions of executions were performed in a permanent hunt of traitors and "inner enemies". Several years before Khatyn executions by Hitler Germany horrible Katyn' and Kurapaty executions by Stalin's USSR took place. In 1939 Germany and USSR have struck Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in which they divided Eastern European lands lying between them - Western Belarus, Western Ukraine and Baltic states were occupied by USSR. The repressions against Poles and anti-communists on the occupied areas were a background in which Belarus has arrived into 1941.
It is not surprising that when Germans attacked USSR (Belarus) on June 22, 1941 the response of local population was more than ambivalent.
Generalkommissar Wilhelm Kube (left) receives power as a head of newly formed Minsk German administration, August 31, 1941. When Kube was killed by Minsk underground resistance in 1943 Germans have killed 1,000 hostages - citizens of Minsk - in retaliation.
Some people tried to retreat further into USSR, whereas others met Germans with flowers in their best clothes with hope of liberation from Stalin repressions. It is at that time a wide collaboration movement emerged in Belarus. Estimated 120,000 Belarusians have collaborated (willingly or unwillingly) with Nazi.
German officers and Ukrainian Collaborationist police in Sarig, near Kiev, Ukraine - 1942
After a decade of experiencing prosecution of everything Belarusian as "bourgeois" Belarusian nationals hoped to exploit the occupation as an opportunity to re-built Belarusian nation. A "Second All-Belarusian Congress" in 1944 has even proclaimed sovereign Belarusian State in July 1944, against German will. One must recollect here that the first Belarusian state in the new history - Belarusian Democratic Republic (BDR) - was created in the years of German occupation of Belarus during WWI in 1918 by the "First All-Belarusian Congress". Radaslau Astrouski, who led Belarusian national movement during WWII was actually member of the government of BDR in 1918. Many of these nationalists have turned anti-Semitic because of their belief in Jewish origins of Bolshevism. But even the most hardcore nationalists were affected by horrible massacres of Belarusian Jewry, tortures and cruelty with captured Red Army POWs and mass executions of general population.
Execution of women and children near Mizoch, October 14, 1942. Jewish work column - Mahilyow, 1941.
Himmler has pronounced a plan according to which 3/4 of Belarusian population was designated to "eradication" and 1/4 of racially cleaner population (blue eyes, light hair) would be allowed to serve Germans as slaves. Mass executions of entire villages were a common Nazi practice. While initially Germans allowed peasants to take cattle from kolkhoz, later all this cattle was loaded on trains and shipped to Germany. Many Belarusian youth were shipped to Germany as slaves.
Young Belarusians shipped to Germany as forced laborers, 1942.
By Summer 1942 the sentiments in Belarusian population were strongly anti-Nazi. It is at this time a serious partisan and underground resistance fight brakes out on the occupied territory in Belarus. Already in the Summer of 1941 approximately 12,000 of Belarusian partisans have conducted military operations against German occupants. At that time the partisan forces were comprised mostly of Red Army soldiers that escaped surrounding or from German captivity. By January 1, 1943 there were 448 Belarusian partisan detachments and 64 diversion groups. They counted approximately 58,000 partisan fighters. At the same time Ukraine with 4 times larger population than Belarus had 68 partisan detachments with 9,000 people in them. Smaliensk region of Russia just East of Belarus had counted 120 partisan detachments and 9 diversion groups - 10,000 people total.
Belarusian partisan in a forest dugout with his family, 1944
While majority of the partisan and underground movement was driven by a heroic effort of Belarusian people to liberate their homeland from Nazi, there were also negative things associated with some partisan detachments. The rumors about crimes of partisans have always existed in Belarus. Common villagers were often as scared of Soviet partisans as they were of Nazi. In an effort to protect the villages from both some village leaders have become double agents of both Nazi and Partisans. Clearly majority of partisans were not able to fight and feed themselves simultaneously, and so many times they forced Belarusian villagers to give up their food supplies and cattle. This would in term put villagers in mortal danger from Germans, since they could be identified as collaborators to partisans.
Victims of Anti-Partisan Punishment Operation - Minsk region, 1943. 17y.o. Belarusian Jewish (Masha Bruskina 17y.o. Jewish partisan on the left) partisans public hanging by Nazi.
The standard of SS practice was to execute entire population of the village near which partisan attack has occurred in retaliation. More than 600 villages like Khatyn were burned by Nazi with their entire population. Not all partisan detachments had pristine morals - tyranny of commanders, heavy drinking, anarchy, looting of food and clothing, even rape - were reported. These actions were known to happen in partisan detachments of Lunin, Charkasau, group of Muhin. The head of Central Headquarters of Partisan Movement - Brigade Commissar Konkin called partisan detachments of Miciuhin and Zaharau "bandit formations". The recent independent feature film Mysterium Occupation, which is forbidden today in Belarus as "distorting historical truth", is delivering exactly this taboo information about partisan movement in Belarus. In many senses society governed by Communist totalitarian regime of Stalin in 1930-ies was already militarized and had established discipline of fear. And so, the development of the network of 1,200 Communist Party cells within partisan detachments around 1943 has considerably improved discipline and cleaned the situation.
1943 was a year of unprecedented Belarusian partisan battle against Nazi. Over the period of 1418 days of German occupation of Belarus 1,255 partisan detachments were formed and lead military actions in Belarus with 374,000 fighters. Additionally approximately 400,000 of locals supported partisan movement. In the cities 70,000 people were involved in the underground resistance. During the three years of war on occupied territory of Belarus (June 1941 - July 1944) Belarusian partisans and underground resistance fighters have killed or incapacitated more than 500,000 of Nazis. 11,128 of German trains following to Russian East Front, as well as 34 armored battle trains were blown up or derailed by Belarusian partisans. 29 railway stations, 948 Military Headquarters, 18,700 cars and trucks, 819 railway and 4,710 auto bridges were destroyed by Belarusian partisans. The partisan movement was so overwhelming that in 1943-44 there were large regions in occupied Belarus, where Soviet rule was established deep inside the German occupation territory. The fully functioning partisan kolkhozes were farming and growing cattle to support partisans.
Pages of the Moscow propaganda newspaper published for Belarusian partisans "Squish the Fascist Beast". Interestingly in an effort to appeal to Belarusian patriotism it is all published in Belarusian - the very language that was prosecuted by Soviets just before WWII and is prosecuted by Lukashenka regime in today's Belarus.
The most known partisan detachments acting in Belarus were led by U.E. Labanok, R.N. Machul'ski, K.S. Zaslonau, V.I. Kazlou, V.Z. Korzh, K.T. Mazurau, M.V.Zimianin, P.M. Masherau. Many of these commanders have become party and government leaders of Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic after WWII.
Over 500,000 Belarusians were drafted in the Red Army during 1941 retreat. Overall 1.3 million Belarusians fought in Red Army against Nazi, including 194,000 partisan detachment members, who enlisted after liberation of Belarus in 1944.
Red Army infantry attack supported by T-34 tank. Red Army woman-sniper in Belarus, July 1944
Belarusians have received over 300,000 combat Orders and Medals for the courage in the battles of WWII. 396 Belarusians received the USSR highest military reward - the golden star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. Four Belarusians - P.Ya. Halavachou, I.I. Husakouski, S.F. Shutau and I.I.Yakubouski - were honored the title of the Hero of Soviet Union twice. 63 Belarusians became Cavaliers of Order of Glory of all three stages. Belarusian partisans and underground resistance members received 140,000 combat orders and medals during the WWII. 88 of them have become Heroes of the Soviet Union for heroic deeds.
Red Army soldiers liberating Belarusian City, 1944
The USSR did not join Geneva convention in 1929. This convention was signed even by Germany in 1934. It is hard to guess what strange ideas governed Stalin - a dictator of the USSR at that time - in not signing the convention. The official pretext was that Geneva Convention does not go far enough in protecting POWs. But most likely Stalin did not expected anyone to become a prisoner. He treated all Soviet POWs as traitors. Because of this Red Army POWs were not supervised by International Red Cross or any international organizations and were treated by Nazis many times worse than Western allies. Millions of Soviet POWs and Belarusian forced laborers transported to Germany have paid for this Stalin's attitude with their suffering, tortures and often lives. Even worse, on their return to the USSR they were met with suspicion, NKVD interrogations, treated as traitors and deserters. Many of them served long times (25 years was the usual term) in Stalin's Gulags in Siberia.
German POWs marched by Red Army through Belarusian city. Four women partisans in liberated Minsk, 1944.
Different statistics are given for the number of WWII victims in Belarus. The situation is distorted by the secret Stalin's mass executions that occurred in Belarus few years before the war. It is now a common belief that every forth citizen of Belarus has perished in the World War II, reaching every third in some regions (Vitebsk region). Per capita Belarusians lost more lives during WWII than any other nation. The Nazi occupation forces were responsible for 2.2 Million Belarusians dead, while 380,000 young Belarusians were sent to Germany for forced labor - "Ostarbeiters". Some recent reports raise the number of Belarusians who perished in War to "3 million 650 thousand people, unlike the former 2.2 million. That is to say not every fourth inhabitant but almost 40% of the pre-war Belarusian population perished (considering the present-day borders of Belarus). "
The material losses of Belarus reached 75 Billion Rubles, which equals to 35 annual state budgets of Belarus of 1940. More than 209 cities and towns (out of 270 total), 9,000 villages were destroyed. 10,000 industrial enterprises were either destroyed or evacuated to Germany. The capital of Belarus was ruined by bombings to such extent that for a while it was considered more reasonable to build it in a different place. But emotions took over reason and Minsk was re-built in it's old place, just as entire Belarus was. In about 5 years after war Belarus was rebuilt and Belarusian industry exceeded pre-war levels through an extraordinary effort of the youth delegated by other Soviet Republics of the USSR. Many of those delegates settled in Belarus and were quite disturbed by the rising nationalism in Belarus of the early 1990-ies. But amidst the hurricane of ethnic conflicts that swept Eastern Europe and former USSR republics in 1990-ies Belarus was the only former soviet republic that has never lost one human life to ethnic differences.
Over the centuries of our bloody history Belarusians have learned that Peace is a #1 priority of Life...
References used in this page:
" Bolshevik System of Power in Belarus" ("Bal'shavickaia sistema ulady na Belarusi") by M. Kasciuk, Minsk - 2000, Publishing house "Ekaperspektyva". ISBN 985-6102-30-8
- This is the main source used in this page. It gives perhaps most balanced picture on the WWII events and partisan struggle in Belarus.
("Bal'shavickaia sistema ulady na Belarusi") by M. Kasciuk, Minsk - 2000, Publishing house "Ekaperspektyva". ISBN 985-6102-30-8 "Belarus. From Soviet Rule to Nuclear Catastrophe" by David R. Marples, New York - 1996, Publishing house "St. Martin's Press". ISBN 0-312-16181-6
by David R. Marples, New York - 1996, Publishing house "St. Martin's Press". ISBN 0-312-16181-6 "Collaboration in the Holocaust. Crimes of the Local Police in Belorussia and Ukraine, 1941-1944" by Martin Dean, New York - 2000, Publishing house "St. Martin's Press" ISBN 0-312-22056-1
by Martin Dean, New York - 2000, Publishing house "St. Martin's Press" ISBN 0-312-22056-1 "Belorussia 1944. The Soviet General Staff Study" ed. David M. Glantz, Harold S. Orenstein, London-Portland, Or - 2001, Publishing house "Frank Cass". ISBN 0-7146-5102-8
Related Links:
La Resistenza Partigiana in Belarus (In Italian)
This page covers p artisan resistance in Belarus during WWII and has an interesting photogallery of histarical photos of WWII. The page is run by an Italian Chernobyl charity - Progetto Humus
p History of Belarus @ World IQ
Since the early days of the occupation, a powerful and increasingly well-coordinated partisan movement emerged. Hiding in the woods and swamps, the partisans inflicted heavy damage to German supply lines and communications, disrupting railway tracks, bridges, telegraph wires, attacking supply depots, fuel dumps and transports and ambushing German occupation soldiers. In the greatest partisan sabotage action of the entire Second World War, the so-called Osipovichi diversion of 30 July 1943, for instance four German trains with supplies and Tiger tanks were destroyed. To fight Soviet partisan activity, the Germans had to withdraw considerable forces back behind their front line.
"Partisan War" - an article by "Moscow Times" about recent Belarusian independent movie - "Mysterium Occupation":
Occupied by various powers throughout its history, Belarus has plenty of painful memories connected with the World War II period, during which a quarter of its population died, and its aftermath, when thousands more were sent to Soviet labor camps on charges of collaboration. Indeed, much of the country's national mythology is tied to those experiences
How many Belarusians perished during the war? an article at Open.by
The ESC's report stresses that 810,091 military prisoners were killed and tortured to death on the Belarusian territory. We do not have to forget that the most part of them were not Belarusians or natives of the republic. For some reasons, for 54 years this number had been representing the considerable part of Belarus' demographic losses. It results, according to incomplete data, that demographic losses of Belarus during the war amounted to 3 million 650 thousand people, unlike the former 2.2 million. That is to say not every fourth inhabitant but almost 40% of the pre-war Belarusian population perished (considering the present-day borders of Belarus). Of course, this problem requires further investigation and it is too early to put the final point in this case.
A Partisan's Story By Boris Kozinitz, Dokshitz-Tel-Aviv
When we neared the monastery which was only 200 meters from the ghetto gate, we talked to Sagalchik about freeing the ghetto. According to the plan we were supposed to take from the ghetto only men vital to us: A doctor with his equipment; medicines; the dentist Simchelevitch and others, but with Sagalchik we talked about freeing the whole ghetto.
WWII Pictures of Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Bear in mind, when they say Russians they most likely refer to Belarusians.
. Republic-Partisan - an article in Russian in "Sovetskaia Rossia" about Partisan Movement in Belarus.
This is already more modern interpretation of partisan war in Belarus, slightly departed from Soviet black&white doctrine
Eurozine: Between brotherly Russia and peaceful Europe by Andrej Dynko
The Belarusians consider peace to be the highest value. The notorious phrase, "Anything rather than war," is the basis of their political behavior. In the period between the 1950s and 1980s, Belarusian culture created a rich pacifist tradition. A humanistic message was contained in fine art masterpieces such as Mikhas Savitski's Partisan Madonna. Even mass culture could not avoid the anti-war theme. A lot of pacifistic songs appeared. "We want the peaceful sky not to know the fire of war... We wish friendship and sincere brotherly love to peoples," - these are lines from the unofficial anthem "Radzima Maya Darahaya" (My Dear Motherland), the tune of which serves as the station designator of Belarusian Radio. Literature, whose role was extremely important in society at that time, was the determining factor in creating the pacifistic sentiments. Essays by Ales Adamovich, novels by Vasil Bykaw and Ivan Shamyakin gained prominence for their deromanticization of warfare. Pacifism and tolerance were questioned by none of the more or less significant authors of that time. The presence of this theme in works of art was even intrusive. The authorities tolerated that pacifism. In Soviet Belarusian culture, it was one of the manifestations of conformism, a substitute for open dissent, upon which nobody among the front-rank figures of Belarusian culture ventured. That pacifism was so popular and consistent that it became one of the cultural and political canons and turned into a consciousness-determining phenomenon. Pacifism harmonized with the historic memory of people and came from previous cultural traditions. Incidentally, the influence of high culture, in particular literature, on the formation of the Belarusians' consciousness in the Soviet era is frequently underestimated, above all because change has now occurred in the methods of mass communication. For it is no longer the written word but sight and sound that dominate the communications industry. Anyway, pacifism and the propagation of tolerance in the Belarusian culture of the Soviet era are worth of certain consideration. The replacement of the first lines of the state anthem, "We, Belarusians, with brotherly Russia," for "We, Belarusians, are peaceful people," which was initiated by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, on the surface looked like the result of search for a solution that would insult nobody. But this choice in fact reveals the intuition and opportunism generally characteristic of Lukashenka's political style
This file is a part of the Virtual Guide to Belarus - a collaborative project of Belarusian scientists and professionals abroad. VG brings you the most extensive compilation of the information about Belarus on the Web.
Please send your comments to the authors of VG to Belarus
History | Statehood | Culture | Law and Politics | Cities | Nature and Geography | Travel | Global Resources | Dictionaries | Chernobyl | Genealogy | Industry | NewI never liked cliques. They bring out the worst in people. They discourage critical thinking, and they demand allegiance to simplistic ideas. In a word, cliques promote fundamentalism. And for that reason, I never wanted any part of them.
Mysore, I was told, is overrun by a clique. That is, a clique of people who want to align themselves with the presiding power structure to be on the “inside.” They support their leader with an almost religious fervor, and they refuse to learn from anyone else, including the senior teachers of our discipline.
Having heard this story told a hundred times, I had a strained impression of Mysore. But I could see the clique forming on the other side, among the “outsiders” who often called themselves “old-school” and professed to know what Ashtanga Vinyasa was “originally” all about. With my distaste for cliques, I was sure that I did not want to be on either side.
But having never been to Mysore, I tried to keep an open mind. The truth is always richer than what people say. But I was in no hurry to go. It sounded too fraught to be a good place for practice. And I was content to practice in the peace and quiet of the Rocky Mountains, under the guidance of Richard Freeman.
After taking over the Yoga Workshop in 2015, however, I found myself with a new reason to come to Mysore, a reason that was not about me. The reason is solidarity. And by that I mean a sense of togetherness.
Naturally, those who have the anti-Mysore sentiment tend to gather around senior teachers like Richard. So that sentiment can sometimes be strong in Boulder. And as the new director and heir of the Yoga Workshop, I feel some responsibility to stamp out cliquish attitudes whenever they arise. They are no good for yoga.
So I came to Mysore. I came to see what is happening, and be part of it. I came because I believe that, like it or not, these are my people and I am connected to them. I came with an open mind, but I was expecting to encounter the cliquish attitudes that have aroused the anti-Mysore sentiment. Now, having been here for a month, I am pleased to report that all my expectations have been trampled.
The terrible people that I heard about, who throw elbows and scorn people who are working on the Primary Series, never showed their faces. I was never aware of any hierarchy, based on levels of “advancement,” and nobody ever asked me what pose or series I was on. I also somehow missed the notorious aggression with which people are said to practice here. And I never saw any crude or injurious assists.
Instead, I was surrounded by kind, gentle, and sincere people who are here for the love of yoga, and who support and respect one another, without a care for what the other can do. There is a sense of equality that comes from the top down, and shows itself in the way that we all sit on the stairs, waiting to practice together. I also found an inexhaustible spirit of inquiry, which made for some of the best conversations about yoga that I have ever had. People are here to learn, and learning requires critical thought, so everywhere you look, on the street, at the coconut stand, in the cafes, people are critically engaged, and they are talking about yoga.
As for the practice, it could not be better. Yes its hot, crowded, and you have to wait for a long time to get in. But none of this matters at all. There is so much tapas here, so much focus and energy. You can lose yourself in it. No matter which series you are practicing, it stirs you down to the depths. And Sharath’s teaching style is quite hands-off. The emphasis is on allowing the process to unfold naturally, in good time, without unnecessary intervention... just like back home.
I will always be a student of Richard Freeman. He has taught me things that have changed me forever, and I know that I have only been given a taste of what he has to offer. I strive endlessly to make myself worthy of the further things that he might teach. But Richard is not my only teacher, nor does he want to be. He encourages all of his students to go out and learn from others. Yoga is vast, he tells us, and you will only limit yourself if you try to learn from one person alone.
Sharath, on the other hand, often insists on the importance of studying with just one teacher, and for that reason, I was almost expecting there to be some tension about my background. Sharath acknowledged when I arrived that he knows who I am. “Oh you’re the one” he said, “taking over Richard’s shala.” But he smiled and there was no tension at all. On the contrary, he made it clear that he respects Richard, and he is glad to have me practicing here under him. It warmed my heart.
So I have come to understand that when Sharath insists on studying with only one teacher, he does not mean that literally. He does not mean that we should avoid learning from others. That would be absurd. Instead, he means that we should avoid mixing methods. If we mix methods, we deprive ourselves of their potency. That is the point. And it makes good sense to me.
Though Richard and Sharath have very different approaches to teaching, I don’t see any substantive differences of the method they teach. What they are teaching is the same, Ashtanga Vinyasa as they learned it from their teacher, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. I have practiced my asanas here as I learned them from Richard – same wide stance, same reaching arms, same slow pace, same attention to alignment, and Sharath’s response has been nothing but affirmative. Maybe some of the postures and movements do not look exactly like those of Sharath’s other students, but the essence is there. And that seems to be what Sharath cares about.
I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity to be a student to both Richard and Sharath. Arguably, these are the two best teachers in the Ashtanga world. And I am sure that I did nothing to deserve their attention. Second, I am impressed by the sense of community here in Mysore. It reinforces my conviction in the potency of this practice.
My concerns about cliquish attitudes have all been washed away, and I smile gently at myself for having born them at all. Instead of finding cliquish attitudes, I have found attitudes of humility, contentment, kindness and compassion, all signs that the practice is working.
My wish for the Ashtanga community is that we can continue to practice together, learn together, and grow wiser together, without imposing on ourselves any further delusions of division. There is no need to pretend that we are divided into “insiders” and “outsiders,” or into “old school” and “new school.” There is no inside or outside. There is only truth. Whatever our diverse backgrounds might be, we are all looking for the same truth, and if we sustain an abiding sense of our togetherness, we will be that much closer to its realization.Work is a critical phase in our everyday life that just can’t be ignored. In fact
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ised into five themes:
The term is generally used to describe the activity of individuals or groups carrying out criminal acts of direct action to further their protest campaign. These people and activities usually seek to prevent something from happening or to change legislation or domestic policy, but attempt to do so outside the normal democratic process.
Exactly the same is true of terrorists - murder is murder regardless of any "terrorism" offences.
Unlike terrorism, which is defined in the UK by the Terrorism Act 2000, there is no equivalent legal definition for domestic extremism. This is because the crimes committed by those considered a domestic extremist already exist in common law or statute.
The National Coordinator Domestic Extremism was established in 2004, with the aim of reducing, and where possible, removing the threat, criminality and public disorder associated with domestic extremism in the UK, and working with police forces to ensure the facilitation of peaceful, lawful protest.
The unaccountable taxpayer subsidised private company, the Association of Chief Police Officers, has now published a "micro-site" about its complicated and even more unaccountable and secretive Domestic Extremism quangos.
Which groups have been identified as domestic extremist campaigns or threats? The police will always have a duty to prevent crime and disorder, or where it does occur, to investigate the perpetrators. However, the police do not publicly announce the identity of individuals or groups they regard as a threat or an operational priority unless it is necessary and prudent to do so; a disclosure of that nature would be likely to compromise police operations and investigations. The police and NCDE would always encourage campaign groups to liaise with the local police force wherever possible, to ensure public protest and associated campaign activities remain peaceful and lawful.
This is a stupid policy.
How are the public meant to know which groups are considered to be "domestic extremists" and therefore to shun them, not give them any support or money etc., if the list is kept secret?
The Home Office even publishes a list of Proscribed Terrorist groups (although neither the Taliban nor any Chechen terrorist groups are listed).
Who is considered a domestic extremist? Single issue protest campaigns are regularly facilitated by police and local authorities who each have a duty to uphold the rights of individuals and groups to protest in public. However, in recent years, a small number of groups and individuals have pursued a determined course of criminal activity designed to disrupt the public peace and lawful business, and at worst, repeatedly victimise selected individuals. This activity has ranged from blackmail and serious intimidation in the name of animal rights; bombing campaigns by violent and racist individuals associated with far right wing groups; violent disorder from left wing or anarchist individuals, to large scale criminal damage against scientific GM crops studies and mass aggravated trespass or unlawful obstruction of lawful businesses associated with the national infrastructure of our country, such as power stations and airports by those who's stated aim is to stop any business perceived to harm the environment. How does NCDE deal with peaceful protest? The National Domestic Extremism Unit is mainly concerned with those who choose to commit criminal offences in the name of protest. The police take an interest in protest and also domestic extremism because each can impact on communities and can sometimes lead to disorder and crime. Whilst the police have a duty to facilitate lawful protest, they also have responsibilities to prevent crime and disorder and to reduce disruption to society. We will therefore have an interest in some individuals or groups that are involved with such events; if there is potential for crime or disorder we will always need good quality information and sometimes intelligence to help us to assess potential risks and threats; we will always try to balance what sometimes feels like competing needs of different groups within society. The units do a great deal to assist forces in facilitating peaceful, lawful protest. The National Domestic Extremism Unit does not usually focus those who choose to protest peacefully and lawfully. The unit is mainly concerned with those who commit criminal offences in furtherance of their campaign.
The words "does not usually focus" could mean that they do actually snoop on lawful, peaceful protestors with up to half their resources.
The units will have less interest in those who choose to sit down in the road or fasten themselves to gates to protest - we are mainly concerned with those who commit more serious offences. However, police forces will always need to deal with such incidents. More serious offences will include activity that has ranged from blackmail and serious intimidation in the name of animal rights; bombing campaigns by violent and racist individuals associated with far right wing groups; violent disorder from left wing or anarchist individuals, to large scale criminal damage against scientific GM crops studies and mass aggravated trespass or unlawful obstruction of lawful businesses associated with the national infrastructure of our country, such as power stations and airports by those who's stated aim is to stop any business perceived to harm the environment. Who does NCDE investigate? The role of the three units in NCDE is to assist police forces with specialist advice and expertise, to promote a coordinated response to domestic extremism. They support forces dealing with incidents involving animal rights crimes, individuals from the extreme right wing who have made home made bombs and also some aspects of disorder and offending from some individuals within environmental groups. NDET is responsible for co-ordinating police operations and investigations against domestic campaigns and extremists, as well as identifying possible linked crimes across the country. What statutory powers does NCDE hold? NCDE is staffed by a combination of police officers and staff from across the country. The police officers all hold the usual powers of a constable. All operational work they are involved with has to comply fully with all aspects of legislation and is all carried out jointly with police forces. Any police unit, including NCDE, comply fully with all legislation, including Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), the Management of Police Information guidelines, the Data Protection Act and the Criminal Procedures and Investigations Act. As such, all powers used are properly authorised and can be disclosed in the criminal justice system. No national police units have any'special' powers above and beyond those of a police officer in a local force.
That is still a vast amount of legal power, especially when applied by secret police units who are not directly accountable to anyone.
N.B. the Common Law offence of Sedition has been recently repealed by Coroners and Justice Act 2009 section 79 Abolition of common law libel offences etc. with effect from last January 12th 2010 (automatically 2 months after Royal Assent).
Who works for NCDE? ACC Anton Setchell is the head of NCDE, and the units within NCDE are staffed by around 100 serving police officers and employees of police forces across the country. Steve Pearl is the public face of NETCU - the prevention unit of NCDE. We do not proactively release the names of those working for NCDE for security reasons. What are the names and ranks of the heads of the NPOIU and NDET? NPOIU and NDET typically provide support to police forces rather than to the public and much of the work that they are engaged in is of an operationally sensitive nature. We therefore do not identify individuals within those two units.
That is not acceptable.
There is a case for hiding the identities of the low level officers and staff, but there is no excuse for the senior managers to hide their ranks or identities or office contact details.
They are paid to be senior leaders and managers, so they should be accountable to the public, who need to know who they are so that complaints and investigations
Where are NPOIU and NDET based? Both units are based in London. For reasons of operational security we do not disclose the exact location of any of these units.
Why should these intelligence and surveillance units NPOIU and NDET be even more secretive and less contactable than MI5 the Security Service, Mi6 the Secret Intelligence Service or GCHQ?
Even NETCU has a website, www.netcu.org.uk which publishes a postal address:
NETCU
PO Box 525
Huntingdon
PE29 9AL
There is no excuse for not publishing a Post Office Box contact address, a 24/7 (freephone) telephone contact, an email address, a SSL/TLS encrypted web contact form and a PGP Public Encryption / Digital Signing cryptographic key etc.
Do they really not want the public to provide them with intelligence tip offs?
What is NCDE's budget? The annual funding is approximately £9m across all three units; this money is provided jointly from the Home Office, police forces and from the CT Grant (Home Office). The £2m that features on the ACPO accounts statement for the DE project is part of this overall funding.
So who independently scrutinises this budget? Nobody.
How do we know whether or not these secretive units are not wasting public money? How do we know that they have not suffered from financial scandals, like the abuse of American Express corporate credit cards by the Metropolitan Police specialist units?
e.g. this BBC report Credit inquiry into 300 officers
Why do these secret Police intelligence and surveillance units not come under even the weak scrutiny of the Parliamentary Intelligence Services Committee?
How many people work for NCDE? The level of staffing across the three units is about 100, of which two thirds are police officers and one third are police staff. How is NCDE linked to the Home Office? NCDE is independent of the Home Office, but works with Home Office and other government departments such as BIS, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Why was the unelected and disgraced Lord Mandelson allowed power or privileged access to such Police intelligence and surveillance units?
Has BIS passed on such intelligence information to private sector vested interests?
What links does NCDE have to the security services? These are policing units working to assist police forces. The units will work wherever it is relevant or necessary with a wide range of other agencies and organisations both in the UK and abroad, just as police forces do. We do not comment on specific organisations or the work we do with them.
By not clearly spelling out the rules of engagement or demarcation with the intelligence agencies, many innocent people will naturally fear the worst.
Is NCDE spying on us and contravening our human rights? No. The police take an interest in protest and also domestic extremism because each can impact on communities and can sometimes lead to disorder and crime. Whilst the police have a duty to facilitate lawful protest, they also have responsibilities to prevent crime and disorder and to reduce disruption to society. We will therefore have an interest in some individuals or groups that are involved with such events; if there is potential for crime or disorder we will always need good quality information and sometimes intelligence to help us to assess potential risks and threats; we will always try to balance what sometimes feels like competing needs of different groups within society. The units do a great deal to assist forces in facilitating peaceful, lawful protest. Police forces do much to ensure that campaign groups can exercise their domestic freedoms of speech, but at the same time ensure communities can continue to enjoy their freedoms to go about their business or travel with minimum disruption and without being subjected to disorder or intimidation. It is a small number who believe breaking the law is justifiable and will help further their campaign aims. NCDE is there to support forces in facilitating peaceful, lawful protest and preventing that which is unlawful. http://www.netcu.org.uk/lawful_protest/human_rights.jsp
So NCDE are in fact spying on us, but they claim that this is not "contravening our human rights"
Does NCDE hold personal information on individuals? Intelligence held by NCDE is owned by the police force that collected it. NPOIU is responsible for coordinating intelligence from across the country in order to advise each force of the bigger picture. However, the ownership of each piece of intelligence lies with the force it came from.
This is a deliberate technique for avoiding Data Protection Act and Freedom of Information Act requests, by making it too easy for individual Police units to claim that someone else is in charge of the personal data which they hold and amend copies of.
If you set up a database, from multiple other data sources, you should be made responsible for any use or abuse of that collated intelligence resource and people should be able to contact you directly about it.
How many people are on the NPOIU database? At the most recent count, there are only 1,822 photos held by the NPOIU. Considering this is a national police intelligence database and there are many hundreds of protest events every year, some attracting tens or hundreds of thousands of people, this very small number should provide context for anyone who has any concerns about the scale of photograph retention. Many are only retained for a very short period, some we need to retain for several years; each one is individually assessed and reviewed regularly. Before a photo or any information or intelligence can be entered onto the database, it has to be individually assessed against a set of MOPI and ECHR compliant criteria and be given a review date; the system automatically prompts this review when it is due. In addition to having a duty to facilitate lawful protest, the police service has a responsibility to secure public safety and needs good quality, relevant information and intelligence to do all of this. Good intelligence protects not only the public and democracy, but suspects and offenders too. What action did the unit take following the ruling of Wood v Commissioner of the Metropolis 2009? The outcome of the Wood vs. Commissioner of the Metropolis case was welcomed by NCDE, in particular NPOIU as it brought clarity to an area that had not previously been tested in the courts. The three national Domestic Extremism (DE) units work hard to ensure that all they do is necessary, justified and proportionate and this applies to the management of any information or intelligence, including any photographs. In this respect, the Wood judgement did not change anything for NPOIU and the photos it holds - it cemented existing practice.
Presumably they mean Judgment (the spelling now used for High Court or UK Supreme Court Judgments) rather than "judgement"
The judgement fully reflected our views about the retention of photographs taken by police Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) teams and in following the Statutory Code of Practice for the Management of Police Information (MOPI) since its introduction, our practice has been compliant with the judgement findings.
See the FIT Watch blog which chronicles the efforts of protestors to conduct Sousveillance of the Forward Intelligence Team photographers.
The judgement also recognised the Metropolitan Police would not have retained the photos beyond a few weeks, not indefinitely as some misreporting would have it.
The Metropolitan Police tend to retain stuff for at least 6 or 7 years.
The ACPO guidance on data retention does effectively mean "indefinitely" for so long as a criminal investigation is considered to be active.
If there has been even a minor conviction, then the data will be retained until your One Hundredth Birthday (by which time the rules will probably have been extended)
It is also important to remind those who have expressed concerns about FIT teams that the Law Lords recognised there was a legitimate aim by the police in the taking and retaining of the photographs at least for a short time - this was described by them as being for the prevention of disorder or crime, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. To report on only one aspect of the outcome of the case is misleading. There is a framework of legislation in place to safeguard the rights and freedoms of society which the police must comply with; for the gathering of intelligence these laws include RIPA, MOPI and the Data Protection Act, which are all underpinned by the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition to the strict requirement for legal compliance, we simply do not have the capacity or staff to process and store irrelevant photos,
With modern digital storage media capacities even for home computers, now being measured in TeraBytes, the claim to have no capacity to store irrelevant photos is untrue.
they are of no value to us and we do not want them. It has been practice since long before the Wood judgement that FIT officers could attend a protest or public order event and either take no photos at all, or where they have taken photos, to recognise there is no need to process them afterwards because they were of no value. Officers will always need to exercise this judgement.
We have little faith in the
We simply do not believe that the only information held or used by the NOPIU involves a few copies of photographs of protestors.
What about the Police National Computer ANPR tag 7 REASON - Protest used and abused by Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems?
See the Spy Blog post
ACPO policy on ANPR: The Management and Use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition
What is the mechanism, if any for deleting such information on the NPOIU database if the local Police force decides to do so?
What about the reverse process, if the NPOIU decide that your photo or vehicle number plate etc. is not relevant to an investigation into "Domestic Extremism", then does this data get removed from the local Police force's criminal intelligence databases?
We doubt that this happens at all - the tendency of the Police is to hold on to every bit of data or information for as long as possible, regardless of its accuracy or proper context.
What information is collected by NCDE? There are two types of information collected by NCDE. Because domestic extremists don't work within police force boundaries, each force submits their intelligence to NPOIU, who then feed it into a database and analyse the information to identify common incidents, tactics and people committing offences across the country. This information is then fed back to the police forces concerned, to allow them to see the bigger, national picture and join up their investigations, if appropriate. NETCU, on the other had, collects 'open source' information - that is information gathered from websites and the mainstream media. They also collect post-event information from police forces, such as where a protest happened, how many people attended and how long it lasted. This information is used to provide tactical advice and guidance to police forces across the country to promote a coordinated and consistent approach to tackling domestic extremism. It also allows NETCU, in their capacity as a crime prevention unit, to support industry, academia and other organisations that have been or could be targeted by extremists. NETCU also provides the Government and partners in the police service and the Crown Prosecution Service with collated public information about domestic extremism trends, as well as post-event incidents and crimes. Does NCDE carry out surveillance? All operational work NCDE is involved with is done together with police forces. Any force carrying out surveillance does so under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) and must meet the test of proportionality under that legislation.
We do not believe that they never conduct intrusive surveillance including "interference with property" under the Police Act 1997 Part III Authorisation of Action in Respect of Property
Does NCDE share intelligence or information with industry? NCDE deals with two types of information, or intelligence. The first is police intelligence, supplied by police forces, which is analysed by NPOIU to identify common incidents, tactics and people committing offences across the country. This information is then fed back to the police forces concerned, to allow them to see the bigger, national picture and join up their investigations, if appropriate. The second type of information is 'open source' information, gathered from public websites and the mainstream media.
We do sometimes wonder if the visitors to this website using Police National Network or Metropolitan Police or or West Midlands Police etc. IP addresses are (ineptly) doing this sort of "open source" intelligence gathering, or if they have subcontracted this out to commercial internet "business intelligence" companies.
This is collated by NETCU and has two purposes. Because domestic extremists don't work within police force boundaries, NETCU collates information about up and coming events and protests, from public websites and gives it to the police force, or forces concerned, so they can plan their resources accordingly. NETCU also provides tactical advice and guidance in order to promote a coordinated and consistent approach to tackling domestic extremism. Acting as a crime prevention unit, NETCU also supports industry, academia and other organisations that have been or could be targeted by extremists. They collate open source information to provide a bigger picture of the issue, as well as providing security advice, risk assessments and information that can help minimise disruption, disorder and criminality if there is a protest and help them keep their employees safe. At no time does NCDE pass any police intelligence to anyone other than other police forces. The only information passed to industry, academia and other organisations has come from a public source, that anyone could find.
So they never pass any police intelligence directly or indirectly to MI5 the Security Service or to SOCPA the Serious Organised Crime Agency or to the UK Border Agency or HM Revenue and Customs etc. etc., none of which are "other police forces"
Somehow we do not believe them.
NCDE need to prove this claim about "police intelligence" to the public.
All information is handled by NCDE in accordance with the MoPI regulations, therefore information would only be passed on if it met the criteria for a policing purpose; namely the prevention crime and disorder.
"the MoPI regulations" - ACPO Guidance Management of Police Information second edition (.pdf)
Does NCDE get companies' injunctions? No. Getting an injunction is the responsibility of the company or organisation and the High Court. The Protection from Harassment Act allows people or organisations to obtain injunctive relief where harassment has occurred or is anticipated to occur. As a police unit it is our role to remain impartial and as a result we do not have any direct involvement in obtaining injunctions, unless specially asked to provide evidence and information at the court hearing for the injunction application. Anything we say in court is placed on the court record and is available to the general public. We would only provide evidence or information upon a formal request by a lawyer acting as an Officer of the Court. Requests for such evidence/ information for police held information/evidence would be made under Section 35 (2) of the Date Protection Act 1997; by Court Procedure Rules 37 (7) or by subpoena. If a lawyer or a company ask us for evidence as part of an injunction application, before the injunction court hearing, we will provide them the details of a force or the names of police officers who may be able to help. The passing of this contact information is a central part of the tactical and coordination remit of our unit. NETCU also provides generic information to companies and organisations about injunctions and the process involved, in its capacity for preventing domestic extremism. http://www.netcu.org.uk/lawful_protest/injunctions.jsp
What is the relationship between former Police constables or civilian staff who have worked in these Domestic Extremism units and the private sector security companies who sell their expertise and experience to large multinational companies whose vested financial interests may be affected by political campaigns and protests?
What is the official relationship or connection between ACPO and NCDE? NDCE is a national police unit within ACPO, specifically within TAM (Terrorism and Allied Matters). The unit reports to the ACPO committee and is answerable to all chief police officers across the country.
That is not an acceptable system of accountability and transparency in a democratic society for secret Police units which exercise so much politically based intrusive surveillance snooping on innocent members of the public, no matter how good their "law and order" intentions are.
Why is NCDE not subject to Freedom of Information? The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies to public authorities in England and Wales. Under the FOIA, organisations listed in Schedule 1 of the Act - either by name or by a description - have to provide public access to information they hold. NCDE is not a public authority as defined by Schedule 1 of the FOIA, therefore there are currently no obligations on NCDE to disclose information under the Act.
ACPO and all of its sub-units should be made accountable under the Freedom of Information Act, exactly like each of the regional Police forces is already.
There a plenty of Exemptions under FOIA to prevent the release of anything which might damage ongoing criminal investigations.
However, in the spirit of the Act, NCDE will consider all requests for information and aim to make available as much information it properly can. Does NCDE/police involvement stifle lawful protest? No. Thousands of people take part in protests across the country each year, and NCDE, alongside the wider police service, fully supports people's rights to democratically express their views on issues they feel strongly about. Unfortunately, within some otherwise lawful campaigns, a few individuals resort to criminal activity to further their cause. These individuals sometimes try to hide their illegal activities by associating themselves with otherwise lawful campaigners. It is this minority which police forces, together with units like NCDE, are determined to stop and bring to justice. It is important to note, however, NCDE does not deal with most protests or public order issue - these are dealt with by the local police force.
They have been controversially present at, say the Kingsnorth coal fired power station or Heathrow airport expansion protest camps.
See NETCU legal arrest procedure booklet at the Climate CampPlease turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. There is no doubt using a sunbed or sunlamp will raise the risk of skin cancer, say international experts. Previously, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) assessed sunbeds and sunlamps as "probably carcinogenic to humans". But it now says their use is definitively "carcinogenic to humans". Campaigners believe the move, announced in the journal Lancet Oncology, will increase pressure for tighter industry regulation of sunbed use. The new assessment puts sunbed use on a par with smoking or exposure to asbestos. However, the Sunbed Association in the UK said there was no proven link between the responsible use of sunbeds and skin cancer. SKIN CANCER: THE FACTS
Find out more about skin cancer rates in the UK The IARC is an expert committee that makes recommendations to the World Health Organization. It made its decision following a review of research which concluded that the risk of melanoma - the most deadly form of skin cancer - was increased by 75% in people who started using sunbeds regularly before the age of 30. In addition, several studies have linked sunbed use to a raised risk of melanoma of the eye. The charity Cancer Research UK warned earlier this year that heavy use of sunbeds was largely responsible for the number of Britons being diagnosed with melanoma topping 10,000 a year for the first time. In the last 30 years, rates of the cancer have more than quadrupled, from 3.4 cases per 100,000 people in 1977 to 14.7 per 100,000 in 2006. Age limits Proposals to ban people under the age of 18 from using sunbeds are under consideration by the government in England. FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
More from Today programme A similar ban has already been approved in Scotland. The Sunbed Association (TSA) supports a ban on under-16s, but argues there is no scientific evidence for a ban on young people aged 17 or 18. Jessica Harris, Cancer Research UK's health information officer said: "The link between sunbeds and skin cancer has been convincingly shown in a number of scientific studies now and so we are very pleased that IARC have upgraded sunbeds to the highest risk category. "This backs up Cancer Research UK's advice to avoid sunbeds completely for cosmetic purposes. They have no health benefits and we know that they increase the risk of cancer." Ms Harris called for ministers to implement a ban on under-18s using sunbeds immediately, and to close salons that are not supervised by trained staff. Simon Davies, chief executive of the Teenage Cancer Trust said: "We are concerned that young people are using sunbeds more and more to get a tan and would urge them to avoid them at all costs." Kathy Banks, chief executive of the Sunbed Association, said: "The relationship between ultraviolet exposure and an increased risk of developing skin cancer is only likely to arise where over-exposure - burning - has taken place. "However, research has shown that over 80% of sunbed users are very knowledgeable about the risks associated with over-exposure to ultraviolet and the majority of sunbed users take 20 or less sunbed sessions a year." A Department of Health spokesperson said: "Sunbeds can be dangerous - we must ensure that people who use them do so safely. If necessary we will look at new laws to protect young people."
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionThe Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit is a counter-argument to modern versions of the argument from design for the existence of God. It was introduced by Richard Dawkins in chapter 4 of his 2006 book The God Delusion, "Why there almost certainly is no God".
The argument is a play on the notion of a "tornado sweeping through a junkyard to assemble a Boeing 747" employed to decry abiogenesis and evolution as vastly unlikely and better explained by the existence of a creator god. According to Dawkins, this logic is self-defeating as the theist must now account for the god's existence and explain whether or how the god was created. In his view, if the existence of highly complex life on Earth is the equivalent of the implausible junkyard Boeing 747, the existence of a highly complex god is the "ultimate Boeing 747" that truly does require the seemingly impossible to explain its existence.
Context and history [ edit ]
Richard Dawkins begins The God Delusion by making it clear that the God he talks about is the Abrahamic concept of a personal god who is susceptible to worship. He considers the existence of such an entity to be a scientific question, because a universe with such a god would be significantly different from a universe without one, and he says that the difference would be empirically discernible. Therefore, Dawkins concludes, the same kind of reasoning can be applied to the God hypothesis as to any other scientific question.
After discussing some of the most common arguments for the existence of God in chapter 3, Dawkins concludes that the argument from design is the most convincing. The extreme improbability of life and a universe capable of hosting it requires explanation, but Dawkins considers the God hypothesis inferior to evolution by natural selection as an explanation for the complexity of life. As part of his efforts to refute intelligent design, he redirects the argument from complexity in order to show that God must have been designed by a superintelligent designer, then presents his argument for the improbability of God's existence.[1]
Dawkins's name for the statistical demonstration that God almost certainly does not exist is the "Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit". This is an allusion to the junkyard tornado. Astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, who was a Darwinist, atheist, anti-theist and advocate of the panspermia theory of life,[n 1] is reported as having stated that the "probability of life originating on Earth is no greater than the chance that a hurricane, sweeping through a scrapyard, would have the luck to assemble a Boeing 747."[2] Arguments against empirically based theism date back at least as far as the eighteenth-century philosopher David Hume, whose objection can be paraphrased as the question "Who designed the designer?". According to philosopher Daniel Dennett, however – one of Dawkins's fellow "brights" – the innovation in Dawkins's argument is twofold: to show that where design fails to explain complexity, evolution by natural selection succeeds as the only workable solution; and to argue how this should illuminate the confusion surrounding the anthropic principle.[n 2][3]
Dawkins's statement [ edit ]
Dawkins summarizes his argument as follows;[4] the references to "crane" and "skyhook" are to notions from Daniel Dennett's book Darwin's Dangerous Idea.
One of the greatest challenges to the human intellect, over the centuries, has been to explain how the complex, improbable appearance of design in the universe arises. The natural temptation is to attribute the appearance of design to actual design itself. In the case of a man-made artefact such as a watch, the designer really was an intelligent engineer. It is tempting to apply the same logic to an eye or a wing, a spider or a person. The temptation is a false one, because the designer hypothesis immediately raises the larger problem of who designed the designer. The whole problem we started out with was the problem of explaining statistical improbability. It is obviously no solution to postulate something even more improbable. We need a "crane", not a "skyhook"; for only a crane can do the business of working up gradually and plausibly from simplicity to otherwise improbable complexity. The most ingenious and powerful crane so far discovered is Darwinian evolution by natural selection. Darwin and his successors have shown how living creatures, with their spectacular statistical improbability and appearance of design, have evolved by slow, gradual degrees from simple beginnings. We can now safely say that the illusion of design in living creatures is just that – an illusion. We don't yet have an equivalent crane for physics. Some kind of multiverse theory could in principle do for physics the same explanatory work as Darwinism does for biology. This kind of explanation is superficially less satisfying than the biological version of Darwinism, because it makes heavier demands on luck. But the anthropic principle entitles us to postulate far more luck than our limited human intuition is comfortable with. We should not give up hope of a better crane arising in physics, something as powerful as Darwinism is for biology. But even in the absence of a strongly satisfying crane to match the biological one, the relatively weak cranes we have at present are, when abetted by the anthropic principle, self-evidently better than the self-defeating skyhook hypothesis of an intelligent designer.
A central thesis of the argument is that compared to supernatural abiogenesis, evolution by natural selection requires the supposition of fewer hypothetical processes; according to Occam's razor, therefore, it is a better explanation. Dawkins cites a paragraph where Richard Swinburne agrees that a simpler explanation is better but reasons that theism is simpler because it only invokes a single substance (God) as a cause and maintainer of every other object. This cause is seen as omnipotent, omniscient and totally "free". Dawkins argues that an entity that monitors and controls every particle in the universe and listens to all thoughts and prayers cannot be simple. Its existence would require a "mammoth explanation" of its own. The theory of natural selection is much simpler – and thus preferable – than a theory of the existence of such a complex being.[5]
Dawkins then turns to a discussion of Keith Ward's views on divine simplicity to show the difficulty "the theological mind has in grasping where the complexity of life comes from." Dawkins writes that Ward is sceptical of Arthur Peacocke's ideas that evolution is directed by other forces than only natural selection and that these processes may have a propensity toward increasing complexity. Dawkins says that this scepticism is justified, because complexity does not come from biased mutations. Dawkins writes:
[Natural selection], as far as we know, is the only process ultimately capable of generating complexity out of simplicity. The theory of natural selection is genuinely simple. So is the origin from which it starts. That which it explains, on the other hand, is complex almost beyond telling: more complex than anything we can imagine, save a God capable of designing it.[6]
Assessment and criticism [ edit ]
Theist authors have presented extensive opposition, most notably by theologian Alister McGrath (in The Dawkins Delusion?) and philosophers Alvin Plantinga[7][8] and Richard Swinburne.[9] Another negative review, by biologist H. Allen Orr, sparked heated debate, prompting, for example, the mathematician Norman Levitt to ask why theologians are assumed to have the exclusive right to write about who "rules" the universe.[10] Daniel Dennett also took exception to Orr's review, leading to an exchange of open letters between himself and Orr.[11] The philosopher Sir Anthony Kenny also considers this argument to be flawed.[12] Cosmologist Stephen Barr[13] responded as follows: "Paley finds a watch and asks how such a thing could have come to be there by chance. Dawkins finds an immense automated factory that blindly constructs watches, and feels that he has completely answered Paley's point."[14]
Simplicity of God and materialist assumptions [ edit ]
Both Alvin Plantinga and Richard Swinburne raise the objection that God is not complex. Swinburne gives two reasons why a God that controls every particle can be simple: first, a person, as indicated by phenomena such as split-brains, is not the same as their highly complex brain but "is something simpler" that can "control" that brain; and second, simplicity is a quality that is intrinsic to a hypothesis, not related to its empirical consequences.[9]
Plantinga writes:
So first, according to classical theology, God is simple, not complex. More remarkable, perhaps, is that according to Dawkins's own definition of complexity, God is not complex. According to his definition (set out in The Blind Watchmaker), something is complex if it has parts that are "arranged in a way that is unlikely to have arisen by chance alone." But of course God is a spirit, not a material object at all, and hence has no parts. A fortiori (as philosophers like to say) God doesn't have parts arranged in ways unlikely to have arisen by chance. Therefore, given the definition of complexity Dawkins himself proposes, God is not complex."
He continues:
"But second, suppose we concede, at least for purposes of argument, that God is complex. Perhaps we think the more a being knows, the more complex it is; God, being omniscient, would then be highly complex. Given materialism and the idea that the ultimate objects in our universe are the elementary particles of physics, perhaps a being that knew a great deal would be improbable – how could those particles get arranged in such a way as to constitute a being with all that knowledge? Of course we aren't given materialism.[8]
In other words, Plantinga concludes that this argument, to be valid, would require materialism to be true; but, as materialism is not compatible with traditional theology,[clarification needed] the argument begs the question by requiring its premise to assume God's non-existence.[8]
In an extensive analysis published in Science and Christian Belief, Patrick Richmond suggests that "Dawkins is right to object to unexplained organised complexity in God" but that God is simply specified and lacks the sort of composition and limitations found in [physical] creatures; hence the theist can explain why nature exists without granting unexplained organised complexity or the extreme improbability of God.[15]
Some respondents, such as Stephen Law, have suggested that God is or would indeed be complex if responsible for creating and sustaining the universe;[16] God's omniscience would require the retention of and ability to use all knowledge. Concepts such as Kolmogorov complexity have also been used to argue that God is or would need to be complex.[17]
Necessity of external explanations [ edit ]
There are many variations on how to express this objection. William F. Vallicella holds that organized complexity as such does not
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read that the voice-recognition capabilities built into certain Samsung sets could capture and then forward to third parties the conversations held nearby. Inside the show, a clean-cut salesman stood beside a woman who gazed at him with an expression that bordered on idolatry. He showed us a line of shotgun ammunition designed to shred a human target with scores of tiny, multisided blades. Another shell contained a bunched-up wire precisely weighted at both ends such that it would uncoil and stretch out when fired, sawing its target into pieces. The man also sold “bug out” bags stocked with handsaws, fuel pellets, first-aid kits, and other equipment that might prove helpful should relations between the watchers and the watched catastrophically deteriorate. The key, the man said, would be surviving those first few days after the ATMs stopped working and the grocery stores were looted bare.
The couple didn’t push their goods on us, only their outlook. When they learned we were from Montana, they asked whether we’d seen the FEMA camps where, supposedly, thousands of foreign troops were stationed in anticipation of martial law. The salesman was concerned that these troops would “take our women,” and he recommended a podcast—The Common Sense Show, hosted by someone named Dave Hodges—that would prepare us for the coming siege. The man’s eyes slid sideways as he spoke, as though on alert for lurking secret agents. Later, I learned that his worry was not entirely unfounded. In January of this year, the ACLU unearthed an e‑mail describing a federal plan to scan the license plates of vehicles parked outside gun shows. The plan was never acted on, apparently, but reading about it caused me some chagrin; I’d thought the jumpy salesman had completely flipped his wig. The gun show was not about weaponry, primarily, but about autonomy—construed in this case as the right to stand one’s ground against an arrogant, intrusive new order whose instruments of suppression and control I’d seen for myself the night before. There seemed to be no rational response to the feelings of powerlessness stirred by the cybernetic panopticon; the choice was either to ignore it or go crazy, at least to some degree. With its coolly planar architecture, the data center projected a stern indifference to the qualms that its presence inevitably raised. It practically dared one to take up arms against it, a Goliath that roused the instinct to grab a slingshot. The assault rifles and grenade launchers (I handled one, I hope for the last time) for sale were props in a drama of imagined resistance in which individuals would rise up to defend themselves. The irony was that preparing for such a fight in the only way these people knew how—by plotting their countermoves and hoarding ammo—played into the very security concerns that the overlords use to justify their snooping. The would-be combatants in this epic conflict were more closely linked, perhaps, than they appreciated.
Phil Toledano
A voice on the PA system announced that the show would be closing in 15 minutes, causing vendors to slash their prices and customers to stuff their bags with camouflage jumpsuits, solar-powered radios, and every sort of doomsday camping gear. In the car, headed north on I‑15 toward home, I donned my new bulletproof shooting glasses while Dalton plugged his phone into the stereo and played an episode of The Common Sense Show. Its murky, subterranean acoustics suggested that it had been recorded in a fallout shelter. Dave Hodges’s guest, a certain Dr. Jim Garrow, purported to be a retired spook who’d spent the past few decades in “deep cover” and become privy to many “chilling” schemes, including one to convert pro-sports arenas into cavernous detention centers where noncompliant freedom lovers would be guillotined en masse. Guillotined? Why bring back those contraptions? Because their blades killed instantly and cleanly, yielding high-grade corpses whose body parts could be plundered and reused by ghoulish, power-mad elites intent on achieving immortality.
The men’s demeanor as they described this nightmare was unhurried and curiously blasé. Neurotics like me who were still learning to cope with being monitored were prone to pangs of disquiet and unease, but for The Common Sense Show types, a strange equanimity was possible. What were merely unsettling times for most of us were, for Hodges and his fans, a prelude to detainment and dismemberment, grimly fascinating to observe, potentially thrilling to oppose, but no cause for prescription sedatives. The podcast brought on a trance state ideal for long-haul driving. Memories of the monolithic data center faded and dispersed, supplanted by visions of organ-stealing supermen that would reappear in my mind’s eye when I read, many months later, of an ambitious Italian surgeon intent on perfecting “full body” transplants involving grafting human heads onto bodies other than their own. We crossed into southern Idaho at dusk and made a side trip to Lava Hot Springs, an isolated mountain town renowned for its therapeutic thermal pools. I wanted to wash the black helicopter off me. Consorting with the twitchy gun-show folks after skulking around the data center had weakened my psychological immune system. Paranoia is an infernal affliction, difficult to arrest once it takes hold, particularly at a time when every week brings fresh news of governmental and commercial schemes that light up one’s overactive fear receptors: AT&T and the NSA colluded in bugging the United Nations; the FBI is flying Cessnas outfitted with video cameras and cellphone scanners over U.S. cities; Google has the capacity, through its search algorithm, to swing the next presidential election. Once you know how very little you know about those who wish to know everything about you, daily experience starts to lose its innocence and little things begin to feel like the tentacles of big things.
Sitting waist-deep in a thermal pool, beneath the stars, I struck up a conversation with a teenager who’d dropped out of high school the year before and seemed depressed about his prospects. There was no job he knew how to do that a robot couldn’t do better, he told me, and he guessed that he had three years, at most, to earn all the money he would ever make. When I told him about my NSA excursion, he sighed and shook his head. Surveillance, he said, was pointless, a total waste. The powers that be should instead invite people to confess their secrets willingly. He envisioned vast centers equipped with mics and headphones where people could speak in detail and at length about their experiences, thoughts, and feelings, delivering in the form of monologues what the eavesdroppers could gather only piecemeal. Memories of the data center faded, supplanted by visions of organ-stealing supermen. Whether this notion was brilliant or naive, I couldn’t decide, but it felt revelatory. There in the pool, immersed in clouds of steam that fostered a sense of mystic intimacy, I wondered whether a generation that found the concept of privacy archaic might be undergoing a great mutation, surrendering the interior psychic realms whose sanctity can no longer be assured. Masking one’s insides behind one’s outsides—once the essential task of human social life—was becoming a strenuous, suspect undertaking; why not, like my teenage acquaintance, just quit the fight? Surveillance and data mining presuppose that there exists in us a hidden self that can be reached through probing and analyses that are best practiced on the unaware, but what if we wore our whole beings on our sleeves? Perhaps the rush toward self-disclosure precipitated by social media was a preemptive defense against intruders: What’s freely given can’t be stolen. Interiority on Planet X‑Ray is a burden that’s best shrugged off, not borne. My teenage friend was onto something. Become a bright, flat surface. Cast no shadow.Photo credit: Credit News10
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who worked the case alongside the Albany County Sheriff's Office in Pennsylvania; the two agencies have successfully been able to apprehend several vicious and dangerous pedophiles who have been preying upon young children.
The Albany County Sheriff, Craig Apple, said that the four pedophiles were arrested in Colonie as part of a sex trafficking investigation involving his agency, State Police, the Colonie Police Department, and of course the FBI.
Undercover investigators, working on a case that's focus is the infiltration of online child sex trafficking rings; pretended to be underage girls and the men agreed to meet them for sex, Apple said.
After arranging what the pedophiles thought was a successful transaction into purchasing the children for their demented pedophilia fetishes, they then set up a predetermined meeting location for the pedophiles to appear to pick up the children they were under the impression they had purchased.
However, upon each of their arrivals, the pedophiles were met with guns drawn before being handcuffed by undercover law enforcement who were shocked that these pedophiles actually assumed they had used currency to purchase living, breathing children, for rape.
The fact that the pedophiles handled the situation as if they're done thus prior only further underscores that there is a black market of child sex trafficking which occurs away from the public eye, right here in America.
The four pedophiles who were captured in this sting include the following:
57-year-old Pennsylvania resident Edward Neville, who is now charged with multiple felonies including attempted promotion of an obscene sexual performance by a child, attempted rape and attempted criminal sex act.
68-year-old Mark Schmidt, of Altamont, Pennsylvania, who is now charged with the attempted criminal sex act, and attempted rape.
<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/413ca7b0eefde2e33909da8ef6db2507fa9431eade4fe9f9a963e9e52527a8be.png" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">
20-year-old Daniel Mayer, of Baldwin, Pennsylvania, who is now charged with attempted rape.
32-year-old Russell Blair, of West Sand Lake, Pennsylvania, who is now charged with attempted rape, and patronizing a child for prostitution.
<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/a6ea975792d2829e7317169bee587aa9ab8a2b2b044dd23abdc40f0d98a0a39b.png" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">
All four of the dangerous pedophiles were arraigned in Colonie Town Court on Sunday, December 3rd, and are currently in custody at the Albany County Jail where they're being held without bond.
The Justice Department of the United States of America could bring forth additional charges against the pedophiles, with a hope that negotiations can be made to help shed might in much of the underground realm of child src trafficking in the region.
While it's important to announce these arrests these are simply smaller pedophiles connected to much larger child sex trafficking case, that effectively is still an ongoing investigation, according to<a href="http://wnyt.com/news/four-facing-attempted-rape-charges-albany-county-schmidt-neville-meyer-blair/4692431"> WNYT</a>.
—<i>[email protected]</i>
<i>On Twitter:</i>
<a href="https://www.twitter.com/IWillRedPillYou">@IWillRedPillYou</a>
Tips? Info? Send me a message!Elaine Patricia Cruz
Da Agência Brasil
Deputado federal e ex-prefeito de São Paulo, Paulo Maluf terá de pagar indenização de R$ 128,6 milhões à prefeitura por ter usado um símbolo de sua campanha eleitoral como marca oficial da cidade durante seu mandato na prefeitura (1993-1996). A decisão é do juiz Fausto José Martins Seabra, da 3ª Vara de Fazenda Pública.
Maluf foi condenado por improbidade administrativa neste caso em 2006, após uma ação popular. A Justiça considerou que ele fez promoção pessoal com recursos públicos, ao adotar como símbolo da administração municipal o desenho de um trevo de quatro folhas formado por quatro corações.
Foi o mesmo símbolo que ele utilizou em sua campanha eleitoral em 1992, quando elegeu-se prefeito. Todos os recursos de Maluf foram negados e a discussão agora era somente sobre os critérios de cálculo da indenização. A assessoria de Maluf disse que seus advogados vão recorrer da decisão a instâncias superiores.
Por meio de nota, a prefeitura de São Paulo disse que vai adotar “as medidas necessárias para identificar bens do ex-prefeito que possam ser bloqueados para garantir o pagamento da indenização”.There are growing indications that federal investigators at the Securities and Exchange Commission will opt to publicly scold the failed firm Lehman Brothers instead of filing fraud charges against former executives. The 2008 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, readers may remember, was the largest in U.S. history and sent shock waves through the global financial system spiraling into crisis.
In March, the Wall Street Journal had reported that charges were becoming less likely. Bloomberg came out with a more detailed story Friday that noted the possibility of a public rebuke instead. Securities law professor James Cox of Duke University told Bloomberg that the public rebuke “is about the least harmful sanction anybody could get.” Here's more from Bloomberg:
Instead, the enforcement staff may recommend that the agency take the rare step of publishing a so-called report of investigation, also known as a 21(a) report. The commission would have to vote on whether to issue a report and it’s still possible that the SEC may decide to bring legal claims in court, the people said. The 21(a) reports, which lay out allegations of misconduct without imposing penalties, have only been issued six times in the past decade, according to the SEC’s website.
The apparent lack of charges comes despite an extensive post-mortem on Lehman Brothers last year that turned up a number of balance sheet manipulations that the firm used to hide risk. According to the report, Lehman used an accounting gimmick known as “Repo 105” to create “a materially misleading picture of the firm’s financial condition” even while company’s executives continually assured investors that its balance sheet was in good shape. (Here's more on how Repo 105 worked.)
The company’s former CEO, Dick Fuld, has denied knowing about the transactions and has in the past criticized the government for allowing Lehman to fail while saving other big banks.
A Lehman Brothers spokeswoman declined to comment to Bloomberg about the possibility of a public rebuke. We contacted what's left of Lehman to request comment but did not receive a response.
If indeed the SEC decides to publish the findings of its investigation without taking further action against executives, it would hardly be the first time that the agency has declined to bring charges. As we noted in our bank investigations cheat sheet, a number of probes by banking regulators have petered out over the last few years and no criminal charges have been brought against former execs at the nation’s biggest banks.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs—which has settled one civil suit and could face more as it continues to receive subpoenas—may be going on the offensive in an attempt to head off potential charges. The Journal reports today that the investment bank plans to publicly counter a stinging Senate subcommittee report that was referred to the Justice Department. The bank has said the report's conclusions were wrong.If you're looking to hide out from the rest of the world, the grayish white residential block in this southern German city would be a good place to be. Six families live here, most of them with children, and the building blends inconspicuously into the dull suburban skyline. A green toy tractor is parked out front, the bicycles have baby trailers, one of them complete with an American flag fluttering in the breeze. On a mailbox hanging outside the building's entrance, the name Rafed has been scrawled in pale green handwriting -- difficult to read, but decipherable from up close.
There are many the world over who would love a chance to chat with the man whose mail lands in this post box. The US Congress is desperately interested in him, and the White House once even expressed an interest in trotting him out on primetime television. A book has been written about him and Hollywood is currently working on a motion picture documenting his life.
The man's codename is "Curveball." And in an earlier life, he played a crucial role in the geo-politics at the beginning of this decade: He was the man who provided vital "evidence" that ultimately contributed to the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies. But that role has since turned into his greatest problem: Everything he claimed to know about Iraq's weapons program, all the proof he presented, was fabricated. His lifeline, though, has yet to be cut: Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), remains loyal to their source. They keep him under cover and protect him from uncomfortable questions -- here in southern Germany.
Blown Cover
At first, there are no signs of life from "Curveball's" ground-floor dwelling in the drab apartment building. The doorbell has a bad contact, the neighbors said; you have to hold the button down for a long time. Childrens shoes and mens sandals are arrayed in front of the door; a German forest landscape hangs on the wall. And then, after a long wait, the door swings open. A stocky man with a full shock of black hair and a stubbly beard stands in the doorway. He is wearing an orange T-shirt and pajama bottoms. Still groggy from sleep, he blinks out at his unexpected visitor. Rafed? -- Yeah, thats me," he says. It is the moment when Rafed knows his cover has been blown.
In baseball, a curveball is pure deception. It spins quickly, and changes direction, making it very difficult for the batter to make contact. A curveball lures the batter to swing at a ball that is no longer there.
Rafed's deceptions unleashed their full power on Feb. 5, 2003 at the United Nations building in New York City. It was the day that US Secretary of State Colin Powell went before the UN Security Council in an effort to convince the world that an invasion of Iraq was an absolute necessity.
It was 10:30 a.m. local time, when Powell launched into his lecture, and it immediately became clear that he was playing to an audience larger than the UN representatives gathered before him. He was speaking to the world. Every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources," he said. "These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. As Powell moved through his 76-minute-long presentation, a horror scenario unfolded. Baghdad, he said, was still in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, including atomic, chemical and biological devices. That pursuit, Powell made clear, was in violation of UN sanctions.
The climax of the lecture came when he told his audience about the mobile biological weapons laboratories -- mini factories mounted on the back of trucks churning out some of the most dangerous diseases known to mankind. That was the "most dramatic" part of the presentation Powell says today.
But there was drama right from the beginning. Early on, the Secretary of State held up a small vial containing white powder -- meant to represent anthrax spores. Saddam Hussein, he said, could have produced 25,000 liters of the stuff. Saddam Hussein spins a web of lies" Powell said and spoke of one last chance which Iraq had chosen not to take advantage of. The country harbors a "deadly network of terrorism," he said, and as a result, the world "must not shrink from whatever is ahead."
The response to the speech, broadcast as it was to the entire world, was overwhelming. On the following day, the US Secretary of State could be seen with the anthrax vial on the front page of newspapers from Sydney to Sao Paolo, from Paris to Beijing. We love him, rejoiced the Jerusalem Post, hardly a Powell-friendly paper until then. Everyone was suddenly talking about biological weapons -- about the trailers of death and hell on wheels.
Above all, however, Powell was able to convince many of his fellow Americans who had harbored doubts about the need to go to war in the Middle East. Following Powell's appearance, surveys revealed that half of all US citizens supported a war on Iraq. And the Secretary of State himself was delighted with his performance. He had small plaques made for everyone who had helped prepare the speech. But those he convinced that winter day in 2003 would come to regret it. As the world came to discover, nothing of what he said was truthful. There were no Iraqi weapons of mass destruction at the time Powell made his presentation. There were no mobile biological weapons laboratories. And there were no connections between Iraq and the terrorist organization al-Qaida.
An 'Invaluable Asset'
The reactions around the UN Security Council table on that day just over five years ago were primarily characterized by diplomatic reserve -- including that of the man who chaired the fateful session: Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister at the time. The German delegation had set up a secure line from New York directly to the BND intelligence offices in Berlin, where the agents followed Powell's speech on a big screen.
Like Powell, who made certain that then-CIA Director George Tenet was visible behind him on the world's TV screens, Fischer had also brought along an important intelligence official. But Hans Dieter H., the BND's proliferation expert, was not seated near the foreign minister. Rather, he was positioned diagonally behind Tenet and Powell. The seating was little more than chance; the UN had to set up several additional rows of chairs to accommodate the large audience. The result, though, was that Germany's intelligence representative was seated together with those who supported the war.
As is now clear, the seating was auspicious. The German secret service actually had more to do with providing justification for the US invasion of Iraq than it would now like to admit. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder -- like his colleagues in Paris and Moscow -- was a vehement opponent of the war. But of all people, his own agents provided Washington with the key bit of evidence which helped fuel the war hysteria: the story about the mobile biological weapons laboratories. It was information that helped justify a war that has cost more than 500,000 lives and plunged the Middle East into chaos. And this information came from just one man: Curveball.
He was, as Tenet said then, an "invaluable asset." Today, it is clear that "Curveball" is an imposter, a fabulist, a man who, in the US, is referred to as the "con man who caused the war." "Curveball," writes spy-thriller author Frederick Forsyth, is responsible for the "biggest fiasco in the history of secret intelligence."
Germany's BND is the agency responsible for this man. And the most important question surrounding "Curveball" still hasn't been answered to this day. Why does German intelligence remain loyal to its source?Summary: Researchers have identified a network of 320 genes they believe to be associated with epilepsy.
Source: Imperial College London.
Scientists have discovered a gene network in the brain associated with epilepsy.
The team, led by scientists at Imperial College London, believe the discovery may lead to more treatments for the condition.
The study, published in the journal Genome Biology, has revealed an ‘epileptic network’ of 320 genes, called M30, that is associated with the condition. The genes in the network are thought to be involved in how brain cells communicate with each other.
The results suggest that when this network malfunctions, it triggers epilepsy. Finding medications that restore this network to normal could provide desperately needed new treatments, explained Professor Michael Johnson, senior author of the research from the Department of Medicine at Imperial.
“Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological diseases worldwide. Yet despite almost 30 different drugs licensed for the condition, a third of people with epilepsy continue to suffer from uncontrolled epileptic seizures – despite taking medication.
“In fact, very little progress in finding more effective drugs for epilepsy has been made in the past 100 years.”
He added that many drug companies have stopped their research into finding new medicines for epilepsy.
“But the discovery of this network of genes linked to epilepsy opens avenues for finding new treatments. This uses an approach that is entirely different to the past 100 years of anti-epilepsy drug development.”
Interestingly, the network seems to malfunction in epilepsy caused by genetic causes, as well as epilepsy triggered by brain injury such as following stroke or infection.
Epilepsy affects around half a million people in the UK, and over 50 million worldwide. The condition triggers seizures, which can cause a range of symptoms – from an odd sensation or a trance-like state, to severe convulsions and loss of consciousness. Seizures are thought to be caused by brain cells sending faulty signals to each other.
In most people with epilepsy, the disease is thought to be caused by their genes. However, one third of cases are triggered by damage to the brain from causes such as head injury, stroke, tumours or infection.
In the new research, which was conducted in collaboration with Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, scientists used computational techniques to scan thousands of genes and mutations associated with epilepsy. They also looked at data from healthy human brains, to identify networks of genes that seem to work together, and were associated with the disease.
The scientists also used data from mice to confirm that malfunctions in this network triggered seizures.
The team then computationally analysed 1,300 known drugs to predict which ones could help restore the gene network to normal.
One of the drugs found was a known epilepsy treatment, called valproic acid.
New treatments
The team’s analyses also pointed to many other drugs not previously considered as conventional anti-epilepsy medications.
One of these was withaferin A, a compound derived from a plant known as Indian ginseng that has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries to treat a range of diseases, including epilepsy.
Professor Johnson explained that finding other compounds that restore the activity of the network could lead to potential new treatments.
He added that the method used in this study, called ‘network biology’ – where computer systems are used to identify gene networks that work together to underpin disease – may also help find treatments for other conditions.
“Until recently we have been looking for individual genes associated with diseases, which drug companies then target with treatments. However, we are increasingly aware that genes don’t work in isolation. Identifying groups of genes that work together, and then targeting these networks of genes, may lead to more effective treatments. Our proof of concept study suggests this network biology approach could help us identify new medications for epilepsy, and the methods can also be applied to other diseases.”
About this neuroscience research article
Funding: The research was funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme, and the National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre.
Source: Kate Wighton – Imperial College London
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is adapted from the Imperial College London press release.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Rare and common epilepsies converge on a shared gene regulatory network providing opportunities for novel antiepileptic drug discovery” by Andree Delahaye-Duriez, Prashant Srivastava, Kirill Shkura, Sarah R. Langley, Liisi Laaniste, Aida Moreno-Moral, Bénédicte Danis, Manuela Mazzuferi, Patrik Foerch, Elena V. Gazina, Kay Richards, Steven Petrou, Rafal M. Kaminski, Enrico Petretto and Michael R. Johnson in Genome Biology. Published online December 13 2016 doi:10.1186/s13059-016-1097-7
Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article
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Chicago Imperial College London “Researchers Identify New Epilepsy Gene Network.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 13 December 2016.
<http://neurosciencenews.com/epilepsy-gene-network-5741/>. Imperial College London (2016, December 13). Researchers Identify New Epilepsy Gene Network. NeuroscienceNew. Retrieved December 13, 2016 from http://neurosciencenews.com/epilepsy-gene-network-5741/ Imperial College London “Researchers Identify New Epilepsy Gene Network.” http://neurosciencenews.com/epilepsy-gene-network-5741/ (accessed December 13, 2016).
Abstract
Rare and common epilepsies converge on a shared gene regulatory network providing opportunities for novel antiepileptic drug discovery
Background
The relationship between monogenic and polygenic forms of epilepsy is poorly understood and the extent to which the genetic and acquired epilepsies share common pathways is unclear. Here, we use an integrated systems-level analysis of brain gene expression data to identify molecular networks disrupted in epilepsy.
Results
We identified a co-expression network of 320 genes (M30), which is significantly enriched for non-synonymous de novo mutations ascertained from patients with monogenic epilepsy and for common variants associated with polygenic epilepsy. The genes in the M30 network are expressed widely in the human brain under tight developmental control and encode physically interacting proteins involved in synaptic processes. The most highly connected proteins within the M30 network were preferentially disrupted by deleterious de novo mutations for monogenic epilepsy, in line with the centrality-lethality hypothesis. Analysis of M30 expression revealed consistent downregulation in the epileptic brain in heterogeneous forms of epilepsy including human temporal lobe epilepsy, a mouse model of acquired temporal lobe epilepsy, and a mouse model of monogenic Dravet (SCN1A) disease. These results suggest functional disruption of M30 via gene mutation or altered expression as a convergent mechanism regulating susceptibility to epilepsy broadly. Using the large collection of drug-induced gene expression data from Connectivity Map, several drugs were predicted to preferentially restore the downregulation of M30 in epilepsy toward health, most notably valproic acid, whose effect on M30 expression was replicated in neurons.
Conclusions
Taken together, our results suggest targeting the expression of M30 as a potential new therapeutic strategy in epilepsy.
“Rare and common epilepsies converge on a shared gene regulatory network providing opportunities for novel antiepileptic drug discovery” by Andree Delahaye-Duriez, Prashant Srivastava, Kirill Shkura, Sarah R. Langley, Liisi Laaniste, Aida Moreno-Moral, Bénédicte Danis, Manuela Mazzuferi, Patrik Foerch, Elena V. Gazina, Kay Richards, Steven Petrou, Rafal M. Kaminski, Enrico Petretto and Michael R. Johnson in Genome Biology. Published online December 13 2016 doi:10.1186/s13059-016-1097-7
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Hello Ladies Hello Ladies Hello Ladies B Hello Ladies Hello Ladies B B Hello Ladies Season 1
Since 2007, TV Club has dissected television episode by episode. Beginning this September, The A.V. Club will also step back to take a wider view in our new TV Reviews section. With pre-air reviews of new shows, returning favorites, and noteworthy finales, TV Reviews doesn’t replace TV Club—as usual, some shows will get the weekly treatment—but it adds a look at a bigger picture.
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Pop-culture representations of Hollywood come in two standard settings: dream factory or aspirational graveyard. That the first two episodes of Hello Ladies find the middle ground between those two modes seems like reason enough to recommend the show. In his first headlining effort without longtime collaborator Ricky Gervais, The Office and Extras co-creator Stephen Merchant depicts a Hollywood life that’s neither lavish nor desperate. The web-designing British expat Merchant plays in the show lives in quiet comfort—with the exception of the romantic gloom perpetually hanging over his head.
If a TV comedy can be said to have an atmosphere, then that comedy is probably airing on HBO, whose half-hour offerings in recent years have placed as a high a priority on mood as they have on laughs. To Kenny Powers’ airbrushed portrait of the American Dream and Hannah Horvath’s thrift-shop Greenpoint, the network adds Merchant’s blue Los Angeles, an outsider’s perspective warped by smog, nearsightedness, and the wounded romanticism of an AM Gold slow jam. The choice to score the show with instrumentals sound-alikes to its theme song, Daryl Hall and John Oates’ “Alone Too Long,” is an inspired one. Hello Ladies’ opening passages often feel as though they’re taking place between the grooves of a divorce-rock LP, its characters’ woes previously expressed in music made in L.A. by emigrants from points east: pre-Voices Hall & Oates or Piano Man-era Billy Joel. To paraphrase Joel, Merchant and his co-stars are telling a joke they called loneliness—but it’s better than joking alone.
There’s an intrigue to a comedy about loneliness—and Merchant’s Stuart Pritchard has certainly earned his extended bachelorhood. In a characterization that won’t be entirely unfamiliar to fans of his work with Gervais (or viewers who recognize the names of executive producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky from the credits for the American Office), Merchant moves through Hello Ladies with great pomposity, his poor social graces merely an indication that his character thinks the world owes him a mate that could star in a luxury-hotel billboard. Hello Ladies hinges on pointing out how wrong he is for wanting this; the pushiest aspects of these opening episodes involve exposing the void behind L.A.’s swimming-pools-and-movie-stars façade. Not exactly an earth-shattering revelation, but it is the right ground on which to construct slapstick-heavy, Rube Goldberg contraptions of comedic comeuppance into which Merchant can fall. And when the dust of his mounting embarrassment clears, the friends still standing by his side are the ones he’s most eager to ditch in order to hang out with the pretty people: Christine Woods, playing a struggling actress who rents an apartment from Merchant, and Nate Torrence, Merchant’s best buddy who’s recently separated from his wife. All three live in their own spheres of isolation, but only two of them are being set into a collision course of Sam-and-Diane magnitude.
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Not that a Merchant-Woods pairing would spell the end of Hello Ladies—on the contrary, it would provide an increased sense of purpose to a series that’s so far composed of sad-bastard tableaus and setpieces of profound awkwardness. Still, there’s a suggestion within these first two episodes that there’s something at play beneath the surface here, that Merchant’s ladies’-man posturing is covering up for some deeper hurt, a personal revenge narrative pointing toward some injury that caused him to pull up roots and take leave for Los Angeles. He’s the avenging dork looking for the woman who’ll fix him, a search that thus far turns up microwave dinners and an empty limousine.
In some ways, Hello Ladies plays like the anti-Entourage. Set in the same area code, if not necessarily the same zip code, that show treated Los Angeles like El Dorado with a private airfield, a sanctuary where there was no problem Vinnie Chase encountered that couldn’t be solved by somebody else. At this point, at least, Merchant, Woods, and Torrence don’t have anybody else but each other—and their problems are of the kind that can’t be solved in a single phone call from Ari Gold. The show is vehemently non-escapist, presenting a vision of a city and a home life more recognizable to the average citizen of an American metropolis.
What will matter to later episodes is whether Hello Ladies ever perfects anything beyond that feeling. There’s at least one joke in the premiere episode that’s as mortifyingly hilarious as any Merchant has ever orchestrated, but the early goings of Hello Ladies are more amusing than they are funny. Getting more details on the characters should help that along; so far, it’s mostly Merchant, Woods, and Torrence’s performances that are drawing the light chuckles. Stuart himself is mostly just Merchant’s default comic persona; his self-perception, meanwhile, is summed up in the opening line of the show’s theme song: “Just a little boy lost looking for a lamb in the all-night city.” That’s a cool lyric and all, but it’s not a character. At least not yet.
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Hello Ladies
Created by: Stephen Merchant
Starring: Stephen Merchant, Christine Woods, Nate Torrence, Kevin Weisman
Debuting: Sunday at 10:30 p.m. Eastern on HBO
Format: Half-hour single-camera sitcom
Two episodes watched for review
Reviews of Hello Ladies by Molly Eichel will appear weekly.The much-criticized cloak of secrecy that has surrounded the Obama administration's negotiation of the multilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was broken Wednesday. The leaked draft of ACTA belies the U.S. trade representative's assertions that the agreement would not alter U.S. intellectual property law. And it raises the stakes on the constitutionally dubious method by which the administration proposes to make the agreement binding on the United States.
The goal of the trade pact is to tighten enforcement of global intellectual property rules. The leaked draft, though incomplete in many respects, makes clear that negotiators are considering ideas and principles not reflected in U.S. law.
ACTA could, for example, pressure Internet service providers -- such as Comcast and Verizon -- to kick users offline when they (or their children) have been accused of repeated copyright infringement because of content uploaded to sites such as YouTube. It also might oblige the United States to impose criminal liability on those who "incite" copyright violation. The draft more generally addresses "IP infringement" and thus could extend some of its rules to trademark and possibly patent law in ways that, after inevitable international compromises, will depart from U.S. law. It also contemplates creating an international "oversight council" to supervise (and possibly amend) aspects of the agreement.
These proposals might or might not make sense. But they ought at least be subject to public deliberation. Normal constitutional procedures would require the administration to submit the final text of the agreement for Senate approval as a treaty or to Congress as a "congressional-exec
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on June 30th/July 1st, can be found here.
Source: National World War I Museum and Memorial
Images: Centenary News
Posted by: CN Editorial TeamNES Collecting can be fun, but it also can be very expensive.
Let’s get that straight right off the bat about NES Collecting. It’s not that cheap anymore, after 2010 there has been a Retro game outburst in collecting.
Given the right knowledge about collecting for the NES, you can probably save a few bucks here and there!
I’ve collected for the NES before as well as many other systems, but recently I’ve gotten back into it.
I sold my last batch of NES stuff whenever I needed some quick cash a few years ago.
With that said let’s get down to business, down to NES collecting.
Where to start with NES Collecting?
My suggestion is you need a console to play the games on some people like to collect for “investment” that’s not always a good idea, prices fluctuate all the time.
Although games haven’t really dropped in prices in a long time it’s still not ideal to collect to invest there isn’t a huge market for retro collectors it’s very small.
So What options do you have?
You have a wide variety of options, it’s really all about what you want to experience. If you want the authentic experience in 2017, you really need to stick with the old-fashioned toaster model which is the most familiar.
Problems with the original NES.
The NES toaster in 2017 still has all the problems it had in the 80s, and the 90s. However, you can almost fix 90% of your problems by fixing one thing. All you are going to need is a Phillips head screwdriver and a new 72-pin connector.
Amazon 72-Ping Connector – (https://amzn.to/2BvfQwc)
This won’t fix all of the problems you might have (it’s fixed every one of the ones I’ve come across.) but it will fix the majority. The blinking light and loose carts are the biggest and this fixes them.
After Market 72-Pin Connectors.
Replacing things is a pain, it doesn’t always work, or as in the case of many of the 72-pin connectors, they don’t work exactly as the original did.
The majority of the replacements give somewhat of a death grip on the NES carts. I will say it is manageable, just a tad bit annoying that it takes a bit of a pull to get your cart out.
So stick with the cheap 72-connectors unless you want to spend $30+ for a better fix which is also a great solution you could go with arcade works BLW (Blinking Light Win.)
Sadly, NES Collecting and repairing almost going hand in hand unless you want to pay someone to fix it.
Different Model’s of the Nintendo Entertainment System
Want the rarest of the rare for your collection? Well, you are in luck! Turns out many people have discovered that Nintendo original NES change top molds during later production.
I sadly have a rough top NES. This means that the sides are all smooth but the top is rough. Although they appear similar, the smooth top does shine up nicer and well is rarer.
That’s the real only difference between that model so look out for smooth tops!
There is another model known as the Top Loader.
The Top Loader.
These guys seem to be pretty rare. I’ve seen a real one once in my entire life if that says anything.
No need to change a connector all the carts will almost work flawlessly. The problem with the top loader for me is I don’t have any nostalgia for it what so ever. Also without a MOD, you don’t get any A/V outs, this is no easy mod either not for beginners anyway.
The “Dog Bone” NES Controller is a great controller too. Stay on the lookout for these on your NES Collecting adventures.
Yes, you can still play games on your HDTV.
People get confused and think that it’s not possible. It’s very playable on my 1080P HDTV.
I’m even using the RF adapter in the back on good ole channel 3. HDTVs usually have converters in them allowing this to work now so no special equipment.
The quality isn’t great but what do you expect when you are blowing up a very small image from 240p to 1080p?
The problem with HDTVs.
You don’t get to play your cool Nintendo Zapper gun games such as duck hunt. Luckily I have in my garage a nice CRT TV where many of my retro consoles are already working.
There is also an issue with some input lag. So the best way to really play retro games and have everything working is to stick to CRT TVs.
Also, please don’t buy one from eBay that is listed as a retro Gaming CRT. Some of them truly are great for retro consoles, but most of them just want your money. You can easily find a CRT TV in goodwill or craigslist or something. Most people give them away. I would pick up one soon as who knows how much longer they will last.
Best quality on an HDTV.
There are options for you if you just want to play on an HDTV, but they are pretty expensive and no matter what you do the zapper gun will not work.
You can buy a device called an upscaler which will allow you to input A/V and convert it to HDMI. Cheap upscalers are pretty awful, and the input lag will probably drive you insane whenever you are trying to make difficult jumps on Mario or finish Mike Tyson. The best cheap one is called KanexPro. I really wouldn’t trust i.
The best of the best upscalers is called the framemesiter it is not on the cheap end of things.
You don’t want to deal with upscaling or HDMI mods.
You still have a few options.
There is the Retron 5
The latest from Hyperkin the Retron 5 which lets you play 5 different systems on your HDMI tv, but all it really is is a glorified emulation machine.
Retron 5 Console – Amazon Link | (https://amzn.to/2DB0fvr)
Personally, it’s one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen but it’s got a cool concept and it’s fairly cheaper than the rest of the solutions to play a bunch of systems and only require 1 hook up to the tv. So if you want the all-in-one system might want to pick this up.
RetroUSB AVS
This is personally my favorite option if you want to hook up to an HDMI tv. This looks legit like a newer version of the NES. It has the flap to stick your NES game in. It’s not super expensive if you are planning on wanting the best quality on a newer tv and you just want to play NES games. It sits around $170 if you preorder. It’s real hardware, and there is no emulation which is awesome to me.
Pick up the RetroUSb AVS Here – (http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?products_id=78)
The Analogue Nt
It has the top loader look, it uses real Famicom FPGA boards, this has all the bells and whistles. It also is extremely expensive. It’s so expensive in fact they made it more expensive if you have the money to lay down on a gold version for $4,999. If you wanted to get into Famicom (Japenese NES) this plays it also. I don’t really recommend this, I’d rather spend my money on games. I like the look of the AVS way better too. If you want a wireless NES Controller you have a weird option. You can buy an 8 Bitdo Wireless controller but you will also have to buy the wireless NES adapter.
8 Bitdo Wireless Controller – Amazon Link | (https://amzn.to/2thleyq)
NES 8 Bitdo Adapter – Amazon Link | (https://amzn.to/2DydQDv)
I believe they are made for the NES Classic or Mini but it should still work with the adapter.
NES Game Collectors
This is where your true NES Collecting adventure beings. But first you will need weapons and by weapons, I mean Nintendo Security Bits.
Picking up these will allow you to take cartridges apart, not only allowing you to clean them great, but to check to make to make sure something fishy isn’t going on. Lots of repros out in the world, and tons of horrible fakes. So grab your trusty Nintendo Bit and set off for an adventure.
eBay
This is always a safe place to find the game you really want. Most prices are fair but it will be at the eBay price. Speaking of eBay prices you can always check out pricecharting.com to see what the prices are going for which I highly recommend. You might get lucky and find a nice deal on eBay. If you do you can almost guarantee it won’t be around long. Expect to pay close to the top dollar on eBay for a really rare game.
Gamestop and Other Chain Stores.
Stay far away. Chain stores are possibly the worst place to catch a deal. I’ve heard of horror stories of what Gamestop does. Accepting repro carts and sending people games without testing them. Most of the other chain retro stores aren’t going to do that to you as they are trained to look for and test games but the prices will be top dollar. Gamestop has yet to have a deal yet on a retro game and if it is, its probably fake. If you want used new games sure go ahead. Retro games stay far far away.
The Best Deals
You are going to find the best deal from looking around at Flea Markets, Yard/Garage Sales, Friends, and co-workers. Also NON-Chain mom and pop gaming stores I picked up Mario/Duck hunt cart for $3 the other day and it really doesn’t get much cheaper.
Some of these people will go clean out a closet they haven’t set foot into for years and just want to get rid of junk.
Another good source is Facebook Sell Groups you might get lucky and catch a view deals there, and always keep craigslist up as people like to drop some nice prices on there as well. A good tip is to always carry some cash around as you never know who might have a sign up while you are traveling around. If you don’t like going to flea markets and yard sales etc.. then this really isn’t the hobby you want to pursue.
Storage
After you have a fairly decent collection and your NES collecting adventures you are going to want to show them off right? RIGHT?
Time to invest in some decent shelves! Wal-mart actually has pretty decent shelves for fairly cheap a lot of people like the IKEA brand billies, which are probably better shelves. But, I’m put NES games on it and you are going to need ALOT of space. There is a total of 714 known licensed game titles of which 679 were released in North America. Also, Goodwill and Peddler’s Mall usually have some decently used shelves for you to pick up.
Collecting NES Games
It’s according to how you want to do your NES collecting. You can go for a full collection, games you actually like, complete in box collections, and even New never opened.
For now, what I’m doing I’m searching for only Loose games that I really like and would play. I eventually want to try to collect as close as I can to a full loose collection. Complete in the box is even a bigger niche which is going to be harder and going to cost a heck of a lot more than finding a loose cart.
Maybe you want to go out and just get the best games. I’m a huge follower of Pat Contri and he released an awesome book called the Ultimate Guide to the NES Library. He rates and talks about each game pretty impressive.
Pat also has a podcast which also focuses on retro gaming and gaming news called the CUPodcast.
Ultimate Guide to the NES BOOK – Amazon Link | (https://amzn.to/2N38CUL)
Conclusion
Now that you have all the knowledge and knowledge is power, you are ready to conquer the world of NES Collecting.
I really hope that this helped someone out there on the internet please leave a comment below and follow me on twitter
Twitter – https://twitter.com/realkynerd
*Updated* 2019Mr Shiner is to close his law firm, Public Interest Lawyers
He presents himself as the victim of a great Establishment plot: the plucky outsider and ‘committed socialist’ from humble beginnings pummelled by Tory toffs and military top brass for having the audacity to shine his virtuous light on the murkier workings of the British state.
So, as Phil Shiner now shuts the door on his discredited Birmingham legal practice, he will, no doubt, repeat his claims of a ‘personal vendetta’ against him by the Government and its agents.
But for many serving and retired members of the Armed Forces, the news that Mr Shiner and his law firm, Public Interest Lawyers, are shutting up shop is a cause for celebration.
Having spent years and many millions of pounds (courtesy of the taxpayer) pursuing British troops for thousands of alleged crimes in Iraq and elsewhere on the flimsiest of evidence, the one-time darling of the human rights industry has found that the tables have turned.
And he has clearly found the whole experience so disagreeable that he has decided to quit, ahead of a series of inquiries into the conduct of his firm.
It is a story of arrogance and hubris, one that raises several awkward questions for a legal establishment which, until recently, was only too keen to lionise this so-called champion of the oppressed.
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Mr Shiner’s detractors call him an ‘ambulance-chaser’, a term of abuse in judicial circles (file photo)
But if Mr Shiner hopes that locking the office door will make the beastly Establishment take its vendetta elsewhere, he is likely to be disappointed.
‘This company has caused huge anguish to members of the Armed Forces and I am pleased it is closing down,’ says Colonel Bob Stewart, Tory MP for Beckenham.
‘But if it’s just a tactic to avoid further action against them, it won’t work. They should be chased and prosecuted – as they have chased others – if they have done things that are illegal. And they have certainly done things that are morally disputable.’
Mr Shiner’s detractors call him an ‘ambulance-chaser’, a term of abuse in judicial circles and one which he deeply resents. Yet, though Mr Shiner and his colleagues have chased countless ambulances – not to mention British Army jeeps, tanks and armoured personnel carriers – we are not talking about your average run-of-the-mill, compensation-chasing, no win-no fee legal pondlife.
This is a man who has risen to the top of the Establishment he professes to despise, complete with an entry in Who’s Who (it’s ‘Professor Philip Shiner’, by the way).
Perhaps the final straw for his firm was this month’s announcement from the Legal Aid Agency that PIL has been banned from further public funding for its cases (file photo)
Let us picture the scene in November 2007. The senior echelons of the legal world are gathered in their finery in the City of London for the Law Society Awards. Armoury House, the Georgian home of the Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest regiment in the British Army, has been hired for the black tie dinner.
All eyes are on the top trophy, the Solicitor of the Year Award for ‘the greatest positive impact on the public perception or reputation of the profession’. And the winner is … Phil Shiner.
The Law Society’s citation commends his ‘tenacious and courageous commitment to the rights of those for whom access to justice would otherwise be denied’, in particular ‘bereaved Iraqi families whose relatives had been killed in incidents in which British soldiers had been implicated’.
Afterwards, Mr Shiner piously explains that this was not so much work as a personal crusade, inspired by his own Christian beliefs.
Mr Shiner and his firm, PIL, rose to prominence after they won more than £2million in compensation for the family of an Iraqi hotel receptionist (file photo)
His decision to take the Ministry of Defence to task, he says, was ‘part of an absolute fundamental commitment to challenging abuse of power in any way that I can think of’.
He goes on: ‘It’s not just the abuse of power that led us into war but the massive abuses of power that had been taking place up to and beyond the occupation.’
There have been many similar baubles over the years. Garlanded with the 2004 ‘Human Rights Lawyer of the Year’ award by the pressure group Liberty, Mr Shiner would go on to be appointed professor in practice law by Middlesex University.
He has received honorary accolades from the universities of Warwick, Kent and the London School of Economics and sits as a vice-president of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.
By any definition of the metropolitan liberal elite, ‘Professor’ Shiner is right up there at the top table. Which is why his fall is all the more spectacular.
Educated at what he calls a ‘tough’ Coventry comprehensive and Birmingham University, the twice-married father of five has had an impressive journey to the top of his trade.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has backed the closing of the firm
Yet his has been a reputation forged by the trashing of others, notably those of members of the Armed Forces.
There was clear evidence that some British troops had been guilty of serious misconduct during and after the invasion of Iraq.
Mr Shiner and his firm, PIL, rose to prominence after they won more than £2million in compensation for the family of an Iraqi hotel receptionist, Baha Mousa, who died while in the custody of British soldiers in 2003. A subsequent public inquiry into the affair in 2011 described it as an ‘appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence’. Spurred on by their success, Mr Shiner and his colleagues pushed for an inquiry into further alleged human rights abuses, following a bitter battle between British forces and Iraqi insurgents in 2004.
At the root of the claim was that innocent Iraqi farmers had been murdered by British soldiers. But one year into the £31million case, known as the al-Sweady inquiry, the Iraqi families dropped their claims.
In December 2014, the judge leading the investigation found that the witnesses represented by PIL and another firm, Leigh Day, had not just been exaggerating but telling systematic lies.
In the words of Sir Thayne Forbes, the allegations were ‘wholly without foundation and entirely the product of deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility’. It transpired that Mr Shiner and his firm had been paying an agent to round up potential victims and witnesses and had already trousered £3million from the Ministry of Defence for their part in the proceedings.
The MoD, in turn, reported Mr Shiner and his firm to the SRA, the solicitors’ watchdog, egged on by the prime minister himself.
More than 300 soldiers have now received letters warning them that they may face interrogation over instances of alleged ‘abuse’ (file photo)
After an 18-month investigation, the SRA would refer the case to a disciplinary tribunal because of ‘serious allegations of professional misconduct’. Yet it now emerges that Mr Shiner is fighting to have that upcoming tribunal held behind closed doors, apparently on grounds of ill health.
Public Interest Lawyers, it would seem, do not believe that the public interest extends to themselves. The Daily Mail is contesting the application. For whatever the state of Mr Shiner’s own medical condition, there are hundreds of British service personnel whose own health has been adversely affected by accusations based on the most dubious evidence, if not downright lies.
More than 300 have now received letters warning them that they may face interrogation over instances of alleged ‘abuse’ in 1,500 cases, many of them instigated by Mr Shiner and his firm.
Colonel Stewart says he knows of several ex-soldiers suffering extreme stress as a result and is adamant that Mr Shiner should not be treated any differently.
‘The idea that he and his firm were using an agent to go out and find complaints against our Armed Forces fills me with horror,’ he says. Last year, Mr Shiner insisted that he was simply the target of a ‘vendetta’ by a Government ‘furious’ at the extent of the abuses which he had unearthed.
Several serving and former soldiers are considering taking their own legal action against Mr Shiner (file photo)
Perhaps the final straw for his firm was this month’s announcement from the Legal Aid Agency that PIL has been banned from further public funding for its cases.
On top of that, several serving and former soldiers are considering taking their own legal action against Mr Shiner.
One serving officer has told the Daily Telegraph that he is planning to leave the Army after members of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team interviewed him for two days over a 13-year-old abuse allegation and then turned up on the doorstep of a former girlfriend to ask her if he had ever been abusive in their relationship.
‘We veterans would like to sue Shiner. He has a lot to answer for. Lives have been destroyed while he has gained personally from these allegations,’ the officer added.
Solicitors acting for other groups of servicemen have said that they are considering legal action, depending on the result of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
Mr Shiner has not responded to questions from the Daily Mail.The U.S. currency is heading for its biggest weekly gain since March 2005 against the European currency as the dollar benefits both from past Bernankes statements and the current expectations for G8 meeting.
Many reasons stand behind such a fast dollar appreciation this week among them Feds intention to raise the interest rate to fight the inflation and the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsons statement that the U.S. may buy out its currency on the Forex.
Consumer price index is also coming out in U.S. at 12:30 GMT today the reading above the expected 0.5 percent gain will definitely push dollar farther up as the bullish expectations on the interest rate will prevail then.
The U. S. dollar has also its best week since February 1999 against the Japanese yen. Financial officials from Europe say that they are satisfied with the current dollars appreciation as it benefits their national exporting companies.
More investors become confident that the Federal Reserves next step will be increasing the interest rate. The only questions that they are asking is when and by how much.
Finance ministers from the Group of Eight nations are meeting today and tomorrow in Osaka, Japan to discuss the global problems. Some currency traders believe that the important statements regarding the U.S. dollar may be made there with a positive feedback for the greenback.
EUR/USD fell today from 1.5452 to 1.5401 with a daily low at 1.5386 as of 8:03 GMT. GBP/USD remained virtually unchanged today opening at 1.9455 with a close at 1.9447 so far; the daily low was at 1.9428. USD/JPY rose from 107.87 to 108.00 today.
If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the US Dollar, feel free to post them using the commentary form below.The HBO show Silicon Valley pokes fun at, uh, Silicon Valley, but the creators and cast who appeared on-stage at Disrupt New York insisted that it’s not meant to be a mean-spirited satire.
“I don’t think Silicon Valley makes fun of it in a mean way at all,” said T.J. Miller, who plays blowhard incubator owner Erlich Bachman. TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington suggested that HBO’s Entourage was “just cool,” not mocking, but Miller countered, “I think Entourage was little bit more harsh on Hollywood. … All the parody elements are kind of us saying, ‘We know this so well, and we care so much about getting it right that we do understand that you’re making the world a better place. But if some of you wear shoes that have the little toes separated, then we’ve gotta talk about it.'”
The panel had a slight snake-eating-its-own-tail quality, opening with a video highlighting the ways in which the show’s version of Disrupt is based on reality. And Arrington, who was conducting the interview, has a cameo. (Creator Mike Judge told him, “Well, you were good.”)
In fact, Miller said that his character was based on a real person, namely the founder of Way.com, who supposedly harassed Miller to be a spokesperson for his website.
“He really was an arrogant blowhard who had no coding skills, but just was a fairly good salesman who smoked marijuana a lot,” Miller said. “And that’s kind of where I got my character.”
However, contrary to what’s widely believed, Judge said that Peter Gregory, the show’s weird-but-brilliant venture capitalist, isn’t based on Peter Thiel, at least not entirely. He said that he had read about Thiel, but he hadn’t seen him talk, and neither had actor Christopher Evan Welch.
Judge admitted that when, later on, he saw footage of Thiel, he thought, “Oh wow, that’s what Chris is doing.”
Anyway, you should really watch the full video. You may not learn much about the real Silicon Valley, or about season two of the show (executive producer Alec Berg said they only have “vague thoughts” about it right now), but you’ll probably laugh a lot, especially when you get to the meta-dick joke about 19 minutes and 30 seconds in.
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Recreating TechCrunch Disrupt on ‘Silicon Valley’The claim on Wednesday by a Turkish minister that the tiny inhabited Greek island of Agathonisi in the southeastern Aegean was “Turkish” essentially dashed any expectations in Athens that Ankara would tone down the recent upsurge of its incendiary rhetoric once the historic constitutional referendum in the neighboring country ended 10 days ago.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may have won the vote to expand his executive powers, albeit by a slim margin, but Ankara appears intent on continuing what Athens describes as its hostile behavior and revisionist rhetoric.
According to diplomatic sources, Greek authorities attribute the continued animosity emanating from Ankara to the fact that Erdogan did not get the clear-cut triumph he had hoped for in the referendum, and thus does not have the flexibility to push back against the country’s nationalistic circles and parties of the opposition.
And given these constraints, the reasoning in Athens is that Erdogan is seeking a foreign policy outlet – namely by disputing Greek sovereignty in the Aegean with constant air and sea space violations and by raising obstacles to a Cyprus settlement.
But on Wednesday it took it a step further with what Greek diplomatic sources described as “extreme” remarks by Turkish European Union Affairs Minister Omer Celik, who told Turkish TV that Agathonisi “belongs to Turkey. It’s Turkish land.”
“He essentially threatened an inhabited Greek island,” a Foreign Ministry official said.
The issue of Turkish provocations was discussed by the Government Council for Foreign Affairs and Defense (KYSEA) convened by by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday.
Soon after, Celik’s remarks received a stern written response from the Greek Foreign Ministry, which denounced the “ongoing revisionist and dangerous conduct on the part of Turkey.”
“We unequivocally condemn the ongoing revisionist policy of Turkey, which issues provocative statements disputing the internationally recognized borders as those were historically defined and established by international law, during the last century.”
Meanwhile, three Turkish jets, two of which were armed, violated Greek national air space on Wednesday and engaged in two mock dogfights with Greek jets.
Turkey also issued a new navigational telex (navtex) saying that one of its research vessels, the Barbaros, will conduct research in an area stretching from Paphos on the west coast of Cyprus all the way to Kyrenia in the north.A TECHNIQUE called “directional drilling” has transformed the energy business. Fifteen years ago the best drillers could force a well-shaft into a gentle arc. These days shafts can be drilled vertically to a depth of several kilometres—then made to turn sharply and continue horizontally for up to 12km (or 7 miles). Will Grace of Schlumberger, an oilfield services company, likens it to dropping a plumb-line from the top of the Empire State Building and then guiding it through the rear and front windscreens of every car parked in the nearby streets.
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Such technology vastly increases the area one rig can cover (see diagram). For an illustration, Mr Grace points to squiggles and shadings on a computer screen in one of the 34 offices Schlumberger operates in Aberdeen, a Scottish oil city. The lines show the progress of a well completed for a Canadian oil firm a few hours earlier. It is 13,000 feet (4,000 metres) deep and has been brought to a halt 6,500 feet horizontally away from the rig, within three feet of its target.
Instruments in the “drill-string”—as formerly inflexible steel drill-shafts are now called—are meanwhile transmitting dozens of additional measurements: of the radioactivity of the surrounding rock, its resistivity to electromagnetic waves, and so on. In this case, the rock gives a low radioactivity reading, which suggests that it is sand; its resistivity is high, which suggests it is oil-bearing. This is wizardry that few firms can match. And probably none is a regular oil company.
Oilfield services (OFS) firms such as Schlumberger are the unsung workhorses of the oil industry. They do most of the heavy lifting involved in finding and extracting oil and gas. They are far less well-known than the oil firms that hire them, but immensely lucrative. Schlumberger, with headquarters in Paris and Houston, earned profits of $5 billion on revenues of $40 billion last year. Its market capitalisation has risen fourfold in the past decade, to $91 billion. That is bigger than several international oil companies, including ENI ($82 billion), Statoil ($75 billion) and Conoco-Philips ($71 billion).
Schlumberger’s success highlights a shift in the balance of power between oil companies and their flunkeys. Until the 1990s OFS companies were far smaller and earned low margins on straightforward tasks, such as drilling vertical wells. That has changed dramatically.
With the price of oil so high, firms are scrambling to pump it out of ever more remote and costly crevices. Over the past decade the oil industry’s annual spending on exploration and production has increased fourfold in nominal terms, while oil production is up by only 12%. The big services companies, which invest heavily in technology (see chart), have been growing by around 10% a year. According to McKinsey, a consultancy, OFS companies grossed around $750 billion last year.
OFS firms come in three flavours. Some make and sell expensive kit for use on drilling rigs or the seabed. These include FMC, Cameron and National Oilwell Varco, all $10-billion-plus companies. Some own and lease out drill-rigs. These companies include Transocean, Seadrill, Noble and Rowan. The third group carries out most of the tasks involved in finding and extracting oil. It is dominated by four giants: Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, and Weatherford International.
Most of these firms were relatively small until the 1980s, when several oil companies decided that humdrum drilling chores were no longer worth doing in-house. Oil was easy then. Drilling yielded low margins that did not justify its claim on capital, so the oil majors outsourced it. This gave OFS firms space to grow.
They grew even faster in the early 1990s, when a tightening oil market drove demand for new technology. This led to breakthroughs in 3D seismology and directional drilling. These breakthroughs allow oil to be sucked economically from far beneath the ocean floor, and out of depleted and formerly abandoned wells.
But such inventions do not come cheap. Schlumberger invests roughly $1 billion a year in research and development, a level it maintained even during the slump after the 2008 financial crisis. That is as much as the mighty ExxonMobil spends; as a share of sales, five times more. The big OFS companies now probably file more patent applications than the oil majors, whose technological skills are largely interpretive. (For example, an oil major may decide where and how to drill based on geophysical data provided by an OFS firm.)
The oil business is likely to grow even more dependent on brainy OFS firms. Global production from mature oilfields is falling by between 2% and 6% a year. In the North Sea it has declined by 6% a year on average since 1999. With global demand for oil growing by 1-2% a year, there are persistent fears of a supply shock. Hence the current high oil prices: even after a 20% fall in recent months, Brent Crude is now around $100 a barrel. Oil firms are searching harder in more remote places, such as the Arctic and the deep seas off Brazil. Operating in such places will require yet more snazzy technology.
With hindsight, the oil companies’ decision to outsource the grubby bits of the job looks like an opportunity squandered. It has also left the oil firms hostage to the availability of increasingly expensive and sought-after services, from advanced drilling to deepwater rigs, which a dwindling number of OFS firms can provide.
There is, at present, still a fair amount of competition in most parts of the services industry. Each big OFS firm has different strengths, and plenty of smaller ones occupy specialised niches. Yet in some areas, especially the geographically remote ones, the demand for complex services often outstrips the supply.
Even worse for the likes of Exxon and BP, this has come at a time when state-owned oil firms have been muscling onto the stage. In the past couple of decades these national oil companies have claimed the best acreage in most old oilfields. The OFS firms have helped them to do so. Where once the state-owned giants hired oil majors to do the work, now they can manage projects themselves and hire technical help directly from the services firms. This can sometimes involve a limited sharing of risk between national and OFS firms, just as in a regular joint venture between oil companies.
Schlumberger, for example, will agree to a measure of payment-for-performance in big contracts. If it can drill more oil from a well than the contract says it must, it charges a higher fee. Other services firms have gone further, taking small equity stakes in exploration projects.
Some analysts wonder how all this might hurt the oil majors. A few decades ago national oil companies had to turn to oil majors for the technology required to get the stuff out of the ground. Today, oilfield service companies offer all the necessary technology and are increasingly willing to take on some of the same risks as an oil company, notes Marcel Brinkman of McKinsey.
Still, it would be wildly premature to bid Exxon adieu. Schlumberger’s performance-based contracts are a long way short of owning reserves—something the company says it will never do. It lacks the mammoth balance-sheet that oil firms maintain to manage the huge risks in oil exploration. It also lacks Exxon’s expertise in managing huge projects. And it is reluctant to annoy its customers by competing with them. Moreover, choosing where and how to explore (another strength of the oil majors) is trickier than you might think.
Instead, Schlumberger is planning more of what it is best at: pushing the technological boundaries of extracting the black stuff. It has recently been busy making acquisitions—including of Smith International, an American drill-bit company, for $11.3 billion—which have given it know-how in most segments of exploration and production. It now hopes to re-engineer the entire process.
The prize of increased efficiencies—delivered in barrels of money, not oil—could be vast. A big deepwater drilling rig costs half a million dollars a day to rent, and can take three months to drill a complicated well. Any OFS company that can shave a few days off that time will be in the money. Drilling is thrilling, and getting more so.If somebody told you that you couldn’t use your phone for 24 hours, would you panic?
Approximately one week ago, my Samsung Galaxy S3 decided that it wanted to start making my life difficult. In what was a rollercoaster five days, I went through three factory resets (which bought me just over a day each time) before the phone eventually drew its last breath a couple of days ago.
The result was that I had to spend the following 24 hours phoneless. This is my story.
Morning
Woke up with absolutely no concept of time.
Forced to skip the usual morning ritual of checking notifications and email, and the customary scroll through Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram (Twitter if I’m awake super early) feeds. Was acutely aware that pretty much anything could have happened during the night and I would have been none-the-wiser.
Faced a big challenge after getting into the elevator to leave the apartment. 73 floors down looking at everyone else with their phones was unpleasant, simply staring at them in the hope that one of them would give me a go off their technology proved fruitless however.
Stopped in traffic on the way to the office and the hand instinctively went for the phone several times, ended up playing with the handbrake instead.
Parked the car and realised my first genuine dilemma of the day, no phone to pay for parking via SMS. Contemplated using the machine, but anyone who has ever driven in Dubai will know that I would have had a better chance of making a new phone from scratch than I would have of sourcing 22 single Dirham coins. Ended up putting my sim-card in a colleagues phone to get it done. Hassle.
Afternoon
Grabbed my lunch to go from Joga in Media City (average, to be honest) and after putting in the order, I was told it would take about five minutes. I stood there twiddling my thumbs with my mouth open for what felt like five hours just waiting, thinking about how bad previous generations must have had it.
Went to the bank after lunch to finally set up a bank account after nearly six months in Dubai. A rookie mistake, in retrospect, as
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ouses to sexy, empowering dresses.Aries sits between streetwear and high fashion, and "plays with allusions to the grandiosity of major fashion houses alongside expertly picked underground reference point". Whether you're after co-ordinated, damn-cool trackpants, or clunky metal rings, this one's for you.Short seller Douglas Kass has won his relatively short-term bet against Warren Buffett. Given Buffett's decades-long track record as the world's greatest investor, he doesn't lose very often.
In March, Kass listed 11 Reasons to Short Berkshire on TheStreet.com. (Going'short' is, in effect, a bet that a particular stock will go down in price, not up.)
Kass, who is president of Seabreeze Partners Management, generated some headlines in May when he discussed his short position in an interview with Barron's. Hecited Buffett's "recent investment-style drift" that had left him "immersed... in several large and thus far unprofitable derivative transactions." Kass also talked about weakness in Berkshire's insurance businesses, Buffett's exposure to financials, and the weak housing market. Plus, he pointed out, Buffett won't be running Berkshire forever and "investors are going to dump the shares if Buffett is no longer at the helm."
In an appearance on CNBC a few days later, Kass told Larry Kudlow:
"Yogi Berra once said, 'Even Napoleon had his Watergate.' (Laughs.) And in the case of Warren Buffett, his Watergate is an investment-style drift which is really a no-no in the money management business... You have to stick to your knitting... Look, I worship at the knee of Warren Buffett and all he's accomplished over the years. But the reality is in the last decade he's underperformed dramatically and he's drifted in terms of strategy."
Then in June, Kass wrote that he had added to his short position, citing "bombs in Buffett's book." He pointed to "poor short-term and long-term charts " for four of Berkshire's biggest stock holdings: Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, Kraft, and American Express. (Only Wells Fargo has gained ground since then.)
Kass's endorsement this week of Buffett's high-profile call to buy U.S. stocks prompted us to ask him if he's still short Berkshire.
In an email reply, Kass told us he first shorted Berkshire in February of this year, when the shares were trading around $145,000, "as there was no'margin of safety' against my calculation of intrinsic value."
And he revealed, "I am no longer short Berkshire Hathaway - I covered my short position around $115,000/share in August as it fulfilled my price objective on the downside."Orange County Sheriff's Office / AP
With Casey Anthony having been found not guilty of the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, outraged Americans are seeking other routes to justice and hoping to prevent similar cases.
About half a million people have already signed an online petition calling for a federal law — Caylee’s Law — to make it a felony if parents fail to report the death of a child within an hour, or fail to report a missing child within a day. Legislators in at least five states, including Florida where Anthony was tried, are working on introducing similar bills.
But is this really a good idea? Such legislation, introduced in the wake of shocking crimes, is notorious for having unintended negative consequences, as embodied in the law school cliché, “hard cases make bad law.”
MORE: Online Petition for ‘Caylee’s Law’ Goes Viral
Consider some scenarios that might arise under Caylee’s Law. For instance, imagine that a child has just drowned — the scenario put forth by Anthony’s defense — after hours of attempts at resuscitation. What parent’s mind will be focused on notifying the police of the child’s death within an hour? Wouldn’t that small chore be forgotten, even by the most conscientious of parents, as they come to grips with the harrowing fact that efforts to revive their child have failed? Do we really want to add legal hassles to such parents’ overwhelming grief?
Further, consider the bureaucratic nightmare of reporting child deaths in hospitals when time of death may not be clear, or in chaotic accidents, or during natural disasters.
Presumably, the reporting requirement could be satisfied simply by the act of seeking medical attention, but it’s easy to see how the main result here would be more paperwork, bureaucracy and possibly even jail time for people already facing the worst form of grief.
MORE: The Art of Comforting
Alternatively, consider what would happen if your teenager failed to come home one night. This utterly common occurrence would require you to file a police report to avoid felony charges under Caylee’s Law. Some versions of the proposal would limit its scope to children under 12, but if it were applied to all children, it would risk flooding the police with hundreds of thousands of useless missing-teen reports, tying up time that could be used to solve actual cases.
And even in situations involving children under 12, many false alarms may result from perfectly innocent confusion over the specifics of custody arrangements, which could result in wasted police and court time.
Versions of the law could be written to avoid many of these scenarios, but prior experience with laws passed in an atmosphere of great fear or desire for vengeance doesn’t bode well. Consider California’s “three strikes” law, passed after the murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, who was kidnapped and killed by a man in violation of his parole for a previous crime.
The law’s intent was to increase mandatory prison time for repeat violent criminals. But its unintended effect was the increased sentencing of non-violent addicts and petty thieves to 25 years to life. That has resulted in a massive surge in prisoners and billions of dollars annually in related costs, without a greater corresponding decline in violent crime than seen in states without three-strikes laws. The Supreme Court recently ruled that California must release 30,000 prisoners due to inhumane conditions.
LIST: Top 10 Unhealthy Side Effects of the War on Drugs
Similarly, “Megan’s Law,”—which created sex offender registries— was named for seven-year-old Megan Kanka who was killed by a convicted sex offender in New Jersey and became federal law in the aftermath of fear after that crime. But studies show that it does not reduce recidivism by sex offenders and has driven some into homelessness, making them even harder to track.
Written carefully — and with reasonable judgment used by prosecutors — effective legislation around these issues is possible. But in a country that already locks up 2 million citizens, do we really need another reason to add to the incarceration epidemic?
Maia Szalavitz is a health writer at TIME.com. Find her on Twitter at @maiasz. You can also continue the discussion on TIME Healthland’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIMEHealthland.LONDON — The internet is a strange, wonderful place with room for anything — including publicly quarreling children's show fans.
If ever you needed proof of just how surreal the world of social media can get, just take a look at the following Twitter beef that broke out between two rival Thomas the Tank Engine reaction accounts on Monday.
Two Thomas the tank engine reaction shot accounts are fighting on line. What an amazing time to be alive. pic.twitter.com/xjrFWA5SgH — WeedlordBerniehitler (@bonerhitler) February 22, 2016
Okay, let's rewind for a minute.
In the left corner we've got @Thomas_Reacts — a reaction-style Twitter account that uses images from Thomas the Tank Engine to jokily play off modern, everyday problems and situations.
And in the right corner we've got the similarly-named @ThomasReacts_ — another reaction style account that uses images from Thomas the Tank Engine to do... well, pretty much the same thing.
See also: This Thomas the Tank Engine toy looks like it will steal your soul
Pay close attention to the @Thomas_Reacts bio. Image: Twitter/Mashable composite @Thomas_Reacts/@ThomasReacts_
Here are examples of tweets posted by each account.
When you walk out of Topshop and the security alarm goes off pic.twitter.com/CP3trrkBwu — Thomas Reactions (@Thomas_Reacts) February 10, 2016
When you walk out of a shop, and the security alarm goes off...#ThomasReacts pic.twitter.com/Jcjzx8Illv — Thomas Reactions (@ThomasReacts_) February 11, 2016
The feud appears to have kicked off on Monday, When @Thomas_Reacts accused @ThomasReacts_ of stealing its tweets.
@ThomasReacts_ Wonder where you got that idea from... — Thomas Reactions (@Thomas_Reacts) February 22, 2016
@Thomas_Reacts then started trolling @ThomasReacts_.
@ThomasReacts_ Nobody's laughing at the tweets you made up yourself — Thomas Reactions (@Thomas_Reacts) February 22, 2016
@ThomasReacts_ I would steal your tweets if they weren't so shit — Thomas Reactions (@Thomas_Reacts) February 22, 2016
The whole thing escalated from there. @ThomasReacts_ has since deleted its side of the argument, but @Thomas_Reacts is refusing to back down.
@ThomasReacts_ At the end of the day you have copied our account and some of our tweets. You may as well give up coz you'll never catch us. — Thomas Reactions (@Thomas_Reacts) February 22, 2016
@ThomasReacts_ Oh well. Thanks for causing all this publicity for my account — Thomas Reactions (@Thomas_Reacts) February 22, 2016
It's unclear whether or not the feud has now been resolved, but @ThomasReacts_ retweeted a tweet from @Thomas_Reacts on Tuesday afternoon that contained a direct reference to the beef — so maybe their turbulent relationship is on the mend.
When you can't stop laughing about the great Thomas the Tank Engine Twitter beef of 2016 pic.twitter.com/HcCqPsXr6O — Thomas Reactions (@Thomas_Reacts) February 23, 2016
The lesson? Never get on the wrong side of a Thomas the Tank Engine Twitter account.“Trust that they suck” is a mantra that bears repeating. It’s so easy to fall for the propaganda. You see your ex, tagged in some mutual friend’s Facebook page laughing uproariously at a party. The children come back with tales of Shiny New Things. People who were your family for decades now exclude you. It sucks. It’s hard to remember the suck belongs to them and there’s not something wrong with you.
“I get the nagging feeling that he and the OW have a fulfilling fairy tale relationship. So please, please beat me over the head with a refresher on ‘trust that they suck.'”
Trust your senses, chumps — they suck! Some pointers:
1. All that shitty stuff they did? The affairs, the gaslighting, the character assassination after the fact, the denial, the neglect? THEY DID IT. Yes, pinch yourself, it really and truly happened.
2. Connect the dots. If all that truly happened… you don’t want this person in your life, right? It doesn’t matter how wide screen their television is, or how fabulous their vacation pictures on Facebook, how sparkly they seem — YOU DON’T WANT THAT, remember?
For the affair partner to get the goodies, they have to endure — or will soon — the cheater’s true nature. That’s not going away. Your cheater didn’t get a character transplant. All that entitlement, all those crappy life skills — they’re still there. It’s a package deal.
If there’s been a binge of shiny new thing shopping it’s generally to salt the mines. You know, make a commodity appear more valuable than it really is. Crappy people need hooks. Cheaters are to sparkles what Bernie Madoff is to promised dividends. Any “reward” of their company comes with a very steep price tag, eventually.
3. Let’s say for the sake of argument, that they did have a character transplant, they are magically no longer their crappy selves, the affair partner brings out their very best self. They are now 100% sparkle, no filler.
They still cheated, abused, and gaslighted you. They still destroyed your trust. They still destroyed that relationship. This isn’t a person you can feel safe with. Maybe someone who never knew the old them will be able to do that, but you will remember. Those things happened, which caused the relationship to END because of their infidelity. Their new life is no longer your concern. YOUR new life is your concern. Treat their success as you would a stranger’s. This person has no connection to you.
4. You don’t share the same values. If you feel like the break up was forced on you, that you didn’t want it, that there is something to miss — change your focus. You can’t be with your cheater because you aren’t a good match. You don’t share the same ideas about love, family, and relationships. To be with them would be squelching a fundamental part of yourself — the person who demands reciprocity, honesty, and fidelity in marriage. In a way, it’s nothing personal. You are just two people who have nothing in common except shared history.
Let ’em go, chumps. Trust that they suck.
This column ran previously. Feel free to comment!You think it’s a bit of harmless fun, but watching porn really does affect a man’s performance in the bedroom.
Men partial to perusing a lot of X-rated material are more likely to suffer erectile dysfunction — and it’s because they are so used to looking at kinky images, experts suggest.
And those men who prefer watching their fantasies played out on screen are also less likely to enjoy actually having sex, the study showed
While experts quizzed both men and women on their porn-watching habits, they only found a link to sexual dysfunction in men.
Researchers surveyed more than 300 men between 20 and 40 who visited a San Diego urology clinic for treatment.
While only 3.4 percent said they would rather masturbate and watch porn than have sex, there was a statistical link between the amount of porn they watched and sexual dysfunction.
Most of those men quizzed admitted to watching porn.
One in four said they watched porn less than once a week, while 21.3 percent said they watched porn three to five times a week.
Five percent admitted to watching porn six to 10 times a week and 4.3 percent said they indulged more than 11 times per week.
Dr. Joseph Alukal, an associate professor of urology and director of male reproductive health at New York University, said: “Visual stimulation will often increase sexual arousal in both men and women.”
“But when the majority of their time is spent viewing and masturbating to pornography, it is likely they will become less interested in real-world sexual encounters.”
“These studies suggest the issue may be trivial in women, but not so for men, and could lead to sexual dysfunction.”
“Sex is half in your body and half in your head and it may not be a physical component driving the behavior, but a psychological one.”
“For this reason, it’s important for physicians to understand the underlying issues leading to the sexual dysfunction prior to suggesting treatment options.”
Dr. Matthew Christman, a staff urologist with the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, told HealthDay the reason porn addicts are at greater risk of erectile dysfunction is that their “tolerance” for sexual stimulation is higher.
He said: “Tolerance could explain the sexual dysfunction, and can explain our finding that associated preferences for pornography over partnered sex with statistically significantly higher sexual dysfunction in men.”
Erectile dysfunction is a very common condition, particularly in older men.
It is estimated that half of all men between the ages of 40 and 70 will have it to some degree.
It is defined as the inability to get and maintain an erection.
The researchers also surveyed women between 20 and 40 about their porn habits but found no link with sexual dysfunction.
The findings were presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American Urological Association on May 12.
Previous studies into porn and its impact in the bedroom have also found that men who watch a lot of racy clips are less likely to be satisfied having sex with their partner.With all the problems occurring in the banking system, it is rather astonishing that so few have failed in 2008. At least that is the perception being put out there for us to digest. Yet the failure of one IndyMac or Washington Mutual is the equivalent of 100 smaller bank failures all at once.
It is true that the composition of bank assets is primarily locked up in mortgages. Yet the true bank failures will be hitting in 2009 with the bust of the commercial real estate market. In this article, we are going to examine the makeup and anatomy of our banking system with data and charts from the FDIC.
Exhibit #1 – Composition of Bank Assets
The above chart should first tell you why the banking system has collapsed with the housing market. Banks rely heavily on mortgages for their asset base. With the housing market collapsing, it isn’t hard to understand why problems rippled through the core of many bank balance sheets. In addition, another large part of the composition of bank assets are secured via credit cards. Bankruptcies are skyrocketing and many people are now relying on credit cards as a last measure. A country with $49 trillion in debt is one that isn’t afraid to take out a loan.
Exhibit #2 – Number of savings institutions and commercial banks
At last count, there are 8,384 savings institutions and commercial banks backed by the FDIC. The FDIC recently upped its insurance for individual depositors to $250,000 through December 31, 2009 from the previous $100,000 limit. On face value, this may sound great but as of August 31, 2008 the FDIC insurance fund is quickly depleting:
Exhibit # 3 – FDIC Insurance Fund
The fund has depleted over $17.625 billion in less than one year and we have yet to take into account the forth quarter of 2008 which should be out shortly. It is stunning that they can simply increase insurance upwards to $250,000 while the fund is quickly going to zero. Of course the implicit guarantee was made from the U.S. government to back up these funds.
The FDIC has been careful about announcing troubled institutions. In fact, they only have slightly over 100 of those 8,384 institutions on the list which surely will grow. Let us look at the assets of those trouble institutions:
Exhibit # 4 – Assets of FDIC troubled institutions
From last accounting, $115 billion of assets were at risk. These banks are very likely to have problems and without a doubt, we will exhaust that remaining $29 billion in 2009. Meaning, the government is going to have to dish out more money. Money which we don’t have which of course will miraculously appear from helicopters.
Why am I so certain more banks will fail this year? Just look at the composition of banking assets:
Exhibit # 5 – Loan Portfolios
Residential will continue to have problems. Most of the bailouts have been focused here. But what about the large portion of commercial loans? What about the construction loans? What about the consumer loans? Credit cards? Are we going to bailout all these areas. Residential only makes up 26% of the loan composition of banking assets which the FDIC covers. That $29 billion is puny to what is at risk here. The growth in commercial real estate loans is what is going to sink hundreds of banks in the next few years:
Exhibit # 6 – Construction loans pose biggest problems
As you can see, banks went wild with construction and land development loans. They hit growth peaks at the height of the housing and credit bubble in 2004 through 2006. This is not good. The rate of growth was actually higher than that with residential loans which we are now seeing blow up. These construction loans have very little chance of making it through this crisis. Meaning, many of these loans will default. Many banks simply do not have the balance sheets to survive 2009.
And failures are already rising:
Exhibit # 7 – Bank Failures Rising
What you’ll notice is actual new charters has fallen and mergers and failures have gone up in 2008. Expect more of the same in 2009. The list of problem institutions grows by the day:
Exhibit # 8 – Problem institutions growing
Many of the banks started holding onto adjustable rate mortgages instead of fixed mortgages over the past few years. Now, we are seeing a spike in fixed rate mortgages because this is the only thing the government will now back:
Exhibit # 9 – Growth Rate of ARMs
The derivatives market is such a fantasy game. Take a look at this chart:
Exhibit # 10 – Commercial bank derivatives
This is flat out absurd. The notional value of swaps is approximately the size of 2 times annual global GDP. Don’t expect banks to pay one another. It is now a race between destroying the U.S. dollar and asset value destruction.
What can you expect in 2009? I think the above charts tell you the entire story. Expect commercial and construction real estate loans to bust with less of a safety net than residential loans and expect more bank failures and mergers. There isn’t much that can be done here except to flush the excess out of the system.
If you enjoyed this post click here to subscribe to a complete feed and stay up to date with today’s challenging market!IN 1942, the Pole, Jan Karski, tried to persuade Allied leaders about the Nazi death camps, which he had witnessed. US Supreme Court judge Felix Frankfurter said: "I did not say this young man is lying. I said I am unable to believe him. There is a difference."
At the count for the European Elections, in Leeds Town Hall last month, the first BNP parliamentarian in Britain was elected. It happened under the debased form of proportional representation – the "closed list" introduced by Jack Straw – which I have always opposed.
I did not hide my distaste at the BNP win, as I have long studied the rise of "respectable" fascism across Europe. From my youth, I have opposed totalitarianism, and especially the religious persecution which is often a part of it.
On July 14, in Strasbourg, I stood and won against a Polish MEP,
Michal Kaminski, for the post of Vice-President of the European Parliament, because he symbolised the rise of disguised extremism
in Europe.
Although Kaminski was nominated by the new Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) created by David Cameron, I decided to take the issue head on, even at the discomfiture of my own party. I did this at great personal and political risk – I could have lost everything and have now lost the whip – but I did it on principle.
It was not my principle – it was a higher one. To oppose a menacing political movement at a key moment in Europe's politics.
I am grateful to the Yorkshire Post for allowing me to address my constituents directly.
The European Parliament should represent the best in democracy, but its internal elections are based on backroom deals between party bosses, of which Kaminski thought he was part.
In that undemocratic vein, my Yorkshire colleague, Timothy Kirkhope – leader of the Conservative MEPs – who that day had been elected leader of the ECR, was simply replaced by Kaminski.
Although the European Parliament gets a fairly bad press, I am proud of the work that I and other MEPs have done to spread democracy and human rights, the central tenets of the EU, across Europe and the world.
The very fact of the EU's existence acted as a beacon to the many dissidents with whom I used to work in Communist-ruled countries like Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Encouraged by them, I set up the EU's Democracy Initiative, now with a budget of e140m, to spread the Conservative values of democracy, human rights, the rule of law.
It has now been disclosed, as Kaminski should have done to the Conservative Party when nominated for Vice-President, that he has had fascist links – he was a member of Poland's notorious fascist National Revival (NOP) – and he tried, as its MP, to cover up one of the worst anti-Jewish atrocities in wartime Europe.
On July 10, 1941, Poles rounded up hundreds of Jews and put them in a barn on the outskirts of the village of Jedwabne. Egged on by the SS, the barn was set on fire. In 2001, the then president of Poland organised a national apology, but Kaminski opposed it.
Kaminski was pictured on Polish TV in 2000 using a homophobic term which even the interviewer says is offensive: Kaminski repeats it. He caused a storm at that time by using the pre-war anti-semitic slogan, "Poland for the Poles". He denies it.
Last week, Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's quality daily, said: "Kaminski isn't officially and completely anti-Semitic or homophobic, but at some point he recognised that these things could help him politically."
Ambivalence about totalitarianism, like Judge Frankfurter's, has no place in today's Europe.
At the same age as Kaminski was consorting with fascist skinheads, I was a member of the Young Conservatives. A few years later, I found another cause with the European Movement, set up on an all-party basis to make the case in a referendum for staying in the Common Market.
When I was elected leader of the Conservative MEPs in 1997, The Times described me as "a moderate pro-European, with a general loyalty to the party line".
I am to this day, and I have asked for the Conservative whip to be restored. Is it not telling that, after a three-month onslaught on MPs' expenses, the whip was removed from no Conservative MP except Derek Conway?
After the European elections, complying with a manifesto commitment, I left the mainstream centre-right European People's Party (EPP) and joined the ECR group.
It was formed because, during his leadership campaign, David Cameron had promised that his MEPs would leave the EPP, largely continental Christian Democrats and conservatives but seen by many as too "federalist".
I have always been a Conservative internationalist, believing that Britain should be leading in Europe – not leaving it. The EPP is the party of Angela Merkel, Nicholas Sarkozy and Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish conservative who currently chairs all EU meetings.
However, I accepted that after the East/Central European enlargement of the EU, in 2004, there could be parties, who having lived under the shadow of Moscow, feared it might be re-imposed through Brussels.
So all I said in the run-up to this year's Euro elections – although I was much sought out by the media – was that "I am convinced that David Cameron will not send us to the wilder shores of European politics, and I am committed to the choices he makes".
I was trusted enough, because of my election experience, to be asked to join not only the party's Euro election strategy committee, but also George Osborne's general election committee. I have been a member of the Candidates Committee for longer.
When I attended the ECR's inaugural meeting, in Brussels, on June 24, we had been joined by 15 MEPs from Poland's controversial Law and Justice party, which had incorporated MEPs from the ultra-Catholic Motherland Party. I said that I was "uncomfortable" and that I hoped that there was no-one in the room "who has had links after 1989 with extremist groups like Poland's NOP".
The following day, as I discovered later, the reference to his membership of NOP was removed from Kaminski's Wikipedia page. Kaminski was covering up again.
The rise of "respectable fascism" must be stopped. The people who advised Cameron have been used by those who seek respectability through links with the Conservative Party. It is not me who should be expelled –it is Kaminski.
Edward McMillan-Scott is an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber. He is a vice-president of the European Parliament and currently sits as an independent.A report published by Axios on Friday cites unspecified sources who say President Donald Trump is considering current CIA Director Mike Pompeo as a replacement for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whose relationship with Trump is said to be “broken beyond repair.”
According to the “insiders” who spoke to Axios, the last straw for President Trump was that Tillerson did not do enough to push back against the report on Wednesday that Tillerson called the president a “moron” after a Pentagon meeting in July. It was widely noted that while Tillerson organized a hasty press conference to deny that he had to be talked out of resigning his post, he did not actually deny calling Trump a moron. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert did issue such a blanket denial several hours after Tillerson’s presser.
Axios describes Trump as furious over the amount of coverage the “moron” story has received, eclipsing coverage of the president’s trip to Las Vegas. The institutional relationship has soured as well, leaving White House with “zero trust” in the State Department.
Pompeo has been suggested as a replacement because he has an excellent personal relationship with President Trump and already works with him extensively on the President’s Daily Brief, so he could help rebuild that trust.
Pompeo would also be able to rebuild the State Department’s credibility with world leaders, which has reportedly been damaged because no one believes Tillerson is part of the president’s “inner circle” anymore. The insiders who spoke to Axios are confident Pompeo will accept the position if Trump offers it. The primary opponent of the switch appears to be White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who believes any further high-level staff turnover before the end of the year would destroy the atmosphere of “stability” he has been trying to create.
Another potential stumbling block could be Pompeo’s full plate at the CIA. On Wednesday, he told an intelligence conference at George Washington University that he’s working on reducing red tape at the agency.
“If you are in a process and you’re not adding value, get out of the way,” he said of his approach. “This risk of the absence of agility and speed is a price our agency can’t afford to pay.”
Pompeo said he was trying to get more CIA agents into the field to deal with imminent security threats, improve the agency’s data processing technology, and give station officers more autonomy to make time-critical decisions without consulting Washington. He mentioned during his presentation that President Trump is an “avid consumer” of the intelligence his agency produces.
In mid-September, with rumors swirling that Tillerson might either resign or be fired by the president, Politico reported that Pompeo was one of two favored candidates to replace him, the other being U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
“Pompeo, a former congressman, is not seen as eager to leave a job he loves, while Haley has been asserting herself as someone ready for something bigger since she joined the administration,” Politico wrote.
The report further implied that Haley does not have a very good working relationship with Tillerson, refusing to see herself as his subordinate and handling press conferences without approval from Tillerson’s State Department. Haley was described as having a certain degree of policy friction with President Trump that might make Pompeo a better fit as Secretary of State, notably Haley’s more hawkish stance on confronting human-rights abusers and hostile actors like Russia.In a meeting with the newly formed Reformist bloc, Union of Islamic Iran People Party, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani talked about his vision for the 2016 parliamentary elections and the important role of political parties. The issue is significant because one of the problems facing political groups in Iran is that since there are no official political parties, the various political factions and groups lack cohesion and often rely on charismatic figures to attract voters. With former President Mohammad Khatami politically sidelined and many of the radical Reformist figures imprisoned, the role of parties will be important in the upcoming elections, especially for those in the Reformist and moderate camps.
Using the Rouhani slogan of “moderation,” Rafsanjani said, “People — especially the youth and women, and particularly the educated — are prepared to enter the elections for institutionalizing moderation in the country.” He added, “This moment... is the responsibility of all... the parties and organizations... to enter the elections [and] create another political epic in February... which are important elections.” The term “political epic” was coined by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ahead of the Iranian New Year in March 2013 to promote a large turnout for the June presidential election.
Rafsanjani talked about the importance of political parties, saying that after the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini supported and offered financial backing to the formation of the Islamic Republican Party. He added, “In all the years after the success of the revolution, it has always been the extremists who have been an obstacle in the growth of parties. They still aim to create obstacles, but the constitution and the elders of the state are opposed to this.”
The political fortunes of Rafsanjani have risen and fallen since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The former president and confidant of Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, was once and still is to many considered a pillar of the state. Under Presidents Khatami and later Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rafsanjani’s political influence began to wane. But the elder statesman who played a central role in President Hassan Rouhani’s election in 2013 seeks to continue having a say in the 2016 parliamentary elections.
And it seems that the strengthening of political parties is a goal of both Reformists and the so-called moderate camp. Rafsanjani’s comments were followed up by those of Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi, the secretary of the Executives of Construction Party, a political party founded by former members of Rafsanjani’s Cabinet. Karbaschi spoke with the Islamic Republic News Agency, which operates under the administration. Parts of the interview were picked up by Reformist media sympathetic to Rafsanjani’s and Karbaschi’s positions regarding the strengthening of political parties.
Karbaschi talked about the obstacles the Ahmadinejad administration created for political parties not in line with his administration’s policies. He said, “Democracy, without the presence of strong parties and organizations that have plans and solutions for the issues of the country and to monitor the performance of the administration, is not practical.”
On the role of his party in the upcoming elections, Karbaschi said, “I think all the forces who are sympathetic and have a moderate philosophy and can tolerate others and are on the same path of this administration should gather and use their resources and speak with the people.” Karbaschi added that they see themselves as a Reformist group and will try to present a united candidates list for the parliamentary elections.
On the previous presidential elections and Rouhani’s win, Karbaschi said, “It’s clear that if the Reformists and Rafsanjani had not come together, such an outcome would not have happened.”Near the scene of a bombing in Chelsea that injured 29 people. Investigators want to know who caused the blast and whether a second device found was a bomb. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg
MANHATTAN — Leave the bomb, take the bag.
In two separate cases, thieves snatching bags from a city street and a train station inadvertently helped law enforcement get the upper hand in a bomb spree that injured dozens of people and spans both sides of the Hudson River, sources said.
UPDATE: CAUGHT: Chelsea Bombing Suspect Taken Into Custody
The day Ahmad Khan Rahami allegedly planted two bombs in Chelsea — one of which detonated on West 23rd Street — two thieves accidentally helped to disable his second pressure cooker bomb left inside a rolling suitcase on West 27th Street, sources said.
Read more about the Chelsea bombing:
► What We Know — And Don't Know — About the Chelsea Bombing
► Pizza Orders — And Gripes — Keep Coming for Domino's Across From Blast Site
The young men, who sources described as being well-dressed, opened the bag and took the bomb out, sources said, before placing the explosive into a garbage bag and walking away with the rolling suitcase.
"Once they picked up the bag, they seemed incredulous. They had actually picked this up off the street and they walked off with it," according to Robert Boyce, the NYPD's Chief of Detectives, who was responding to a question about DNAinfo New York's story.
"They look like they were two gentlemen just strolling up and down Seventh Avenue at the time," Boyce added.
Investigators believe they inadvertently disabled the explosive, sources said.
"It’s difficult to say right now if they at all, inadvertently perhaps even, pulled a wire," Boyce said.
Since the bomb remained intact, it allowed investigators to examine the cellphone attached to the bomb and discover that it was connected to the family of Rahami.
From there, they were able to identify pictures on social media of Rahami's family and of him, and they matched one of his photos to surveillance footage captured in Manhattan.
They also found a website where Rahami allegedly posted jihadist missives, sources said.
Rahami, who was born in Afghanistan but lived in Elizabeth, New Jersey, had deposited the second bomb about four blocks away from the one that detonated and wounded 29 people on West 23rd Street, police said.
"Who in this world finds a pressure cooker with a phone and just takes the bag?" a law enforcement source said.
The two men are not believed to be involved in the terror plot, but investigators still want to speak to them.
"We’re considering them witnesses right now.... We’ll put their images out and hopefully get them identified," Boyce said.
Then, on Sunday night, two homeless men snatched a backpack resting atop a trash can near a train station in Elizabeth, officials said.
“They probably thought there was something of value in that backpack,” said the mayor of Elizabeth, Christian Bollwage.
They started rooting through the bag and found five explosives that officials say are tied to Rahami, prompting them to immediately drop the bag in the middle of the street and alert police, officials said.
"When they opened it up and found the wire and the pipe they immediately walked around the other corner to Elizabeth police headquarters and turned it in," Bollwage said.
“People go through life on the edge in a very difficult position yet they probably saved hundreds of lives,” the mayor added.
Investigators believe Rahami left the bomb in the Elizabeth train station "probably to get rid of the evidence" because it lacked any detonators like those used for the Chelsea devices, according to Bollwage.
"That bomb package, we speculate, was being thrown away as opposed to being set for further harm," Bollwage said.
Investigators believe Rahami also planted
|
and those deserve equal (if not more) attention in investigation
…that fundamentally surprising results come from behaviors that are emergent. This means they can and do come from components interacting in ways that cannot be predicted.
…that nonlinear behaviors should be expected. A small perturbation can result in catastrophically large and cascading failures.
…human performance and variability are not intrinsically coupled with causes. Terms like “situational awareness” and “crew resource management” are blunt concepts that can mask the reasons why it made sense for someone to act in a way that they did with regards to a contributing cause of a failure.
…diversity of components and complexity in a system can augment the resilience of a system, not simply bring about vulnerabilities.
For the real nerdy details, Zahid H. Qureshi’s A Review of Accident Modelling Approaches for Complex Socio-Technical Systems covers the basics of the current thinking on systemic accident models: Hollnagel’s FRAM, Leveson’s STAMP, and Rassmussen’s framework are all worth reading about.
Also appropriate for further geeking out on failure and learning:
Hollnagel’s talk, On How (Not) To Learn From Accidents
Dekker’s wonderful Field Guide To Understanding Human Error
So the next time you read or hear a report with a singular root cause, alarms should go off in your head. In the same way that you shouldn’t ever have root cause “human error”, if you only have a single root cause, you haven’t dug deep enough. 🙂According to oceanographer John Kessler the methane levels in the oil coming from the sea floor now are at 40 % compared to the normal 5% found in typical oil deposits.
Associated Press Writers= NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It is an overlooked danger in oil spill crisis: The crude gushing from the well contains vast amounts of natural gas that could pose a serious threat to the Gulf of Mexico's fragile ecosystem.
The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.
That means huge quantities of methane have entered the Gulf, scientists say, potentially suffocating marine life and creating "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives.
"This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history," Kessler said. source
A new article out today might inadvertently add some weight to Richard Hoagland's claim /theory/rumour of a methane bubble under the sea waiting to explode on some Armegeddon -type level....?Here's the full article, which doesn't talk about what Hoagland does but discusses another potential doom scenario..._______________________________________________________________As you can imagine this is being discussed on many forums, and on one I found a post from someone who put together a list of methane-connected events occuring in the past two months alone. Here is what they wrote :Gulf disaster- METHANEColumbia mine disaster- METHANEW. VA Massey Mine explosion- METHANEMexico explosion cause mile-long crack- METHANE translate.google.com... =enCT Kleen Energy massive explosion, killing many- METHANETexas natural gas refinery explosion - METHANEThere are more examples from the last 8 weeks or so, but you get the idea. Is it any surprise that one of the original apocalypse movies featured METHANE? "Mad Max" Thunderdome" lol. I never forgot that. Methane. It all comes down to that.______________________________________Coincidence, or connected.............?[edit on 18/6/10 by cosmicpixie][edit on 18/6/10 by cosmicpixie][edit on 6/18/10 by niteboy82]This item is available for pre-order. Ashes: The Protector of Argaia Expansion High atop the tree-city of Birdsnest, Fiona Mercywind schemes to end the war that has disturbed the natural balance of her homeland. She avoids conflict as much as possible, but when interlopers invade the vast realm she has sworn to protect, they leave with less of themselves than expected. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Protector of Argaia Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/PH1216-Packaging-3D_MockUp-Left%20%281%29.jpg High atop the tree-city of Birdsnest, Fiona Mercywind schemes to end the war that has disturbed the natural balance of her homeland. She avoids conflict as much as possible, but when interlopers invade the vast realm she has sworn to protect, they leave with less of themselves than expected. ["Fiona Mercywind x 1","Mind Maze x 3","Confusion Spores x 3","Summon Majestic Titan x 3","Summon Nightsong Cricket x 3","Summon Mind Fog Owl x 3","Cognitive Dissonance x 3","Essence Druid x 3","Exhortation x 3","New Ideas x 3","Seeds of Aggression x 3","Majestic Titan x 1","Nightsong Cricket x 4","Mind Fog Owl x 2"] PH1216 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This item is available for pre-order.
This item is available for pre-order. Ashes: The Grave King Expansion From the disease-ravaged city of Marrowden, comes the stench of death, and the staggering shapes of fallen warriors. James Endersight would lay claim to the ultimate prize, and there is no price too foul for him to pay. This talented sociopath wields his power, stripping the living of their flesh, and raising their bones to do his bidding. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Grave King Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/PH1215-Packaging-3D_MockUp-Left%20%281%29.jpg From the disease-ravaged city of Marrowden, comes the stench of death, and the staggering shapes of fallen warriors. James Endersight would lay claim to the ultimate prize, and there is no price too foul for him to pay. This talented sociopath wields his power, stripping the living of their flesh, and raising their bones to do his bidding. ["James Endersight x 1","Vengeance x 3","Summon Fallen x 3","Chant of Sacrifice x 3","Law of Repentance x 3","Rising Horde x 3","Immortal Commander x 3","Reaping Angel x 3","Grave Knight x 3","Rally the Troops x 3","Reclaim Soul x 3","Fallen x 7"] PH1215 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This item is available for pre-order.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn is the breathtaking first release in our newest expandable game system. Choose from six Pheonixborn, using imaginative cards and custom dice to summon faithful allies, combine powerful spells, and outwit your opponents in a fast-paced back and forth barrage of well-crafted magic and strategic skill. Choose your first hand, build your custom dice pool, customize your deck, and gather the ashes of your enemies. $49.95 $49.95 Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/3d-box-right-as.png Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn is the breathtaking first release in our newest expandable game system. Choose from six Pheonixborn, using imaginative cards and custom dice to summon faithful allies, combine powerful spells, and outwit your opponents in a fast-paced back and forth barrage of well-crafted magic and strategic skill. Choose your first hand, build your custom dice pool, customize your deck, and gather the ashes of your enemies. ["6 Phoenixborn Cards","241 Spell/Unit Cards","4 Phases of Play Reference Cards","16 Dice Power Reference Cards","26 Wound Tokens","30 Exhaustion Tokens","21 Status Tokens","10 Charms Dice","10 Ceremonial Dice","10 Illusions Dice","10 Natural Dice","1 First Player Token","1 Rulebook"] PH1200 4.10 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The King of Titans Expansion In Aenda Woodrass, the denizens of the desert oasis have struck a delicate accord with the laws of Nature. Xander Heartsblood rises to defend that accord to the death. Calling upon the ancient ways of the nomadic shamans as well as the terrifying power of his dinosaur conjurations, Xander channels the raw magic of Nature to bear down on those who would invade the sacred ground he now calls home. Balance the power of Nature and Divine magic to unleash the titans of the desert on unsuspecting prey. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The King of Titans Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/unnamed_0.png In Aenda Woodrass, the denizens of the desert oasis have struck a delicate accord with the laws of Nature. Xander Heartsblood rises to defend that accord to the death. Calling upon the ancient ways of the nomadic shamans as well as the terrifying power of his dinosaur conjurations, Xander channels the raw magic of Nature to bear down on those who would invade the sacred ground he now calls home. Balance the power of Nature and Divine magic to unleash the titans of the desert on unsuspecting prey. ["Xander Heartsblood x 1","Earthquake x 3","Summon Cerasaurus Mount x 3","Summon Archasaurus Mount x 3","Law of Domination x 3","Sacred Ground x 3","Raptor Herder x 3","Pain Shaman x 3","Summon Shining Hydra x 3","Nature’s Wrath x 3","Mass Heal x 3","Cerasaurus Mount Conjuration x 3","Raptor Hatchling Conjuration x 3","Shining Hydra Conjuration x 3","Archasaurus Mount Conjuration x 1","Shining Hydra Head Conjuration x 7"] PH1214 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Ghost Guardian Expansion Death has given Rimea Careworn sight beyond sight. Her eyes now burn forever with visions of the Spirit World, where the souls of the dead test the boundaries of eternity, hungering to be free. Rimea has returned to the world of the living, and she now leads an army of lost souls to reclaim the city of Shadowreck. She will not stop until those responsible pay for their crimes, for only then will her ancestors’ spirits be at peace. Unleash powerful Illusion and Sympathy magic to raise ancient warriors from beyond and cast out the enemies of the Spirit World. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Ghost Guardian Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/unnamed-1_0.png Death has given Rimea Careworn sight beyond sight. Her eyes now burn forever with visions of the Spirit World, where the souls of the dead test the boundaries of eternity, hungering to be free. Rimea has returned to the world of the living, and she now leads an army of lost souls to reclaim the city of Shadowreck. She will not stop until those responsible pay for their crimes, for only then will her ancestors’ spirits be at peace. Unleash powerful Illusion and Sympathy magic to raise ancient warriors from beyond and cast out the enemies of the Spirit World. ["Rimea Careworn x 1","Ancestral Army x 3","Hollow x 3","Battle Seer x 3","Dark Presence x 3","Summon Ghostly Mount x 3","Summon Ancestor Spirit x 3","Resonance x 3","Augury x 3","Hex Bane x 3","Shared Sorrow x 3","Ancestor Spirit Conjuration x 5","Pale Steed Mount Conjuration x 2","Nightmare Mount Conjuration x 2","Spectral Charger Mount Conjuration x 2"] PH1213 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Spirits of Memoria Expansion From the silent catacombs of Memoria, the City of Spirits, comes Sembali Grimtongue. Sworn to defend the graves of those lost in the fight against the chimera, Sembali is gifted with divine magic capable of dissolving the servants of her enemies. A ready to play deck for Ashes using divine and illusion dice, contains an all new Phoenixborn and 30 new cards for customization. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Spirits of Memoria Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/PH1211-Packaging-3D_MockUp-Left%20%281%29_0.png From the silent catacombs of Memoria, the City of Spirits, comes Sembali Grimtongue. Sworn to defend the graves of those lost in the fight against the chimera, Sembali is gifted with divine magic capable of dissolving the servants of her enemies. A ready to play deck for Ashes using divine and illusion dice, contains an all new Phoenixborn and 30 new cards for customization. ["1 - Sembali Grimtongue Phoenixborn","3 - Veil of Reversal Reaction Spell","3 - Law of Banishment Ready Spell","3 - Gates Thrown Open Ready Spell","3 - Summon Admonisher Ready Spell","3 - Summon Spectral Assassin Action Spell","3 - Angelic Rescue Reaction Spell","3 - Chained Creations Ready Spell","3 - Shepherd of Lost Souls Ally","3 - Shadow Guard Ally","3 - Celestial Knight Ally","3 - Angel’s Embrace Conjured Alteration Spell","3 - Spectral Assassin Conjuration","3 - Admonisher Conjuration"] PH1211 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Demons of Darmas Expansion Something sinister lurks in the shadows of Darmas, the City of Perpetual Darkness. Under the full-moon light, Harold Westraven and his bestial minions stalk their prey. A ready to play clan deck for Ashes using ceremonial and sympathy dice, contains an all new Phoenixborn and 30 new cards for customization. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Demons of Darmas Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/PH1212-Packaging-3D_MockUp-Left%20%281%29_0.png Something sinister lurks in the shadows of Darmas, the City of Perpetual Darkness. Under the full-moon light, Harold Westraven and his bestial minions stalk their prey. A ready to play clan deck for Ashes using ceremonial and sympathy dice, contains an all new Phoenixborn and 30 new cards for customization. ["1 - Harold Westraven Phoenixborn","3 - Rend Soul Reaction Spell","3 - Summon Vampire Bat Swarm Ready Spell","3 - Drain Vitality Ready Spell","3 - Beast Mage Ally","3 -Beast Warrior Ally","3 - Master Vampire Ally","3 - Psychic Vampire Ally","3 -Dark Reaping Action Spell","3 - Transmute Magic Action Spell","3 - Adrenaline Rush Reaction Spell","1 - Hunter’s Mark Conjured Alteration Spell","3 - Dark Transformation Conjured Alteration"] PH1212 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Song of Soaksend Deluxe Expansion The Song of Soaksend deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Namine Hymntide, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck, including 10 sympathy dice AND a premium dedkbox to hold sleeved cards, 10 dice and tokens. $24.95 $24.95 Ashes: The Song of Soaksend Deluxe Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/ph1206_main.png The Song of Soaksend deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Namine Hymntide, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck, including 10 sympathy dice AND a premium dedkbox to hold sleeved cards, 10 dice and tokens. ["1 Namine Hymntide - Phoenxiborn","10 sympathy dice","1 premium deckbox","1 reference card","3x Guilt Link","3x Summon Salamander Monk","2x Salamander Monk","3x Salamander Monk Spirit","3x Magic Syphon","3x Summon Squall Stallion","5x Squall Stallion","3x Encore","3x Shatter Pulse","3x Crescendo","3x String Mage","3x Flute Mage","3x River Skald"] PH1206 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Laws of Lions Deluxe Expansion The Laws of Lions deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Odette Diamondcrest, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck, including 10 divine dice AND a premium dedkbox to hold sleeved cards, 10 dice and tokens. $24.95 $24.95 Ashes: The Laws of Lions Deluxe Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/ph1205_main_0.png The Laws of Lions deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Odette Diamondcrest, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck, including 10 divine dice AND a premium dedkbox to hold sleeved cards, 10 dice and tokens. ["1 Odette Diamondcrest - Phoenixborn","10 divine dice","1 premium deck box","3x Law of Sight","3x Summon Winged Lioness","4x Winged Lioness","3x Law of Assurance","3x Summon Emperor Lion","3x Emperor Lion","3x Sword of Virtue","3x Heal","3x Meteor","3x Power Through","3x Shield Mage","3x Holy Knight"] PH1205 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Frostdale Giants Rin Northfell is a jovial Phoenixborn whose lust for life and battle flares up like a beacon in his frigid homeland. Rin shuns the subtlety of complexmagic, preferring spells and monsters as robust and as considerable as his spirit. The Frostdale Giants deck, featuring new Phoenixborn Rin Northfell, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck with all-new card including 2 conjurations and a conjured alteration spell. Rin requires 10 Natural (blue) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Frostdale Giants https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/ASH02-Expansion-Packaging-3D_MockUp-Rin-revised-WEB_0.jpg Rin Northfell is a jovial Phoenixborn whose lust for life and battle flares up like a beacon in his frigid homeland. Rin shuns the subtlety of complexmagic, preferring spells and monsters as robust and as considerable as his spirit. The Frostdale Giants deck, featuring new Phoenixborn Rin Northfell, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck with all-new card including 2 conjurations and a conjured alteration spell. Rin requires 10 Natural (blue) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. ["1 Rin Northfell - Phoenixborn","3 Freezing Blast - Action Spell","3 Frost Bite - Ready Spell","3 Ice Trap - Reaction Spell","3 Summon Ice Golem - Ready Spell","3 Summon Frostback Bear - Ready Spell","3 Crystal Shield - Alteration Spell","3 Frozen Crown - Alteration Spell","3 Deep Freeze - Alteration Spell","3 Rin's Fury - Action Spell","3 Frost Fang - Ally","4 Frostback Bear - Conjuration","3 Ice Golem - Conjuration","5 Ice Buff - Conjured Alteration Spell"] PH1202 0.30 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Children of Blackcloud At the top of the world sits Blackcloud – a bleak and venerable city. There rules Brennen, a fifteen year old wielding merciless blood magic, seeking to restore his family and city to the terrifying glory of their ancient heritage. The Children of Blackcloud deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Brennen Blackcloud, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 1 conjuration. Brennen requires 10 Ceremonial (black) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Children of Blackcloud https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/ASH02-Expansion-Packaging-3D_MockUp-Brennen-revised-WEB.jpg At the top of the world sits Blackcloud – a bleak and venerable city. There rules Brennen, a fifteen year old wielding merciless blood magic, seeking to restore his family and city to the terrifying glory of their ancient heritage. The Children of Blackcloud deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Brennen Blackcloud, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 1 conjuration. Brennen requires 10 Ceremonial (black) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. ["1 Brennen Blackcloud - Phoenixborn","3 Chant of Protection - Ready Spell","3 Chant of the Dead - Ready Spell","3 Summon Dread Wraith - Ready Spell","3 Poison - Alteration Spell","3 Choke - Reaction Spell","3 Blood Chains - Action Spell","3 Regress - Alteration Spell","3 Blackcloud Ninja - Ally","3 Fire Archer - Ally","3 Crimson Bomber - Ally","2 Dread Wraith - Conjuration"] PH1201 0.75 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Duchess of Deception The Duchess of Deception deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Victoria Glassfire, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 2 conjurations. Victoria requires 10 Illusion (purple) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Duchess of Deception https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/ASH03-Expansion-Packaging-3D_MockUp-Victoria-revised-WEB.jpg The Duchess of Deception deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Victoria Glassfire, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 2 conjurations. Victoria requires 10 Illusion (purple) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. ["1 Victoria Glassfire - Phoenixborn","3 Illusionary Cycle - Action Spell","3 Flash Archer - Ally","3 Body Inversion - Ally","3 Figures in the Fog - Reaction Spell","3 Particle Shield - Reaction Spell","3 Secret Door - Ready Spell","3 Summon Shadow Hound - Ready Spell","3 Shadow Hound - Conjuration","3 Summon Shadow Spirit - Ready Spell","4 Shadow Spirit - Conjuration","3 To Shadows - Ready Spell","3 Vanish - Reaction Spell"] PH1204 0.75 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Roaring Rose The Roaring Rose deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Leo Sunshadow, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 3 conjurations. Leo requires 10 Charms (pink) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Roaring Rose https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/ASH02-Expansion-Packaging-3D_MockUp-Leo-revised-WEB.jpg The Roaring Rose deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Leo Sunshadow, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 3 conjurations. Leo requires 10 Charms (pink) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. ["1 Leo Sunshadow - Phoenixborn","1 Glow Finch - Conjuration","3 Anguish - Action Spell","3 Beast Tamer - Ally","3 Amplify - Alteration Spell","3 Change Psyche - Action Spell","3 Dispel - Action Spell","3 Memory Theft - Ready Spell","3 Mind Probe - Action Spell","3 Remorse - Reaction Spell","3 Summon Nightshade Swallow - Ready Spell","5 Nightshade Swallow - Conjuration","3 Summon Orchid Dove - Ready Spell","5 Orchid Dove - Conjuration"] PH1203 0.75 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Masters of Gravity Expansion Enter the vortex of Hemlock and tame the forces of Gravity. Echo Greystorm has mastered power beyond the grasp of others, and he intends to bring it to bear on the enemies of Hemlock. The Masters of Gravity deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Echo Greystorm, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 2 conjurations. Echo requires 5 Sympathy (teal) dice and 5 Divine (white) dice to play, which are included in the Laws of Lions and Song of Soaksend Deluxe Expansions. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Masters of Gravity Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/ph1207_main.png Enter the vortex of Hemlock and tame the forces of Gravity. Echo Greystorm has mastered power beyond the grasp of others, and he intends to bring it to bear on the enemies of Hemlock. The Masters of Gravity deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Echo Greystorm, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 2 conjurations. Echo requires 5 Sympathy (teal) dice and 5 Divine (white) dice to play, which are included in the Laws of Lions and Song of Soaksend Deluxe Expansions. ["1 Echo Greystorm - Phoenixborn","3 Changing Winds - Ready Spell","3 Law of fear - Ready Spell","3 Gravity Training - Ready Spell","3 Chaos Gravity - Action Spell","3 Holy Relics - Alteration Spell","3 Enlightenment - Action Spell","3 Summon Mirror Spirit - Ready Spell","3 Polarity Mage - Ally","3 Light Swordsman - Ally","3 Sonic Swordsman - Ally","3 Mirror Spirit - Conjuration","3 Enhanced Strength - Conjured Alteration"] PH1207 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Path of Assassins Expansion Albyon marches to war, and Jericho leads the way. She is the Queen of Assassins, trained to kill any who stand in her path. She is more than just a Phoenixborn. To the people of Albyon, she is a living weapon. The Path of Assassins deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Jericho Kill, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 2 conjurations. Jericho requires 10 of any dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set or the Laws of Lions and Song of Soaksend Deluxe Expansions. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Path of Assassins Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/ph1208_main.png Albyon marches to war, and Jericho leads the way. She is the Queen of Assassins, trained to kill any who stand in her path. She is more than just a Phoenixborn. To the people of Albyon, she is a living weapon. The Path of Assassins deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Jericho Kill, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 2 conjurations. Jericho requires 10 of any dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set or the Laws of Lions and Song of Soaksend Deluxe Expansions. ["1 Jericho Kill - Phoenixborn","3 Battle Mage - Ally","3 Elephant Rider - Ally","3 Squire - Ally","3 Spear Master - Ally","3 Hand Tricks - Action Spell","3 Prepare- Ready Spell","3 Magic Purity - Ready Spell","3 Double Edge - Action Spell","3 Summon Turtle Guard - Ready Spell","3 Summon Lucky Rabbit - Ready Spell","4 Turtle Guard - Conjuration","4 Lucky Rabbit - Conjuration"] PH1208 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Goddess of Ishra Expansion Enlightenment awaits for those who devote their lives to Astrea, the Goddess of Ishra. She is holiness incarnate, and her will carries with it the might of divinity. Kneel before her or fall. The Goddess of Ishra deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Astrea, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 4 conjurations. Astrea requires 5 Charm (pink) dice and 5 Divine (white) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set and the Laws of Lions Deluxe Expansions. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Goddess of Ishra Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/ph1209_main.png Enlightenment awaits for those who devote their lives to Astrea, the Goddess of Ishra. She is holiness incarnate, and her will carries with it the might of divinity. Kneel before her or fall. The Goddess of Ishra deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Astrea, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 4 conjurations. Astrea requires 5 Charm (pink) dice and 5 Divine (white) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set and the Laws of Lions Deluxe Expansions. ["1 Astrea - Phoenixborn","3 Summon Light Bringer - Ready Spell","3 Summon Weeping Spirit - Ready Spell","3 Summon Steadfast Guardian - Ready Spell","3 Mark of the Goddess - Ready Spell","3 Royal Charm - Alteration Spell","3 Imperial Ninja - Ally","3 Devotion - Alteration Spell","3 Kneel - Action Spell","3 Call to Action - Reaction Spell","3 Sun Sister - Ally","5 Light Bringer - Conjuration","4 Weeping Spirit - Conjuration","3 Steadfast Guardian - Conjuration","2 Infatuated - Conjured Alteration"] PH1209 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers. Ashes: The Boy Among Wolves Expansion Wild in spirit, Koji Wolfcub is the feral defender of the Spiral Jungle and those who call it home. Koji communes with the animals and elders of the Spiral Jungle alike, and both have come to respect the untamed power that drives him. The Boy Among Wolves deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Koji Wolfcub, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 5 conjurations. Koji requires 5 Sympathy (teal) dice and 5 Nature (blue) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set and the Song of Soaksend Deluxe Expansion. $14.95 $14.95 Ashes: The Boy Among Wolves Expansion https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/ph1210_main.png Wild in spirit, Koji Wolfcub is the feral defender of the Spiral Jungle and those who call it home. Koji communes with the animals and elders of the Spiral Jungle alike, and both have come to respect the untamed power that drives him. The Boy Among Wolves deck, Featuring new Phoenixborn Koji Wolfcub, is a full, ready-to-play Ashes expansion deck including 5 conjurations. Koji requires 5 Sympathy (teal) dice and 5 Nature (blue) dice to play, which are included in the Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set and the Song of Soaksend Deluxe Expansion. ["1 Koji Wolfcub - Phoenixborn","3 Join The Hunt - Ready Spell","3 Summon Indigo Creeper - Ready Spell","3 Summon Biter - Ready Spell","3 Sleeping Bear - Ally","3 Jungle Warrior - Ally","3 Temple Elder - Ally","3 Hunt Master - Ally","3 Explosive Growth - Alteration Spell","3 Mark Of The Red Flower - Alteration Spell","3 Lick Wounds - Action Spell","3 Panther Spirit - Conjuration","3 Indigo Creeper - Conjuration","3 Luminous Seedling - Conjuration","6 Brilliant Thorn - Conjuration","4 Biter - Conjuration"] PH1210 1.00 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is readily available through PlaidHatGames.com and other retailers.
This product is in stock and is available EXCLUSIVELY in the PlaidHatGames.com store. Dimona Odinstar Exclusive Phoenixborn Dimona Odinstar is a Phoenixborn Phoenixborn for Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. Dimona comes with 3 copies of her exclusive card, the Rayward Knight. The rest of her deck must be built from other cards. $4.95 $4.95 Dimona Odinstar Exclusive Phoenixborn https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/dimona%20spread_0.png Dimona Odinstar is a Phoenixborn Phoenixborn for Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. Dimona comes with 3 copies of her exclusive card, the Rayward Knight. The rest of her deck must be built from other cards. ["1 Dimona Odinstar - Phoenixborn","3 Rayward Knight - Ally"] PHP210 0.10 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is in stock and is available EXCLUSIVELY in the PlaidHatGames.com store.
This product is in stock and is available EXCLUSIVELY in the PlaidHatGames.com store. Ashes Natural Dice 5-Pack Includes 5 standard Natural Ashes dice, identical to the dice that come with the Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. $4.95 $4.95 Ashes Natural Dice 5-Pack https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/Naturestore_0.png Includes 5 standard Natural Ashes dice, identical to the dice that come with the Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. ["Natural Dice"] PHP204 0.10 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is in stock and is available EXCLUSIVELY in the PlaidHatGames.com store.
This product is in stock and is available EXCLUSIVELY in the PlaidHatGames.com store. Ashes Charm Dice 5-Pack Includes 5 standard Charms Ashes dice, identical to the dice that come with the Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. $4.95 $4.95 Ashes Charm Dice 5-Pack https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/Charmstore_0.png Includes 5 standard Charms Ashes dice, identical to the dice that come with the Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. ["5 Charms dice"] PHP202 0.10 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is in stock and is available EXCLUSIVELY in the PlaidHatGames.com store.
This product is in stock and is available EXCLUSIVELY in the PlaidHatGames.com store. Ashes Illusion Dice 5-Pack Includes 5 standard Illusion Ashes dice, identical to the dice that come with the Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. $4.95 $4.95 Ashes Illusion Dice 5-Pack https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/Illusionstore_0.png Includes 5 standard Illusion Ashes dice, identical to the dice that come with the Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. ["5 Illusion Dice"] PHP203 0.10 DEFAULT 9 Dallas|Canada|Germany This product is in stock and is available EXCLUSIVELY in the PlaidHatGames.com store.
This product is in stock and is available EXCLUSIVELY in the PlaidHatGames.com store. Ashes Ceremonial Dice 5-Pack Includes 5 standard Ceremonial Ashes dice, identical to the dice that come with the Rise of the Phoenixborn base set. $4.95 $4.95 Ashes Ceremonial Dice 5-Pack https://www.plaidhatgames.com/fulfillment/sites/default/files/Ceremonialstore_0.png Includes 5 standard Ceremonial Ashes
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When he returned on Nov. 10, Walmart fired him.
"That hurt more than getting punched in the face. It`s like getting punched in the face twice," said Ramon, who was shocked by Walmart's decision.
The retailer said it would not discuss personnel issues, but according to Ramon's termination letter, he was fired for "gross misconduct."
"They flat out told me I could have avoided the situation," said Ramon, who insisted the punch happened in a split second and his immediate reaction to tackle Izalbe was appropriate based on the circumstances.
"Ramon could have prevented the incident if he had not approached the suspect with an aggressive manner, tone and identified himself properly," according to the termination letter.
"I don't know how they get aggressive tone. Literally, I'm on the phone with PD," Ramon said.
Ramon further points out it was Walmart that trained him to use an open palm to stop suspects from running away and adds he was the one who got punched.
"My mentality automatically went into defense mode," he said. "You know, what can I do to prevent this guy from you know hurting anybody else."
Walmart's policy for apprehending suspects, known as policy AP-09, says, "When a suspect is violent or hostile, in an apprehension situation, let the suspect flee out of the store and call law enforcement."
But Ramon points out Walmart's policy also states, "Authorized associates may use reasonable force to physically limit or control the movements of a suspect," which is what Ramon feels he did in bear hugging Izalbe until police arrived and arrested him.
"I felt like he created an unsafe environment for me," Ramon said. "And at that point of time, my safety was involved. At that point in time, not only that, the safety of other people.
"I felt like it would create a more dangerous environment to let him go than to restrain him."
Ramon made $15 per hour and said Walmart could have trouble recruiting workers for that position in the future if employees fear getting fired for using appropriate judgment.
He points out the incident happened five days after a gunman walked into the Thornton Walmart eight miles away and opened fire, with three customers dying.
"Even though I got terminated, I left that building with my head held up high because you know what, no one else got hurt," Ramon said.
On Friday, the Denver District Attorney's Office charged Izalbe for a Nov. 1 burglary at the Walmart store on Smith Road.
Investigators said they found stolen money on Izalbe during the Commerce City incident that was traced to the Denver Walmart.
"Businesses must determine their own policies for the actions of employees in these situations based on the level of risk they are willing to tolerate for their associates," the Commerce City Police Department said.
"Regardless of those private policy decisions, the Commerce City Police Department will always work to uphold public safety wherever and whenever such incidents may occur."
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Ramon get legal assistance.My previous two articles about average salaries in European Union (EU) member countries turned out to be one of the most popular on the blog so far, I would even call them killer articles.
The first post about average salary in EU for 2014 - got more than 85,000 page views; post about average salary in EU 2015 got more than 90,000 page views to the date
Update: Average Salary in European Union 2018
In today's article, I will wrap up latest data on the average salary in EU for 2016.
I wouldn't call this a scientific research, as most of the data in this article are taken from Wikipedia's article List of European countries by average wage. I have added years 2014 and 2015 from previous years and did some simple calculations in Google Sheets. I have listened to previous suggestions to extend the following table with population information for each country to get a better understanding.
2016, definitely is an interesting year for European Union, which will be remembered as the year of Brexit phenomena, when the United Kingdom in referendum decided to leave EU. Anyhow - for this and, most probably next two years data for the United Kingdom will be included in this table, but later on... who knows how things will develop.
The average salary in European Union member countries 2016
Average median salary has increased for about 2.39% in European Union in 2016, resulting in average EUR 1508 monthly up from EUR 1469 in 2015
Rank Country Population 2014 2015 2016 2015-2016 % 2014-2016 % EUR Net EUR NET 1 Luxembourg 0.50 3,189 3,149 3,149 0 -1.27 2 Denmark 5.60 3,122 2,307 3,100 25.58 -0.70 3 Sweden 9.50 2,690 2,551 2,560 0.35 -5.07 4 Finland 5.40 2,330 2,300 2,335 1.49 0.21 5 Germany 80.60 2,054 2,155 2,225 3.14 7.68 6 France 66.00 2,128 2,180 2,180 0 2.38 7 Netherlands 16.80 2,136 2,158 2,158 0 1.01 8 Ireland 4.60 2,160 2,129 2,129 0 -1.45 9 Austria 8.50 2,114 2,124 2,124 0 0.47 10 United Kingdom 64.10 2,597 2,253 2,113 -6.62 -22.90 11 Belgium 11.20 1,946 2,091 2,091 0 6.93 12 Italy 59.80 1,923 2,033 2,033 0 5.41 13 Spain 46.70 1,615 1,734 1,754 1.14 7.92 14 Cyprus 1.10 1,833 1,574 1,574 0 -16.45 15 Slovenia 2.00 1,044 1,092 1,092 0 4.39 16 Greece 11.00 818 1,004 1,069 6.08 23.47 17 Malta 0.40 1,092 1,021 1,021 0 -6.95 18 Portugal 10.40 985 1,001 1,001 0 1.59 19 Estonia 1.30 841 832 903 7.86 6.86 20 Czech Republic 10.50 701 765 793 3.53 11.60 21 Croatia 4.20 710 735 742 0.94 4.31 22 Poland 38.50 678 705 723 2.48 6.22 23 Slovakia 5.40 683 704 708 0.56 3.53 24 Latvia 2.00 557 601 664 9.48 16.11 25 Lithuania 2.90 524 544 585 7.00 10.42 26 Hungary 9.80 503 643 570 -12.80 11.75 27 Romania 19.90 398 417 463 9.93 14.03 28 Bulgaria 7.20 333 356 382 6.80 12.82 505.90 1,489.43 1,469.93 1,508.61 2.39 3.73
Data source: List of European countries by average wage
This is a list of countries containing monthly (annual divided by 12 months) net income (after taxes) average wages in Europe in EUR currency. For this year table, I have decided to exclude USD exchange rates, just to keep it simple. The table above reflects the average (mean) wage as reported by various data providers. In less developed markets, actual incomes may exceed those listed in the table due to the existence of grey economies.
While the median average wage in EU is about EUR 1,508 not all countries are equal, so, for example, the largest average salary has been registered in Luxembourg (EUR 3,149) while the lowest in Bulgaria (EUR 382).
It's interesting to observe that the median EUR 1,500 average wage divides EU by half - there are 14 countries where the average wage is above that line, and there are 14 countries where the average salary is below the median. There is roughly 505 million population of EU in 2016. Countries were median average wage is below EUR 1,500 make a population of about 125 million, that's about a 25% of the overall population in EU.
In fact, just four out of fourteen countries where median average salary isbeloww EU average (Slovenia, Greece, Malta and Portugal) have average salary just barely more than EUR 1,000, making the rest from camp 'bellow the median average salary in EU' with even less than EUR 1,000 average monthly salary.
Average salary in European Union 2016
How does your country stands in this table? Readers and me would love to hear! Drop a comment!The last time Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson teamed up for a movie, it was explosive; There Will Be Blood earned Day-Lewis his second Best Actor Oscar (he earned a third in 2013 for Lincoln) and permanently etched the phrase “I drink your milkshake!” into the pop culture zeitgeist. The two are partnered once again for an upcoming film, and now this long-gestating mystery project finally has an official title: Phantom Thread.
Focus Features also provided a plot synopsis for the film, dated for a Christmas Day release, which will star Lesley Manville and Vicky Krieps alongside Day-Lewis. The story, according to the studio’s official description, is “set in the couture world of 1950s London. The story illuminates the life behind the curtain of an uncompromising dressmaker commissioned by royalty and high society.”
Jason Merritt/Getty Images
In addition to becoming a potential late-season Oscar contender, Phantom Thread might very well be Day-Lewis’ last film. The actor shocked the world when he announced in June that he was retiring from acting. It remains to be seen if he will hold to his retirement plans, or if it will be more of an extended sabbatical like the one he took between 1997’s The Boxer and 2002’s Gangs of New York.
Phantom Thread will open in theaters Dec. 25.©2006 Publications International, Ltd. Steps 2a and 2b
Choking can be life threatening for your cat. The harder a choking cat tries to breathe, the more panicky he or she can become. A cat owner's goal is to open the airway without being bitten.
If you are uncertain whether your cat is choking, some signs to look for include the cat pawing at his or her mouth, a pale or blue cat tongue, obvious distress, and unconsciousness. If your cat is choking, use the following cat care tips.
Step 1: Approach the cat carefully. If your cat is nervous or anxious, restrain the cat if necessary.
Step 2: Clear the cat's airway.
Step 2a: Place one hand over the cat's head so that your thumb and index finger fall just behind the long canines (fang teeth), the head resting against your palm. If the cat is struggling too much, proceed to Step 2e.
Step 2b: Gently tilt the cat's head back so its nose is pointing upward. Push your thumb toward your finger; the mouth will open.
Step 2c: Gently pull the tongue out. If you can see the object, try to remove it with your fingers or needle-nose pliers (unless object is a needle).
Step 2d: If object is a needle and it is embedded deeply in the roof of the mouth, stop. Transport the cat immediately to the veterinarian. Keep the tongue gently pulled out of the mouth if the cat is in distress.
Step 2e: If you cannot remove the object (other than a needle), pick up the cat by grasping its back legs; turn it upside down and shake vigorously. Slapping the back while shaking may help to dislodge the object.
Step 2f: If object is still not dislodged, lay the cat on its side, place your palms behind the last rib on both sides of the abdomen, and press your palms together quickly three or four times. If the object is still caught, repeat this procedure.
Step 3: If you cannot dislodge the object, transport the cat to the veterinarian immediately.
Step 4: If you dislodge the object but the cat is not breathing, feel for a heartbeat by placing your fingers about one inch behind the cat's elbow and in the center of its chest.
" " ©2006 Publications International, Ltd. Step 5b
Artificial Respiration for a Cat
Step 5: If the cat's heart is not beating, proceed to Step 6. If it is beating, perform artificial respiration.
Step 5a: Turn the cat on its side.
Step 5b: Extend the head and neck. Hold the cat's mouth and lips closed and blow firmly into its nostrils. Administer one breath every three to five seconds. Repeat until you feel resistance or see the chest rise.
Step 5c: After ten seconds, stop. Watch the chest for movement to indicate the cat is breathing on its own.
Step 5d: If the cat is still not breathing, continue artificial respiration.
Step 5e: Transport the cat to the veterinarian immediately and continue artificial respiration on the way to the veterinarian or until the cat is breathing without assistance.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation for a Cat
Step 6: If the cat's heart is not beating, perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Step 6a: Turn the cat on its side.
" " ©2006 Publications International, Ltd. Steps 6c and 6d
Step 6b: Kneel down at the head of the cat.
Step 6c: Grasp the chest so that the cat's breastbone is resting in the palm of your hand, your thumb on one side of the chest and your fingers on the other. Your thumb and fingers should fall in the middle of the chest.
Step 6d: Compress the chest by firmly squeezing your thumb and fingers together. Strive for 100 to 160 compressions per minute.
Step 6e: Alternately (after 30 seconds), hold the cat's mouth and lips closed and blow firmly into its nostrils. Blow for three seconds, take a deep breath, and repeat until you feel resistance or see the chest rise. Repeat this 10 to 20 times per minute.
Step 6f: After one minute, stop. Look at the chest for breathing movement and feel for the cat's heartbeat by placing your fingers about one inch behind the cat's elbow and in the center of his or her chest.
Step 6g: If the cat's heart is still not beating, continue CPR. If the heart starts beating, but the cat is still not breathing, return to Step 5b to continue artificial respiration.
Step 7: Transport the cat to the veterinarian immediately. CPR or artificial respiration should be continued on the way or until the cat is breathing and its heart is beating without assistance.
©Publications International, Ltd.Chalk messages in support of Donald Trump at Emory University (photo courtesy of Amelia Sims)
A controversy about presidential politics, free speech, and creating an inclusive campus environment erupted at Emory University this week, with a group of students protesting after messages supporting Donald Trump appeared on campus. Student protesters told the president of the private university in Atlanta that they felt threatened and intimidated by the pro-Trump messages, first reported in the Tab Emory. A national debate ensued.
[Emory student: It’s not about the chalk. It’s about the message Trump sends to people of color]
Amelia Sims, a senior from Memphis, Tenn. majoring in classics and history, who is chair of the Emory College Republicans, offers her take on the issue. — Susan Svrluga
By Amelia Sims
Amelia Sims (photo courtesy of Amelia Sims)
Monday morning, our campus erupted in response to “Trump 2016” chalkings written all over campus. Many students, expressing hurt, frustration, and outrage over the chalkings, marched to the president’s office with demands and grievances. [Someone wrote ‘Trump 2016’ on Emory’s campus in chalk. And some students said they no longer feel safe] Though initially President Wagner refused to send a campus-wide response, he later felt compelled to address students in an email conceding to implement “immediate refinements to certain policy and procedural deficiencies, regular and structured opportunities for difficult dialogues, a formal process to institutionalize identification, review and [the] addressing of social justice opportunities and issues and a commitment to an annual retreat to renew our efforts.” Wagner added that the school would review security surveillance footage near where chalk markings were placed so that perpetrators may go through the conduct violation process, according to the Emory Wheel. Shortly after the incident, several student groups sent out a petition demanding Trump support be recognized as hate speech. Many see President Wagner’s email as a harmless appeasement of the protesters’ demands. However, one should not underestimate the kind of precedent his response sets. While the chalkers may have violated some parts of the vague chalking policy, the remedy for these violations is stated to be a clean-up fee, not a conduct hearing. Additionally, the president’s statements seem to implicitly contradict support of free speech on campus. Conceding to campus loud-mouths is not a way to have respectful dialogue. Appeasing this kind of intimidation threatens to grant speech control to whoever speaks the loudest or throws the biggest tantrum. After the first email and much negative publicity, the university responded with what appears to be damage control.
[Emory issued the following statement Thursday: “Emory University has not identified the individual(s) responsible for placing chalking graffiti in various campus locations earlier this week, and no follow-up action is planned related to the incident. It’s important to note that chalkings by students are allowed as a form of expression on the Emory campus but must be limited to certain areas and must not deface campus property–––these chalkings did not follow guidelines–––that’s the issue regarding violation of policy, not the content."]Ottawa looks to limit the Loons' high-scoring attack to advance to The Championship FInal
The NASL’s best defensive unit is gearing up for a critical test against the league’s highest-scoring team. Ottawa Fury FC hosts Minnesota United at TD Place on Sunday in The Championship Semifinals.
Dating to last year, every match between the two clubs has been extremely tight.
“When we look at the six games played against Minnesota in the last two years – our only six games in our history – have all been a one-goal difference [or less],” Ottawa head coach Marc Dos Santos told NASL.com. “It’s going to be a tight game for sure, and a game that both teams respect each other a lot. We have to be very focused on what we have to do.”
This season, Ottawa picked up its first victory, 1-0, over the Loons at TD Place in the Spring Season. The teams played to a 1-1 draw and later in the Fall Season, Minnesota stunned Fury FC with a late winner from Daniel Mendes in a 2-1 victory to snap Ottawa’s 12-game unbeaten run and handed Fury FC its only home loss of the Fall Season.
Over the course of the season, the Loons sported the league’s most vibrant attack. Christian Ramirez led the way with 12 goals, but Minnesota is capable of receiving goals from anywhere. Nothing highlights that more than fullback Justin Davis putting his name on the scoresheet five times this year.
“We just have to do what we’ve been doing – stay nice and compact, dropping the line when we need to, get numbers behind the ball, and not letting them play in areas that could hurt us,” Ottawa defender Colin Falvey said. “We’re well aware that there is more than Ramirez that can cause problems in their team, but we have plenty of weapons on our own.”
Fury FC’s success begins with the familiarity among the back line. Falvey, Rafael Alves, and Ryan Richter have started all 30 games, while Mason Trafford has made 25 appearances. Knowing each other’s roles and playing styles has led to Ottawa conceding a mere 23 goals. Goalkeeper Romuald Peiser finished with a goals against average of 0.76.
“We all complement each other very well – Peiser in net and myself, Falvey, Alves and Richter,” Trafford said. “We all bring certain attributes that make us a good defense. We’re very focused, we take a lot pride in what we do, and not letting other teams score and making it difficult for them. We’ll just have to up our level of focus and intensity and everything will have to be as good or better so we can keep moving forward in the playoffs.”
If Ottawa can limit the Loons – scorers of 54 goals in the regular season – in front of its home crowd, it could very well lead to being one step closer to lifting the Soccer Bowl trophy.
“Having the playoff game – especially at home after winning the Fall Season – is going to be a real treat for the city and our fans who have been supporting us week in and week out,” Trafford said. “It feels good to be able to give them this game and even one more potentially depending on how things go. It’s going to be a party here on Sunday hopefully and give us the extra lift we need against Minnesota.”
Falvey added: “It’s been a long, long time since Ottawa brought home a professional trophy. [The Ottawa Senators won the NHL’s Stanley Cup in 1927, and the defunct Ottawa Rough Riders won the CFL’s Grey Cup in 1976.] It would be nice to be a part of the side that breaks that duck regarding a trophy from the city’s point of view. We’re excited, but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves. It’s the semifinal – we haven’t won anything yet – so we’re well aware of how important this game is.”Motor Insurance
Premium hike in case of bigger cars and SUVs (above 1,500 cc) is 25 per cent.
Insurance of vehicles, including cars and bikes, will become costlier from April 1 as insurance regulator Irdai has decided to increase premiums by up to 40 per cent from the next fiscal.
Third party motor insurance premium for small cars (up to 1,000 cc) will now be up 39.9 per cent to Rs 2,055 from Rs 1,468 being currently charged. The hike in mid-segment cars (1,000 - 1,500 cc) too is about 40 per cent.
Premium hike in case of bigger cars and SUVs (above 1,500 cc) is 25 per cent. It will now cost Rs 6,164 from April as against the current Rs 4,931.
"It is observed that the cost inflation index (CII) has increased by 5.57 per cent over the previous year, i.e. from 1024 in FY 2014-15 to 1081 in FY 2015-16," Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said while notifying the rates of third party insurance premium from April 1, 2016.
Similarly, premiums have gone up in case of bikes and scooters. The new premium rate for two-wheelers up to 75 cc is Rs 569 as against Rs 519. Two-wheelers falling in the category of 75 cc - 150 cc is up 15 per cent to Rs 619 while there is increase of 25 per cent for bikes in the category of 150 cc - 350 cc. However, premium has been reduced in case of motor-bikes which are about 350 cc to Rs 884.
Basic third party (TP) premium for three-wheelers too has been increased. A new category 'e-rickshaw' (capacity of up to 6 passengers) has been introduced and the basic TP premium has been fixed at Rs 1,125.
The premium increase in case of public carriers is in the range of 15-30 per cent. However, there is no change in case of goods carrying vehicles having capacity up to 12 tonnes.
Motor third party insurance is mandatory for vehicles. Irdai has asked insurers to ensure that motor third party insurance is made available at their underwriting offices and through all available channels of distribution.
Earlier, the regulator had published an exposure draft which included number of policies, number of claims paid and amount of claims outstanding as on March 2015 for each underwriting year and for each class of vehicle.0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
The mother of Heather Heyer, the woman killed in Saturday’s racially motivated terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, is now receiving threats on her own life.
In an interview with NBC News, Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, said she is receiving death threats not long after having to bury her 32-year-old daughter.
Bro lays at least some of the blame on Trump, who she says has given cover to the “marginalized” groups of people that participated in the white supremacist rallies over the weekend.
“I think the president has found a niche in voters of the people who feel marginalized and I think he has continued to nurture those marginalized voters,” she said, according to NBC News. “I’ve had death threats already … because of what I’m doing right this second.”
“Despite the threats,” NBC News added, “Bro said she refuses to live in fear and has vowed to continue to carry on her daughter’s legacy by establishing a foundation in her name.”
Since the attack, she has spoken out loudly against the hatred put on display in Charlottesville and criticized Trump’s despicable response to the racially motivated violence that led to her daughter’s death – but she refuses to be silenced.
“They tried to kill my child to shut her up,” she said after the attack. “But guess what? You just magnified her.”
Meanwhile, while people like Susan Bro show courage and resolve in the face of violence and bigotry, the President of the United States has decided to stand on the side of those who created the toxic environment that contributed to her daughter’s death.
If Donald Trump needs a lesson on how to respond to what unfolded in Charlottesville this past weekend, he should look to Heather Heyer’s mother, who has done what he has so far refused to do – stand up to the white supremacist hatred that took her daughter’s life.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:Supersonic airliner
The Tupolev Tu-144 (Russian: Tyполев Ту-144; NATO reporting name: Charger) is a retired jet airliner and commercial supersonic transport aircraft (SST).[2] It is one of only two SSTs to enter commercial service; the first was the Anglo-French Concorde. The design was a product of the Tupolev design bureau, headed by Alexei Tupolev, of the Soviet Union and manufactured by the Voronezh Aircraft Production Association in Voronezh, Russia.[1] It conducted 55 passenger service flights, at an average service altitude of 16,000 metres (52,000 ft) and cruised at a speed of around 2,000 kilometres per hour (1,200 mph) (Mach 1.6).[3]
The prototype first flew on 31 December 1968 near Moscow[1] from Zhukovsky Airport[4], two months before the first flight of Concorde. The Tu-144 first went supersonic on 5 June 1969[5] (Concorde first went supersonic on 1 October 1969), and on 26 May 1970 became the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2. A Tu-144 crashed in 1973 at the Paris Air Show, delaying its further development. The aircraft was introduced into passenger service on 1 November 1977, almost two years after Concorde, because of budget restrictions. In May 1978, another Tu-144 (an improved version, the Tu-144D) crashed on a test flight while being delivered, and the passenger fleet was permanently grounded after only 55 scheduled flights. The aircraft remained in use as a cargo aircraft until 1983, by which point a total of 102 commercial flights had been completed. The Tu-144 was later used by the Soviet space program to train pilots of the Buran spacecraft, and by NASA for supersonic research.
Development [ edit ]
MiG-21I Analog, used as a, used as a testbed for the Tu-144's wing
View of the front of the Tu-144, with the distinctive retractable moustache canards deployed and lowered droop-nose
The Soviet government published the concept of the Tu-144 in an article in the January 1962 issue of the magazine Technology of Air Transport. The air ministry started development of the Tu-144 on 26 July 1963, 10 days after the design was approved by the Council of Ministers. The plan called for five flying prototypes to be built in four years, with the first aircraft to be ready in 1966. The MiG-21I (1968; Izdeliye 21-11; "Analog") I = Imitator ("Simulator") was a testbed for the wing design of the Tu-144.
Despite the close similarity in appearance of the Tu-144 to the Anglo-French supersonic aircraft, there were significant differences in the control, navigation and engine systems. The Tu-144 lagged behind Concorde in areas such as braking and engine control. Concorde used an electronic engine control package from Lucas, which Tupolev was not permitted to purchase for the Tu-144 as it could also be used on military aircraft. Concorde's designers used fuel as coolant for the cabin air conditioning and for the hydraulic system (see Concorde for details). Tupolev also used fuel/hydraulic heat exchangers but used cooling turbines for the cabin air.[6]:p.187
The Tu-144 prototype was a full-scale demonstrator aircraft with the very different production aircraft being developed in parallel. While both Concorde and the Tu-144 prototype had ogival delta wings, the Tu-144's wing lacked Concorde's conical camber. Production Tu-144s replaced this wing with a double delta wing including spanwise and chordwise camber.[6] They also added two small retractable surfaces called a Moustache canard, with fixed double-slotted LE slats and retractable double-slotted flaps. These were fitted just behind the cockpit and increased lift at low speeds.
Moving the elevons downward in a delta-wing aircraft increases the lift (force), but also pitches its nose downward. The canards cancel out this nose-downwards moment, thus reducing the landing speed of the production Tu-144s to 315–333 km/h (196–207 mph; 170–180 kn), still faster than that of Concorde.[7] The NASA study lists final approach speeds during Tu-144LL test flights as 315–335 km/h (196–208 mph; 170–181 kn). An FAA circular lists Tu-144S approach speed as 329 km/h (204 mph; 178 kn), as opposed to Concorde's approach speed of 300 km/h (190 mph; 160 kn), based on the characteristics declared by the manufacturers to Western regulatory bodies.[8] It is open to argument how stable the Tu-144S was at the listed airspeed. In any event, when NASA subcontracted Tupolev bureau in the 1990s to convert one of the remaining Tu-144D to a Tu-144LL standard, the procedure set by Tupolev for landing defined the Tu-144LL "final approach speed... on the order of 360 km/h depending on fuel weight."[9] Brian Calvert, Concorde's technical flight manager and its first commercial pilot in command for several inaugural flights, cites final approach speed of a typical Concorde landing to be 287–296 km/h (178–184 mph; 155–160 kn).[10] The lower landing speed compared to Tu-144 is due to Concorde's more refined design of the wing profile that provides higher lift at low speeds without degrading supersonic cruise performance – a feature often mentioned in Western publications on Concorde and acknowledged by Tupolev designers as well.[11]
Design [ edit ]
Along with early Tu-134s, the Tu-144 was one of the last commercial aircraft with a braking parachute. The prototypes were also the only passenger jets ever fitted with ejection seats, albeit only for the crew and not the passengers.
Engines [ edit ]
Detached instrument panel.
The first production Tu-144S displaying at the 1973 Paris Air Show on the day before it crashed. The aircraft's planform and canards are clearly shown.
SSTs for M2.2 had been designed in the Soviet Union before Tupolev was tasked with developing one. Design studies for the Myasischev SST had shown that a cruise specific fuel consumption (SFC) of not more than 1.2 kg/kgp hr would be required.[3] The only engine available in time with the required thrust and suitable for testing and perfecting the aircraft was the afterburning Kuznetsov NK-144 turbofan with a cruise SFC of 1.58 kg/kgp hr. Development of an alternative engine to meet the SFC requirement, a non-afterburning turbojet, the Kolesov RD-36-51A, began in 1964.[3] It took a long time for this engine to achieve acceptable SFC and reliability.[6]:p42 In the meantime the NK-144 high SFC gave a limited range of about 2,500 km (1,600 mi; 1,300 nmi), far less than Concorde. A maximum speed of 2,430 km/h (1,510 mph; 1,310 kn) (Mach 2.29) was reached with the afterburner.[12] Afterburners were added to Concorde to meet its take-off thrust requirement[13] and were not necessary for supersonic cruise; the Tu-144 used maximum afterburner for take-off and minimum for cruise.[6]:p110
The Tu-144S, of which nine were produced, was fitted with the Kuznetsov NK-144A turbofan to address lack of take-off thrust and surge margin. SFC at M2.0 was 1.81 kg/kgp hr. A further improvement, the NK-144V, achieved the required SFC, but too late to influence the decision to use the Kolesov RD-36-51.[6]:p135
The Tu-144D, of which five were produced (plus one uncompleted), was powered by the Kolesov RD-36-51 turbojet with an SFC of 1.22 kg/kgp hr. The range with full payload increased to 5,330 km compared to 6,470 km for Concorde.[6]:p248 Plans for an aircraft with a range in excess of 7,000 km (4,300 mi; 3,800 nmi) range were never implemented.[14]
The engine intakes had variable ramps and bypass flaps with positions controlled automatically to suit the engine airflow.[3] They were very long to help prevent surging;[6]:p131 twice as long as those on Concorde. Jean Rech (Sud Aviation) states the need for excessive length was based on the misconception that length was required to attenuate inlet distortion.[15] The intakes were to be shortened by 10 feet on the projected Tu-144M.[6]:p178
The Kolesov RD-36-51 had an unusual variable con-di nozzle for the nozzle pressure ratios at supersonic speeds. Without an afterburner there was no variable nozzle already available. A translating plug nozzle was used.
Production [ edit ]
Sixteen airworthy Tu-144 airplanes were built:
the prototype Tu-144, registration number 68001
a pre-production Tu-144S, number 77101
nine production Tu-144S, numbers 77102 to 77110
five Tu-144D models, numbers 77111 to 77115.
The last production aircraft, Tu-144D number 77116, was not completed and was left derelict for many years on Voronezh East airfield. There was at least one ground test airframe for static testing in parallel with the development of prototype 68001.
Although its last commercial passenger flight was in 1978, production of the Tu-144 did not cease until 1983, when construction of the airframe was stopped and left partially complete.
Operational history [ edit ]
Operational service [ edit ]
The Tu-144S went into service on 26 December 1975, flying mail and freight between Moscow and Alma-Ata in preparation for passenger services, which commenced on 1 November 1977. The type certificate was issued by the USSR Gosaviaregister on 29 October 1977.[16]
The passenger service ran a semi-scheduled service until the first Tu-144D experienced an in-flight failure during a pre-delivery test flight, crash-landing on 23 May 1978 with two crew fatalities.[17] The Tu-144's 55th and last scheduled passenger flight occurred on 1 June 1978.
An Aeroflot freight-only service recommenced using the new production variant Tu-144D ("D" for Dal'nyaya – "long range")[18] aircraft on 23 June 1979, including longer routes from Moscow to Khabarovsk made possible by the more efficient Kolesov RD-36-51 turbojet engines, which also increased the maximum cruising speed to Mach 2.15.[19]
Including the 55 passenger flights, there were 102 scheduled flights before the cessation of commercial service.
Later use [ edit ]
|
Wars prequel trilogy of films and the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series, in which 'B1' and 'B2' models are frequent antagonists. Due to their ubiquity, the terms 'B1' and 'battle droid' are used interchangeably; 'B2' models are also referred to as'super' battle droids.[19][20]
The tall, thin B1 model resembles the Geonosian species, who designed the droids, and are known to "suffer programming glitches that manifest as personality quirks."[21] The droideka is a three-legged heavy infantry unit with twin blasters and the ability to generate a force shield and transform into a disk shape.[22] Multiple other types of specialized battle droids have been featured in the Star Wars fictional universe.[23]
Within the Star Wars Legends continuity, HK-47 is a humanoid soldier robot, designed as a violent killer, which first appeared in the 2003 video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.[24]
Other droids Edit
The Empire Strikes Back), from the US patent documents Sketch of a probe droid toy (first appeared in), from the US patent documents
Star Wars: The Clone Wars has featured WAC-47, a "pit droid" programmed as a pilot and sent on a mission with the all-droid special unit D-Squad,[25] and AZI-3, a medical droid serving the cloners of Kamino who helps uncover the secret of Order 66.[26] The 2015 young adult novel Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure by Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry introduces the droid PZ-4CO, to whom Leia Organa dictates her memoirs.[27][28] PZ-4CO also appears in The Force Awakens (2015).[29] In the 2016 film Rogue One, K-2SO is an Imperial enforcer droid reprogrammed by the Rebel Alliance.[30]Just last week, a years-long tradition came to a screeching halt. “You want me to put it on Fox News,” I asked my wife. “No,” she replied. “I’m done with Fox News.”
My job is to monitor the mainstream media, which is something that eats up about 14 hours of a day that begins at 6 a.m. when the cable morning shows begin. Lying next to me, my good sport of a wife suffers through about an hour of “Morning Joe,” whatever they call that left-wing garbage fire on CNN, and the rest. Out of habit, before I head to my desk, without really asking I always ask, “You want me to put it on Fox?”
Fox News has a problem, and not just with my wife. According to a YouGov Brand Index survey, the perception of Fox News among Republicans has hit a three-year low, “has declined by approximately 50% since January of this year.”
Basically, perception of Fox News has returned to those bad old Dick Morris days after President Obama won re-election. Much of the fall has come in the last few months. There is no question that this precipitous drop is the result of Fox’s ongoing war with Donald Trump.
This might be a good time to tell you that my wife is not a Trump supporter. Her frustrations and disappointment in Fox News have nothing to do with her personal political preference. Like many, it is something much larger than that.
1) Bias
Whether or not you support Trump, FNC’s pro-Rubio/GOP Establishment bias is still as hard to swallow as the mainstream media’s left-wing bias. Bias is bias. It’s manipulative and dishonest, and no one likes to be manipulated or lied to.
MSNBC is left-wing. CNN is even more left-wing. If every Democrat tuned into either, the ratings would crush Fox. Democrats don’t tune in, though, because even Democrats hate bias.
Fox’s ratings are still through the roof, but the people that have kept the “Fair and Balanced” network a juggernaut for more than a decade are losing respect for it. That could mean trouble when the excitement of the presidential campaign fades away. That could also give an upstart an opening.
2) Cluelessness
When it came to grasping the Trump phenomenon, Fox News was every bit as clueless and caught off guard as the BubbleDumb in the mainstream media. A few of the opinion-driven FNC pundits, like Sean Hannity, Eric Bolling and Andrea Tantaros, saw the writing on the wall, but they were outliers who, when you look back, only make the rest of the network look clueless, especially the straight news division.
And once the Trump phenomenon became achingly real, Fox either refused to acknowledge it, or pretended it wasn’t real.
I watch about 30 minutes of Fox News a day, the roundtable on Bret Baier’s “Special Report.” The three-person pundit panel is supposed to represent the smartest thinking in politics, and yet for months and months, every Friday during Candidate Casino, a feature where the pundits award up to a hundred chips (points) to various presidential candidates, no one would acknowledge the “Trump” writing on the wall. Some even admitted they could not acknowledge it.
I still tune into the roundtable, but now it’s for the same reason I monitor the mainstream media: to get a feel for the talking points and wishful thinking-propaganda coming from the GOP Mother Ship. In fact, for that same reason, I’m watching more Fox News than ever before. After all, my job is to expose media deception.
Here is something I never thought I would write in my lifetime: CNN’s handling of the Republican debates has been infinitely more professional, unbiased, and fair than Fox News. It’s not even close. If you go back and look at the debates, CNN’s Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer have out-classed Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace, and Bret Baier by a wide margin.
It is beyond comprehension that, instead of Fox News, I wish CNN was hosting Thursday night’s debate.
When I asked my wife why she is “done” with Fox News, her answer was simply, “They’re just like all the rest.”
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNCVictoria Beckham has trademarked her five-year-old daughter's name.
The fashion designer has registered "Harper Beckham" with intellectual property authorities in Britain and Europe.
It'll allow her to bring out branded products including toys and clothing, and also protects Harper's name in the entertainment industry.
The names of Victoria and David Beckham's three other children have also been registered.
The application, filed on 22 December, says Victoria is the holder of the rights as parent and guardian.
It will mean the former Spice Girl is the only person who can legally use 'Harper Beckham' on products, also ranging from rag dolls to anti-wrinkle cream.
And it will prevent anyone else in the music, film or TV industries calling themselves by the name.
Harper is named after Harper Lee, the author of Victoria's favourite book, To Kill A Mockingbird.
The Beckham's family business is thought by experts to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
As well as Victoria's successful fashion line, they have endorsed products including perfume and underwear.
David Beckham registered his name in 2000 and Victoria did the same in 2002.
Cruz, Romeo and Brooklyn were all registered as trademarks at the same time as Harper.
Brooklyn, 18, has recently been making his own name as a photographer, with his first book due out in May.
Fourteen-year-old Romeo has modelled for Burberry, while 12-year-old Cruz is pursuing a music career.
George Sevier is from law firm Gowling WLG.
He's says it's a good move by Victoria Beckham.
"It is much easier to get a trademark registration when the application is made before the personality becomes famous.
"And having a trademark registration it makes it much easier to stop other people from using the name without permission.
"Victoria Beckham has applied for registration of Harper Beckham as a trademark across the EU. That's a sensible move."
Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeatKUALA LUMPUR: Two men on a motorcycle who snatched the handbag of a university student in Serdang last Wednesday did not realise what they had gotten into.
The victim, who herself was on a motorcycle with a fellow female student riding pillion, chased the thieves for 2km from the entrance of Universiti Putra Malaysia and rammed her motorcycle into the rear of their bike in the 3pm incident.
When all four fell off their machines near Flat Ikan, Sri Serdang, the girls, in their early 20s, screamed for help, attracting a police patrol team, said Serdang Police chief ACP Megat Mohd Aminuddin Megat Alias.
“The police arrested the two men, aged 25 and 27,” he told Bernama.
He said the thieves were injured, one of them fracturing his right leg.
One of the girls was injured in the legs and the other, in the face. All four were admitted to Serdang Hospital, he said.
Megat Mohd Aminuddin said the two men had past criminal records associated with drugs and their motorcycle was a stolen one.Arms and the Man Shaw at the time of the production of Arms and the Man Written by George Bernard Shaw Characters Raina Petkoff
Sergius Saranoff
Captain Bluntschli
Catherine Petkoff
Major Paul Petkoff
Louka
Nicola[1][2] Date premiered 21 April 1894 ( ) Place premiered Avenue Theatre Subject Love and war[3][4]
Arms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid, in Latin: Arma virumque cano ("Of arms and the man I sing").[5]
The play was first produced on 21 April 1894 at the Avenue Theatre and published in 1898 as part of Shaw's Plays Pleasant volume, which also included Candida, You Never Can Tell, and The Man of Destiny. Arms and the Man was one of Shaw's first commercial successes. He was called onto stage after the curtain, where he received enthusiastic applause. Amidst the cheers, one audience member booed. Shaw replied, in characteristic fashion, "My dear fellow, I quite agree with you, but what are we two against so many?"[6]
Arms and the Man is a humorous play that shows the futility of war and deals comedically with the hypocrisies of human nature.
Plot summary [ edit ]
Arms and the Man, 1894 Production photograph of Florence Farr portraying Louka in1894
St. Louis Post-Dispatch.[7] Actors of the Smith College Club of St. Louis are sketched rehearsing for an all-woman amateur benefit performance of George Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man" in December 1908. No men were allowed in the rehearsals or at the performance. The illustration is by Marguerite Martyn of the
The play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. Its heroine, Raina Petkoff, is a young Bulgarian woman engaged to Sergius Saranoff, one of the heroes of that war, whom she idolizes. On the night after the Battle of Slivnitza, a Swiss mercenary soldier in the Serbian army, Captain Bluntschli, climbs in through her bedroom balcony window and threatens to shoot Raina if she gives the alarm. When Russian and Bulgarian troops burst in to search the house for him, Raina hides him so that he won't be killed. He asks her to remember that "nine soldiers out of ten are born fools." In a conversation after the soldiers have left, Bluntschli's pragmatic and cynical attitude towards war and soldiering shocks the idealistic Raina, especially after he admits that he uses his ammunition pouches to carry chocolates rather than cartridges for his pistol. When the search dies down, Raina and her mother Catherine sneak Bluntschli out of the house, disguised in one of Raina's father's old coats.
The war ends, and the Bulgarians and Serbians sign a peace treaty. Raina's father (Major Paul Petkoff) and Sergius both return home. Raina begins to find Sergius both foolhardy and tiresome, but she hides it. Sergius also finds Raina's romantic ideals tiresome, and flirts with Raina's insolent servant girl Louka (a soubrette role), who is engaged to Nicola, the Petkoffs' manservant. Bluntschli unexpectedly returns so that he can give back the old coat, but also so that he can see Raina. Raina and Catherine are shocked, especially when Major Petkoff and Sergius reveal that they have met Bluntschli before and invite him to stay for lunch (and to help them figure out how to send the troops home).
Left alone with Bluntschli, Raina realizes that he sees through her romantic posturing, but that he respects her as a woman, as Sergius does not. She reveals that she left a photograph of herself in the pocket of the coat, inscribed "To my chocolate-cream soldier", but Bluntschli says that he didn't find it and that it must still be in the coat pocket. Bluntschli gets a telegram informing him of his father's death: he must now take over the family business, several luxury hotels in Switzerland.
Louka tells Sergius that Raina protected Bluntschli when he burst into her room and that Raina is really in love with him. Sergius challenges Bluntschli to a duel, but Bluntschli avoids fighting and Sergius and Raina break off their engagement, with some relief on both sides. Major Petkoff discovers the photograph in the pocket of his old coat; Raina and Bluntschli try to remove it before he finds it again, but Petkoff is determined to learn the truth and claims that the "chocolate-cream soldier" is Sergius. After Bluntschli reveals the whole story to Major Petkoff, Sergius proposes marriage to Louka (to Major Petkoff and Catherine's horror); Nicola quietly and gallantly lets Sergius have her, and Bluntschli, recognising Nicola's dedication and ability, offers him a job as hotel manager.
While Raina is now unattached, Bluntschli protests that—being 34 and believing she is 17—he is too old for her. On learning that she is actually 23, he immediately proposes marriage and proves his wealth and position by listing his inheritance from the telegram. Raina, realizing the hollowness of her romantic ideals, protests that she would prefer her poor "chocolate-cream soldier" to this wealthy businessman. Bluntschli says that he is still the same person, and the play ends with Raina proclaiming her love for him and Bluntschli, with Swiss precision, both clearing up the major's troop movement problems and informing everyone that he will return to be married to Raina exactly two weeks from that day.
Critical reception [ edit ]
George Orwell said that Arms and the Man was written when Shaw was at the height of his powers as a dramatist. "It is probably the wittiest play he ever wrote, the most flawless technically, and in spite of being a very light comedy, the most telling." Orwell says that Arms and the Man wears well—he was writing 50 years later—because its moral—that war is not a wonderful, romantic adventure—still needs to be told. His other plays of the period, equally well written, are about issues no longer controversial. For example, the theme of Mrs. Warren's Profession, which so shocked audiences at the time, was that the causes of prostitution are mainly economic, hardly big news today, and the play Widowers' Houses was an attack on slum landlords, who are now held in such low esteem that the matter is hardly controversial.[8]
Subsequent productions [ edit ]
Adaptations [ edit ]
The Chocolate Soldier in which Bumerli (the equivalent of Bluntschli) enters the bedroom of Nadina (the equivalent of Raina), in a 1910 London production The scene inin which Bumerli (the equivalent of Bluntschli) enters the bedroom of Nadina (the equivalent of Raina), in a 1910 London production
Pejorative military use of the term "chocolate soldier" [ edit ]
The chocolate-cream soldier of the play has inspired a pejorative military use of the term. In Israel, soldiers use the term "chocolate soldier" (Hayal Shel Shokolad, חייל של שוקולד) to describe a soft soldier who is unable to fight well.[17] Similarly, members of the Australian Citizens Military Force were derided by the regular army as "chokos" or chocolate soldiers, the implication being that they were not real soldiers.[18][19]CLEVELAND, Ohio - Can Cleveland's championship run continue? The AFC Cleveland Royals certainly hope so.
The Royals will play for the National Premier Soccer League national championship against the Sonoma County Sol on Saturday night at Independence High School at 7 p.m. Tickets for the game are $6 and are available on the team's website or at the gate. The game will also be available at YOUTUBE.COM/AFCClevelandFC.
The Royals feature several local players, many from the local college programs. Included are leading scorers Vinny Bell (Case Western Reserve) and Brian Potocnik (John Carroll). They have four goals and one assist each on the season.
Now in their fifth season, the Royals are making their first appearance in the national championship game under second-year head coach Carter Poe, a former player and also now the coach at Mount Union.
Cleveland advanced to the championship game after finishing first in the Great Lakes East Conference and earning the first-seed in the Midwest Region. They beat Grand Rapids FC, 3-1 on penalty kicks in the regional final, then beat the Clarkstown SC Eagles, 3-2, to become the Midwest champion. The Royals scored 25 goals to lead the Midwest Region this season, while allowing just nine, also best in the region.
Sonoma County is gunning for its second NPSL championship. The Sol defeated Albion SC Pros in the regional final, 1-0, then stopped Chattanooga FC, 2-1, in the national semifinal.
Earlier this year, Cleveland's championship run began when Eastlake native Stipe Miocic won the UFC 198 heavyweight championship, then the Lake Erie Monsters won the American Hockey League's Calder Cup championship. Finally, the Cleveland Cavaliers ended Cleveland's 52-year drought without a major sports championship by beating the Golden State Warriors for the NBA title.THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The number of people killed in attacks by extremists throughout Europe soared in 2015 from a year earlier, the European Union police agency reported Wednesday as it warned the Islamic State group may “put more emphasis on operations abroad” as a Western military alliance puts it under pressure in Syria and Iraq.
The Europol report painted a worrying picture of an EU assailed by Islamic extremist threats that are unlikely to recede anytime soon. It warned that Syrian asylum-seekers could be targeted and swiftly radicalized by IS recruiters while a new generation of fighters is being raised in IS territory in Syria and Iraq.
The report also stated that IS appears to favor attacks against soft targets because they “instill more fear in the general public.” That threat was horrifically underscored by the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, France, that left 84 people dead.
In a move that underscored the swiftly evolving nature of the extremist threat, Europol also issued a separate statement on recent attacks in Nice, Germany and the United States, saying they “highlight the operational difficulties in detecting and disrupting lone actor attacks.”
The report was published on the day that senior government officials from the international coalition against IS were due to meet in Washington, DC, to discuss their campaign.
Compiling data from EU member states, Europol said that in 2015, 151 people died — up from four the previous year — and more than 360 were injured as a result of terrorist attacks in the bloc. All but one of the fatalities were the result of jihadi attacks, Europol said.
Six EU member states faced a total of 211 failed, foiled or completed terrorist attacks from jihad groups and other extremists. Law enforcement officials arrested 1,077 people for terrorism-related offenses.
The report also documented other extremist groups active in the EU, including separatists in Spain and Northern Ireland and extreme right-wing groups.
It warned of a potential new wave of fanatics as a result of children of “foreign terrorist fighters living with their parents in IS-held territory.
“IS has often shown that they train these minors to become the next generation of foreign terrorist fighters, which may pose a future security threat,” the report said.
While Europol said there was no concrete evidence of foreign fighters systematically sneaking into Europe among the huge flow of refugees in 2015, there is a “real and imminent danger” that members of the Sunni Muslim refugee community will “become vulnerable to radicalization once in Europe, and … be specifically targeted by Islamist extremist recruiters.”
The Hague-based police agency also reported that extremists are increasingly adept at using the internet and social media to spread propaganda, raise funds, potentially carry out cyberattacks and finance their operations by soliciting donations in closed forums and websites and even exploiting crowdfunding sites.Eddie Jones has given Dylan Hartley's England captaincy its strongest endorsement yet to edge him closer to retaining the role for the 2019 World Cup.
Saints skipper Hartley, the only player to have started all 22 Tests under Jones, was at the helm for a fifth successive victory over Australia on Saturday after a trio of late tries at Twickenham saw the Wallabies collapse to a record 30-6 defeat.
Jones stated in May that Hartley could be his World Cup skipper if he continued his upward trajectory having initially viewed him as a 'foundation' captain as part of a two-year plan.
The opening half of the Australian's four-year contract will conclude after the clash against Samoa on Saturday with Hartley's leadership already having scaled fresh heights in the eyes of his head coach.
"Dylan was outstanding," Jones said. "His captaincy was first-class. He's moving from being a good captain to being a better captain.
"He manages the referee well, manages the team well. He's got a good demeanour about him with the referee.
"Your ability to communicate effectively with the referee is so important and he does that brilliantly.
"He's been around a bit. He's seen the bottom of the trough and he's now surfing at the top of the crest and he appreciates relationships.
"He appreciates the opportunity of what he's doing at the moment and he's only going to grow as captain."POLICE have laid charges on celebrity chef George Calombaris, after he allegedly shoved a teenager at the A-League grand final in Sydney.
Police confirmed this morning that a 38-year-old man had been charged with common assault after an incident at Moore Park.
The TV personality, whose company MAdE Establishment was last month found to have underpaid staff a total of $2.6 million, was taunted by members of the crowd about the pay bungle after the match on Sunday night.
A 19-year-old is claiming he was shoved by the MasterChef star around 8.50pm after shouting out to Calombaris about the scandal.
Round 21 Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre
Video footage released of the scuffle shows a heated moment when Calombaris stormed towards the stands to confront the teenager.
The chef has since apologised, claiming he was reacting to derogatory remarks made about his family.
In a statement released on Monday, he said he was “really disappointed with what occurred.”
“I was genuinely shocked when post-match football banter turned into personal abuse about my family.
“I regret the way in which I reacted, I am disappointed that I let it get to me, and I sincerely apologise for offending anyone.
“While I am not proud of my reaction to the situation, I was offended by a spectator yelling out abusive and derogatory comments about my family.
“I have spoken to Melbourne Victory FC and Football Federation Australia today to report the situation and I’m truly sorry that this has happened.”
According to legal expert Sam Macedone, if the charge is proven against Calombaris, he may avoid obtaining a criminal record.
“First time offenders with a good record will most likely get a section 10 - which is where the offender pleads guilty, but the court uses its discretion to consider subjective circumstances and deal with it without a conviction, instead placing the offender on a bond,” he told news.com.au.
“But there are certain requirements that must be met.”
The common assault charge carries a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment or a fine of up to $2200.
Calombaris is expected to appear at Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney on Thursday, June 29.“This is very positive for us,” Ms. Hüppe said. “We have been the top browser in Germany, the biggest European market, since 2010. That has helped us a lot. ”
Jesse Verstraete, a Microsoft spokesman in Brussels, could not immediately be reached for comment. Three other Web analytics companies, AT Internet in Bordeaux, France, Adtech in Dreieich, Germany, and Net Applications in California, continue to rank Internet Explorer ahead of Firefox in Europe.
According to Net Applications, Internet Explorer maintained a large lead over Firefox in December in Europe, with a 45.4 percent market share, compared with 33.4 percent.
Measuring Web activity is an inexact science and research companies use varying sample sizes for their rankings, which researchers said could explain the discrepancies.
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StatCounter compiles its monthly market-share figures from three million Web sites that tell the company which browsers were used. Mr. Cullen said the rankings were determined based on roughly 15 billion page views to those sites each month.
Katrin Graewe, a spokeswoman for Adtech, said her company’s results showed that Internet Explorer and Firefox had similar market shares at the end of October, but that Microsoft had since regained the lead with the introduction of its latest browser.
Ms. Graewe said Firefox’s weight in overall European rankings was influenced by its strong position in Germany, where computer users helped make another Microsoft rival, Netscape, the top browser in the continent as late as 2000.
Net Applications had Firefox leading Internet Explorer in Germany in December with a 46 and 41 percent share, respectively. But aside from Germany and Finland, Firefox has a smaller market share, often less than 20 percent, in markets like Britain, Spain and Italy, the company said.
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Philippe Richard, the chief operating officer of AT Internet, said his company’s latest ranking showed Microsoft slightly ahead of Firefox in Europe in November, but did not disclose exact figures. Microsoft may hold that lead when it releases Internet Explorer 9 this year, Mr. Richard said. But the gap between Microsoft and its rivals is closing, he added, as the rise of new browsers in Europe impinges on the market leader.
Microsoft has been distributing a computer ballot screen to users in the European Union that asks them to choose a default browser. Microsoft agreed to the balloting to avoid sanctions in an antitrust case. The balloting, most researchers have concluded, has had little effect on the overall market share distribution.
But over the long term, the online selection process could instill in more consumers the habit of choosing their own browser, said Ms. Hüppe, of Mozilla. “We think we only stand to gain from this,” she said.McFadden left Goodison Park for Birmingham in 2008
Everton have re-signed James McFadden three years after he left the club to join Birmingham.
The Scotland international forward has been without a club since his summer departure from St Andrew's.
He had trained with Wolves, and both Mick McCarthy's side and Celtic were keen on signing the 28-year-old.
However, McFadden has opted to link up again with Everton manager David Moyes and will stay at Goodison Park until the end of the season.
McFadden missed almost the whole of last season with a serious knee injury and Birmingham chose not to offer him a new contract after they were relegated from the Premier League.
The Scot played 109 games for Everton between 2003 and 2008, scoring 11 goals, before joining Blues for £5m.Republicans’ unified control of Washington is triggering an identity crisis within the party over what it means to be a fiscal conservative in the age of Donald Trump: Do deficits even matter, or do tax cuts trump all?
If the White House and GOP lawmakers can’t come to terms on the matter soon, it could very well doom Trump’s cherished tax reform initiative.
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Conservatives have long railed against the nation’s now-$20 trillion debt. But now that they’re desperate to pass a tax bill, many Republicans’ repulsion to red ink is fading fast. Yet some deficit hard-liners are holding the line, insisting that tax cuts be paid for, either by axing deductions or with stiff spending cuts.
The debate is causing some hard feelings within the GOP.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) recently questioned the deficit cred of one of the House’s proudest fiscal hawks before he left to become Trump’s budget chief, Mick Mulvaney. In his new gig, Mulvaney is now insisting it’s okay to increase the deficit with tax cuts, because an expanding economy will eventually pay the bill.
“Our OMB guy, I say this with humor, what happened to him?” Corker said in an interview. “Do you understand what I’m saying? He used to be the fiscal hawk.”
Mulvaney responded in kind during an interview last week, accusing Corker of “ignoring reality.”
“Macroeconomic changes will always lead to change in the larger economy, okay?” he said. “You raise a tax, it has impact. You lower tax, it has impact. It just does.”
The debate highlights conflicting schools of thought over tax cuts in the party of Reagan, which could have dire consequences, particularly in the narrowly divided Senate.
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Republicans say they want less debt but at the same time love a good tax cut — and are desperate to finally notch a major legislative achievement. Most Republicans are coming down on the side of tax cuts, preaching supply-side theories that tax cuts need not be paid for because they will grow the economy and eventually pay for themselves.
“In order to make good on our campaign tax promise, there probably are going to be some sacrifices made from an ideological perspective,” said senior House Budget Committee member Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a longtime deficit hawk.
“I believe that the biggest remedy for our fiscal situation is growth in the economy,” he added. “I am not averse to some deficit spending in order to create long-term sustained growth.”
Most economists say it's unlikely that a multi-trillion-dollar tax package will pay for itself with sustained, long-term growth. That however hasn’t stopped Republicans from predicting that cutting taxes will increase the GDP by a full percentage point for several years and wash away deficit concerns with new revenue.
The crux of the debate centers on “static” scores from budget-crunchers that do not account for new growth, and “dynamic” scores that predict new revenues will be produced by tax cuts.
In today’s GOP, “dynamic” is in and “static” is out.
“The scoring mechanism, again, is crazy,” said Sen Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). “Just agree we’re going to lose money on a static scoring basis. I’m happy to live with a $2-3 trillion static loss.”
Corker has been the loudest critic of this thinking, warning about a “party-like” atmosphere in the GOP, especially now that Barack Obama is out of the White House. But he’s being joined by others: Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) told the Indiana Business Journal that “we can’t assume unreasonable rates of economic growth or we’re being fiscally irresponsible."
Corker's group, however, appears to be small party. While Republicans earlier this year set out to rewrite the tax code without blowing a hole in the national budget, most Hill Republicans, from GOP leaders to conservatives have started to side with Mulvaney, acknowledging that they’ll grow the deficit for a time with the tax package.
“I believe Corker is going to get to the place where I am: If you do the models and look at this right, it pays for itself," said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.).
"I think Sen. Corker will do great in the private sector as he learns a little bit more about economics," quipped House conservative Scott Perry (R-Pa.) when asked about Corker's resistance to dynamic scoring — though Corker became wealthy as a real estate developer before he became a politician.
Freedom Caucus leader Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) argued that revenue-neutral tax reform — which ensures tax cuts are paid for by reducing tax loopholes elsewhere — is “just moving money around” and “doesn’t do anything for the economy.”
Meadows also predicted Republicans will never have the nerve to cut spending, so they have to pass steep tax cuts to spur growth: “What you have to do is you have to mitigate the damage by being as aggressive as you can be on tax rates, which would lessen the damage of our lack of fiscal responsibility over time.”
People like Corker, however, say the idea that tax cuts will automatically pay for themselves is irresponsible — particularly because many economists have thrown cold water on that very notion. He’s willing to accept some assumptions of economic growth because of tax reform, but says if in his “heart” he feels those assumptions are unrealistic, he’ll vote “no.”
“I’m now nervous about where this goes. I hope that in the end if it’s a big deficit creator, then our caucus will not support it,” Corker said.
In theory, dozens of Republicans in Congress agree with Corker. In separate interviews, pragmatists Reps. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) and Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) all said they’d prefer to do revenue-neutral tax reform.
Cole said counting on supply-side growth without any pay-fors is “a little rosy” and Smith said paying for tax cuts would be best “because I think that’s how we get the longest policy possible.” (If provisions in the bill grow the deficit after a decade, they would likely expire under Senate budget rules.)
All three, however, signaled their wiliness to vote for a tax package that adds to the deficit if the choice was that or nothing.
“I prefer it to be revenue-neutral, but I also understand the complexity of it,” Dent said. Still, he seemed a little uncomfortable relying on dynamic scoring: “I don’t want to be overly optimistic about how much growth will be generated.”
There’s also a third, smaller group of Republicans who are pushing for tax cuts to be paid for by spending cuts. The Senate’s budget calls for trillions in spending reductions, but there is no enforcement mechanism for it.
The loudest member of that group is Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who Republicans are worried will vote against whatever tax bill they produce.
“I’m a huge deficit hawk. My opinion has always been that you pay for a tax cut with spending cuts,” Paul fumed. “And everybody else up here thinks you should pay for a tax cut by increasing somebody else’s taxes.”
Many conservatives, including Mulvaney, applaud the Paul idea but don’t think it’s realistic given the reluctance of Republicans to go to the mat on fiscal issues these days. They’ve raised the debt ceiling without cuts and spent billions on disaster aid without paying for it.
That’s why it’s important to cut taxes, Mulvaney argued, because growing the economy is the best shot they have.
“They simply do not have the political will on the Hill to solve this through the spending side of the equation,” he said. “So we have to move to the revenue side.”Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has objected to the CIA and White House stripping certain materials from a report on the CIA’s interrogation of terrorism suspects. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The planned release of a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee on the CIA’s interrogation of terrorism suspects has broken down in a dispute between the committee and the Obama administration over how much of the document can be declassified.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (DCalif.), chairman of the committee, said Tuesday that she had written a letter to President Obama raising objections to material that was stripped from the report by the CIA and the White House.
“I have concluded the redactions eliminate or obscure key facts that support the report’s findings and conclusions,” Feinstein said in a statement. “Until these redactions are addressed to the committee’s satisfaction, the report will not be made public.”
The committee did not release a copy of Feinstein’s letter, and officials declined to discuss details of the dispute. But U.S. officials familiar with the discussions said the disagreement centers on descriptions of CIA officers and detainees throughout the document, as well as material used by the committee to bolster its key conclusions.
Among them was that the CIA exaggerated the significance of intelligence derived from detainees, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-declared mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and repeatedly relied on distorted claims to defend and justify the use of harsh interrogation measures.
U.S. officials familiar with the redacted document said the administration stripped out material that showed that pieces of information long attributed to detainees — and that led to the disruption of terrorism plots or the capture of additional suspects — had actually come from other intelligence sources such as intercepted communications.
“The redactions obscure or prevent the report from sharing other forms of information that contributed to counterterrorism successes,” said a U.S. official involved in discussions over the document.
The committee used CIA-provided pseudonyms to protect the identities of agency personnel, but the agency removed references to those false identities. The CIA also objected to other details that it said could enable readers to identify its officers as well as countries that cooperated in the detention program.
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were cyber-espionage and cyber-sabotage operations," the researchers say.
"[It] seems more like a nail in the coffin, rather than a true ransomware campaign." ®A new outbreak of giant, disease-carrying snails is threatening Florida's crops, experts say.
Now found throughout the world, including the contiguous United States and Hawaii, these invasive plant-eaters pose a particular danger in Florida because of its vibrant agricultural industry.
"We're producing food that the nation depends on... [and this snail] eats 500 different plants, including pretty much everything that grows in Florida," said Mark Fagan, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Agriculture.
"This is not something we can walk away from. These snails are a major threat to Florida's agriculture."
Some snails are smuggled into the U.S. as pets or for religious practices and, once here, get transported around the country in plants or cargo by unwitting people, experts say. (Read more about invasive species.)
"These snails have been intercepted by customs and border patrols at airports. There was one woman who was flying back from Nigeria [who] was intercepted, and she had hidden some snails under her skirt," Fagan said.
The exact reasons for smuggling the snails is unknown, he added, "but we are aware that these snails are used in certain religious practices. Some people also like to keep these snails as pets because they're exotic."
Hardy Pest
There have been outbreaks of the snails in Florida and other parts of the country before, but Florida's latest boom began a year and a half ago in Miami-Dade County.
"They're very prolific," said Awinash Bhatkar, a snail expert with the Texas Department of Agriculture.
After reaching adulthood at about six months of age, the snails can produce up to a hundred eggs per month and live more than eight years.
Whereas most snails feed on decaying organic material or on leaf molds, the giant African land snail is one of the few snails that actually feed on plant parts themselves, Bhatkar said.
In addition to plants, young snails are known to munch on house stucco and even cement as they seek out calcium to strengthen their growing shells.
The snails also pose a human and animal health threat because they can eat rat feces and contract rat lungworm, which can cause a rare form of meningitis. (See pictures of infectious animals.)
"The parasitic nematode that causes rat lungworm can be present in the slime of the snail," Fagan explained. "So if a person comes in contact with the snail, the nematode present can then enter the person's body, eventually making its way into the brain."
He added, "We have confirmation from the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] that rat lungworm disease is present in some snail samples that we sent up to them."
Because of this risk, the Department of Agriculture's Fagan said anyone who thinks they have a giant African land snail infestation should call the department immediately at 888-397-1517, rather than try to kill the snails themselves.
"We'd rather go out and tell you, 'Nope, that's not a giant African land snail,' than you not call us... We don't want to endanger anyone's health. We have protective gear, and we know how to pick them up."
Long Battle Ahead
Fagan is confident that his department has the outbreak in Miami-Dade County under control since switching to a much more aggressive form of bait that's more lethal to the giant African land snail.
The bait contains a bittering agent that makes it unpalatable to domestic animals and wildlife.
"It's truly a challenge, but it's not a challenge that we can't overcome," he said. "We feel very confident that we will be able to reach eradication."
If past experience is any guide, however, achieving that goal in Miami-Dade County could take years. (Read about Burmese pythons thriving in Florida.)
In 1966, an outbreak occurred in North Miami after snails smuggled by a 10-year-old boy from Hawaii were released by his grandmother. Nine years, and about 18,000 dead snails later, the snail pest was finally removed.
But the Miami-Dade outbreak is much bigger, and as a result could take much longer to contain.When materials scientist Joseph Michael and his team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., trained their high-powered electron microscope on anthrax spore samples the FBI had sent them in February 2002, they made two crucial discoveries: The first confirmed previous findings that the Bacillus anthracis spores mailed to U.S. Senate offices and various media outlets (shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks) contained silicon, a substance used to turn anthrax-causing spores into a biological weapon.
But it was Sandia's next discovery that marked a critical turning point in the feds's probe of the mysterious mailings, which killed five people, injured 17 and prompted thousands more who were potentially exposed to the deadly spores to take potent antibiotics—in particular, Ciprofloxacin (known to irritate the gastrointestinal tract and cause joint swelling). Using highly sensitive transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), the researchers came to a startling realization: The silicon had grown organically inside the Bacillus anthracis samples, nothing had been added to weaponize the spores. "The silicon was not on the outside of the spore," says Michael, who headed up Sandia's investigation, "but rather incorporated on the inside."
It was this key information that helped the FBI to rule out the likelihood that a terrorist organization was behind the anthrax mailings and prompted the agency to turn its attention to U.S. government labs as the possible source of the anthrax. This move eventually led the agency to conclude that Bruce Ivins, a scientist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), a federal biodefense research laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., who initially assisted with the investigation, was the culprit. Ivins, 62, two months ago committed suicide as prosecutors prepared to charge him in connection with the mailings.
Post-9/11 Scare
FBI Director Robert Mueller, III, this week told a House panel that he plans to commission the National Academy of Sciences to review evidence compiled by the agency's Amerithrax Task Force to erase any remaining doubts that the mailed anthrax came from Ivins's lab—and close a case that began seven years ago when a batch of letters containing Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes the disease anthrax, were sent to several news outlets, including the New York Post and NBC News. Although only the letters to the Post and NBC were discovered, the FBI concluded that contaminated letters were also responsible for anthrax infections at ABC News, CBS News and for the October 5, 2001, death of Robert Stevens, a photo editor for the National Enquirer publisher American Media, Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla.
Anthrax infection begins within a week of exposure with a few days of fever, chills, chest heaviness, malaise and cough as the spores are absorbed by the lungs. Ultimately the bacteria produce toxins that damage the lungs and poison the blood, potentially sending the victim into septic shock that leads to organ failure and, in many cases, death.
By mid-October, spore-filled envelopes had also been discovered in the offices of former Sens. Tom Daschle (D–S.D.) and Patrick Leahy (D–Vt.), along with ominous messages, including: "You can not [sic] stop us. We have this anthrax" and "Are you afraid?" Buildings throughout Washington, D.C., including the Hart Senate Office Building, the main postal distribution facility and several offices of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were shut down out of fear they had been contaminated. The feds tested 36 postal facilities in the D.C. area (including one where two postal workers died), finding spores at 15 of them. The Hart Building did not reopen until January 2002.
Investigating the Investigators
Congress has called for an investigation of the FBI's work on the anthrax case. One major misstep was revealed Tuesday, when the Los Angeles Times reported that Peter Jahrling, a former senior civilian scientist at the Fort Detrick facility, admitted that he had made an "honest mistake" seven years ago when he told top FBI brass that he believed anthrax spores he examined had been altered to make them more deadly.
Worried that a terrorist organization or a country sympathetic to al Qaeda might be involved, the U.S. Department of Justice in late 2001 commissioned a series of tests to determine whether the spores had been coated with a substance that would prevent them from clumping together, enabling them to hang in the air longer than they would normally, thereby increasing the chance of inhalation.
Early in the investigation, the FBI appeared to endorse the view that only a sophisticated lab could have produced the material used in the Senate attack, investigative journalist Gary Matsumoto wrote in the November 2003 issue of Science. In fact, in May 2002 16 scientists and physicians working for the government published a paper in JAMA The Journal of the American Medical Association, describing the Senate anthrax powder as "weapons-grade" and exceptional: "high spore concentration, uniform particle size, low electrostatic charge, treated to reduce clumping."
In addition, the August/October 2002 newsletter from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), a research organization that the government often turns to for help analyzing potentially pathological substances, reported that a mass spectrometry analysis found silica—a staple in professionally engineered germ warfare powders for decades—in the powder sent to Sen. Daschle. The silica was believed to be there to prevent the anthrax spores from aggregating and make it easier for them to disperse into the air, according to Matsumoto, who added that any such weaponized form of anthrax is "more than 500 times more lethal than untreated spores."
Finding the Right Technology
By the time the Sandia researchers began their work in February 2002, "we had heard just like everyone else that the spores had been weaponized," says Michael, who had proposed a study of the elemental composition of any materials found growing outside the spores.
The first step was to find the silicon. Michael was aware that FBI researchers had analyzed the samples with both scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which scans surfaces with a high-energy beam of electrons, and with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), which analyzes x-rays emitted by a substance after it is hit with charged electrons. But at that point, no one had studied them with a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), which transmits a focused beam of electrons through a small part of a specimen to form an image and could provide compositional information by examining the spores a few nanometers (one nanometer is 40 millionths of an inch) at a time, a higher resolution than SEM could provide, Michael says.
This enabled Sandia researchers to not only detect the presence of a foreign substance such as silica, but also to determine its location on or inside the spore. "In the FBI's mind, it was important not only that trace amount of elements were present, but also…[to determine]…where those elements were located in the sample through microanalysis," says Paul Kotula, a Sandia material scientist who studied the samples with Michael.
The researchers could find no way that the silica could be placed inside the spore without leaving a residue on the spore's outermost layer. (They found none.) Instead, the researchers determined that the silica formed inside the spore naturally. After only a month examining the anthrax samples in March 2002, Michael and his team were convinced, contrary to other reports, that the anthrax used in the attacks had not been weaponized.
Some of the samples they worked with came from the USAMRIID, which employed both Ivins and Steve Hatfill, another government scientist the FBI pursued but who ultimately turned out to be a dead end. (He was vindicated in June when he won a $5.8 million settlement in June against the Justice Department.) According to Michael, neither he nor other Sandia researchers ever worked directly with any of the USAMRIID researchers, instead obtaining all of the samples they tested through the FBI. Nor did Sandia work with live anthrax; all of the samples they received were first inactivated or irradiated by the FBI.
Michael says he was surprised to hear that the feds were closing in on a scientist at USAMRIID (Ivins, who died of a prescription-drug overdose), but that he was "not surprised the person who did this had knowledge of microbiology."
In the end, it was at Sandia where scientists cracked the mystery behind the mailings. The problem was, says Michael, that he had to keep mum on his findings—which might have calmed a jittery nation still reeling from the 9/11 terror attack—until the FBI wrapped up its investigation. "That's been one of the really frustrating things for Paul and me," Michael says. "We knew the answers but couldn't tell anyone"Overvalued Fantasy Players
Despite concerns from concerned family members of it being “too early to write about football because it’s not even the season yet,” we serious fantasy football fans know better. There is no offseason. If anything, this is the time of the year when fantasy championships are won.
The calendar has turned to summer and fantasy football drafts and mock drafts are all the rage. Enough of these have already been established that there is ample room to analyze what other fantasy owners think about the upcoming 2014 season.
Our talented friend Zach Greubel discussed some excellent wide receiver options that should be considered as good values to draft ahead of their current ADP (average draft position.) Now it’s time to go in the other direction and discuss some players who may be overvalued early on this season. Using ADP rankings from our pals over at Myfantasyleague.com, here are some players that might have some concerns or situational variances that may cause them to be poor fantasy football values this season.
Rankings are based off of a 12 team, non-IDP draft with PPR scoring.
LeSean McCoy (ADP 1.1)
Philadelphia Eagles
This has got to be a mistake, right? How can the overwhelming favorite to top fantasy drafts this summer be considered overvalued? Well, if you’re a longtime football fantasy owner, you should be aware of the ugly history of the follow-up season for running backs that lead the league in rushing.
Arian Foster is just the latest victim of this trend, but going back over the past 26 seasons, only 3 running backs that led the league in carries have come back to put up better numbers the next season. Every runner from the 2002 season on has tailed off, often significantly.
As great as McCoy is, at 5’11” and 200 lbs, he isn’t the biggest back and because he’s such an asset, he’s on the field a lot, taking a ton of hits. McCoy has missed at least one game due to injuries in three of his five pro seasons. Also, keep in mind that the Eagles have now acquired the services of pass-catching extraordinaire Darren Sproles, whose presence is sure to have at least a slight negative effect on McCoy’s role in the passing game.
Andrew Luck (ADP 3. 7)
Indianapolis Colts
This isn’t an indictment on Andrew Luck- he’s an excellent young quarterback and should be one of the most coveted signal-callers in any fantasy draft. But if you miss out on the “big three” quarterbacks, there’s not much difference in Luck and the next half-dozen or so QB’s (including Robert Griffin III, Colin Kaepernick, Matt Ryan, and Nick Foles) that are going in fantasy drafts. There’s little to be gained by selecting one of them in round 3 when you can load up on running backs or receivers and get virtually the same QB production in round nine or 10.
In the case of Luck, his real value is based in dynasty leagues, where you could argue he should be considered the top signal-caller. But in redraft leagues, many of the QB’s selected between 4-12 have similar numbers, and the further you wait to nab your starter, the better value you get for your fantasy squad. Over the past two season, Andrew Luck has averaged 355.7 fantasy points a year, while Tony Romo has 344. That’s a difference of less than one point per week, and Luck is costing his owners a third round pick, while Romo can be had a full five to seven rounds rounds later.
Most fantasy experts and analysts will tell you that waiting on quarterback gives your team the best chance at building up important depth at much thinner positions. This pass-happy NFL of today has assures us that between 12 and 14 quarterbacks will put up solid fantasy production. If you miss out on Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning or Drew Brees, don’t be afraid to hold off on addressing your QB spot for the next eight rounds.
Cordarrelle Patterson (ADP 3.9)
Minnesota Vikings
Undoubtedly, Cordarrelle Patterson is an exciting young NFL talent, but the hype seems a bit much for a guy with one career 100 yard game. In his rookie season, the Vikings did supplement Patterson’s numbers with a healthy number of rushing attempts, which boosted his overall fantasy value significantly. But there’s no guarantee that will continue. Opposing teams will be more prepared for it this season, and who knows if new offensive coordinator Norv Turner will want Patterson taking hand-offs when Adrian Peterson occupies the backfield.
Speaking of Turner, he’s always been a proponent of a vertical passing game that favors bigger receivers (Michael Irvin, Vincent Jackson, Josh Gordon) running deep routes. That wasn’t how Patterson was utilized as a rookie and the early talk out of Vikings OTA’s is Patterson will be more of an “X” receiver, or a guy who lines up all over the field. Minnesota is in a state of flux, with an entire new coaching staff and an undecided quarterback situation.
That means there are a lot of variables at play and, besides Adrian Peterson, there is risk with all other Vikings skill position players. With a current ADP comfortably ahead of more proven veterans like Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Vincent Jackson, and T.Y. Hilton, Patterson seems like a roll of the dice.
DeSean Jackson (ADP 5.1)
Washington Redskins
Part of being a savvy investor is recognizing risk and to avoid taking unnecessary chances. The same holds true in fantasy football. DeSean Jackson is an exciting player, but is surrounded by many factors that make him a dicey WR2.
First, Jackson has missed games due to injuries in 4 of his 6 pro seasons- he’s only listed at 5’10” and 175 lbs. Secondly, 2013 was a career-best season across the board for Jackson, under the innovative tutelage of offensive guru Chip Kelly. You have to at least be slightly concerned that Kelly would simply release D-Jax and allow him to freely sign with a division rival.
Finally, Jackson is moving from a movable chess piece in an unpredictable Chip Kelly offense to one where he will likely be mainly used as a “Z” receiver in Jay Gruden‘s new offense in Washington. Most likely, Jackson will trail behind Pierre Garcon and tight end Jordan Reed in targets.
Knowshon Moreno (ADP 6.7)
Miami Dolphins
Hopefully you’re keeping up with news and reports out of OTA’s and know to avoid Moreno this season. Not only was the former Bronco runner being overvalued due to his nifty numbers from 2013’s historic offense in Denver, but it’s been nothing but bad news for Moreno since he signed a $3 million deal with the Dolphins.
First Moreno was reduced to taking second-team reps behind incumbent Lamar Miller and didn’t show up in the best of shape. Then came late breaking news that Moreno may be afflicted by a serious knee injury that may require surgery, putting his entire season in jeopardy.
Only time will tell if this injury will be a determent to Moreno’s 2014 fantasy value, but early signs aren’t good, and Moreno has a long injury history throughout his tenure in Denver. Don’t get caught paying for last year’s stellar numbers. Let somebody else draft Moreno this season.
Eric Ebron (ADP 7.3)
Detroit Lions
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By all accounts, Eric Ebron is a phenomenal athlete and is expected to make a big impact in the NFL. He’s also raw and has shown the expected signs of a rookie struggling to adjust to the NFL game. The Lions have a dangerous offense and are expected to put up excellent numbers, but it’s going to be hard for a rookie tight end to carve out a significant role on a team that has a surplus of offensive talent.
While Ebron looks like a big enough talent to command a role as soon as this season, he was never utilized much as a red-zone threat at North Carolina, so his touchdown numbers could be soft. The Lions also have two other tight ends, Brandon Pettigrew and Joseph Fauria, who have proved to be adept red-zone targets.
In redraft leagues, it doesn’t make much sense to draft Eric Ebron before a more prove player like Panthers tight end Greg Olsen, who stands to gain more targets in Carolina this year, and has finished as a top 7 fantasy tight end in each of the past two seasons.
Seahawks Defense (ADP 9.1)
Under normal team scoring circumstances, there little reason to select a defensive team before round 12 or 13 at the earliest. Selecting one at or near the top of round 9, or even earlier, is just a bad value play. There’s only a small difference between the top rated defense and the league’s 12th ranked unit.
Over the past five seasons, the team that finished the year as the top-ranked unit has averaged about 133 points per year. Meanwhile, the number 12 defensive unit has averaged 90 points a season. That’s a difference of a mere 2.8 points per week.
Furthermore, there is little consistency from year to year among defensive teams. Nobody drafted the Kansas City Chiefs last season and they ended up as the top unit. Even the vaunted Seahawks only finished 5th last year, and have yet to end a season as the top ranked fantasy defensive squad.
The best bet, as it usually is for smart fantasy football owners, is to be prepared, sit back, let other owners reach and make mistakes, and pounce on the values. That’s how you build a consistent winner.As 2D graphics developers and designers we are on a quest to explore the innovations and great ideas behind the software gems we inspire from.
If you are into drawing and sketching, you've probably stumbled upon Krita – an open source free app for digital painters, illustrators and concept artists.
Krita has a steady set of core features plus a variety of helpful tools and we would like to highlight some of them for you in short videos.
1. Mirror Mode
Small but mind-catching: a funny tool for easy creation of symmetrical objects and geometrical patterns. You could quickly get hooked on it.
2. Automatic Brush Orientation
Brush orientation follows your mouse or tablet pen movement for a more natural look.
3. Pen Movement Smoothing
Calms down your shaky mouse or tablet pen to draw steadier, smoothed lines.
4. Drawing Assistants
Impressive help for drawing geometrical figures and sketching in perspective.
This feature lets you set parallel points, vanishing points, perspective grids and other types of assistants. And it comes with different snap options.
5. Transform Mask
Apply tweaks to objects using masks that you can switch on and off for a quick return to the object's original state. All object modifications are reflected into the mask.
6. Clone Layer
Want to simultaneously apply all the changes and transform masks in a layer to its multiple copies? Clone it.
7. Favourite Tools on Right Click
A handy option for quicker drawing process. Brings up color selector, history palette and brush palette.
8. Color History
Color values history for a quick call-back of an already used value.
9. Color Wheel Format
Not just one, actually – several color wheel formats to choose from for faster color selection.
Besides these you will get some really advanced brush settings (one of Krita's most powerful features), advanced layer options and masking, tablet rotation for the left-handed and other tools.
Krita is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and you may download it freely from their official website: https://krita.org/.
Image courtesy: Ramon MirandaBy Kim Ghattas
BBC News, Washington
His lawyers described him as a two-bit driver who hung out with the wrong people. The US government maintained he was a dangerous terrorist who should be sentenced to life in jail. Hamdan spent more than five years in Guatanamo Bay Regardless of how important a role he may have played as Osama Bin Laden's driver, 40-year-old Yemeni national Salim Hamdan, became a central figure in the saga of trials at the controversial detention centre in Guantanamo Bay. He frustrated the Bush administration by challenging the system of military commissions originally set up in Guantanamo, by taking his case to the Supreme Court in 2006, in Hamdan vs Rumsfeld. He was the first person convicted in a contested trial at the small, windowless courtroom on a hilltop at the US naval base in Guantanamo. But the verdict and relatively short sentence he was given were seen as a blow to the White House. Now, his transfer to Yemen, where he is to serve the remaining month of his sentence, could portend a way forward for the release of the other 100 Yemenis still being held - the largest national group and one of the biggest headaches for the US administration. But crucially, his departure from Guantanamo signals the beginning of the end for the detention facility. Thicket of problems "It's all unravelling," said Navy Lt Cmdr, Brian Mizer, Hamdan's defense attorney. Just last month, the US administration had sought to get Hamdan re-sentenced because officials felt that the judge, Navy Cpt Keith Allred, had erred by crediting him for time already served
President-elect Barack Obama has said he will close down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. But even before he moves into the White House, a feeling of uncertainty hangs over Gitmo, as it is also known, with a top judge retiring, a prosecutor quitting and everybody awaiting the details of Obama's plan to deal with the thicket of problems that closing Guantanamo will raise - legal, logistical, diplomatic, political and security-related. For Hamdan, the end of his Guantanamo journey has already come. The father of two was caught at a road block in Afghanistan in 2001, soon after the attacks of 11 September, as US forces bombed suspected Taleban al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan. He was charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. But in August, a jury of six military officers dismissed the more serious charge of conspiracy and found guilty only of the lesser charge of material support. In a stunning blow to the Bush administration, it only gave him a five-and-a-half year sentence, crediting him with the five he had already served. 'Political gain' The prosecution at the time claimed the sentence showed the system of the military commissions were fair but Hamdan's lawyers, and civil rights groups, while pleased with the sentence maintained that the whole system was flawed. Closing Guantanamo will be a complicated process The Pentagon then announced that the US military had the right to continue holding Hamdan indefinitely as an unlawful enemy combatant if he was deemed to continue posing a threat. Just last month, the US administration had sought to get Hamdan re-sentenced because officials felt that the judge, Navy Cpt Keith Allred, had erred by crediting him for time already served. It is unclear what brought the reversal, but the decision to transfer Hamdan to Yemen was reportedly taken by the White House. "That only confirms what we said in Hamdan's case about these being political commissions driven by politicians and political appointees for political gain rather than experienced prosecutors and the pursuit of justice," said Mizer. "The decision to continue holding him was so patently illegal that even hard liners in the government knew they had to repatriate him." Concern about Yemen A spokesperson for the Yemeni Embassy, Mohammed el Basha said it was "a good-faith gesture by the White House". The decision to send Hamdan to Yemen took many by surprise, including his lawyers
He said he hoped the release was the first of many to come and that negotiations were continuing. The group of Yemenis is described by experts as a combination of accidental warriors and unrepentant combatants though in most cases, it is unlikely there is enough evidence to put them on trial. But the US is concerned about Yemen's ability to monitor and rehabilitate them. Three of the seven men involved in an attack against the US embassy in Yemen in September were graduates of the Yemeni rehabilitation programme. A former Guantanamo inmate from Kuwait was involved in a suicide attack against US troops in Iraq earlier this year, adding to general concerns about the ability of countries to monitor the repatriated former detainees. "We have proved that we are part of the war against terror because the violence is directed at us as well," said el Basha. "So we understand the request for assurances." The decision to send Hamdan to Yemen took many by surprise, including his lawyers, who received a call on a Saturday to alert them to the imminent transfer, which eventually took place Tuesday. "We were able to call him on Sunday and had an emotional, one-hour call," said Mizer. "He was guardedly optimistic and didn't want to believe it. He also apologised for his demeanour." Complicated closure Mizer who worked on the case from the start developed a close relationship with his client, as his only access to the outside world. The US has to decide how to deal with future suspects captured in the war on terror But he also described a difficult relationship at a times with a man who tried to make up for his powerless situation by exercising some authority over his defence attorneys. Mizer also visited Hamdan's family in Yemen to collect testimony from his wife. The Washington Post commented that the Bush administration had acted fairly and responsibly by taking the decision to transfer Hamdan. It also remarked that this "spares incoming president Barack Obama the burden of deciding at the very outset of his administration whether, when and where to release Mr Hamdan". It is indeed one decision less to take in relation to Guantanamo Bay, but with more than 200 detainees remaining, including high-profiles like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 plotter, the road to closing Guantanamo will be long and complicated. Thorny question Nearly 800 men were brought to Guantanamo over the years, since it opened in 2002. The majority have been released or transferred to their home countries because there is not enough evidence to put them on trial for war crimes. Charles Stimson, a former deputy assistant secretary of defence for detainee affairs, also said that by transferring Hamdan before the end of his sentence, the Bush administration had avoided dealing with the thorny question of the continued detention of unlawful enemy combatants. With the US still involved in two wars in Iraq, and in Afghanistan, and facing the possible threat of further attacks, the Obama administration will still have to decide how to handle any future capture of suspects linked to al-Qaeda and potential security threats.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionImage caption The research could bolster those who think meteors and comets provided vital ingredients for life on Earth
A meteorite found in Antarctica could lend weight to the argument that life on Earth might have been kick-started from space, scientists are claiming.
Chemical analysis of the meteorite shows it to be rich in the gas ammonia.
It contains the element nitrogen, found in the proteins and DNA that form the basis of life as we know it.
Meteorites could have showered the Earth with an attractive mix of components, including a large amount of ammonia Professor Sandra Pizzarello, Arizona State University
The researchers say meteorites like this could have showered the early Earth, providing the missing ingredients for life.
Details of the study by researchers at Arizona State University and the University of California, Santa Cruz, are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Life story
The new study is based on analysis of just under 4g of powder extracted from a meteorite called Grave Nunataks 95229 (named after its place of discovery in Antarctica), discovered in 1995.
On treatment, the powder sample was shown to contain abundant amounts of ammonia as well as hydrocarbons.
Professor Sandra Pizzarello, who led the research, says the study "shows that there are asteroids out there that when fragmented and become meteorites, could have showered the Earth with an attractive mix of components, including a large amount of ammonia".
Meteorites like this could have supplied the early Earth with enough nitrogen in the right form for primitive life forms to emerge, she says.
Previous studies have focused on the "Murchison" meteorite, which hit Australia in 1969, which was found to be rich in organic compounds.
The professor says Murchison is "too much of a good thing" and contains hydrocarbon molecules which you would expect to find at the end rather than the start of the life story.
Image caption The meteorite GRA95229 from which a sample was taken and analysed for this latest study
She believes the composition of these compounds are too complex and too random in their molecular shape to have played a role in life on Earth.
Asteroid belt
The theory that our planet may have been seeded by a comet or asteroid arises partly from the belief the formative Earth might not have been able to provide the full inventory of simple molecules needed for the processes which led to primitive life.
The suggestions is that the Asteroid Belt, between Mars and Jupiter, away from the heat and pressure of the forming planets, could have been a better place for such processes.
Collisions between asteroids within the belt produce meteoroids which shoot off around the Solar System and which can carry materials to the Earth.
Dr Caroline Smith, a meteorite expert at London's Natural History Museum agrees the important element in the new study is the nitrogen, even though she would like to see similar results repeated in other meteorites.
"One of the problems with early biology on the early Earth is you need abundant nitrogen for all these prebiological processes to happen - and of course nitrogen is in ammonia.
"A lot of the evidence shows that ammonia was not present in much abundance in the early Earth, so where did it come from?"
What specifically caused life to begin on Earth remains a mystery. Professor Pizzarello hypothesises material from a meteorite may have interacted with environments on Earth such as volcanoes or tidal pools, but says all remains a matter of guess work.
"You find these extraterrestrial materials (in meteorites) which have what you need," she says, "but on the how and when, in which environments and by what means - really, we don't know."
"You can only say that yes, it seems that the extraterrestrial environments could have had the good stuff."Formula SAE is a student design competition created by SAE International. The aim of this competition is to give to the participants the chance to experience working in a motorsport team. They have to design, manufacture, test and drive a Formula-style race car, all while respecting the different rules established by Formula SAE. There are events all around the world where students from universities of every country can compete on different aspects, such as speed, design, cost, and more.
Fuel Tank Design in Formula SAE and Motorsport
One of the main problems identified as needing research and development in motorsport is the design of a fuel tank. This issue is also very important in Formula SAE, as the fuel tank is a core part of the car and needs to be absolutely secure, with no leaks and with the lowest possible weight. To reduce weight, each team has to study the consumption of its car and design the fuel tank to hold an optimal amount of fuel to finish the Endurance (the longest event of the competition).
At the end of the race, car handling changes massively because most of the fuel is already consumed and the tank is nearly empty. This result is a phenomenon called sloshing, which means that the fuel is pulled by inertia forces towards the corners of the fuel cell. This is a massive problem because the engine can stop if it doesn’t receive fuel soon and it can provoke the retirement of the team.
Computational fluid dynamics can be used to avoid this problem. It is possible to simulate several designs of fuel tanks to analyze the behavior of fuel inside it and study if the circuit where we are going to compete will provoke that effect. For that, it is necessary to conduct an in-depth study of the circuit, analyzing forces on corners and preparing a sequence of them.
This requires a huge effort because it is necessary to estimate the velocity on each corner (analyzing, if it’s possible, other years’ performances) and calculate for each corner the force over the Formula SAE car. This task is critical because it will be the base of the simulation. A file will be created with all the important parameters, which will be the boundary conditions of our simulation.
The next step is to create several designs of the fuel tank, adapting it to the shape of the car and taking into account the other components of the engine. On any motorsport
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“This is particularly arbitrary,” said Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “This isn’t tax policy. It’s punitive. It’s paranoia, and it totally misses the target.”
In numerous appearances Wednesday, Allergan’s chief executive expressed frustration with the new Treasury Department rules that appear to have derailed the deal.
“Everybody’s talking about walls. The Treasury is building a wall around the U.S.,” Saunders said in a conference call with investors. Saunders, an American, has emphasized that Dublin-based Allergan invests heavily in the United States, including through its research and development programs.
“I’m patriotic. I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but I think it’s incredibly misguided and unproductive policy for the United States,” he said.
Mike DeBonis, Anne Gearan and Jim Tankersley contributed to this report.A piece of chalk is all that it took for demonstrators to make their presence known in front of the corporate headquarters of Downer, an Australian-based construction firm, on November 24. Some of the around 150 demonstrators used it to write on the sidewalk in front of the company’s headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. One of the messages left by a protester captured their demand: “We Don’t Want Your Dirty Coal.”
The phrase refers to a roughly $12.55 billion coal mine project located over 1,000 miles north in Queensland and proposed by an Indian-based corporation named Adani Group. If constructed, it would be the largest coal mine in Australia and one of the largest in the world. The company tasked with building it? Downer.
Anneke D’emanuele, a member of the Stop Adani Melbourne collective at the protest, explained demonstrators urged Downer to withdraw from a project that would cause serious problems not only for the country, but also the planet as well.
“We sent a clear message that Adani will be bad for Australia and the future of our planet. If constructed and operating at full capacity, we will be hurtling down the road to catastrophic climate change,” she said.
In 2010, Adani Mining, a subsidiary company of Adani Group, filed an application for federal approval on a project to construct a mine in Queensland. It would primarily be in the northern section of the Galilee Basin, a profitable geological coal zone that is around 280 miles from the eastern shoreline. From 2008 to 2009, the total value of coal production in the province was over $40 billion and was projected to grow. Additionally, most of the coal produced in the province is shipped to countries across Asia—including India.
The entire proposal includes, aside from five underground mines, a 240-mile rail line to carry coal to exporting ships, an airport to fly workers in and out, and a village fitted with up to 2,000 beds. Adani doesn’t expect to complete all of this by itself, which is why Downer obtained a nearly $1.5 billion construction contract in 2014, drawing the ire of the project’s opponents.
“[Downer’s] support for the mine is support for climate vandalism,” D’emanuele said.
Jodi Magi, a coordinator with Stop Adani Melbourne, part of the Stop Adani coalition, elaborated that the action in front of Downer’s corporate offices was just one example of bringing attention to the relationship of the construction firm and Adani, “thereby negatively impacting their brand’s reputation.”
“Coal is killing people. Pollution from burning coal is the single biggest contributor to dangerous global warming,” she said.
Since signing the contract, Downer encountered legal and public issues that delayed the start of its work. Between court decisions favoring opponents of the mine and legal suits filed by indigenous and environmental groups, Adani Group constantly postponed construction of the facility to the point where it is unsure it will occur without problems.
Some of Downer’s shareholders have pressured the board to review its decision. At its annual meeting in early November, executives requested any inquiry pertaining to the coal mine be left at the end. They concluded the meeting early as some members repeatedly asked about the firm’s ties to the project.
Across Australia, the project remains a heated issue. Most Australians oppose the project, according to various polls. All of Australia’s largest four banks have declined to finance Adani’s proposal as they view coal as a financial risk. At least 10 Western banks, including Barclays and HSBC, also refused to offer any loans. Talk of providing a state loan to the project was ruled out by the federal government, leading to alternative options including a possible investment by China (as of press time three Chinese banks have declined to fund the mine).
“Opening a massive new coal pit at this point in history makes absolutely no sense on any level,” Miriam Robinson, a volunteer with the Melbourne Galilee Blockade campaign, said. “Politically it is toxic to almost all voters. It makes no economic, financial, or environmental sense.”
The climate repercussions of the project are unprecedented. The Australia Institute, a public policy think tank, released a paper in 2015 highlighting the mine alone would emit more carbon dioxide than Berlin, Paris, Toronto, or New York City per year. It would even “entirely offset Australia’s carbon reduction goals,” a concern Magi raised as well.
“To limit the impacts of climate change we need to reduce our burning of fossil fuels to zero as quickly as possible. The world can simply not afford to burn the coal from this mine,” Magi said.
There is additional concern related to the Great Barrier ReefJust nine miles off the Queensland coast, the site contains the largest coral reef in the world. Numerous animals and plants—from endangered marine turtles to the miniscule plankton—exist underwater. The reef is also listed as UNESCO World Heritage Centre Site, a distinguished honor from the United Nations for its historic value as a natural landmark.
Yet the area is under serious threat from a mixture of factors, such as climate change, as scientists have documented its gradual decline. The possibility of its famous corals going extinct does not appear far-fetched. In fact, it may occur by 2050 if no serious solution to reducing carbon emission is implemented.
Adani proposes to expand a port located near the Great Barrier Reef for ships to export, through the UNESCO site, more coal. Robinson added the coal burned over the project’s 60-year lifetime span represented “a death knell” for the Great Barrier Reef.
“Why are we polluting the top end of the already struggling Great Barrier Reef with coal dust, risks of spills and accidents, and increased disturbance to marine life so Adani can make more money than anyone could ever need?” she wondered.
That’s why the Melbourne activist Robinson found it valuable for many people, such as those at Friday’s protest, to pressure Downer to withdraw from the project. She highlighted Downer works with other industries aside from mining and the only serious penalty from leaving Adani is losing the trust of the coal industry.
“If Downer walked away it would cost them nothing, but it would be possibly a final blow to the proposal,” she said.
Activists are determined to continue their protests toward all of those tied to the project. The fact that banks and politicians have distanced themselves from the project is encouraging and Robinson believed more victories will come.
“There is a saying: ‘pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win,’” Robinson said. “I think this is a struggle that we can and will definitely win.”
To learn more about current campaigns and upcoming actions, you can follow the Stop Adani national organization, the Front Line Action on Coal, and Galilee Blockade.
Brandon Jordan is a freelance reporter based in Queens, NY. He has written for publications such as Waging Nonviolence, The Nation, and In These Times. Follow him on Twitter @BrandonJ_R.Whenever Apple does something, it wants to do it better than the competition, rather than just deliver the bare-minimum to get by. Its upcoming TV service is no exception. Apple certainly won’t be the first to offer such a service when it arrives, and it knows it has to do something special to taste success right out of the gate.
One of its biggest goals is to deliver widespread access to local programming. If successful, Apple would immediately one-up all of the competition, such as Sony and Dish, which have only been able to offer local programming in a handful of cities.
The problem, not surprisingly, is that dealing with all of the business contracts to make this a reality takes a long time and requires a ton of effort. Part of the problem here is that some broadcasters don't even own all of their local stations, so to say this is a complex process would be an understatement.
All told, this determination to deliver local programming means one thing: Apple's TV service is not likely to launch in the early fall, as the company hoped it'd be able to do. That's unfortunate, but there is something to be said about a company that has such high standards with its products; it's not willing to push one out early and risk not impressing its customers. I wish more companies shared that kind of ethos.Construction for a new condominium building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Mark Lennihan/AP
A new book argues that poor communities of color are hurt by the city’s zoning and housing policies.
New York City is often romanticized as a mecca of multicultural urban living. But as diverse as it is, residents from very different backgrounds don’t often live in the same neighborhoods. In fact, New York is in second place after Milwaukee as far as black-white segregation goes. Today, historical color lines are being redrawn through a concentration of wealth and the displacement of communities of color. In New York, that phenomenon may be spurred in part by the city’s well-intentioned land-use policies. Various types of rezoning—upzoning and mixed-use zoning, for example—have inadvertently but disproportionately harmed poor neighborhoods. That’s the central argument of Zoned Out!, a new book edited by Tom Angotti, an urban planning professor at the City University of New York, and housing advocate Sylvia Morse. CityLab caught up with the two for a conversation, the highlights of which are below. Why did you write this book?
Angotti: The book came about as a result of engagement with communities that were concerned about proposals to rezone their neighborhoods. [They] had many questions about the proposals that the city was putting forth. Originally, a group of us met with attorneys, examining the possibility of bringing a lawsuit against the city based on the Fair Housing Act, on the assumption that the city’s zoning and housing policies had a disparate impact on communities of color. That litigation hasn’t happened yet, but that was one of the other things that led to the production of the book. Morse: This book really comes out of lessons of New Yorkers who’ve been organizing for the past 15 years, and sometimes longer. Explain your main argument against the city’s current zoning approach. Angotti: Zoning is a systemic policy to protect neighborhoods that are predominantly white and homeowner neighborhoods—the whiteness is more important than home ownership, actually. It’s done to promote development when it is economically of interest to developers in communities of color. “[If] people are living in poverty, and if those people are people of color, their neighborhoods are immediately labeled as needing a certain kind of investment.” When the rezoning occurs to encourage new development, it drives up land values and rents, and forces out people who are already living in existing affordable housing. Despite any token amount of affordable housing the city might finance or sponsor within these neighborhoods, more affordable housing is lost than is gained through the rezonings. That’s the basic argument. Race has everything to do with it. There are two aspects to racial discrimination: when it’s conscious and purposeful, and when it’s systemic. We’re talking about the systemic aspect of it here. People are doing it whether or not they understand what they’re doing.
Morse: If policies are not explicitly anti-racist, then they are perpetuating racism. Could you elaborate on the historical context for this phenomenon? Angotti: [History] demonstrates that the city’s housing and development and zoning policies have produced a segregated city. They have had racial consequences, even as the city proclaims that they are race-neutral and color-blind. That was an important part of the argument: That this [phenomenon] is not simply a function of the current mayor or even the last three or four mayors. This has very deep historical roots. What we do is demonstrate how the current mayor and the previous mayor have very carefully followed tradition. Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... Morse: I think urban renewal is one where there are a lot of parallels with the mega-development projects these days. I think [of] the specific history of the use of the Housing Act of 1949 to target communities of color and use [the word] “slum” as a proxy for race. We see a lot of that happening now, where if people are living in poverty, and if those people are people of color, their neighborhoods are immediately labeled as needing a certain kind of investment. Rather than that investment in social programs, that investment comes in the form of subsidies for developers that are going to make a ton of private profit. I think there’s a direct line between that history of urban renewal projects like Lincoln Center to what we’re seeing today. “There’s frequently an argument made that this is about density, and density will make things more affordable. I think that density is a code word.” Angotti: Donald Trump is returning to that narrative, when he talks about helping the inner city. You mentioned “slums” as code for communities of color. Are there more contemporary examples of such code in urban planning parlance? Angotti: A few years ago, I was asked by a group of activists in Sunset Park in Brooklyn to look at an area that was proposed for upzoning. The city planning department was claiming that on certain streets, the land was “underutilized.” I went there to look, and I saw these occupied buildings. It looked like a pretty normal street to me. But to the planners, they were “underutilized.”
Subconsciously, I’m sure what they were assuming is that a developer could come in and take these buildings, knock them down, and build twice as much, and provide twice as much housing. Since the criterion used is always quantity instead of quality, then having twice as many housing units is twice as good. That’s just one concrete example, but I think it’s embedded in the culture of the city planning department. These are buzzwords that conceal. What I think they mean is that portions of neighborhoods are invisible. Those people living in those places really didn’t matter. Morse: There’s frequently an argument made that this is about density, and density is more efficient, and density will make things more affordable, but you’re not seeing arguments that single-family townhouses in Greenwich Village are underutilized when comparable buildings have been subdivided into SROs [single-room-occupancy housing] in other neighborhoods. In fact, you’re seeing those SROs in Bed-Stuy being reconverted back into single-family homes. I think that density is another code word there. Something else we talk about in the book is the watering down of the word “affordable.” Affordable housing used to imply that it was housing for people who had less money, who needed help affording housing. Now, it basically means anything that meets the federal guidelines for rent not costing more than 30 percent of household income, and really there’s a lot of room to obscure which groups you’re serving through affordable housing. I think that’s a very New York City-specific context. Of course, we still have the old school, low-density NIMBYism, which we talk about [in the book].
The book also mentions how efforts to promote mixed-use zoning and Transit Oriented Development [TOD]—generally seen as beneficial by urbanists—can can cause displacement. Explain? Angotti: The history of mixed-use zoning in New York City is an interesting one. When the zoning resolution was first installed in 1916, it really only applied to a portion of Manhattan. It very clearly had an effect of helping to preserve land values in Manhattan. [In] the rest of the city, a mixture of uses were permitted because there really wasn’t that much interest by the elites in restricting development outside of lower Manhattan. That’s why, for example, Williamsburg and Greenpoint, two of the greatest historic mixed-use districts, sprouted up. Long Island City is another one. If you go back to Jane Jacobs and her discussion of mixed use, these were model neighborhoods. These were neighborhoods that planners ought to have studied and understood. [In] Williamsburg, over a third of the people used to walk to work at a certain point. In 2005, the city introduced its rezoning plan in Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and the waterfront, so that they can now be a new-mixed use zone. In rationalizing this, they quoted Jane Jacobs. But it’s a scam. They put this mixed-use zoning instrument forward as a way of preserving mixed use when it actually has the opposite effect. It’s back-door residential rezoning. In Williamsburg, and if you look at those mixed-use zones, they’re all residential now. Why? Because the planning department knew that when land owners were given the choice between industrial or commercial rents versus residential rents, they would take residential—especially in a neighborhood that is targeted for major new real-estate development as Williamsburg and Greenpoint were.
Morse: Just on the example of TOD, I think what we’re talking about is not challenging the concept. We’re talking about the application. In New York City, where we have the real-estate market that we do, it’s complicated. Angotti: It’s really development-oriented transit that they’re talking about. You’re also critical of the argument that upzoning in New York is a way of creating more affordable housing. Morse: The simplest way of putting it is that [argument] applies this theory of supply and demand. It’s a total oversimplification and assumes that all supply is created equal and that there’s one block of demand, when in fact we’re talking about a global city. To give it a most hyperbolic example, the homeless person in New York City is in the housing market, theoretically, as is an oligarch from another country who is buying a pied-à-terre. Clearly, if you simply increased the supply, it’s not going to be a rising tide that lifts all boats and not everyone will be able to access that increased supply. That’s part of the reason it doesn’t work. “If we’re going to be a beacon of tolerance and diversity, that has to include being a place where people can afford to live.” The other thing is this myth that any housing can happen in the free market. In New York City, land is expensive and nothing is going to be built without some form of government intervention prioritizing certain kinds of housing over [others], usually through some form of subsidy, whether it’s government-backed mortgages or tax incentives. The other thing that we argue is this: If you look at [former Mayor] Bloomberg’s housing plan, most of the units that he was able to chalk up to his policies were the result of preservation, rather than new development. That’s because new development is more expensive and takes up more space.
Angotti: There’s ample evidence that the rezonings over the last couple of decades have coincided with a loss of more affordable housing units than the affordable units created after those rezonings. That is an incontrovertible fact. The majority of housing that is truly affordable to low-income people has been a result of preservation. In [Mayor Bill] de Blasio’s affordable housing plan for the creation of 200,000 new units, publicly we get the impression that through his rezonings these affordable units are being created. City Hall even gave figures that show that the vast majority of the affordable housing units the city hopes to create are not as a result of rezonings. Even the 20 to 25 percent that may be available and built under mandatory inclusionary housing obscures that 80 percent or more are going to be luxury housing, market-rate housing. They don’t talk about the 80 percent market-rate. They talk about the 20 percent affordable. So what’s an alternative strategy for ensuring that housing is affordable? Morse: Rent stabilization is one of the most effective programs that we have and that is not subject to federal subsidy. It’s just been undermined through reforms at the state level and also through illegal practices and zero investment in enforcement. The new so-called affordable units are subject to the same tools or lack of tools we have for enforcing those rent regulations. ProPublica has done tremendous research on many of the new units created through 421-a. Other programs have been completely deregulated, and the proliferation of preferential rent clauses and leases and all kinds of things undermine the affordability of these units. If we’re not focusing on protecting the rent stabilization that we have now, what new affordable units that we build are also going to be at risk of being lost until we invest in that kind of enforcement.
But there is a some critique out there that rent stabilization often doesn’t help people it’s supposed to. Morse: One thing that’s important to understand about rent stabilization is that it also includes tenant protections that market-rate tenants don’t have. Obviously, they are frequently violated, but [it often includes] protections against harassment, guaranteed lease renewal, [measures] that support tenant organizing. Often the burden falls on the rent-regulated tenants to lead much of the tenant organizing, because market-rate tenants are more fearful of landlord retaliation. Also, a few years ago, the Mayor’s Center for Economic Opportunity did an analysis of poverty in the city, and they included rent stabilization. It showed that living in rent-stabilized housing was keeping thousands and thousands of families out of poverty, by making sure that they were not as rent-burdened. So, what is the best way, in your opinion, to go about planning New York City to ensure it’s growing in an inclusive way? Angotti: New York City is the only major city in the country that has never had a comprehensive plan. It doesn’t do planning—they do zoning. [Zoning] is all based on very local land analysis, and planning is concerned with everything about a community, healthcare, education, transportation, water quality, air quality. People do care about that and want to participate. So, the first [strategy] is engaging communities in long-term comprehensive planning for their neighborhoods. That by itself doesn’t guarantee anything, because there are bad plans, there are good plans. But it’s a way of giving neighborhoods that have not had the power over their futures that power. Community boards need to be beefed up. They also have to be held accountable to inclusive social justice criteria, just as central government does. We have a section of the city charter that enables communities to develop their own plans, Section 197-a. I spent a good part of my career working with communities to develop these 197-a plans and submit them to the city planning commission for approval. I used to get calls all the time to assist communities in doing their plans. Nobody calls me anymore. And if they do, I tell them, “Don’t waste your time, because the city basically rakes you over the coals, and runs you through the hoops. You finally get your approved plan, and then they throw it away.” Then the second proposal is housing in the public domain, which means not just public housing, but providing support for housing to the people who need it the most. Morse: What we’re talking about is the city prioritizing racial and economic justice and anti-racism. If we’re going to be a beacon of tolerance and diversity and justice, if we’re going to be a sanctuary city—that has to include being a place where people can afford to live. That starts with giving people the ability to make decisions.Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch Orrin Grant HatchThe FDA crackdown on dietary supplements is inadequate Orrin Hatch Foundation seeking million in taxpayer money to fund new center in his honor Mitch McConnell has shown the nation his version of power grab MORE (R-Utah) on Wednesday said he is open to delaying the repeal of ObamaCare's individual mandate for having insurance.
Hatch told reporters he "wouldn't mind" postponing repeal until after 2020, or even indefinitely.
"I don't mind the individual mandate being expanded," Hatch told reporters Wednesday. "But it all comes down to budgetary concerns and how it's going to be written."
The individual mandate — a financial penalty on people who don't buy health insurance — is one of the most unpopular parts of ObamaCare. The House-passed American Health Care Act would repeal the mandate, effective immediately.
Other senators also said they are open to delaying repeal of the mandate.
"I think it's going to go away, but we're talking about a transition" to a new system, Sen. John Hoeven John Henry HoevenDem lawmaker 'confident' bipartisan group will strike deal on border funding Congress in painful start to avoid second shutdown Republicans want Trump to keep out of border talks MORE (R-N.D.) said. "My sense is yes it will go away, but we're still figuring out how you make the transition."
Senators are still waiting for the Congressional Budget Office's cost and coverage estimates of the House legislation, which are expected next week. Sen. John Thune John Randolph ThuneWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Overnight Energy: McConnell plans Green New Deal vote before August recess | EPA official grilled over enforcement numbers | Green group challenges Trump over Utah pipelines McConnell plans vote on Green New Deal before August recess MORE (R-S.D.) said the score of the House bill "will help a lot" as the Senate drafts its own version of the legislation, especially with regards to tax credits for buying insurance.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander Andrew (Lamar) Lamar AlexanderWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Overnight Health Care: Senators grill drug execs over high prices | Progressive Dems unveil Medicare for all bill | House Dems to subpoena Trump officials over family separations Schumer urges GOP to reject Trump's 'destructive' national emergency MORE (R-Tenn.) said the Senate Budget Committee will begin writing the chamber's version "soon."Emmanuel Eboue has made 79 appearances for the Ivory Coast
Sunderland are set to terminate the contract of defender Emmanuel Eboue after he was suspended by Fifa from all football-related activity for one year.
The 32-year-old, who joined the Black Cats until the end of the season on 9 March, was given the ban after failing to pay money owed to a former agent.
Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce said the club were "completely in the dark" over the dispute which started in July 2013.
"I'm massively disappointed like everyone else is," said Allardyce.
Media playback is not supported on this device Allardyce: Emmanuel Eboue could have made Sunderland impact
The Sunderland manager added: "The problem is what has happened in the past has caught up with Emmanuel, for whatever the reason.
"He has got a ban and the contract gets terminated on that basis."
Sunderland are 18th in the Premier League - two points from safety with eight games left - and face West Brom at the Stadium of Light on Saturday (15:00 BST).
Allardyce did suggest "there could be a way back" for Eboue, if he resolves the dispute. The Ivory Coast international has two weeks to appeal against the decision.
"He has relied on other people and other people have let him down," added Allardyce.
Eboue, who has not made a first team appearance for the Black Cats, had been ordered by Fifa to pay agent Sebastien Boisseau an undisclosed amount he was entitled to under the terms of an agreement between the pair.
The former Arsenal full-back was fined 30,000 Swiss francs (£21,000) in September 2014 and given four months to settle the matter.
Eboue spent eight seasons at the Gunners after arriving from Belgian side Beveren in 2004, before moving to Turkey, where he won three Super Lig titles and five domestic trophies with Galatasaray.
He began training with Sunderland in February.
'Fantastic news for agents'
Ghanaian football agent Oliver Arthur told BBC World Service that it was "very disappointing" that Eboue had got "into this mess". He said the situation sometimes occurs when a player moves to a bigger agent and forgets to pay their previous representative.
Arthur said the ban was "fantastic" news for agents because it showed they can "take your case to a higher level".
"Now it's very easy to refer a player to a case like this and it's easy for them to understand. A lot of players will now think twice in their decisions, think twice in keeping money and waiting to pay. Agents fees aren't so big that players should get themselves into this mess."
'Losing Johnson will not affect dressing room'
Allardyce was speaking for the first time since ex-Sunderland winger Adam Johnson was jailed for child sex offences last week.
The 28-year-old had been allowed to continue to play for the club, before being sacked when he pleaded guilty to two offences at the start of his trial. He has lodged an appeal against his conviction for a third offence of sexual touching.
"We've lost a hugely talented player in Adam Johnson, irrespective of his indiscretions," said Allardyce.
"He obviously got what he deserved, but we've lost a talented player I would've liked to keep. But it was taken out of our hands by other factors."Good news: Carnitas Los Reyes is back.
The tiny family-run Mexican restaurant famous for its sultry carnitas made my list of 75 Best Places to Eat two years in a row. But in May of last year a fire overnight forced the restaurant to shutter, and it remained closed for more than a year. Many of us wondered if it would ever reopen. I feared the worst. But they’re back.
The name above the door has changed to “Tacos Los Reyes.” The kitschy murals that once covered the walls have been supplanted with a fresh coat of beige paint. It appears they have installed new air conditioning and even a new restroom. The menu board has changed colors from green to yellow but the menu still reads the same except for prices that have gone up a few cents (or even a dollar for some items, like the beef barbacoa). Thankfully the faces behind the counter are familiar (and still as impatient as always), as is that repetitive whack-whack-whack-whack coming from the cutting board where one of the cooks is constantly chopping slow-roasted pork with a giant cleaver, barely keeping pace with a never-ending stream of tickets for tacos, burritos and tortas.
Another thing that hasn’t changed is the perpetual queue. Expect to wait in line no matter the time of day. When you place your order, you will be keenly aware that there isn’t a single available seat in the entire dining room, which has only about 10 tables. But don’t fret. The flow always works out. Someone inevitably vacates their table at the very moment your food finally emerges from the kitchen, and the staff is there to clean it in an instant.
Tacos Los Reyes
Where: 273 S. Tustin St., Orange
When: Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily
Phone: 714-744-9337Walthamstow is home of the British car and site of the country's first plane flight. But the birthplace of soft toilet paper is perhaps its crowning achievement. Reporter DANIEL BINNS gets to the bottom of the story.
The Andrex Puppy is arguably one of the most famous dogs in the country. But few know the little dog owes its name to a quiet street in Walthamstow off Blackhorse Lane.
It all began back in 1932 when a small paper manufacturing business, called St Andrew Mills Ltd, opened in Walthamstow's St Andrews Road.
Despite the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 the firm rolled on with its business until it hit a breakthrough in 1942 – production of two-ply toilet roll.
The firm hoped to wipe out the competition with the new 'Androll' brand – an amalgamation of 'St Andrews Road' and 'toilet roll' – by comparing it to the softness of cotton wool.
The design was soon tweaked with a new version, given the futuristic-sounding name 'Andrex' – and an iconic brand was born.
By 1947 the company was proudly displaying its extensive range of products at the British Industries Fair at Olympia, including Santex, Camelia sanitary towels, paper towels and all-purpose wadding.
Amateur historian Bill Bayliss, of Chingford, has researched the history of Andrex in Walthamstow.
He said: “I don't think you could exactly say it's a source of pride for many people, but they did used to be a big employer locally.”
In the post-war era business boomed, with a new factory being built by the mill in 1949.
By 1955 it had around 400 employees and was taken over by the Bowater Company, the first of many times that the Andrex brand would change hands.
A year later it turned into a global force when Bowater merged with the Scott Paper Company of Philadelphia.
There is uncertainty over exactly when production was moved out of Walthamstow – even the Andrex itself was unable to provide a date to the Guardian – but by 1995 its main centre of production had transferred to Barrow.
Another milestone in the brand's history is, of course, the introduction of the Andrex Puppy TV adverts in 1972.
Today the Walthamstow factory is long gone, replaced by flats on a side road called “Paper Mill Place” just off St Andrews Road.
Andrex marketing manager Sophie Woodford told the Guardian: “we are very proud of our East London heritage.
"Beginning production in Walthamstow in 1942 signified the start of our now 71-year journey.
“Andrex has gone on to become one of the UK’s most recognisable and celebrated brands and now, we supply UK households with over 8.25 million miles worth of Andrex every year.”Lionel Messi wanted to quit Barcelona last summer and join Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, a documentary created by TV3 (the primary channel of Televisió de Catalunya) has revealed.
Titled ‘Jocs fiscals’. the new documentary reveals that Messi was distressed by the possibility of going to prison after becoming embroiled in a tax scandal, and wanted to leave Barcelona.
Messi called Pep Guardiola and asked to go with him to Manchester City, leading to Pep departing a family celebration in El Vendrell to immediately visit Messi in Castelldefels. There, Messi confessed to Pep that he felt ‘trapped’ and scared of spending 21 months in prison.
Messi’s father, Jorge, who was in Miami at the time, called Manchester City chief executive, Ferran Soriano, to inform him of the situation and Lionel’s interest in moving to City. However, top Barcelona officials made it clear that they were unwilling to sanction a sale of their iconic superstar.
A few days later, Josep Maria Bartomeu, the president of Barcelona, met Messi face-to-face in Castelldefels and confirmed that he was not going to let him leave the club.
Finally, Messi accepted the situation and decided to continue his Barcelona adventure, even cutting short his vacation to join pre-season training a week early to join his teammates.
But as the documentary makes clear, the great Lionel Messi came very close to joining Pep Guardiola at Manchester City in the summer of 2016, a transfer that would have shaken the footballing world to its foundations.
This isn’t the first claim of this nature, with journalist Xavier Bosch of Mundo Deportivo writing something similar back in June.
Get your Manchester City 2017/18 away kit online now!If all you believe in is a rulebook, then all you see are violations – which is a way of applying the old hammer/nail analogy to the NCAA.
There are plenty of good people working in college athletics, including the central office in Indianapolis, and they often bristle and complain the American public and their own current and former athletes increasingly hold them in such disdain.
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Then they go about things like dinging University of Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma for talking for two minutes on the phone with Little League World Series hero Mo'ne Davis, congratulating her on her success and encouraging her for the future.
It was just a secondary violation, no real penalty involved, but that isn't even the point. The point is this was any type of violation, and that some pious and pathetic rival actually turned in UConn for it, and that it was investigated at all.
This is only a deal (big or little) if you are so consumed with a rulebook that only makes sense inside the amateurism/level-playing-field-obsessed bubble of college athletics.
The NCAA cited Geno Auriemma with a secondary rules violation. (AP)
That you can't see the academic fraud for the phone calls.
Davis was America's darling last month, the girl pitcher striking out boy after boy in Williamsport. She's from Philly, also plays basketball and said one day she wants to suit up for Auriemma, another Philadelphia native, and his Huskies.
Auriemma has never seen the eighth-grader play basketball. He isn't recruiting her. He hasn't extended a scholarship. No one has any idea at all if she would one day be good enough to play college ball, let alone for the nine-time (or who knows how many by then) national champions.
Story continues
According to the Hartford Courant, a friend of Auriemma's reached out to him about Mo'ne's affinity for UConn and thought it'd be cool if he passed along a message via the Little League. Apparently this is legal, or according to the Courant, the UConn compliance office approved it.
Yet when Auriemma called the communications office in Williamsport to leave the message, Mo'ne Davis was in the room. The phone was handed over. They talked for two minutes.
This was the most prominent women's sports coach (Auriemma also leads the U.S. Olympic team) encouraging the most prominent girl athlete in the country. It's a cool thing.
At least, that's how a sane person would look at it.
Davis is young enough that this is allowable in some interpretations of the NCAA rules.
The fact there could be more than one interpretation is itself ridiculous, of course. The book is so confusing that it's conveniently hatched an entire industry of professional compliance directors schools must pay to assure players don't ever receive anything – an act of circular logic that, in turn, bloats department budgets, which allows them to cry poor and thus incapable of paying the players themselves.
Davis said she was sad about the UConn violation. (AP)
Ohio State has 13 fulltime compliance staffers. Th
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), gender: line[2], occupation: line[3] }) ; USING PERIODIC COMMIT 500 LOAD CSV FROM "file:///ml-100k/u.item" AS line FIELDTERMINATOR '|' CREATE ( :Movie { objectId: toInt ( line[0] ), title: line[1], date: line[2], imdblink: line[4] }) ;
Check the ElasticSearch indices status
$ curl -XGET http://localhost:9200/_cat/indices #yellow open neo4j-index 5 1 2625 0 475.3kb 475.3kb $ curl -XGET http://localhost:9200/neo4j-index/User/_search $ curl -XGET http://localhost:9200/neo4j-index/Movie/_search
Reopen the neo4j-shell and start importing the relationships (this operation is the longest)
# In the neo4j-shell USING PERIODIC COMMIT 500 LOAD CSV FROM "file:///ml-100k/u.data" AS line FIELDTERMINATOR '\t' MATCH ( u:User { objectId: toInt ( line[1] )}) MATCH ( p:Movie { objectId: toInt ( line[0] )}) CREATE UNIQUE ( u ) -[:LIKES { rate: ROUND ( toFloat ( line[2] )), timestamp: line[3] }] -> ( p ) ;
Start Playing with Graph-Aided Search
Now that everything is in place, we can try a simple query, searching for movies with the word “love” in the title:
curl -X POST http://localhost:9200/neo4j-index/Movie/_search -d '{ "query" : { "bool": { "should": [{"match": {"title": "love"}}] } } }' ;
The results will resemble the following listing:
{ "_shards" : { "failed" : 0, "successful" : 5, "total" : 5 }, "hits" : { "hits" : [ { "_id" : "1297", "_index" : "neo4j-index", "_score" : 2.9627202, "_source" : { "date" : "01-Jan-1994", "imdblink" : "http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Love%20Affair%20(1994)", "objectId" : "1297", "title" : "Love Affair (1994)" }, "_type" : "Movie" }, { "_id" : "1446", "_index" : "neo4j-index", "_score" : 2.919132, "_source" : { "date" : "01-Jan-1995", "imdblink" : "http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Bye%20Bye,%20Love%20(1995)", "objectId" : "1446", "title" : "Bye Bye, Love (1995)" }, "_type" : "Movie" }, [... ] ], "max_score" : 2.9627202, "total" : 29 }, "timed_out" : false, "took" : 6 }
We get a lot of results, now we can use a filter to show only the films evaluated positively by people:
curl -X POST http://localhost:9200/neo4j-index/Movie/_search -d '{ "query" : { "bool": { "should": [{"match": {"title": "love"}}] } }, "gas-filter" :{ "name": "SearchResultCypherFilter", "query": "MATCH (n:User)-[r:LIKES]->(m) WITH m, avg(r.rate) as avg_rate where avg_rate < 3 RETURN m.objectId as id", "exclude": true, "keyProperty": "objectId" } }'
Now the results are:
{ "_shards" : { "failed" : 0, "successful" : 5, "total" : 5 }, "hits" : { "hits" : [ { "_id" : "1160", "_index" : "neo4j-index", "_score" : 2.6663055, "_source" : { "date" : "16-May-1997", "imdblink" : "http://us.imdb.com/Title?Love%21+Valour%21+Compassion%21+(1997)", "objectId" : "1160", "title" : "Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997)" }, "_type" : "Movie" }, { "_id" : "1180", "_index" : "neo4j-index", "_score" : 2.57552, "_source" : { "date" : "01-Jan-1994", "imdblink" : "http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?I%20Love%20Trouble%20(1994)", "objectId" : "1180", "title" : "I Love Trouble (1994)" }, "_type" : "Movie" }, { "_id" : "474", "_index" : "neo4j-index", "_score" : 1.28776, "_source" : { "date" : "01-Jan-1963", "imdblink" : "http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Dr.%20Strangelove%20or:%20How%20I%20Learned%20to%20Stop%20Worrying%20and%20Love%20the%20Bomb%20(1963)", "objectId" : "474", "title" : "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963)" }, "_type" : "Movie" } ], "max_score" : 2.9627202, "total" : 29 }, "timed_out" : false, "took" : 243 }
In this case no score is changed only the results list is different since some results are filtered out. These are really interesting results, but they are still generic. We can make them more personalised using a more complex query which excludes movies already liked by the user:
curl -X POST http://localhost:9200/neo4j-index/Movie/_search -d '{ "query" : { "bool": { "should": [{"match": {"title": "love"}}] } }, "gas-filter" :{ "name": "SearchResultCypherFilter", "query": "MATCH (n:User {objectId: 12})-[r:LIKES]->(m) RETURN m.objectId as id", "exclude": true, "keyProperty": "objectId" } }'
The :User {objectId: 12} should be computed at the application level, it is representing the actual user performing the search.
In this case the results are:
{ "_shards" : { "failed" : 0, "successful" : 5, "total" : 5 }, "hits" : { "hits" : [ { "_id" : "1160", "_index" : "neo4j-index", "_score" : 2.6663055, "_source" : { "date" : "16-May-1997", "imdblink" : "http://us.imdb.com/Title?Love%21+Valour%21+Compassion%21+(1997)", "objectId" : "1160", "title" : "Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997)" }, "_type" : "Movie" }, { "_id" : "1180", "_index" : "neo4j-index", "_score" : 2.57552, "_source" : { "date" : "01-Jan-1994", "imdblink" : "http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?I%20Love%20Trouble%20(1994)", "objectId" : "1180", "title" : "I Love Trouble (1994)" }, "_type" : "Movie" }, { "_id" : "1457", "_index" : "neo4j-index", "_score" : 1.8267004, "_source" : { "date" : "11-Oct-1996", "imdblink" : "http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Love%20Is%20All%20There%20Is%20(1996)", "objectId" : "1457", "title" : "Love Is All There Is (1996)" }, "_type" : "Movie" }, [... ] ], "max_score" : 2.9627202, "total" : 26 }, "timed_out" : false, "took" : 129 }
The same Elasticsearch query produces different results thanks to our filters. This is one of the use cases which operates only by filtering results. Other interesting ones would be changing the score based on user interests or preferences. This can be done in two different ways: using a cypher query or using a recommendation engine. The first will be presented in this paragraph.
We can realise a real user based collaborative filter recommender using a Cypher query. For example, in this query, we compute Tanimoto Distance between the target user and all the other users, then we use this distance to predict interests of the user for all the unseen movies. In the next example we are using this score to boost the results of movies that contain “love” in the title.
curl -X POST http://localhost:9200/neo4j-index/Movie/_search -d '{ "size": 3, "query" : { "bool": { "should": [{"match": {"title": "love"}}] } }, "gas-booster" :{ "name": "SearchResultCypherBooster", "query": "MATCH (input:User) WHERE id(input) = 2 MATCH (input)-[r:LIKES]->(totalMovie) WITH input, count(totalMovie) as totalUserMovieCount MATCH (input)-[:LIKES]->(movie)<-[r2:LIKES]-(other) WITH input, other, totalUserMovieCount, count(movie) as commonMovieCount MATCH (other)-[:LIKES]->(otherMovie) WITH input, other, totalUserMovieCount, commonMovieCount, count(otherMovie) as otherMovieCount WITH input, other, commonMovieCount*1.0/(totalUserMovieCount + otherMovieCount - commonMovieCount) as tonimotoDinstance MATCH (predictedMovie:Movie) WHERE NOT (input)-[:LIKES]->(predictedMovie) WITH other, tonimotoDinstance, predictedMovie MATCH (other)-[or:LIKES]->(predictedMovie) WITH other, predictedMovie, tonimotoDinstance*or.rate as weightedRatingSum, tonimotoDinstance as similarity WITH predictedMovie, sum(similarity) as simSum, sum(weightedRatingSum) as wSum RETURN predictedMovie.objectId as objectId, CASE simSum WHEN 0 then 0 else wSum/simSum END as predRating", "identifier": "objectId", "scoreName": "predRating" } }'
Here are the results:
{ "_shards" : { "failed" : 0, "successful" : 5, "total" : 5 }, "hits" : { "hits" : [ { "_id" : "535", "_index" : "neo4j-index", "_score" : 10.486974, "_source" : { "date" : "23-May-1997", "imdblink" : "http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Addicted%20to%20Love%20%281997%29", "objectId" : "535", "title" : "Addicted to Love (1997)" }, "_type" : "Movie" }, { "_id" : "139", "_index" : "neo4j-index", "_score" : 10.25477, "_source" : { "date" : "01-Jan-1969", "imdblink" : "http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Love%20Bug,%20The%20(1969)", "objectId" : "139", "title" : "Love Bug, The (1969)" }, "_type" : "Movie" }, { "_id" : "36", "_index" : "neo4j-index", "_score" : 8.61382, "_source" : { "date" : "01-Jan-1995", "imdblink" : "http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Mad%20Love%20(1995)", "objectId" : "36", "title" : "Mad Love (1995)" }, "_type" : "Movie" } ], "max_score" : 10.486974, "total" : 29 }, "timed_out" : false, "took" : 2098 }
These results are really awesome, since we were able to create a Graph-Aided Search without writing a single line of code. Obviously, this approach is a powerful tool during testing and discovering phase but it will not scale. As you can see from the json returned, the time for providing response is quite high. In the next section, we present a different approach.
Moving Forward: Create a Recommendation Engine
A different and more scalable approach requires implementing a recommendation plugin for Neo4j that can be used for boosting results. This is a step by step guide for creating a plugin that uses the Graphaware Framework as backend engine. The complete source code is available here
Create a new Maven Project
Create a new maven project and in the dependency list in the pom.xml add the following artifacts.
<dependency> <groupId> org.neo4j </groupId> <artifactId> neo4j </artifactId> <version> ${neo4j.version} </version> <scope> provided </scope> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId> com.graphaware.neo4j </groupId> <artifactId> common </artifactId> <version> ${graphaware.version} </version> <scope> provided </scope> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId> com.graphaware.neo4j </groupId> <artifactId> api </artifactId> <version> ${graphaware.version} </version> <scope> provided </scope> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId> com.graphaware.neo4j </groupId> <artifactId> recommendation-engine </artifactId> <version> ${graphaware.reco.version} </version> </dependency>
Recommendation Engine
First of all we need a recommendation engine, so we need to create a new subclass of Neo4jTopLevelDelegatingRecommendationEngine overriding name and engines. The latter is showed here:
@Override protected List < RecommendationEngine < Node, Node >> engines () { final CypherEngine cypherEngine = new CypherEngine ( "reco", "MATCH (input:User) WHERE id(input) = {id}
" + "MATCH p=(input)-[r:LIKES]->(movie)<-[r2:LIKES]-(other)
" + "WITH other, collect(p) as paths
" + "WITH other, reduce(x=0, p in paths | x + reduce(i=0, r in rels(p) | i+r.rating)) as score
" + "WITH other, score
" + "ORDER BY score DESC
" + "MATCH (other)-[:LIKES]->(reco)
" + "RETURN reco
" + "LIMIT 500" ); return Arrays.< RecommendationEngine < Node, Node >> asList ( cypherEngine ); }
Recommendation Controller
At this point we need a REST endpoint to be contacted by the Elasticsearch plugin. So we create a new controller RecommendationController that exposes this endpoint.
@RequestMapping ( value = "/recommendation/movie/filter/{userId}", method = RequestMethod. POST ) @ResponseBody public List < RecommendationReduced > filter ( @PathVariable long userId, @RequestParam ( "ids" ) String [] ids, @RequestParam ( defaultValue = "10" ) int limit, @RequestParam ( "keyProperty" ) String keyProperty, @RequestParam ( defaultValue = "" ) String config ) { try ( Transaction tx = database. beginTx ()) { final List < Recommendation < Node >> recommendations = recoEngine. recommend ( findUserById ( userId ), parser. produceConfig ( limit, config )); return convert ( recommendations, ids, keyProperty ); } }
RecommendationReduced describes the results returned to the requester. It must produce the following structure in json:
[ { "nodeId" : 1212, "objectId" : "270", "score" : 3 }, { "nodeId" : 1041, "objectId" : "99", "score" : 1 }, { "nodeId" : 1420, "objectId" : "478", "score" : 1 }, { "nodeId" : 1428, "objectId" : "486", "score" : 1 } ]
So you need to create the following class:
public class RecommendationReduced { private long nodeId ; private String objectId ; private float score ; public RecommendationReduced () { } public RecommendationReduced ( long nodeId, long objectId, float score ) { this. objectId = String. valueOf ( objectId ); this. score = score ; this. nodeId = nodeId ; } public String getObjectId () { return objectId ; } public void setObjectId ( String objectId ) { this. objectId = objectId ; } public long getNodeId () { return nodeId ; } public float getScore () { return score ; } public void setScore ( float score ) { this. score = score ; } }
At this point we can compile and copy the target jar (named recommender-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar) into the plugins directory of Neo4j and restart it.
$ cp target/... $NEO4J_HOME /plugins $ cd $NEO4J_HOME $./bin/neo4j restart
Finally, we can use it in the Elasticsearch plugin. Here an example of using it in a search query using the GraphAidedSearchNeo4jBooster:
curl -X POST http://localhost:9200/neo4j-index/Movie/_search -d '{ "query" : { "match_all" : {} }, "gas-booster" :{ "name": "SearchResultNeo4jBooster", "target": "2", "maxResultSize": 10, "keyProperty": "objectId", "neo4j.endpoint": "/graphaware/recommendation/movie/filter/" } }' ;
The endpoint matches the definition of the REST endpoint in our controller implementation.
Conclusion
The combination of these three amazing technologies - Neo4j, Elasticsearch, and GraphAware - offers you the ability to create competitive search engines for your applications. The only limitation is your imagination.
We would love to see you at GraphConnect to discuss your use cases and how we can help you with your projects. If you don’t happen to have a ticket yet, you can use the code GRAPHAWARE30 for a 30% off the conference ticket price.
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DisqusHawaii Democrats packed polling locations in Saturday's presidential candidate preference poll.
Leading candidates Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went head-to-head for Hawaii's delegates in a race that's recently tightened.
The presidential preference poll took place at several locations across the state, with Hawaii residents waiting in long lines to eventually make their selection. Voting began at 1 p.m.
Organizers say the turnout was even larger than expected -- so large, in fact, that potential Oahu voters were reportedly turned away when polling places in Aiea, Kapolei, Pearl City, Wahiawa, Waianae, Kahaluu and Mililani closed between 1:30-3 p.m. It left them upset that they weren't forewarned about the closing times.
Some arrived at their polling places as much as two hours after voting began.
"They were closed," said Jake Anderson. "I just showed up 15, 20 minutes after they closed and a couple other people showed up as well, and I really wanted to vote."
"I'm extremely upset," Geraldine Craig said. "I think it should've been open for more than two hours. There are a lot of people that were coming up, really wanting to vote."
To the question as to when the preferential poll would close Saturday, the Hawaii Democratic Party website states that:
There is no official end time. Polling will begin promptly at 1:00 p.m. It will continue until all members present have cast their vote. We advise you to arrive before 1:00 p.m. to ensure you are in line and will be able to vote.
Party chair Stephanie Ohigashi said "Polling has been advertised to start at 1 p.m., polling starts at 1 p.m., the meeting starts at 1 p.m., so I'm really sorry that some people missed it. But if they came late, all of the business of the party has been done."
At McKinley High School, distict chair Janel Dulan said "I think the explanation could have been executed a lot better, but I do agree with how our procedures were today -- just to give those that have opportunity to vote, they came down early.
"It's unfortunate for those did not come early, and I wish they had the opportunity to vote, but a lot us of are volunteers, so we don't have the time to stay all day and all night like the state does with regular elections."
By the time polling got underway in Manoa, lines were already out the door and the room was packed with supporters of both Democratic presidential candidates.
District chair Phyllis Dendle said she was ready for a big crowd. "This is wonderful. I'm so happy to see all these people here. It's a little crowded, it's a little hot, but I'm so happy to see folks come out and be this enthusiastic about voting in this presidential poll."
Voters like Jennifer Eick was just one of the hundreds that packed the Manoa polling place. "Seeing this turnout is awesome," she said. "This is my first time voting in Manoa. I used to vote on the Big Island, so I'm not quite sure how it compares to the usual turnout here, but it seems pretty crazy."
Across town at Jefferson Elementary School on Kapahulu Avenue, it was the same story, with long lines and what organizers say is the biggest turnout they've ever seen.
"It's unbelievably massive with the turnout today," said district chair John Bickel. "It doesn't feel like a caucus. It feels even more like a primary, because the primary election lines in 2008 (were long then).... We have obviously surpassed that today."
Both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns made their final push in the morning to get people to their polling places.
Alexander Wheeler of the Hawaii Democratic Party said it was enthusiasm for both candidates that drove people to the polls. "From what we're hearing, it's very similar to the enthusiasm in 2008. You have two great candidates that people identify with."
At the McKinley High School polling location, U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono said, regardless of who the nominee is, she was impressed with the day's turnout.
"I think the Democrats understand who we will be supporting, so they came out in droves," she said.The latest Signal release includes some changes to the way safety numbers work.
Safety numbers allow Signal users to verify the privacy of their communication with a contact, either by comparing a number or by scanning a single QR code. We recently introduced this new design as an update to Signal’s previous UX, which we felt was no longer adequate for what people had come to expect from Signal. Let’s look at the safety numbers design in more detail, then go over what’s new in this release.
Safety numbers
Terminology
In cryptographic software, this type of thing is traditionally called a “fingerprint” rather than a “safety number.” While “fingerprint” is a well established and well understood term in the world of cryptography, user studies have shown that it’s a metaphor which doesn’t carry well outside of that community. People tend to associate “fingerprints” with sensitive personal information; the kind of thing that police collect when you get arrested, or the super secret thing that unlocks your iPhone.
Ideally, the terminology should convey the opposite sentiment. It’s not supposed to be secret, and it shouldn’t carry the same negative connotations that people associate with fingerprints from the physical world.
Numeric encoding
Fingerprints are typically a hex encoded hash of a public key. Hexadecimal is an encoding that’s familiar for people who work with software, but ends up leaving a lot of people out, primarily because hexadecimal isn’t compatible with all alphabets.
In evaluating alternatives, we eventually arrived at a numeric encoding:
Numbers are easy to localize. Using a wordlist from a single language wouldn’t be very accessible; trying to localize wordlists to make cross-language comparisons possible is very error-prone; and encodings like hex, base32, or base64 are not compatible with all alphabets. However, all supported languages have a representation for base-10 digits that safety numbers can easily be localized into. Numbers are visually and audibly distinct. Numeric representations in all languages have a lot of evolution behind them, and have been pushed towards visual and audible distinguishability. Numeric encodings work well for both speed and accuracy. Size. We worked to reduce the size of the encoded value to make the comparison even easier. With the new encoding, users compare 12 groups of 5 digits with each other, which is half the size of what needed to be compared with the previous hexadecimal format.
Simplified comparisons
Safety numbers simplify the verification process by reducing two comparisons to one comparison, or two QR code scans to a single scan.
With the old fingerprint-based model, we found that Signal users unaccustomed to traditional cryptographic notions often had trouble with the basic mechanics. It was not always immediately clear to people how fingerprints could be used to verify the privacy of their communication.
User activity would generally start with a specific desire: Alice wanting to verify that her conversation with Bob is private. However, that objective did not map well to the information that Alice was given in the app: a fingerprint for herself and a fingerprint for Bob. What was Alice supposed to do? Compare the two to make sure they’re the same? Or compare hers with Bob’s on Bob’s phone? Or compare hers with Alice’s on Bob’s phone? Between Alice and Bob, there were four hex strings and two QR codes. Even once the mechanics had been explained, it wasn’t typically clear how to proceed. User studies revealed that these comparisons often resulted in false positives, false negatives, and low success rates.
To reduce that confusion, we’ve simplified safety numbers to be per-conversation rather than per-user. This way, when Alice and Bob set out with the objective of verifying that their communication is private, they are provided with a single piece of information — a safety number for their conversation — which is a direct mapping for what they’re trying to accomplish. They are each shown only a single string of numbers in their conversation, and comparing them is more intuitive. Likewise, for in-person comparisons, there is only a single QR code to scan, rather than each party having to both scan and be scanned by the other as before.
Posting fingerprints
The practice of “publishing” a fingerprint dates back to the early deployments of cryptography on the internet, when crypto enthusiasts were first experimenting with these concepts. The original dream was that everyone would post their public keys to public “key servers,” that those keys would be identified by their fingerprints, and that people who had verified a key would sign it with their own key. The hope was that this process would accumulate a “web of trust,” such that one could determine whether a key was genuine based on the other keys that had signed it, which one had in turn signed.
This never really worked out the way everyone hoped it would, and the practice has slowly morphed into one where people just post their fingerprints on their FB bio, in a tweet, or printed on a business card. While simpler, some of the original assumptions remain, and we saw some consistent pain points in Signal:
Publishing fingerprints requires users to have some rough conceptual knowledge of what a key is, its relationship to a fingerprint, and how that maps to the privacy of communication. The practice of publishing fingerprints is based in part on the original idea that users would be able to manage those keys over a long period of time. This has not proved true, and has become even less true with the rise of mobile devices.
People’s Signal keys change every time they get a new phone or reinstall the app. This caused problems when Signal users would post their fingerprints in a few places online and then forget to update them after reinstalling or switching phones. When their contacts verified against these stale fingerprints, they would initially conclude that their communication was being intercepted, and then eventually, that the whole fingerprint thing is just unreliable. Both are extremely undesirable outcomes.
Per-conversation safety numbers make it less likely for that kind of stale per-user information to end up floating around. It’s also easier than ever to use a 3rd party channel for verification as before, just by tapping the share button on the safety number screen and selecting FB, Twitter, email, etc to send the safety number to your contact. Signal even lets you compare a conversation’s safety number with what’s in your clipboard. This all tests much faster than looking up a user’s fingerprint, verifying it, and then having the recipient do the same.
However, there are some more advanced use cases which per-conversation safety numbers might not provide for (such as Charlie verifying Alice’s fingerprint by checking with Bob), so we designed the safety number format to be a sorted concatenation of two 30-digit individual numeric fingerprints. Advanced users that would like to use fingerprints for more complex use cases can separate the two fingerprints from the safety number if necessary.
Changes in this release
QR Code Contents
When we introduced the updated QR code for safety numbers, our goal was to reduce both friction and error. This is the one place in the app where users are invited to verify the privacy of their communication, so we want it to be as simple and intuitive as we can make it.
In addition to reducing the QR flow from two scans to a single scan, we also wanted to eliminate a common source of error: users inadvertently scanning the code for the wrong contact. To help with that, we put both user identifiers into the QR code, so that if you scanned the code for the wrong contact, the app could inform you that you were scanning the incorrect code, rather than just warning you that something is amiss with the privacy of your communication.
This was a mistake. We had imagined that the textual representation would be used for remote comparisons and the QR code for local (in person) comparisons, but some users found it easier to send a screenshot of both formats via a public forum like Twitter, unknowingly publishing the phone numbers embedded in the QR code. In this release we’ve removed the identifiers from the QR codes entirely, so the only thing the QR code contains is the safety numbers themselves. Of course, if you publish a safety number for your communication with Alice, then a third party who also knows Alice’s fingerprint might recognize you are talking with her, but no other information is leaked.
Update 11/19: Steve Thomas pointed out that one caveat remains: if you have previously published an old-style Signal fingerprint or QR code and you now publish a new-style Signal safety number or QR code for the same identity key (i.e. without having reinstalled Signal), your phone number could still be discovered by a brute-force search. The safety number is a hash that contains both a public key as well as a phone number, to help strengthen the relatively short safety number against cryptanalytic attacks using pre-calculated values, and to help strengthen the process against "unknown key share" attacks. Someone with knowledge of a user's public key and safety number could successively attempt to hash every possible phone number with the public key until they find an output that matches the published safety number. This does not affect Signal's current design, since you'd have to know the phone number to obtain the public key to begin with, but is a consideration for users who have previously published their public key for their current install of Signal. In the long term, we think this construction is the best approach for providing short yet secure values, however in the short term it does require existing users who have previously published old-style Signal fingerprints to exercise some additional awareness.
Up until now, when a user’s key changes, Signal has required a manual approval process before being able to send or receive any further messages with that user. This happens every time someone reinstalls Signal or gets a new phone, and we’ve gotten a lot of feedback from users who would like to know when this occurs, but not necessarily be blocked by it.
The latest Signal release includes support for an advisory mode, where key changes display a notice of the event in the conversation history, but allow the user to continue sending/receiving messages without requiring manual approval. This new setting is initially disabled by default while we evaluate how it works in the field and get feedback on it from users. If everything goes well, we’ll begin enabling the advisory mode by default for new installs of Signal, leaving existing installs unchanged. There will always be the option for users to require manual approval of key changes.
Users who would like to switch can enable it from Signal settings.
View source
As always, everything that we do at Open Whisper Systems is open source. You can check out any of these changes in more detail (or get involved with development) at our GitHub repositories.The planet-map generator shown of this page has been developed in small increments over more than 20 years, so the code is a bit messy. But if you just want to run the program, this shouldn't matter for you.
As of Febrary 2013, a web interface is available. It does not have all the options of the offline version, and (so as to not overburden the server, which I share with many others) the size of maps is limited. But it is easier to use and does not require any installation.
The offline program (which you can download below) runs from a command line, so no fancy GUI. Lots of command-line options, though. A thing to note if you are using both the web tool and the offline program is that seeds in the web tool are integers that get "0." prefixed to then to get the equivalent for seed for the offline version. So, for example, the seed 1111111 in the web tool corresponds to the option "-s 0.1111111" in the offline program.
Both the program itself and maps created by the program are free for use, modification and reproduction, both privately and for commercial purposes, as long as this does not limit what other people may do with the program and images they produce with the program. For example, you can not copyright an image produced by the program unless you have substantially modified it afterwards, because other people might use the same parameters as you used to produce the same image. If you add code to the program that you do not wish to share, you can claim copyright for the code you write yourself, but that does not extend to the program as a whole. If you are in doubt about any particular use, you are welcome to contact me using the email address at the bottom if this page.
A few examples of maps generated by the program are shown below. Click on the pictures to see larger versions.Following the news that the MMORPG Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine would be shutting down in Japan on May 24, 2016, Atlus has recently registered several new website domains pertaining to the Megaten massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
According to a WHOIS domain lookup, Atlus has registered three different official domain names seemingly related to the Megaten MMO last week on May 10, 2016.
With “ATLUS CO.,LTD.” as the registrant organization, the following are the three domains:
MEGATENIMAGINE.JP
MEGAMIONLINE.JP
MEGATENONLINE.JP
The current official website for Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine is MEGATENONLINE.COM.
MEGATENIMAGINE.JP
The WHOIS domain search for MEGATENIMAGINE.JP brings up the following information:
MEGAMIONLINE.JP
The WHOIS domain search for MEGAMIONLINE.JP brings up the following information:
The WHOIS domain search for MEGATENONLINE.JP brings up the following information:
The reason as to why these new website domains would be registered by Atlus just as the Japanese version of Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine is planned to be shut down in only a week is unknown.
MEGATEN4F.jp
The previously registered website domain by Atlus of note was MEGATEN4F.JP on September 24, 2015, which would turn out to be the official website for Shin Megami Tensei IV Final.
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine is a massively online multiplayer RPG with the framework of an SMT game that was released on April 4, 2007. The game takes place in a collapsed Tokyo, with players assuming the role of “Demon Busters” who fight and converse with demons to survive in its harsh world. The English version was shut down on February 28, 2014 and the Japanese version is set to shut down on May 24, 2016.
Thanks to @MysticDistance for the news tip.CLOSE The Boilermakers captain on motivation as the team enters the Big Ten tournament. Nathan Baird / Journal & Courier
Purdue center Isaac Haas (44) dunks in front of Michigan forward Mark Donnal (34) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the Big Ten tournament, Friday, March 10, 2017, in Washington. Michigan won 74-70 in overtime. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Photo: Alex Brandon, AP) Story Highlights Purdue is 25-7 and ranked No. 14 by Ken Pomeroy and No. 20 in the NCAA's RPI.
After winning 14 straight first-round NCAA tournament games, Purdue has lost its last two.
Purdue will begin NCAA tournament play either Thursday or Friday.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — You hear it all in Dakota Mathias' voice
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Adapted (er, overhauled) from Emeril Lagasse
Sure, I’ve pretended that I adapted this from an Emeril recipe but I am pretty sure Emeril wouldn’t recognize what I did with it, from changing every single measurement to ditching steps (like studding the brisket with garlic; I like my brisket uninterrupted) to not straining the sauce (I know! I always thought I was more the sauce straining type too!) because the bits were too tasty to making it in a slow-cooker and deciding browning it had no effect on the final dish and also greatly simplifying the cooking process. So yeah; mostly I just made this recipe up. And it’s wonderful — not just the buckets of flavorful sauce (no dry brisket here!) but the slow-cooker to fridge to oven technique (adapted from my mother-in-law), which produces flawless brisket every single time.
Serves 8 to 10 servings
3 large onions, sliced
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/4 teaspoons black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (adjust to your heat preference)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups beef stock (unsalted or low salt)
1 cup ketchup*
1 cup chili sauce* (I’m realizing from comments that there are many many types; I used Heinz, which is not exactly spicy)
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
8 to 10 pound brisket
Prepare the sauce: Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and sauté onions in vegetable oil, stirring occasionally, until caramelized and most of liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes. Add halved garlic cloves and saute for 3 minutes more. Stir in spices and seasoning (paprika, salt, garlic and onion powders, black pepper, cayenne, oregano and thyme) and cook for 2 minutes. Set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together the beef stock, ketchup, chili sauce and brown sugar. Don’t worry if your brown sugar is lumpy (mine always is), the acidity of the ingredients will quickly break it down.
If baking in oven: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place brisket in a baking dish or casserole, spread onion mixture over the top, then pour sauce mixture over the entire dish. Cover tightly with foil bake until very tender but not falling apart, about 3 to 4 hours.
If making in a slow cooker (which I highly, highly recommend): Place brisket in a slow cooker, spread onion mixture over the top, then pour sauce mixture over the entire dish. Cover with the lid and cook it on LOW for 10 hours. (I like to start it before I go to bed, and process it in the morning to rest over the course of the day in the fridge.)
For both methods, rest the dish: When the brisket is cooked but still hot, use a spoon to scrape off any large fat deposits adhered to the top and bottom of the brisket. (This part is easiest to do when hot. The sauce will be de-fatted after it has chilled.)
If you’re using a slow cooker, transfer the brisket and all of its sauce to a baking dish. If you’ve baked it in the oven, you can continue in that same dish.
Chill entire dish in the fridge for several hours and up to one day; this resting time will significantly enhance the flavor and texture of the meat.
An hour before you’re ready to serve it: Preheat your oven to 300°F, and remove the dish from the fridge. Remove all of the fat that has solidified with a slotted spoon for a less oily finish.
Carefully remove the meat from its sauce and place on a large cutting board. Cut the brisket into 1/2-inch slices.
If you like a smoother sauce (I do) this is a good time to run it through a blender or literally just smash up the onion and garlic strands with a wooden spoon. They’ll be so soft, that’s all it takes.
Carefully place the sliced meat (moving it in large sections with a spatula helps keep it together) back into the sauce and spoon the sauce over the meat. Replace the lid or cover the dish tightly with foil and reheat in the oven until it is bubbling at the edges — this usually takes up to to 30 minutes.
* If you are very strictly kosher for Passover — generally, at an Orthodox level — you’ll want to find versions without corn syrup in them.Environmentalists including Chris Packham and Bear Grylls have urged Britain to drop its support for polar bear trading – claiming that the UK's opposition to a ban has contributed to thousands of the animals being hunted for rugs, trophies and body-parts.
Although the polar bear's survival is threatened by the melting of its Arctic sea-ice habitat, it is still legal to hunt the animals in Canada.
Wealthy tourists from as far afield as China pay up to $20,000 to track and hunt the endangered bears on dog-sledges, with more than 32,000 specimens traded internationally between 2001 and 2010. Skins, skulls and even teeth are sold, predominately in Japan and within the EU.
Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month
The UK has previously backed looser regulation of the trade, which has resulted in around 600 polar bears being shot in Canada every year, as well as an unknown number being shot illegally in Russia.
In a letter seen by The Independent, the Humane Society International urges Richard Benyon, the Wildlife minister, to "be a champion for the polar bear" by voting for a ban on the lucrative global trade in polar bear body-parts at a key meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) later this year.
The letter has als o been signed by Mr Packham, the adventurer Mr Grylls, and the actors Joseph Fiennes, Brian Blessed and Martin Clunes, in addition to the actress Joanna Lumley and the biologist Mark Carwardine.
The USA, backed by Russia, has proposed upgrading the polar bear's Cites trade status from Appendix II to Appendix I, which is reserved for the planet's most endangered species and would impose an effective ban on trade in polar-bear products. At the last Cites summit in 2010, the UK led the EU bloc of 27 nations in voting for lighter Appendix II regulation – a position conservationists say must be urgently reversed.
"The survival of the polar bear is threatened like never before from habitat loss through climate change," reads the letter, which is signed by Mark Jones, the head of the Humane Society International. "Whilst action we take now to tackle climate change may take years to benefit polar bears, ending the global trade will give them immediate and much-needed respite."
The next Cites summit will be held in Bangkok in March. If a two-thirds majority of nations votes in favour of tighter restrictions, an effective ban on polar-bear trade will become international law. In 2010, the 27 EU votes were crucial in blocking a ban, with 48 voting for and 62 against out of 121 nations. The UK is seen as a key voice in swaying the EU bloc vote.
Scientists estimate that there are between 20,000 and 25,000 polar bears left in the wild, with two-thirds of them found in Canada. Of the 12 populations for which data exist, eight are in decline. The decreasing extent of the Arctic summer sea-ice as a result of global warming has put extreme pressure on the species, robbing it of its main hunting ground. According to models created by the US Geological Survey, the bears could lose 70 per cent of their habitat by the middle of the century.
A spokesman for Mr Benyon's department, Defra, said that policy advisers were "considering the proposals" on a trade ban, adding that Mr Benyon would not be personally attending the Cites meeting in Bangkok. The spokesman said that, with the threat of climate change, trophy-hunting had been considered a secondary threat to polar bears and legislating for it was like "fiddling while Rome burns".Thursday, 07 Aug, 2008 Science
Scientists discovered that the skull, found by a boy while walking his dog in 2004 on the banks of a river, turned out to belong to a European woman who passed away over 260 years ago. The discovery led to serious doubts regarding the historical fact that Captain James Cook was the first European who stepped on the shores of the island in 1769.
The skull was found near Wellington in Wairarapa region of the North Island. The site was settled by Europeans after the New Zealand Company set up a colony in 1840.
"It's a real mystery, it really is. We have got the problem of how did this woman get here? Who was she? I recommended they do carbon date on it and of course they came up with that amazing result," Robin Watt, a Forensic Anthropologist, was quoted by British newspaper the Daily Telegraph as saying. He was called in by police who investigated the finding.
In 2004, the year when the skull was found, police started an investigation of murder, considering the finding as evidence of committed crime, said John Kershaw, the local coroner.
"One of the reasons some work was done on the skull was because it had a number of puncture wounds. We don’t know how this lady met her death, although the historian we used indicated drowning was a reasonable guess. This (examination) suggests that the deceased may have been alive somewhere in the South Wairarapa in or about 1742," Kershaw said.
After the examination, researchers stated that the skull was surely not Maori, which is the only race known to exist in New Zealand in the 18th century. They believe that the skull most likely is European.
Source: Daily Telegraph
Powered by www.infoniac.comNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared on Thursday to claim the country has developed a hydrogen bomb, a step up from the less powerful atomic bomb, but outside experts were sceptical.
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Kim made the comments as he toured the Phyongchon Revolutionary Site, which marks the feats of his father who died in 2011 and his grandfather, state founder and eternal president, Kim Il Sung, the official KCNA news agency said.
The work of Kim Il Sung “turned the DPRK into a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate a self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation,” KCNA quoted Kim Jong Un as saying. DPRK is the acronym for the isolated North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. A hydrogen bomb, also known as a thermonuclear bomb, uses more advanced technology to produce a significantly more powerful blast than an atomic bomb.
North Korea conducted underground tests to set off nuclear devices in 2006, 2009 and 2013, for which it has been subject to U.N. Security Council sanctions banning trade and financing activities that aid its weapons programme. An official at South Korea’s intelligence agency told Yonhap news agency that there was no evidence that the North had hydrogen bomb capacity, and believed Kim was speaking rhetorically.
Impoverished North Korea and rich, democratic South Korea remain technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty. The North has threatened to destroy the South and its major ally, the United States, in a sea of flames.
Despite the underground tests, the North has been seen as short of achieving the capability to put a nuclear warhead on a missile. If the hydrogen bomb claim is true, it would indicate advances in the North’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. “I think it’s unlikely that they have an H-bomb at the moment, but I don’t expect them to keep testing basic devices indefinitely, either,” said Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
It was possible the North was referring to the technology of boosting the yield of a nuclear device, possibly using fusion fuel, Lewis said. North Korea claimed in 2010 that it had successfully developed fusion technology. Assessing progress in the North’s nuclear programme is difficult because no one outside a close circle of leaders and experts in Pyongyang knows what advances have been made.
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The North has also boasted to have succeeded in miniaturisation of a nuclear warhead to mount on a ballistic missile, a claim disputed by U.S. and South Korean experts.[This is part 2 of my live blog of this book]
How strange this "intellectual property" issue is. In normal life, we tend to (or should) credit enterprise and markets for most innovations that surround us. I'm typing on a system here that includes products for several dozens different creative companies, with hardware and software and applications of all sorts stitched together through some miracle we call the coordinative power of the market. No news in that, I suppose. Ho hum.
But let the subject of IP come up, and most people will say that we only have this stuff thanks to IP. Think of the shift here. On the one hand, we credit markets. On the other hand, we credit monopoly. Both can't be true. Or if both are true, we have a serious theoretical tangle to unravel. So which is true?
This is the topic addressed in the second chapter of Boldine and Levine's Against Intellectual Monopoly. They begin by observing that "virtually none of the innovations" in the digital industry of computers" took place with the protection of intellectual monopoly."
Before 1981 it was not possible to patent or copyright software. The craze to patent every mouse click began only following a 1994 court ruling (In re Alappat). Meanwhile, the underlying guts of all that you see began long before. As with all genuine economic revolutions, the foundation of end-user consumption was decades in preparation. The compilers, assemblers, linked listed, databases, search algorithms, displays, languages, word processing: all began long before the age of software patents or copyrights.
Let's see how this works. Property rights are protected. Trade is free. People made useful stuff. People bought stuff and used it. They imitated and emulated each other and improved things step by step through investment, profit, and re-investment. That's all. All development since this great age of innovation that preceding software IP has built on this foundation of open-source material. Bill Gates: "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today."
The authors comment on the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy: "Intellectual monopoly is not a cause of innovation, but rather an unwelcome consequence of it." How so? Young industries do amazing things and get a foothold in the market. Then even better folks come along with better ideas. The old guys panic, and turn to government for protection. The industry freezes in place. It is the oldest pattern. Thus did Microsoft make no effort to protect its IP in the early days; it begged for attention and encouraged widespread use and copying. When it saw a threat from newcomers, matters changed.
There hasn't been that much innovation in operating systems since 1994. There has been innovation in web browsing, but where did the web browser come from? It bought it from a creative company in 1993, before there were software patents. Imagine how a patent in web browsing would have set back the entire industry! The losses would have been incalculable.
We can see here that the authors are holding up the computer industry as a model for how things work in a free market. And a super strong case for their position is the open-source software movement, which is a main fuel behind the development we see today. Firms relinquish monopoly to assure longevity in the industry: others can pick up their designs and develop them. This helps build their market. In any case, we all depend on open-source software every day if we use Google: it runs Linux, an open-source OS. There are many others. Indeed, open source dominates the web completely. Some 70% of servers online today run Apache.
But how can they make money? The authors tell the story of Red Hat. It is open source. It has plenty of competitors who offer the exact same product. But because of brand name, Red Hat is still marketable and has more staying power. As B&L say "If you had a problem with software you bought, and had to call the seller for advice - who would you prefer to call - the people who wrote the program, or the people who copied it?" Thus does Red Hat profit and their many competitors come and go, come again and go again.
The authors effortlessly segue from software to books, and here is the part that especially interests me. They provide an alternative explanation for why British literature was so widely circulated in the United States in the 19th century. American publishers could publish without copyright--there were no international copyright agreements--and there was massively competition. It was so intense that American firms would pay authors directly for sending chapters even before they appear in Britain. The amounts they would receive even exceed their British royalties over a period of years.
As a result, there was huge dissemination of knowledge. And the prices were low: Dickens's A Christmas Carol sold for $.06 in the US and $2.50 in England. And printing technology improved. Literacy improved. Ideas spread. Children and schools could have books, which in turn increased the demand for books, and spurred on new investment and technological improvements. It was a dynamic and wild world of publishing, comparable to what we see with the web today.
But could it work in modern times? Look at government documents, which are always and everywhere in the public domain (unless they are secret). The 9-11 report of 2004 was a huge bestseller, comparable to the first Harry Potter in sales volume. Norton even negotiated a deal with the government to release a paperback on the day of release, and it was also available for free download. Why would they do this? The same reason all entrepreneurs do what they do: to be the first to market. Meanwhile, anyone on the planet could publish it a day later. Still, Norton turned a massive profit.
Another fascinating section concerns the newspaper industry. It began without patent protection. Benjamin Day started the New York Sun and his technology was open source: he collected advertising to pay the costs and recruited young boys to sell it. Anyone could do it. But the point is that he did it first and made lots of money. He was first and he was innovative. That's the key to success. It was a massively costly undertaking!
Why wasn't he driven of business by piracy? The RIAA claim constantly that a free market can't work because pirate will go straight to the most profitable production ends and steal them. But the authors ask us to think about this carefully. How do we know what is profitable? We have to let the market work. You can't know in advance. And once a line of production is profitable, it is too late: the player has market dominance, and all the advantages that come with that. They ask us to try this yourself: try ruining a pop star by pirating song only once you are certain they are big hits.
Back up and consider the history of IP. It is a modern invention, whereas music and literature appeared at the dawn of civilization. Music and literature and art thrived for many centuries before IP. The authors don't go into it, but just imagine if the invention of the musical staff had been copyrighted and patented by the monk Guido d'Arezzo who invented it. Progress would have been set back by a century!
The first signs of IP appeared after the invention of the printing press. Governments used it to suppress political dissent (I suspect that the religion wars had something to do with this). It was a royal mercantilist privilege confer on printers, same as it was conferred on tea, tin, cotton, banking, or any other good. In the day, it seemed reasonable. The ruler wanted to control goods and producers want guarantees. Everyone wins, right? Except that there is no competition, no market process, and hence there is stasis. Mercantilism was refuted by economists and free market emerged and history was changed.
What happened to IP in the age when mercantilism was being repealed? It was not abolished but transferred from kings to producers: the exclusive right to produce was granted to private owners who became responsible for enforcement under the cover of law. This was a huge mistake in the liberal revolution of the 18th century, an inconsistency that continues to haunt us.
This section on IP history should be mandatory reading!
Next in this chapter: a short section on the history of sheet music. Did you know that the industry leader in sheet music--Francis, Day & Hunter--got its start in mass piracy? Fascinating. The war on cheap sheet music is comparable to the war on pirates today. It didn't work, thank goodness.
We conclude this chapter with a long and interesting section on the dynamic hugely profitable industry of porn. You wince. Of course. So does the state. Copyright protection is nearly unavailable here for reasons that are obvious. It is a legitimate subject for investigation from an economic perspective. This open-source industry is massive and growing, orderly and profitable and technologically innovative. How tragic that IP has created a situation in which we have to look to the seedier side of life to see how truly free markets work.Town Crier | Life is Feudal Dev Vlog
Just a small heads up here on what we are up to at the moment. As many of you know the team is working hard preparing a nice overhauled release version of LiF, utilising DX11So right now we are super busy polishing it and getting it ready to be rolled out in November 2015.Another interesting feature, which is in WiP state at the moment, is the implementation of special trick moves. They were done using MoCap, which we shot some time ago (if you haven’t seen our behind the scenes video just watch it below:These trick moves will be available at 100 skill level. Although they won’t give you any advantage in battle, it’s definitely a great way to show off. You can check a couple of them here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bobikvvp/videos Thanks for checking out our latest update - we hope you’re as excited as we are for the new features!r = 28, σ = 10, b = 8/3 A plot of the Lorenz attractor for values
Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics focusing on the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. "Chaos" is an interdisciplinary theory stating that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals, self-organization, and reliance on programming at the initial point known as sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The butterfly effect describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state, e.g. a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can cause a hurricane in Texas.[1]
Small differences in initial conditions, such as those due to rounding errors in numerical computation, yield widely diverging outcomes for such dynamical systems, rendering long-term prediction of their behavior impossible in general.[2][3] This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future behavior is fully determined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved.[4] In other words, the deterministic nature of these systems does not make them predictable.[5][6] This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos. The theory was summarized by Edward Lorenz as:[7]
Chaos: When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.
Chaotic behavior exists in many natural systems, such as weather and climate.[8][9] It also occurs spontaneously in some systems with artificial components, such as road traffic.[10] This behavior can be studied through analysis of a chaotic mathematical model, or through analytical techniques such as recurrence plots and Poincaré maps. Chaos theory has applications in several disciplines, including meteorology, anthropology,[11][12] sociology, physics,[13] environmental science, computer science, engineering, economics, biology, ecology, and philosophy. The theory formed the basis for such fields of study as complex dynamical systems, edge of chaos theory, and self-assembly processes.
Introduction [ edit ]
Chaos theory concerns deterministic systems whose behavior can in principle be predicted. Chaotic systems are predictable for a while and then 'appear' to become random.[3] The amount of time that the behavior of a chaotic system can be effectively predicted depends on three things: How much uncertainty can be tolerated in the forecast, how accurately its current state can be measured, and a time scale depending on the dynamics of the system, called the Lyapunov time. Some examples of Lyapunov times are: chaotic electrical circuits, about 1 millisecond; weather systems, a few days (unproven); the inner solar system, 4 to 5 million years.[14] In chaotic systems, the uncertainty in a forecast increases exponentially with elapsed time. Hence, mathematically, doubling the forecast time more than squares the proportional uncertainty in the forecast. This means, in practice, a meaningful prediction cannot be made over an interval of more than two or three times the Lyapunov time. When meaningful predictions cannot be made, the system appears random.[15]
Chaotic dynamics [ edit ]
x → 4 x (1 – x) and y → (x + y) mod 1 → ( x and y values diverge markedly over time from a tiny initial difference. The map defined byanddisplays sensitivity to initial x positions. Here, two series ofandvalues diverge markedly over time from a tiny initial difference.
In common usage, "chaos" means "a state of disorder".[16] However, in chaos theory, the term is defined more precisely. Although no universally accepted mathematical definition of chaos exists, a commonly used definition originally formulated by Robert L. Devaney says that, to classify a dynamical system as chaotic, it must have these properties:[17]
it must be sensitive to initial conditions, it must be topologically mixing, it must have dense periodic orbits.
In some cases, the last two properties in the above have been shown to actually imply sensitivity to initial conditions.[18][19] In these cases, while it is often the most practically significant property, "sensitivity to initial conditions" need not be stated in the definition.
If attention is restricted to intervals, the second property implies the other two.[20] An alternative, and in general weaker, definition of chaos uses only the first two properties in the above list.[21]
Chaos as a spontaneous breakdown of topological supersymmetry [ edit ]
In continuous time dynamical systems, chaos is the phenomenon of the spontaneous breakdown of topological supersymmetry, which is an intrinsic property of evolution operators of all stochastic and deterministic (partial) differential equations.[22][23] This picture of dynamical chaos works not only for deterministic models but also for models with external noise, which is an important generalization from the physical point of view, because in reality, all dynamical systems experience influence from their stochastic environments. Within this picture, the long-range dynamical behavior associated with chaotic dynamics, e.g., the butterfly effect, is a consequence of the Goldstone's theorem in the application to the spontaneous topological supersymmetry breaking.
Sensitivity to initial conditions [ edit ]
x and z were kept the same but those for y were changed between 1.001, 1.0001 and 1.00001. The values for ρ {\displaystyle \rho } σ {\displaystyle \sigma } β {\displaystyle \beta } 45.92, 16 and 4 respectively. As can be seen, even the slightest difference in initial values causes significant changes after about 12 seconds of evolution in the three cases. This is an example of sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Lorenz equations used to generate plots for the y variable. The initial conditions forandwere kept the same but those forwere changed betweenand. The values forandwereandrespectively. As can be seen, even the slightest difference in initial values causes significant changes after about 12 seconds of evolution in the three cases. This is an example of sensitive dependence on initial conditions.
Sensitivity to initial conditions means that each point in a chaotic system is arbitrarily closely approximated by other points with significantly different future paths, or trajectories. Thus, an arbitrarily small change, or perturbation, of the current trajectory may lead to significantly different future behavior.
Sensitivity to initial conditions is popularly known as the "butterfly effect", so-called because of the title of a paper given by Edward Lorenz in 1972 to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., entitled Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events that prevents the predictability of large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the overall system would have been vastly different.
A consequence of sensitivity to initial conditions is that if we start with a limited amount of information about the system (as is usually the case in practice), then beyond a certain time the system is no longer predictable. This is most prevalent in the case of weather, which is generally predictable only about a week ahead.[24] Of course, this does not mean that we cannot say anything about events far in the future; some restrictions on the system are present. With weather, we know that the temperature will not naturally reach 100 °C or fall to −130 °C on earth (during the current geologic era), but we can't say exactly what day will have the hottest temperature of the year.
In more mathematical terms, the Lyapunov exponent measures the sensitivity to initial conditions. Given two starting trajectories in the phase space that are infinitesimally close, with initial separation δ Z 0 {\displaystyle \delta \mathbf {Z} _{0}}, the two trajectories end up diverging at a rate given by
| δ Z ( t ) | ≈ e λ t | δ Z 0 |, {\displaystyle |\delta \mathbf {Z} (t)|\approx e^{\lambda t}|\delta \mathbf {Z} _{0}|,}
where t is the time and λ is the Lyapunov exponent. The rate of separation depends on the orientation of the initial separation vector, so a whole spectrum of Lyapunov exponents exist. The number of Lyapunov exponents is equal to the number of dimensions of the phase space, though it is common to just refer to the largest one. For example, the maximal Lyapunov exponent (MLE) is most often used because it determines the overall predictability of the system. A positive MLE is usually taken as an indication that the system is chaotic.
Also, other properties relate to sensitivity of initial conditions, such as measure-theoretical mixing (as discussed in ergodic theory) and properties of a K-system.[6]
Topological mixing [ edit ]
[ x, y ] {\displaystyle [x,y]} mixing occurs as we progress in iterations. The sixth iteration shows that the points are almost completely scattered in the phase space. Had we progressed further in iterations, the mixing would have been homogeneous and irreversible. The logistic map has equation x k + 1 = 4 x k ( 1 − x k ) {\displaystyle x_{k+1}=4x_{k}(1-x_{k})} y {\displaystyle y} y k + 1 = x k + y k {\displaystyle y_{k+1}=x_{k}+y_{k}} x k + y k < 1 {\displaystyle x_{k}+y_{k}<1} y k + 1 = x k + y k − 1 {\displaystyle y_{k+1}=x_{k}+y_{k}-1} Six iterations of a set of statespassed through the logistic map. (a) the blue plot (legend 1) shows the first iterate (initial condition), which essentially forms a circle. Animation shows the first to the sixth iteration of the circular initial conditions. It can be seen thatoccurs as we progress in iterations. The sixth iteration shows that the points are almost completely scattered in the phase space. Had we progressed further in iterations, the mixing would have been homogeneous and irreversible. The logistic map has equation. To expand the state-space of the logistic map into two dimensions, a second state,, was created as, ifandotherwise.
x → 4 x (1 – x) and y → (x + y) mod 1 → ( The map defined byandalso displays topological mixing. Here, the blue region is transformed by the dynamics first to the purple region, then to the pink and red regions, and eventually to a cloud of vertical lines scattered across the space.
Topological mixing (or topological transitivity) means that the system evolves over time so that any given region or open set of its phase space eventually overlaps with any other given region. This mathematical concept of "mixing" corresponds to the standard intuition, and the mixing of colored dyes or fluids is an example of a chaotic system.
Topological mixing is often omitted from popular accounts of chaos, which equate chaos with only sensitivity to initial conditions. However, sensitive dependence on initial conditions alone does not give chaos. For example, consider the simple dynamical system produced by repeatedly doubling an initial value. This system has sensitive dependence on initial conditions everywhere, since any pair of nearby points eventually becomes widely separated. However, this example has no topological mixing, and therefore has no chaos. Indeed, it has extremely simple behavior: all points except 0 tend to positive or negative infinity.
Density of periodic orbits [ edit ]
For a chaotic system to have dense periodic orbits means that every point in the space is approached arbitrarily closely by periodic orbits.[25] The one-dimensional logistic map defined by x → 4 x (1 – x) is one of the simplest systems with density of periodic orbits. For example, 5 − 5 8 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {5-{\sqrt {5}}}{8}}} → 5 + 5 8 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {5+{\sqrt {5}}}{8}}} → 5 − 5 8 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {5-{\sqrt {5}}}{8}}} (or approximately 0.3454915 → 0.9045085 → 0.3454915) is an (unstable) orbit of period 2, and similar orbits exist for periods 4, 8, 16, etc. (indeed, for all the periods specified by Sharkovskii's theorem).[26]
Sharkovskii's theorem is the basis of the Li and Yorke[27] (1975) proof that any continuous one-dimensional system that exhibits a regular cycle of period three will also display regular cycles of every other length, as well as completely chaotic orbits.
Strange attractors [ edit ]
The Lorenz attractor displays chaotic behavior. These two plots demonstrate sensitive dependence on initial conditions within the region of phase space occupied by the attractor.
Some dynamical systems, like the one-dimensional logistic map defined by x → 4 x (1 – x), are chaotic everywhere, but in many cases chaotic behavior is found only in a subset of phase space. The cases of most interest arise when the chaotic behavior takes place on an attractor, since then a large set of initial conditions leads to orbits that converge to this chaotic region.[28]
An easy way to visualize a chaotic attractor is to start with a point in the basin of attraction of the attractor, and then simply plot its subsequent orbit. Because of the topological transitivity condition, this is likely to produce a picture of the entire final attractor, and indeed both orbits shown in the figure on the right give a picture of the general shape of the Lorenz attractor. This attractor results from a simple three-dimensional model of the Lorenz weather system. The Lorenz attractor is perhaps one of the best-known chaotic system diagrams, probably because it is not only one of the first, but it is also one of the most complex, and as such gives rise to a very interesting pattern that, with a little imagination, looks like the wings of a butterfly.
Unlike fixed-point attractors and limit cycles, the attractors that arise from chaotic systems, known as strange attractors, have great detail and complexity. Strange attractors occur in both continuous dynamical systems (such as the Lorenz system) and in some discrete systems (such as the Hénon map). Other discrete dynamical systems have a repelling structure called a Julia set, which forms at the boundary between basins of attraction of fixed points. Julia sets can be thought of as strange repellers. Both strange attractors and Julia sets typically have a fractal structure, and the fractal dimension can be calculated for them.
Minimum complexity of a chaotic system [ edit ]
x → r x (1 – x). Each vertical slice shows the attractor for a specific value of r. The diagram displays r increases, eventually producing chaos. Bifurcation diagram of the logistic map Each vertical slice shows the attractor for a specific value of. The diagram displays period-doubling asincreases, eventually producing chaos.
Discrete chaotic systems, such as the logistic map, can exhibit strange attractors whatever their dimensionality. Universality of one-dimensional maps with parabolic maxima and Feigenbaum constants δ = 4.664201... {\displaystyle \delta =4.664201...}, α = 2.502907... {\displaystyle \alpha =2.502907...} [29] is well visible with map proposed as a toy model for discrete laser dynamics: x → G x ( 1 − t a n h ( x ) ) {\displaystyle x\rightarrow Gx(1-tanh(x))}, where x {\displaystyle x} stands for electric field amplitude, G {\displaystyle G} [30] is laser gain as bifurcation parameter. The gradual increase of G {\displaystyle G} at interval [ 0, ∞ ) {\displaystyle [0,\infty )} changes dynamics from regular to chaotic one [31] with
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, led by Suranga Lakmal, used swinging and seaming conditions to rip through a tentative India batting line-up for 112, setting up a seven-wicket rout that also snapped their 12-game losing streak in ODIs.
When Lakmal finished with figures of 10-4-13-4 to leave India at 29 for 7, it didn't look like the innings would last 38.2 overs. But MS Dhoni shepherded the tail with a calculated 65 to prevent India from the ignominy of falling to the lowest ODI total. Even though India started well in the defense, their total was decidedly under-par as Sri Lanka hunted down the target with 29.2 overs to spare.
In the fresh mountain air of Dharamsala, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers, Lakmal and Angelo Mathews, repeatedly hit the perfect length: just fuller than good. On a surface with sufficient but not exaggerated lateral movement, that length becomes even harder to negate. Batsmen are indecisive with their footwork and therefore shot selection.
Shikhar Dhawan prefers to dominate bowlers from the outset, particularly with cross-batted strokes. He hung back to Mathews, who angled full deliveries away from his leaden-footed drives. Then, Mathews swerved one back into Dhawan to beat his inside edge, striking him in front of middle. Sri Lanka had umpire Simon Fry's not-out decision overturned on review to complete the perfect one-two play.
Two overs on, Lakmal hit that ideal length again but with a quicker pace. Rohit Sharma played the line but enough away seam movement kissed the outside edge. This time, Sri Lanka had umpire Anil Chaudhary's decision overturned.
Most of India's shots thereafter were borne by an intent to weather that testing period. That resulted in two runs in the first five overs and 11 in the first 10, the lowest in a match involving two Full Members in the last five years.
That also ensured Sri Lanka didn't need to alter their own approach, as they jagged and nipped the ball both ways. All of Sri Lanka's first seven wickets were a result of beating the batsmen on the inside or outside edge. Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were caught behind the wicket off outside edges. Dinesh Karthik fell over a flick and Shreyas Iyer chopped on via the inside edge.
Of late, Dhoni often consumes too many balls while starting his innings, but India's dire situation fit his template today. He charged down off his first ball, displaying an intent and a clear plan to negate the swing that no other batsman had.
One of Dhoni's biggest - and well-documented - assets is his productivity with the tail. In Kuldeep Yadav's company, he chose only the errant deliveries to score. He used his typical bottom-hand power to place the ball particularly into gaps through cover, midwicket and backward square leg. He eventually sliced a lofted drive off Thisara Perera to be last man out, not before making close to 60% of India's runs from No. 6.
With India's opening bowlers also generating appreciable seam movement both ways, it seemed like Dhoni had carried India not too far away from a fighting score. Danushka Gunathilaka, frustrated by the ball repeatedly going past his outside edge, attempted a straight heave off Jasprit Bumrah and was caught behind, the ball missing his intended area by 180 degrees. Such were the margins of error on this pitch.
In his next over, Bumrah also had Upul Tharanga caught at gully, but replays indicated he overstepped. When Bhuvneshwar Kumar got Lahiru Thirimanne to chop on three balls later, India not only hoped, but believed. They had, after all, produced three wicket-taking balls in 37 balls on a surface that was offering plenty of assistance.
Tharanga, though, quelled their belief with a flurry of sweetly-timed strokes either side of the wicket. India had to set attacking fields, leaving massive holes in the outfield. Tharanga unleashed several cover drives en route to his 49 before edging to first slip. Angelo Mathews and Niroshan Dickwella then added an unbroken 49 to carry Sri Lanka home, leaving India having to come back from a 1-0 deficit for the second consecutive three-match series.by
Since 1967 Israel has maintained an unofficial policy of detaining Palestinian and Arab war victims in mass graves and cemeteries. Today at last 348 bodies are held prisoner by the Israeli government their families unable to retrieve their remains.
In a traditional conflict, the bodies of the deceased would be returned to their country of origin following peace and removal of the occupying power. Israel refuses to return the bodies to their families, some of whom have been waiting for decades, on the basis that the conflict is temporary and withholding the remains is necessary to maintain internal security.
Yet as the occupation enters its 46th year and with no end in sight, the Israeli government still retains nearly 350 bodies despite numerous appeals to the Israeli court and international condemnation of the practice. JLAC, The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, heads up the campaign to release Arab war victims and disclose the fate of those missing. In an interview on Thursday July 11th, at the JLAC office in Ramallah Palestine, lawyer Haytham Khatib explained the motives behind Israel withholding these bodies.
“The rational behind this policy is a security condition, or a security pretext. Israeli considers all of them [deceased combatants] as terrorists, not fighter and soldiers and therefore the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of enemy dead do not apply.”
Khatib went on to say “Israel recognizes the importance of funeral and religious practices for Arab peoples, as well as the importance of Martyrs in Palestinian society.” Withholding the remains enacts a “collective punishment” against the families of fighters as well as providing a potential deterrent against future resistance.
This practice of withholding remains is consistent with Israeli attempts throughout history to present its activities in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) within the context of perpetual war. As Israeli historian Ilan Pappe wrote in his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, this context presents actions “In such a manner, that all activities, including atrocities are portrayed as part of a theater of war, wherein things are judged on a moral basis in a manner very different from the ways they would be treated in non-combatant situation.” In this case the imprisonment of the remains of dead combatants is understood as a necessary wartime practice instead of a colony policy designed to exact a toll on those that have resisted the occupation.
The Numbers
According to JLAC’s campaign coordinator Salem Khilleh, the organization has documented 442 cases of deceased combatants, including 66 that are still missing (assumed dead). 416 of the 442 cases are Palestinian, the rest Arab combatants from neighboring countries who died while fighting in Palestine. The majority of these victims are PLO fighters who engaged in direct combat with Israeli forces but also include those that died while serving prison sentences, in direct clashes with IDF, killed or missing while crossing border and a few that died in terrorists attacks against Israeli civilians.
The deceased are held in secret cemeteries located in closed military zones. So far only four of these so-called “cemeteries of numbers” have been identified, the exact number of deceased combatants is impossible to know given that Israel has net released information on how many bodies it retains. Salem Khilleh describes these cemeteries: “there are no names just iron bars with numbers corresponding to info on the deceased, the graves are small and shallow often containing multiple bodies.” Prior to 1976 deceased were buried without any clear Israeli policy or process, the bodies left unidentified. Many of the deceased were placed in mass graves in shallow sandy soil running the risk of exposure and animal disturbance.
JLAC Campaign
In August of 2008 JLAC began its campaign to retrieve the bodies of the dead and disclose the fate of those missing. According to Salem the idea for the campaign began when one of the parents of a deceased soldier contacted JLAC. “He was 85 at the time; his last wish was to retrieve the body of his son, “ Salem recalled the elderly man saying.
The campaigns first success came with the release of the remains of Mashour Taleb Saleh who was killed 1976 in a PLO guerilla operation in Israel. In 2010, after a successful petition by JLAC to the Israeli Supreme Court, the Israeli Authority released Mashour’s remains to his family, some 33 years after his death.
In an interview in 2010 Mashour’s brother spoke about the Israeli policy. “Confiscating corpses is an immoral policy, the dead are dead. This is punishment for both the living and the deceased. It’s a policy of revenge; there is no law that allows anyone to retain a corps as prisoner for decades.” Since 2010 JLAC has successfully secured the release of 92 other bodies and is petitioning for the release and disclosure of all remaining deceased combatants along with the missing.
Legality
In a report submitted to the United Nations in 2009, JLAC exposes Israel continued violation of international law and the “the inappropriate and disrespectful actions practiced on human bodies. ” Conventional and customary International Humanitarian Law has determined that contesting parties in armed conflict, whether international or domestic, must respect the dead whether killed in the battlefield or died while in detention. Bodies must be collected, evacuated, buried in properly marked graves and their families must be notified. Moreover, the return of dead bodies to the party that they belong to or upon the request of their next of kin is an international obligation duly recognized under international customary law and relevant treaties.
Israeli actions constitute a direct violation of international Law and Article 17, 120, 130 of the Geneva Convention that outline the criteria for treatment of enemy bodies.
Graves are not adequately maintained and bodies are buried in areas at high risk of exposure. Tombs are not properly marked and families are unaware of their location, bared from visiting their loved ones. Furthermore as Khilleh notes that prior to the 1st of September 1976, “None of the cases were documented, identified or filed. Some of the bodes were used to harvest organs and as cadavers for medical students, while the conditions of the graves have made it impossible to identify some of the returned remains. These actions show a severe and criminal disrespect for the bodies of the deceased.”
Yet throughout the conflict Israeli has considered itself within its legal right to retain the remains of these war victims, defining all forms of resistance to the occupation as terrorism. The Israeli governments treatment of the Palestinian dead is consistent with numerous policies in the West Bank where supposed security threats supplant international law. The expansive nature of the term security in Israeli is used to rationalize the imprisonment of the dead and the living. According to the Palestinian Prisoners rights association Addameer, more than 800,000 Palestinian have been incarcerated in Israeli jails since the onset of the occupation in 1967, thousands of which held in administrative detention without charge or trail.
Colonial Policy
The unofficial Israeli policy of withholding the bodies of Arab and Palestinian war victims, if viewed in comparison to other wartime conflicts, is consistent with international law. However it is important to contextualize this violence within the reality of the conflict itself. Israel continual retention of the Palestinian dead is not a byproduct of war but a form collective punishment for resisting colonialism. Israel’s policy to withhold the remains of enemy combatants is consistent with the State’s narrative of perpetual war. This narrative aims to present the conflict as a battle between competing powers, not the asymmetrical struggle against the ongoing occupation and Judaization of the oPt. The inability for Palestinian and Arab families to burry and honor their loved ones reflects a gross violation of their rights and an extension of Israeli control over the bodies of the living and the deceased. For these Palestinians the occupation extends to the grave.
Sam Gilbert writes about the Middle East.This article is about the question of whether the Holodomor constituted genocide. For the question of whether it occurred and/or minimization of its impact, see Denial of the Holodomor
The Holodomor genocide question consists of the attempts to determine whether the Holodomor, a 1933 man-made[1] famine that killed about 4 million people in Ukraine,[2] was an ethnic genocide or an unintended result of the "Soviet regime's re-direction of already drought-reduced[3] grain supplies to attain economic and political goals."[4] The event is recognized as a crime against humanity by the European Parliament,[5] and a genocide in Ukraine[6] while the Russian Federation considers it part of the wider Soviet famine of 1932–33 and corresponding famine relief effort.[4] The debate among historians is ongoing and there is no international consensus among scholars or governments on whether the Soviet policies that caused the famine fall under the legal definition of genocide.[7][8]
Holodomor [ edit ]
The Ukrainian famine (1932–1933), or Holodomor (Ukrainian: Голодомор, literally "death by starvation"), was one of the largest national catastrophes in the modern history of the Ukrainian nation. The word comes from the Ukrainian words holod, "hunger"; and mor, "plague",[9] possibly from the expression moryty holodom, "to inflict death by hunger". The Ukrainian verb moryty (морити) means "to poison somebody, drive to exhaustion or to torment somebody". The perfect form of the verb moryty is zamoryty—"kill or drive to death by hunger, exhausting work". The neologism Holodomor is given in the modern two-volume dictionary of the Ukrainian language as "artificial hunger, organised in vast scale by the criminal regime against the country's population".[10] Sometimes the expression is translated into English as "murder by hunger."[11]
Ukrainian government position [ edit ]
On November 28, 2006, Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed a law recognizing the 1932–1933 Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. The voting figures were as follows: supporting the bill were BYuT—118 deputies, NSNU—79 deputies, Socialists—30 deputies, 4 independent deputies, and the Party of Regions—2 deputies (200 deputies did not cast a vote). The Communist Party of Ukraine voted against the bill. In all, 233 deputies supported the bill—more than the minimum of 226 votes required to pass it into law.[12][13] Another bill was sought by Yushchenko's administration to criminalize those disputing that the Holodomor was genocide, but such a law has never been adopted by the Ukrainian parliament.[14]
In a ruling of January 13, 2010, Kyiv's Court of Appeal recognized the leaders of the totalitarian Bolshevik regime as those guilty of 'genocide against the Ukrainian national group in 1932-33 through the artificial creation of living conditions intended for its partial physical destruction.'"[15]
Russian government position [ edit ]
The Russian Federation accepts historic information about the Holodomor but rejects the argument that it was ethnic genocide by pointing out the fact that millions of non-Ukrainian Soviet citizens also died because of the famine. On 2 April 2008, a statement was voted by the Russian parliament stating there was no evidence that the 1933 famine was an act of genocide specifically against the Ukrainian people. This was in response to the 2006 Ukrainian parliament declaration that the Holodomor was an act of genocide by the Soviet authorities against the Ukrainian people. The resolution adopted by Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, condemned the Soviet regime's "disregard for the lives of people in the attainment of economic and political goals", along with "any attempts to revive totalitarian regimes that disregard the rights and lives of citizens in former Soviet states." yet stated that "there is no historic evidence that the famine was organized on ethnic grounds."[4]
According to a Moscow Times article: "The Kremlin argues that genocide is the killing of a population based on their ethnicity, whereas Stalin's regime annihilated all kinds of people indiscriminately, regardless of their ethnicity. But if the Kremlin really believed in this argument, it would officially acknowledge that Stalin's actions constituted mass genocide against all the people of the Soviet Union."[16]
In November 2010 a leaked confidential U.S. diplomatic cable revealed that Russia had allegedly pressured its neighbors not to support the designation of Holodomor as a genocide at the United Nations.[17]
Other countries and international organizations [ edit ]
Countries which officially recognise the Holodomor as an act of genocide
Several countries and international organizations made public statements addressing the Holodomor and recognizing it as a tragedy. Some went further to recognize it as genocide, or a crime against humanity.
In the framework of international organizations, resolution recognizing Holodomor as genocide was adopted by the Baltic Assembly.[18][19]
A number of international organizations adopted resolutions recognizing Holodomor as tragedy or crime against humanity but did not use the word "genocide":
The following countries have recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide:[31]
Countries that have recognized the Holodomor as a criminal act of the Stalinist regime:
Scholarly debate [ edit ]
Raphael Lemkin [ edit ]
Raphael Lemkin in his work "Soviet Genocide in the Ukraine", the last chapter of a monumental History of Genocide, written in the 1950s, applies the concept of genocide to “perhaps the classic example of Soviet genocide, its longest and broadest experiment in Russification—the destruction of the Ukrainian nation,” which he describes as a systematic campaign spanning at least from 1920 to 1946. In his work he speaks of: a) the decimation of the Ukrainian national elites, b) an offensive against churches, priests and hierarchy, the ‘soul’ of Ukraine, c) the starvation of the Ukrainian farming population, and d) its replacement with non-Ukrainian population from the RSFSR as integral components of the same genocidal process. The only dimension not included in Lemkin's analysis was the destruction of the 8,000,000 ethnic Ukrainians living on the eve of the genocide in the Russian Republic (RSFSR).[72][73][74]
Yaroslav Bilinsky [ edit ]
Yaroslav Bilinsky, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware, writes in the Journal of Genocide Research (1999) in a review of Holodomor literature—he concludes:
Political usage should not override scholarly logic, especially political usage which is just being established in independent Ukraine, arguably seven years late. My argument, however, is that both logic and political usage in Ukraine point in one direction, that of the terror-famine being genocidal. Stalin hated the Ukrainians, as accepted as a fact by Sakharov, revealed in the telegram to Zatonsky and inferred from his polemics with the Yugoslav communist Semich. Stalin decided to collectivize Soviet agriculture and under the cover of collectivization teach the Ukrainians a bloody lesson. Had it not been for Stalinist hubris and the incorporation of the more nationalistically minded and less physically decimated Western Ukrainians after 1939, the Ukrainian nation might have never recovered from the Stalinist offensive against the main army of the Ukrainian national movement, the peasants.[75]
James Mace [ edit ]
American historian James Mace wrote:
For the Ukrainians the famine must be understood as the most terrible part of a consistent policy carried out against them: the destruction of their cultural and spiritual elite which began with the trial of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine, the destruction of the official Ukrainian wing of the Communist Party, and the destruction of their social basis in the countryside. Against them the famine seems to have been designed as part of a campaign to destroy them as a political factor and as a social organism.[76]
Stanislav Kulchytsky [ edit ]
Ukrainian historian Stanislav Kulchytsky has contended:
[T]he way Stalin dealt with the Ukrainian countryside lifted the events out of the category of merely a famine and into the realm of genocide. In the fall of 1932, on orders from Moscow, government troops came to villages requisitioning grain to meet Stalin's unrealistic quotas. At gunpoint they took away grain, even when peasants did not have enough for themselves. Those peasants who had no grain were deprived of other food stocks. Those who resisted were shot. Then a Jan. 22nd, 1933 directive from Stalin and Molotov sealed off Ukrainian borders to prevent famished peasants from escaping.[77]
Norman Naimark [ edit ]
According to Norman Naimark, Professor of East European Studies at Stanford University, the Ukrainian killer famine should be considered an act of genocide.[78] He writes:
There is enough evidence—if not overwhelming evidence—to indicate that Stalin and his lieutenants knew that the widespread famine in the USSR in 1932–33 hit Ukraine particularly hard, and that they were ready to see millions of Ukrainian peasants die as a result. They made no efforts to provide relief; they prevented the peasants from seeking food themselves in the cities or elsewhere in the USSR; and they refused to relax restrictions on grain deliveries until it was too late. Stalin's hostility to the Ukrainians and their attempts to maintain their form of "home rule" as well as his anger that Ukrainian peasants resisted collectivization fueled the killer famine.[79]
Mark Tauger and opponents [ edit ]
West Virginia University professor Mark Tauger argued that the 1932 harvest was smaller than the official estimate, and smaller than the harvest of 1933, which would suggest the famine was not "man-made".[80] Tauger's evidence, methodologies and conclusions in regard to the famine were criticized by Robert Davies and Stephen Wheatcroft in their book The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931–33, published in 2004.[81][82] However, Tauger maintains that his harvest estimates are supported by evidence and his conclusions are shared by a number of other scholars.[81] Historian James Mace wrote that Tauger's argument "is not taken seriously by either Russians or Ukrainians who have studied the topic."[83] David Marples, professor of history at the University of Alberta, was critical of Tauger's claims, stating: "Dr. Tauger and other scholars fail to distinguish between shortages, droughts and outright famine. There is no such thing as a 'natural' famine, no matter the size of the harvest. A famine requires some form of state or human input."[84]
Steven Rosefielde [ edit ]
Professor Steven Rosefielde argues in his 2009 book Red Holocaust that "Grain supplies were sufficient enough to sustain everyone if properly distributed. People died mostly from terror-starvation (excess grain exports, seizure of edibles from the starving, state refusal to provide emergency relief, bans on outmigration, and forced deportation to food-deficit locales), not poor harvests and routine administrative bungling."[85]
Robert W. Davies and Stephen G. Wheatcroft [ edit ]
These authors disagree with Rosefielde's views and although they do not absolve Stalin from responsibility for Holodomor, they conclude the famine was essentially unintentional. Their analysis of previously unavailable archival data demonstrate that a combination of rapid industrialisation and two successive bad harvests (1931 and 1932) were the primary reason of the famine. However, the authors agree that Stalin's policies towards the peasants were brutal and ruthless.[86]
Timothy Snyder [ edit ]
Yale historian Timothy Snyder asserts that the starvation was "deliberate"[87] as several of the most lethal policies applied only, or mostly, to Ukraine.[88] He argues the Soviets themselves "made sure that the term genocide, contrary to Lemkin's intentions, excluded political and economic groups." Thus the Ukrainian famine can be presented as "somehow less genocidal because it targeted a class, kulaks, as well as a nation, Ukraine."[89]
Michael Ellman [ edit ]
Professor Michael Ellman of the University of Amsterdam concludes that "Team-Stalin's behaviour in 1930–34 clearly constitutes a crime against humanity (or a series of crimes against humanity) as that is defined in the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court".[note 1]:681 These include not only policies that exacerbated the starvation (exporting 1.8 million tonnes of grain during the height of the famine, banning migration from famine-stricken areas and refusing to secure humanitarian aid from abroad), but also mass shootings and deportations of alleged "kulaks", "counter-revolutionaries" and other "Anti-Soviet elements" around the same time.[90]:684, 681, 689
However, as to whether "Team-Stalin [was, further,] guilty of genocide",[90]:681 Ellman asserts that if so, "Many other events of the 1917–53 era (e.g. the deportation of whole nationalities, and the 'national operations' of 1937–38) would also qualify as genocide, as would the acts of [many Western countries]."[90]:690–691 Citing three physical elements susceptible also of "non-genocidal interpretations" and two mental elements lacking proof of specific intent that he contends are, taken together, "not unambiguous evidence of genocide", Ellman concludes as to genocide, that were he a juror, he would support a not guilty or "not proven" verdict.[note 2]:686
Ellman asserts that the "national operations" of the NKVD, particularly the "Polish operation", which occurred during the late 1930s during the great purges may qualify as genocide even under the strictest definition, but there has been no ruling on the matter.[90]:663–693
Nicolas Werth [ edit ]
Nicolas Werth, historian accepted a line of interpretation developed by Andrea Graziosi, and now believes that the Ukrainian famine of 1932–33 can be defined as a genocide according to the 1948 United Nations Convention:
This specifically anti-Ukrainian assault makes it possible to define the totality of intentional political actions taken from late summer 1932 by the Stalinist regime against the Ukrainian peasantry as genocide. With hunger as its deadly arm, the regime sought to punish and terrorize the peasants, resulting in fatalities exceeding four million people in Ukraine and the northern Caucasus.[91]
Other modern academics [ edit ]
A number of modern academics lean toward the definition of the Holodomor as genocide, echoing Raphael Lemkin's views. Their work is presented in the collection of essays Holodomor: Reflections on the Great Famine of 1932–1933 in Soviet Ukraine, printed in 2008.[92]
Notes [ edit ]
^ [90] "Team-Stalin's behaviour in 1930–34 clearly constitutes a crime against humanity (or a series of crimes against humanity) as that is defined in the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court article 7, subsection 1 (d) and (h) and, if the argument of the previous section of this article on national criminal law is accepted, then also subsection 1 (a) of the Statute would apply." ^ [90] "If the present author were a member of the jury trying this case he would support a verdict of not guilty (or possibly the Scottish verdict of not proven). The reasons for this are as follows. First, the three physical elements in the alleged crime can all be given non-genocidal interpretations. Secondly, the two mental elements are not unambiguous evidence of genocide. Suspicion of an ethnic group may lead to genocide, but by itself is not evidence of genocide. Hence it would seem that the necessary proof of specific intent is lacking"
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Andriewsky, Olga. "Towards a decentred history: The study of the Holodomor and Ukrainian historiography." East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies 2.1 (2015): 17–52. online.
2.1 (2015): 17–52. online. Collins, Laura C. "Book Review: The Holodomor Reader: A Sourcebook on the Famine of 1932–1933 in Ukraine," Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal (2015) 9#1: 114–115 online.
(2015) 9#1: 114–115 online. Klid, Bohdan and Alexander J. Motyl, eds. The Holodomor Reader: A Sourcebook on the Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine (2012).
(2012). Kulʹchytsʹkyi, Stanislav. "The Holodomor of 1932–33: How and Why?." East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies 2.1 (2015): 93–116. online
2.1 (2015): 93–116. online Moore, Rebekah. "'A Crime Against Humanity Arguably Without Parallel in European History': Genocide and the 'Politics' of Victimhood in Western Narratives of the Ukrainian Holodomor." Australian Journal of Politics & History 58#3 (2012): 367–379.Dispatches records secret footage of Hugo Swire at fundraiser after entrepreneur Paul Wilmott poses as potential donor to Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties
A Conservative Foreign Office minister has joked that benefit claimants can afford to donate £55,000 to his party’s election campaign as he entertained some of the wealthiest people in Britain.
Hugo Swire was secretly recorded making the remarks by Channel 4’s Dispatches at the Conservative ‘black and white’ fundraising ball last month as part of a sting on senior politicians from all three main parties.
Before an audience that included hedge fund owners and industrialists, Swire led an auction at the Grosvenor House hotel in Mayfair which raised millions of pounds for party candidates.
At one point, footage showed that the MP for East Devon attempted to encourage a bid by saying “£60,000 … Ian, persuade him … He’s not on benefits is he? Well if he is, then he can afford it … £55,000?”.
At the same event, Treasury minister David Gauke was filmed dining with executives from Lycamobile, a telecommunications firm which has donated more than £825,000 to the Tories but has been criticised for not paying enough corporation tax in Britain despite generating millions in revenue.
Lycamobile’s executives bid £200,000 for a statue of Margaret Thatcher, the programme makers said, as well as placing winning bids for two other prizes: lunch with Michael Gove and tea with the mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
Dispatches recorded the secret film after the entrepreneur Paul Wilmott posed as a potential donor to the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties. He suggested he was willing to donate £50,000 to each party.
In the course of the investigation he met all three party leaders, met four cabinet ministers and two shadow cabinet ministers.
Viewers also saw Wilmott attend a private lunch for donors in January with the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, at the Carlton Club in Covent Garden, central London.
Alexander Temerko, a former Russian businessman who made his fortune in oil before fleeing Russia and gaining British citizenship in 2011, sat next to Hunt. He and his energy firm OGN have donated £690,000 to the Conservative party.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, shakes hands with Alexander Temerko in the Channel 4 Dispatches programme. Photograph: Channel 4
Before the arrival of Hunt, Temerko is filmed saying: “All MPs which I support, which is 37 MPs … You know for change [of] prime minister you need 20, I have 37. Much more than half.”
According to the latest electoral commission figures, Temerko or his energy company OGN have given direct donations totalling some £220,000 to 24 MPs or constituency organisations. The latest quarterly donations have yet to be published.
Temerko’s lawyers told Dispatches that the conversation at the donor club meeting was lighthearted and his reference to supporting 37 MPs was an offhand comment and a mere reference to the number of MPs and candidates that he had in mind to donate to, not the number of donations he had actually made at that time.
A Conservative party spokesman said: “The fact that donors to the Conservative party are invited to attend events with senior figures within the party is clearly and openly stated on our website.
“All donations to the Conservative party are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully with Electoral Commission rules.”
Wilmott also met with the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Chris Leslie, to discuss the introduction of a financial transaction tax that might benefit a software business he claimed to be setting up.
In an email to Wilmott, Leslie wrote: “Many thanks for this Paul … I think you make some good points about the best way to introduce an FTT… I’ll have a good think about some of these good points ahead of our manifesto but I appreciate any updates you might have along the way.”
Wilmott also met Nick Clegg after being introduced by Lord Paul Strasburger.
During a discussion between all three, the peer said to the Liberal Democrat leader: “Paul [Wilmott] is trying to find a way to support us without sticking his head too far above the parapet and we’re working out how to involve his family in making donations.”
In response, Clegg said: “A very useful thing as well, it’s not a financial year calendar, it’s an end of year calendar, so you can do things either side.”
Wilmott had told Strasburger that he was thinking of donating £50,000 but would rather his name not be linked to the donation. Strasburger suggested that it was “perfectly legal” for Wilmott to uses his wife or stepfather.
The peer resigned the party whip on Friday night, vowed to clear his name and said he had been entrapped by the programme makers.
“Whatever Channel 4 may say in their Dispatches programme, I do not think I have committed any offence,” he said in a statement. “Having said that, I believe that we should all be accountable for what we do, so I have invited the Electoral Commission to carry out an investigation into my actions,” he added.
According to electoral law, a party must identify donors if they give a political party more than £7500 in a calendar year. The party must provide the donor’s name to the Electoral Commission which discloses it in a public register. It is a breach of of the law if there is an attempt to deceive who the donation has come from.While epic fantasy role-playing games (RPG) like The Elder Scolls V: Skyrim VR might be coming to virtual reality (VR) headsets in the near future, at present fans of the genre don’t have a great deal to choose from. Luckily inXile Entertainment has stepped in with The Mage’s Tale, a magic fueled adventure for Oculus Rift and Touch that goes a long way to make you feel like you’re an all powerful wizard.
You play an apprentice who’s just begun learning about how to conjure spells when the wizard who’s training you gets kidnapped by an evil sorcerer. With a trusty – and sometimes annoying – goblin like sidekick who floats around telling you how to do things whilst making derogatory remarks about how you’re ill equipped to take on the task of rescuing your master, you begin the journey to becoming a fully fledged wizard.
You start your adventure at a magical base of operations. This hub allows you to warp to each level – and once completed head back if you need to – as well as create the potions you’ll need to fight your way through dungeons and complete the task at hand. The potion side of The Mage’s Tale is a big aspect of the experience allowing you to chop and change your loadout as you see fit, with a myriad of different options as you unlock more ingredients. To begin with you’re only supplied with a basic fireball spell but as things progress ice, lightning and other elements come into play, all of which are needed to solve puzzles and give you a wide array of offensive capabilities.
inXile Entertainment has decided to go for the tried and tested teleportation method of movement for this VR experience. It works as well as any other title, with a reasonable range of movement all controlled with the right stick plus rotational snap movement. The left stick allows for much shorter, incremental steps should you need to side step out the way of an incoming arrow or other attacks.
Learning how to use both is vital when engaged in combat, at points you can be dealing with multiple enemies and using just teleportation on its own can be somewhat cumbersome. If you’re using a three-sensor setup you can teleport behind someone and quickly turn around, but with two-sensors you need to snap yourself round which can leave you defenseless for a moment. When you’ve got the hang of it, the combat does become a lot more fluid even though it’s certainly not perfect.
Whilst talking about combat, selecting your spells is a much easier mechanic to deal with. Holding down the B or Y button on either controller brings up a selection of four and you just wave your hand over the one you want. This means that both left and right-handed players are catered for. One downside is the fact that there’s no duel wielding, you can’t have a lightning spell in one hand and a fireball in the other which is a shame. On the flip side the hand that doesn’t have a spell can make a shield, so its not completely redundant.
The Mage’s Tale is massive, while the studio states there’s ten hours plus of gameplay you’ll likely finish it quicker than that. But that does depended on how much of a completionist you are as there are loads of little collectables to find. The videogame is littered with puzzles and thankfully inXile has managed to create quite a variety so you’re not just looking for a key, or repeating the same old tasks.
It’s a wonderful title to just walk around in, with the dungeons having a beautifully dark, dank, imposing feel to them. It’s not a horror by any means, actually most of the videogame is slightly camp and comedic in nature, even some of the enemies have a humorous aspect to them, evoking classic fantasy films of the 80’s like Dark Crystal.
One aspect that did curtail the enjoyment of The Mage’s Tale were the loading times. Now this is somewhat dictated by your PC’s spec, but any rig running VR needs to be fairly decent. Running a just above spec PC, most loading screens were timed at 2 – 3 minutes, fine to begin with when starting the videogame but this was consistent throughout. Get killed and it wasn’t straight back into the action, just a long pause while angelic celtic music played – beautiful the first few times, less so after a couple of loads. This also had an impact on
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back to the drawing board and come back with a real solution that incorporates all forms of energy including nuclear.”Image caption Jimmy Wales believes current privacy laws are ridiculous
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has waded into the debate over super-injunctions, saying current privacy laws are a "human rights violation".
The online encyclopaedia has fallen foul of UK privacy law in recent weeks, with details about those using super-injunctions appearing on the site.
Mr Wales told the BBC that such information would be removed because it did not come from a reliable source.
However, he said that might change if the stories ran in foreign newspapers.
"The Wikipedia community does not allow such things to come on the site unless there is a reliable source which currently there isn't because the newspapers aren't allowed to publish," he told the BBC Radio 4's PM programme.
But if they appeared in say the New York Times or a French newspaper he would run them, "without question".
US law
Mr Wales said his personal view was that privacy laws were "grave injustices and human rights violations".
"They should be done away with as quickly as possible. There should be no law constraining people from publishing legally obtained, factual information," he said.
Exceptions to this would be information that was life-threatening, such as troop movements.
"But we aren't talking about that. This is embarrassing facts about politicians and celebrities".
Wikipedia is owned by the US-based charity the WikiMedia Foundation and and is therefore subject to US law.
That is the same legal loophole that has allowed Twitter to continue publishing details about the private lives and subsequent super-injunctions of a range of celebrities.
Making mockery
It has said it will not identify the user who has been exposing the super-injunction gliterrati on the site, despite the fact that some of the details appear to be untrue.
Users worried by libellous tweets are advised to contact a lawyer.
Experts warned that the lawyers of celebrities could turn the tables, pressing for ISPs and firms such as Twitter to hand over the details of who is publishing comments on the site.
To do so they would need to obtain what is known as a Norwich Pharmacal order from a judge, the same process used by rights holders to force ISPs to hand over details about alleged illegal file-sharers.
"Celebrities could apply for Norwich Pharmacal orders against ISPs, Twitter or other parties holding data that may lead to the identification of a defendant," said solicitor Michael Forrester of law firm Ralli.
"The position is much more difficult when dealing with companies based in the US, such as Twitter and Google.
They may seek to avoid any applications on jurisdictional points and I suspect they may take a strong line with such applications, at least at first," he added.
The legislative net also appears to be closing in on social media sites with the UK culture secretary Jeremy Hunt saying places such as Twitter "made a mockery" of privacy laws.
"Whatever the laws tried to do on privacy, the internet is a very powerful force that you can't buck so we do need to look at it," he said at a Westminster lunch with journalists this week.
Meanwhile Twitter continues to ride high on the furore, recording its busiest day of online traffic this week.So KiT was an awesome event all around, and full of hype. But there's something that's been bothering me (and others as well) and needs to be addressed if we're going to keep growing our community.
A major is a fantastic chance to showcase our games and our community spirit. But the commentators need to understand; you are NOT at your local. You are not at your community pizza place; you're at a major and you are representing everyone.
Constantly bashing players for being less experienced, less skilled, or playing differently than you would is inexcuseable and it needs to stop. I lnow people think it's funny to call people 'random' and 'Gandhi' and whatever else, and maybe it's cute once, but putting down a player for the entire duration of all his matches on stream (and even afterwards) is ludicrous and will discourage players who are learning from wanting to play onstream.
It made me sick to watch it, and I hope it never happens again. I don't care if you saw it on a Capcom stream, we are better than that. The total lack of professionalism on the mic is excusable at a local but it ruins opportunities for us on larger stages.
PLEASE think before you open your mouth on a microphone in front of a few thousand people.
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SAFE 04/30/16
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Manhattan Center
My name is CHLOE. My Animal ID # is A1066877.
I am a spayed female br brindle and white am pit bull ter mix. The shelter thinks I am about 11 MONTHS old.
I came in the shelter as a RETURN on 04/16/2016 from OUT OF NYC, owner surrender reason stated was TOO STRONG.
MOST RECENT MEDICAL INFORMATION AND WEIGHT
04/16/2016 Exam Type POST ADOPTION – Medical Rating is 1 – NORMAL, Behavior Rating is NONE, Weight 43.8 LBS.
Post Adoption: Microchip:A981020015287745 Sex:Spayed.(incision site has held nicely) Age:11 months Mentation:Good Eyes:Bright and curious. Ears:Errect Nose:Moist Teeth:Pearly whites If abnormal BCS:N/A Skin:Good Hair Coat:Good Declawed:N/A Any injuries:N/A Behavior:Extremely rambuncious and is a little mouthy possibly all due to age and no training. Medication: Animal came into the facility with medication: Ear Cleaning and Mometamax. Both medications was dispensed 03/26/16 and the time usage for both was10 days. Animal has completed her course of TX.
04/16/2016 PET PROFILE MEMO
04/16/16 11:09 Basic information Chloe was brought in as a return due to having too much puppy-like behavior. Owner has had Chloe for the past couple of months after adopting her from AC&C. Owners note that their vet stated Chloe has an ear infection, but has since given her meds to care for it. Socialization & Behavior Chloe is described as being immediately friendly and outgoing with strangers. She lived with a 3, and 5 year old. Owners say Chloe loves being affectionate and playful with the children but may be too rough due to size and age. Chloe has not spent time with other animals, but owner says is passing she is tolerant and unbothered when passing by dogs. Owners say Chloe is afraid of the vacuum cleaner, and will sometimes bark, growl, and run from it. Chloe is unbothered if food is touched while eating, owner says they trained her to not eat until instructed to. She is also friendly with objects and her possessions being touched. Chloe listens and moves when removed from furniture, and is unbothered if disturbed while sleeping. For a New Family to Know Chloe is described as playful, affectionate, and friendly with a high activity level. When home she is normally following her owner and loves toy balls. She is taken out between4-5 times a day, and gets time in the yard due to constantly needing to urine. Owners note that Chloe gets diarrhea easily, and to combat it they mix her Blue dry food with rice. Owners recommend Chloe go to a home with no small children due to her sometimes being too rough. Chloe is partially housing trained going outside, and with wee-wee pads but owner says she has accidents a few tomes per week. The one occasion she was home alone Chloe was fine, and is behaved if left in the yard alone. Chloe understands the commands sit, stay, and come. Owners say Chloe lightly pulls and only walk her with a harness. Behavior during Intake Chloe was very friendly during intake. She immediately jumped onto counselor’s lap to initiate affection. Chloe did become a bit mouthy during petting but understands stop. Owners note that lately Chloe has been attempting to playfully chew on her leash when walked. Chloe accepted treats, and allowed all handling. Chloe showed no signs of aggression during intake.
04/22/2016 WEB MEMO
A volunteer writes: Ready to wake up happy every morning? Ready to enjoy some exercise with a fabulous companion, and then some hugs and kisses? Ready to enjoy it all with someone who thinks (who knows) you are the center of their world, never talks back or argues? Then come meet Chloe as she’s the bounciest, friendliest, tail waggyest pup in town! Up front in her kennel ready for her walk, she’s on her way to being housetrained, going potty the moment we were outside, and is all bouncy puppy as we walk. Her tail wags, she smiles at everyone, and of course everyone smiles back at her. Showing off her ‘sit’, she shakes paw when invited and enjoys her reward treats. Stunning in her brindle coat, Chloe is all about making friends, exploring her world, and bouncing from one thing to another. Chloe is looking for a home experienced in raising puppies to be the best they can be. Like children, puppies need structure, guidance, patience and loads and loads of love. I guarantee you’ll wake up with a smile on your face every day when you’re waking up to Miss Chloe….she won’t let it be otherwise. She wants to be your one and only canine buddy and with Chloe by your side you won’t need another. She’s excitedly waiting to meet you, so do it today! For video, copy-paste link to your browser– https://youtu.be/-Cz1NlREY1I
04/18/2016 BEHAVIOR EVALUATION – EXPERIENCE
Exam Type BEHAVIOR
Chloe came into our center as an owner surrender citing puppy behavior of mouthing and excited play was too much for the children. She reportedly lived with a 3 yr old and a 5 year old child, affectionate and playful with the children but sometimes too exuberant. It is reported Chloe may sometimes bark or growl at the vaccum cleaner. It is reported she is unbothered if anyone touches her Food, Toys, Treats, and was trained not to eat until instructed to. She is described as playful, affectionate, and friendly with a high activity level. She walked well on leash during her relief walk, owner reports she walked Chloe with a harness. During intake, Chloe was very friendly, immediately jumping on admissions counselor’s lap to initiate affection. She became a bit mouthy but stopped when instructed to. She allowed all handling. Chloe was friendly and sociable upon entering SAFER assessment room. She jumped up during Look item, excited and wiggly. Chloe leaned into assessor during Sensitivity item, lip lick, ears back. She playfully engaged during Tag game, hopping and popping, jumping up lightly on assessor, but settled easily at end. Chloe did not pull her paw back on both Squeeze items, mouthing assessor’s hand with no pressure. She playfully engaged with Toy, keeping a firm grip with loose, wiggly body. When off leash with other dogs, Chloe initially approaches and sniffs the male helper, body a bit tense. She begins to growl with increasing volume. When the helper dog walks away, she runs behind him, continuing to vocalize, jumping on his back and growling. When handler intervention is used to separate, she attempts to run back toward the helper dog, continuing to growl. The Behavior Team feels Chloe would do best with an Experienced owner. She would benefit from being the only resident dog. Look: 1. Dog jumps up with tail wagging, ears back and eyes averted. Sensitivity: 1. Dog leans into the Assessor, eyes soft or squinty, soft and loose body, open mouth. Tag: 1. Dog assumes play position and joins the game. Or dog indicates play with huffing, soft ‘popping’ of the body, etc., jumps on Assessor once play begins. Squeeze 1: 1. Dog does not respond at all for three seconds. Her eyes are averted and her ears are relaxed Squeeze 2: 2. Dog gently places her open mouth over the Assessor’s hand without applying pressure. Toy 1. Dog settles close, keeps a firm grip and is loose and wiggly. She does not place her body between you and the toy.
03/07/2016 GROUP BEHAVIOR EVALUATION
Exam Type GROUP BEHAVIOR
Chloe was initially cautious of interaction during her first introduction. She become more interested in engaging play, to the point of becoming more pushy and vocal. Upon her return to our care center, Chloe has been tense during interaction, jumping on other dogs, and beginning to vocalize with increasing intensity. The behavior department feels that Chloe would do best as the only resident dog in a home until her behavior around other dogs can be followed up on. When off leash with other dogs, Chloe is intially cautious in the yard. She avoids and runs away from greeting from the male helper. She instead seeks attention from handlers. 3/8 update: Chloe continues to be cautious but allows greeting. She seeks handler attention. 3/9 update: Chloe is initially cautious when solicited by a playful female dog. When introduced to a calmer female dog, she begins to solicit play, but continues to solicit when offered correction from the other dog. 3/10 update: Chloe engages in rough running play in a group of males and females. She becomes vocal and may mount the other dogs. 3/11 update: Chloe continues to enagage in rough, running play but is less vocal. 4/18 update update: Chloe initially approaches and sniffs the male helper, body a bit tense. She begins to growl with increasing volume. When the helper dog walks away, she runs behind him, continuing to vocalize, jumping on his back and growling. When handler intervention is used to separate, she attempts to run back toward the helper dog, continuing to growl. 4/19 update: Chloe is again tense when entering the pen, immediately jumping onto the helper dog and growling. She is separated with handler correction and approaches less tense, but continues to muzzle nudge, put her paws on his back and vocalize. 4/20 update: Chloe is tense when enetering the pen. She becomes pushy, running after the other dogs, vocalizing, and jumping on them. 4/22 update: Chloe is assertive and jumps onto the male helper, repeatedly depsite him attempting to keep a distance. when correction is offered she growls and vocalizes back.
04/16/2016 POST ADOPTION PHYSICAL EXAM
Medical rating was 1 – NORMAL, behavior rating was NONE
Post Adoption: Microchip:A981020015287745 Sex:Spayed.(incision site has held nicely) Age:11 months Mentation:Good Eyes:Bright and curious. Ears:Errect Nose:Moist Teeth:Pearly whites If abnormal BCS:N/A Skin:Good Hair Coat:Good Declawed:N/A Any injuries:N/A Behavior:Extremely rambuncious and is a little mouthy possibly all due to age and no training. Medication: Animal came into the facility with medication: Ear Cleaning and Mometamax. Both medications was dispensed 03/26/16 and the time usage for both was10 days. Animal has completed her course of TX.
03/12/2016 CAGE EXAM (LAST MAJOR EXAM)
Medical rating 1 – NORMAL,
03/12/16 19:56 Room log says diarrhea – none seen – BAR 3/7SCAN NEGATIVE BRIGHT ALERT RESPONSIVE HYDRATED PHYSICAL EXAM- INTACT FEMALE. YOUNG DOG. EYES, EARS, BODY COAT- WNL AMB X 4 APPLIED ACTIVYL. 4.1 CC PYRANTEL PO GAVE. ALLOWS HANDLING. NOSF
MARCH 2016
For more information on adopting from the NYC AC&C, or to find a rescue to assist, please read the following: http://information.urgentpodr.org/adoption-info-and-list-of-rescues/
If you are local to the Tri-State, New England, and the general Northeast United States area, and you are SERIOUS about adopting or fostering one of the animals at NYC ACC, please read our MUST READ section for instructions, or email [email protected]
Our experienced volunteers will do their best to guide you through the process.
*We highly discourage everyone from trusting strangers that send them Facebook messages, offering help, for it has ended in truly tragic events.*
For more info on behavior codes and ratings, please read here: http://information.urgentpodr.org/acc-placement-status-descriptions/
For answers to Frequently Asked Questions, please see:http://information.urgentpodr.org/frequently-asked-questions/
You can call (212) 788-4000 for automated instructions.
For more information on adopting from the NYC AC&C, or to find a rescue to assist, please read the following: http://urgentpodr.org/adoption-info-and-list-of-rescues. If you are local to the Tri-State, New England, and the general Northeast United States area, and you are SERIOUS about adopting or fostering one of the animals at NYC ACC, please read our MUST READ section for instructions, or email [email protected] Our experienced volunteers will do their best to guide you through the process. * We highly discourage everyone from trusting strangers that send them Facebook messages, offering help, for it has ended in truly tragic events.* For more info on behavior codes and ratings, please click here: http://information.urgentpodr.org/acc-placement-status-descriptions. For answers to Frequently Asked Questions, please see: http://information.urgentpodr.org/category/frequently-asked-questions/. You can call (212) 788-4000 for automated instructions.
Previous | NextLike Davis Patch on Facebook to stay updated.
The Occupy protest in the UC Davis quad swelled rapidly after the group was quietly removed from Mrak Hall this week. The Chancellor warned on Friday that police would remove the camp if it was not cleared out by 3pm.
Safe to say, it was not.
So dozens of police in riot gear descended on the scene. They gave several verbal warnings as they closed in on the protesters at the camp.
Many of the occupiers grabbed the tents and left the scene so that the tents could not be confiscated. Other occupiers remained there with their arms locked, forming a circle around some of the police. Live video was streamed for most of the time.
Ten people were arrested, according to a Davis Enterprise article by Cory Golden. The received misdemeanor citations and were released. Many others were hit with pepper spray.
The Occupiers held a general assembly in the quad after police left, but have since cleared out. They said that they intend to return on Monday, tents and all. They even discussed the possiblity of bringing a dome.
Lt. John Pike, who gave several orders for the crowd to disperse, has been pointed out specifically in several YouTube videos as the officer who discharged the pepper spray.
Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi wrote this open letter following the events, which have now gained national media attention. UC Davis began trending on Twitter in San Francisco Friday night.
One faculty member wrote a letter calling for her resignation.
We'll continue to update this story with details. If you have YouTube footage, you can (easily) add it to the story by clicking the button above the video. (It's just a matter of copying and pasting the link). Or share your perspective in the comments below.
Like Davis Patch on Facebook to stay updated.HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Brett Favre lines up at the 40-yard line and takes off in a dead sprint, juking briefly to his right before heading left.
He turns and lifts his arms just before quarterback Kirk McCarty’s wobbly pass hits him in stride, right on the hands.
“Nice,” Favre said with a grin before firing a spiral back to McCarty. “A little ugly, but that will work.”
The three-time NFL Most Valuable Player made his living as one of the greatest quarterbacks in league history, finishing his career with the Minnesota Vikings. Now he serves as an assistant coach. Or a receiver. Or the video editor. Or anything else he thinks needs to be done to make Oak Grove High School a better football team.
Favre is beginning his coaching career in humble surroundings — as the offensive coordinator of a 1,500-student high school near his home in south Mississippi. He receives no money for the job, but that doesn’t mean he’s taking it lightly.
“The stress is already getting to me,” Favre said, laughing. “I’ll wake up in the middle of the night saying, ‘Hey, maybe we can do this? Maybe that will work?’ ”
Favre has kept a low profile since retiring from the NFL after the 2010 season. It’s been a stark contrast from his final few years in the league, which were filled with on- and off-the-field drama. After a couple years to decompress, he has emerged at Oak Grove, working under veteran high school coach Nevil Barr.
During his playing career, Favre often would work out at Oak Grove in the offseason, throwing passes to the receivers or lifting weights. Barr always was impressed with the way Favre interacted with the players, serving as a mentor even when he could have been aloof. So when Favre returned to Mississippi, Barr kept in touch to see if the quarterback would be willing to join his staff.
This fall, the timing was right. And the 42-year-old was obviously having a good time Monday morning, July 30, under the steamy July sun.
One moment, he’d be firing passes to receivers. The next, poring over play charts with other assistants.
“What I like best is, he’s enthusiastic,” Barr said. “He makes it fun. Football should be fun. Sometimes we forget that these kids play football because they enjoy it. Everybody knows he’s competitive and he likes to win, but the biggest thing is watching how he treats our kids. The way he teaches and his patience. It shocked me how patient he’s been.”
It’s a way for Favre to get back in the game without straying too far from home. His 13-year-old daughter is entering eighth grade at Oak Grove, and he’ll be able to see almost all of her volleyball games this season — though he might be diagramming a football play or two on a notepad while sitting in the stands.
Favre said he’s thought about getting into broadcasting or a higher level of coaching but is content to wait until his daughter is out of high school.
“One of the reasons I retired in the first place was, I wanted to be in one place and experience all these things with my family,” Favre said. “This year will be a trial basis (for coaching). I feel like I can help the kids, but I’m not promising we’ll win any more games. Shoot, we might not win one.”
Favre certainly didn’t inherit an easy situation. Though Oak Grove is a perennial power at the 6A level — Mississippi’s highest football classification — the Warriors return just one starter on offense. Some days, Favre feels like a rookie again.
“My experience in pro football means nothing,” Favre said. “Absolutely nothing here. It’s totally different. So our biggest learning curve as a team might be my learning curve.”
Favre said, during these early days of training camp, he’ll lean on the other coaches to learn the terminology and scheme. But what he offers immediately is the real-world experience of dealing with people, directing a huddle and figuring out what can turn a good player into a better one.
Whether it’s Green Bay or Oak Grove, some things in football don’t change.
“I really believe I’m good at reading people,” Favre said. “From being in the huddle, being in the locker room and in all those meetings for all those years, I understand that some people learn this way and some learn another way. … My whole job is to try and keep things simple. The more you have to think, the less your talent can show.”Think you’ve heard every excuse for getting out of jury duty? You’ve probably never heard this one: I can’t serve because I’m busy being the leader of the free world.
They say everyone is eligible for jury duty, and everyone includes President Barack Obama. He received the summons at his home in the Chicago area and was supposed to serve during a trial that starts today.
The White House told the court, however, that the president wouldn’t be able to make it. It seems he’s a bit busy these days, with his first State of the Union speech coming up on Wednesday.
Besides, wouldn’t you rather spend a Monday hanging out with the Los Angeles Lakers? Kobe and Co. are visiting the White House to celebrate their recent NBA title.Stephanie Seneff, a Senior Research Scientist at MIT and author of over 170 peer-reviewed scholarly articles, said during a presentation that “I predict by 2025 half the kids born will be diagnosed with autism.”
Seneff notes that the number of diagnoses of autism have been steadily increasing, which she claims could be attributed to the use of glyphosate, a chemical in the popular weed killer Roundup, owned by Monsanto.
Seneff also has an online presentation on the topic, which furthermore claims that glyphosate is “an antibiotic that preferentially kills the good bacteria.” She also states that “we depend on our gut bacteria in many ways.”
Monsanto says on their website that “farmers, as well as homeowners and others, have been using Roundup® and other glyphosate products for more than 40 years,” a quote which illustrates the break between a prominent work of research and the reality of the food industry.
It’s not just autism that Dr. Seneff is worried about. Her presentation goes on to say that “glyphosate usage on corn and soy crops correlates with the epidemic we’re seeing in autism, Alzheimer’s disease, celiac disease, and other intestinal disorders.”
She states that studies arguing that glyphosate is harmless are fabricated to produce immediate results, asserting that the “insidious effects of glyphosate accumulate over time… Most studies are too short to detect damage.”
Another Study Which Says Glyphosate Isn’t Harmless
Recently Dr. Michael Antoniou of the UK has come forward with another study that also concludes that glyphosate and Roundup are not as harmless as Monsanto might like to admit.
As reported by the Center for Research on Globalization, Antoniou describes his study by saying that “for the very first time we have established a causative link between an environmentally relevant level of daily ingestion of Roundup and a serious disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.”
In other words, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and the other complications pointed out by Dr. Seneff might not be the only things you have to worry about if you consume this substance.
Because of the widespread use of Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate, sources have pointed out that it can now be found in human urine, water, and even in genetically modified food.
For more information on glyphosate, check out Dr. Stephanie Seneff’s full lecture below.Announcement to come at 3 p.m. today to give details on new home of NBA team's headquarters
Work continues on the construction of Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Thursday, January 19, 2017. (Photo: Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press)
The Detroit Pistons are moving to the New Center.
The Pistons and Henry Ford Health System have scheduled a 3 p.m. news conference today to announce the new location of the new corporate headquarters and practice facility.
The news conference will be held at Gilmour Center at One Ford Place, three blocks from W. Grand Blvd., in the heart of the New Center, where the site is located.
The news comes after the Pistons announced in November their move to downtown starting next season. The Pistons will share Little Caesars Arena, which still is under construction, with the Detroit Red Wings.
A memorandum agreement with the City of Detroit obligated the Pistons to relocate the rest of their franchise downtown.
A second location immediately north of the arena was under consideration, but the New Center location apparently is more convenient.
Christopher Ilitch, President and CEO, Ilitch Holdings, left, Tom Gores, Chairman and CEO, Platinum Equity and owner of Detroit Pistons and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan pose after a press conference announcing the move of the Detroit Pistons to the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Nov. 22, 2016. (Photo: Romain Blanquart, Detroit Free Press)
Related:
There’s no official word on the cost of construction, but Palace Sports & Entertainment vice chairman Arn Tellem gave a ballpark figure to the Free Press late last year.
“We’re not just playing our games there,” Tellem said. “We’re moving our offices. Our practice facility development will wind up being in excess of $50 (million) approaching $75 or more million dollars development in the city. A lot of that money will be going to Detroit employees and Detroit firms to do the building.
“We’re going to employ hundreds of people downtown, we’re going to be paying city income taxes where the city is going to get dollars every year. When you talk about the players’ (salaries), that will be significant income. So we’re going to be contributing in a lot of ways and the study we provided that was done by the University of Michigan, the economic impact we will have on the city will be in the hundreds of millions.”
A "virtual venue" look at Little Caesars Arena during Detroit Pistons game days. (Photo: Pistons.com, via IOMEDIA, Inc.)
It’s expected the Pistons will qualify for tax breaks.
There’s speculation that the Pistons will partner with Henry Ford in the area of sports medicine, a trend in other NBA markets. An example is the Mayo Clinic’s partnership with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA in Minneapolis.
The development is contingent on Detroit City Council ultimately approving the Pistons’ relocation to Little Caesars Arena. The headquarters and facility would not be finished in time for next season, meaning the team would still be based in Auburn Hills with games played downtown.
An announcement was expected last week, but was postponed when Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch died.
Contact Vince Ellis at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @vincent_ellis56.Homeowners may eventually have to pay to have so-called bulky items — such as mattresses and couches — picked up by London trash collectors, a new city hall report suggests.
Though city staff aren’t recommending the change, they are asking city council to OK a study of a bag tag-type system for the big things Londoners have been able to leave out at the curb during weekly pickup for more than 20 years.
Coun. Michael van Holst chairs council’s civic works committee that will debate the report early next year. He’s not yet convinced the study is a necessary step.
“We study a lot of things,” he said. “I’ve been consistently saying, ‘Let’s not give staff more work to do if (the results are) not going to be significant.’
“I’ve got a metaphor: we can rearrange the kitchen or we can cook something and feed somebody. We’ve got enough things that are broke that we don’t need to fix the things that aren’t.”
In their report, staff note at least three Ontario communities charge for big items: Richmond Hill and Newmarket charge between $2 and $12, while Vaughan charges $1.20.
Officials sounded a cautious note in a report on potentially studying the option: “Until the future impacts and changes are better understood, coupled with the current (high) satisfaction rating for the existing system, city staff are not recommending making any further changes... at this time.”
The report also suggests studying other changes.Dr. Andrew Goodman of the University of Rochester discussed the latest research and perspectives on stem cell strategies for people with multiple sclerosis (MS), saying in a presentation at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2016 that such therapies, while promising, are not yet ready for widespread clinical use.
New therapies for MS patients that might both restore the immune system and protect the nervous system are greatly needed. Dr. Goodman, a professor of Neurology, chief of the Neuroimmunology Unit, and director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at the university, reviewed current stem cell therapy approaches, including the use of “hematopoietic stem cell reconstitution following immunoablation, mesenchymal stem cells, and oligodendrocyte precursor cells” in a presentation titled “Stem Cell Therapy for MS.”
His presentation at the forum, which ran Feb. 18–20 in New Orleans, Louisiana, offered:
.
an overview of the biology of stem cells
an understanding of the distinct goals of the various cell-based therapeutic strategies under study as potential MS therapies
an appreciation for the potential benefits, risks, and methodological uncertainties associated with stem cell transplantation
In MS, the immune system attacks the body’s own myelin, the fatty covering that insulates nerves and facilitates nervous system communication. Stem cell therapies may be directed at replacing the faulty immune system, at increasing levels of oligodendrocytes (the cells that create myelin), or even at increasing neurons that could be damaged in MS.
Numerous issues still need to be answered regarding the safety and effectiveness of stem cell therapy, Dr. Goodman said in the presentation, such as understanding whether immune system restoration via stem cells should be combined with transplantation of nervous system cells, specifically oligodendrocytes and neurons. Goodman also considered whether autologous (self-derived) stem cells should be used, or if they may have intrinsic deficiencies, since they come from a person with a neurodegenerative disease.
According to Dr. Goodman’s PowerPoint presentation at ACTRIMS, which was made available, he concluded that, overall, “Several types of cell-based therapeutic strategies are under investigation, with different risks, benefits, and goals. Some of these strategies show promise but significant methodological questions need to be answered. Stem cell transplantation is not yet appropriate for general use to treat MS.”
One issue Dr. Goodman highlighted was the need for extensive genetic screening of cells to assure that possible cancer-causing mutations are not introduced.SANTA CRUZ (CBS SF) — A UC Santa Cruz college issued an apology for insensitivity after Mexican food was served during an intergalactic-themed school party, prompting complaints from students.
Stevenson College, part of the University of California at Santa Cruz issued the apology after receiving complaints from students, and others within the university, Fox News reported.
The students were upset by the decision to serve Mexican food at an event decorated with space-aliens due to the perceived connection to the term ‘illegal aliens,’ which is sometimes used to describe those who have crossed the border between the U.S. and Mexico illegally.
Student Life Administrator Carolyn Golz wrote in a statement that, “We would never want to make a connection between individuals of Latino heritage or undocumented students and ‘aliens,’ and I am so sorry that our College Night appeared to do exactly that.”
The school will now require cultural competence training for all students interested in organizing on-campus events.UPDATE: Sutherland Springs Shooter Devin Kelley Received Bad Conduct Discharge, Was Court Martialed in 2014 – Against the Law to Own Guns
U.S. officials say the gunman behind the mass shooting at a Sutherland Springs church is 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley.
Kelley was thrown out of the US Air Force.
Texas shooter Devin Kelley was thrown out of Air Force, posted photo of gun on Facebook https://t.co/BVhG1b0UNM pic.twitter.com/DYtnIcDOTl — Luke Appleby 🇳🇿 (@lukeappleby) November 5, 2017
Devin Kelley was court martialed in 2014 after a dishonorable discharge.
Here is the case number:
No. 14-0387/AF. U.S. v. Devin P. KELLEY. CCA 38267.
According to McMilitary Law: States have laws for gun control for court martial cases.
Will I be able to own firearms?
Federal and state laws do place restrictions on the purchase of firearms by those convicted of felonies. 18 USC § 922(b). Many jurisdictions distinguish between violent and non-violent offenses.
It was against the law for Devin to own firearms.
Josh Caplan adds this on dishonorable discharge and firearms.
A dishonorable discharge (DD), similarly referred to as a “duck dinner” in military slang,[16] can only be handed down to an enlisted member by a general court-martial. Dishonorable discharges are handed down for what the military considers the most reprehensible conduct. This type of discharge may be rendered only by conviction at a general court-martial for serious offenses (e.g., desertion, sexual assault, murder, etc.) that call for dishonorable discharge as part of the sentence. With this characterization of service, all veterans’ benefits are lost, regardless of any past honorable service, and this type of discharge is regarded as shameful in the military. In many states a dishonorable discharge is deemed the equivalent of a felony conviction, with attendant loss of civil rights.[17] Additionally, US federal law prohibits possession of firearms by those who have been dishonorably discharged[18] per the Gun Control Act of 1968.The banning of steel-string guitars in British prisons has come under fire from a group of prominent musicians, including Billy Bragg, Johnny Marr, Dave Gilmour and Richard Hawley.
In a letter published in the Guardian, the 12 signatories urge the minister for justice, Chris Grayling, to overturn the blanket ban on the instruments, which they believe undermines the important role music has to play in "engaging prisoners in the process of rehabilitation".
The ban came in as part of the government's changes to the incentive and earned privileges policy for prisoners in November last year, the same initiatives that banned prisoners from receiving books. Nylon stringed guitars are still allowed for those who earn the privilege.
The letter goes on to state: "As most guitars currently owned or used by inmates in our prisons are steel-strung acoustics, this ruling will mean that these instruments are kept under lock and key until time for a supervised session, if the prison in question has provision for musical tuition."
The issue will be raised on Tuesday in parliament by Labour MP Kevin Brennan, who said he found the ban baffling and wanted to "try to find some answers".
"When some prisoners wrote to me about how they saved from their prison wages to buy guitars which were now being banned I thought the government would have some genuine reason for this change," he said. "The prisons minister
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, the Administration not only has closed borders; it also has closed minds and hearts,” Tobin concludes.
The President has claimed that his intention is not to repeal DACA but to make it legal by having it passed by the appropriate authority, namely the U.S. Congress.
Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can’t, I will revisit this issue! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2017
This is not the first time that Cardinal Tobin has expressed his contempt for Donald Trump.
Over the summer, the Cardinal painted the U.S. President as a fear-monger who appeals to the “dark side of Americans.”
In an interview with the French Catholic newspaper, La Croix, Cardinal Tobin said that the current climate of insecurity “has caused an exaggerated patriotism in the United States,” while suggesting that Trump plays on Americans’ fears and desires to see America “great again.”
“I think President Trump appeals to the dark side of Americans,” Tobin said. “He speaks to fears, to insecurities.”
The Cardinal also warned his fellow bishops who supported Trump to rethink their position, because the President is not to be trusted.
“Donald Trump is a businessman. He says he’s always looking to close a deal,” the Cardinal said. “The bishops must beware of him, because he tells them that he will be against abortion, that he won’t force them to pay for contraception, and in return, he asks for silence concerning his disrespectful remarks toward others or on the deportation of migrants. It’s dangerous.”
“We, American Catholics, are a Church of migrants. We have always pleaded their cause,” he said.
Last May, Cardinal Tobin said that in order to support Trump’s immigration policies “you really have to believe in inflicting cruelty on innocent people.”
In last November’s election, Catholics voted for Donald Trump by a substantial margin over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, with 52 percent voting for Mr. Trump and only 45 percent voting for Mrs. Clinton, the Pew Research Center reported.
The victory for Trump among Catholics represented a significant 5 percent shift away from the Democratic Party in the four years since 2012.
Catholics were apparently swayed, at least in part, by the vocal support of various bishops who openly declared that the platform of the democratic party was unacceptable, especially because of its hardline pro-abortion position.
“Catholics in good conscience cannot support candidates who will advance abortion,” wrote the Archbishop of Denver, Samuel Aquila, in his diocesan newspaper.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsromeHow do the rich get rich? The answer depends on geography.
This infographic, designed by studio BoldFace and published by Independent Newspapers, breaks down, for various regions, how the rich earned their dough. In the United States, it's a landslide: 67 percent of wealthy survey respondents said they made it big by "savings through earnings." In the Middle East, meanwhile, "inheritance" is just barely the most popular way of striking it rich, with 49 percent of respondents saying they got their dough passed on to them. Since the graphic was published in Irish newspapers, there's also of ton of data on how Ireland's rich accumulated their wealth.
The infographic still leaves a couple questions open. How is "wealthy" being defined here? And what can we attribute to the differences: culture, laws, or something else? Either way, go ahead and use this as your field guide to your very own cash-filled swimming pool.Children playing near a hillside gravel mine found the first graves. One ran home to tell his mother, who was skeptical at first—until the boy produced a skull.
Related Content Meet the Real-Life Vampires of New England and Abroad
Because this was Griswold, Connecticut, in 1990, police initially thought the burials might be the work of a local serial killer named Michael Ross, and they taped off the area as a crime scene. But the brown, decaying bones turned out to be more than a century old. The Connecticut state archaeologist, Nick Bellantoni, soon determined that the hillside contained a colonial-era farm cemetery. New England is full of such unmarked family plots, and the 29 burials were typical of the 1700s and early 1800s: The dead, many of them children, were laid to rest in thrifty Yankee style, in simple wood coffins, without jewelry or even much clothing, their arms resting by their sides or crossed over their chests.
Except, that is, for Burial Number 4.
Bellantoni was interested in the grave even before the excavation began. It was one of only two stone crypts in the cemetery, and it was partially visible from the mine face.
Scraping away soil with flat-edged shovels, and then brushes and bamboo picks, the archaeologist and his team worked through several feet of earth before reaching the top of the crypt. When Bellantoni lifted the first of the large, flat rocks that formed the roof, he uncovered the remains of a red-painted coffin and a pair of skeletal feet. They lay, he remembers, “in perfect anatomical position.” But when he raised the next stone, Bellantoni saw that the rest of the individual “had been completely...rearranged.” The skeleton had been beheaded; skull and thighbones rested atop the ribs and vertebrae. “It looked like a skull-and-crossbones motif, a Jolly Roger. I’d never seen anything like it,” Bellantoni recalls.
Subsequent analysis showed that the beheading, along with other injuries, including rib fractures, occurred roughly five years after death. Somebody had also smashed the coffin.
The other skeletons in the gravel hillside were packaged for reburial, but not “J.B.,” as the 50ish male skeleton from the 1830s came to be called, because of the initials spelled out in brass tacks on his coffin lid. He was shipped to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, in Washington, D.C., for further study. Meanwhile, Bellantoni started networking. He invited archaeologists and historians to tour the excavation, soliciting theories. Simple vandalism seemed unlikely, as did robbery, because of the lack of valuables at the site.
Finally, one colleague asked: “Ever heard of the Jewett City vampires?”
In 1854, in neighboring Jewett City, Connecticut, townspeople had exhumed several corpses suspected to be vampires that were rising from their graves to kill the living. A few newspaper accounts of these events survived. Had the Griswold grave been desecrated for the same reason?
In the course of his far-flung research, Bellantoni placed a serendipitous phone call to Michael Bell, a Rhode Island folklorist, who had devoted much of the previous decade to studying New England vampire exhumations. The Griswold case occurred at roughly the same time as the other incidents Bell had investigated. And the setting was right: Griswold was rural, agrarian and bordering southern Rhode Island, where multiple exhumations had occurred. Many of the other “vampires,” like J.B., had been disinterred, grotesquely tampered with and reburied.
In light of the tales Bell told of violated corpses, even the posthumous rib fractures began to make sense. J.B.’s accusers had likely rummaged around in his chest cavity, hoping to remove, and perhaps to burn, his heart.
***
Headquartered in a charming old schoolhouse, the Middletown Historical Society typically promotes such fortifying topics as Rhode Island gristmill restoration and Stone Wall Appreciation Day. Two nights before Halloween, though, the atmosphere is full of dry ice vapors and high silliness. Fake cobwebs cover the exhibits, warty gourds crowd the shelves and a skeleton with keen red eyes cackles in the corner. “We’ll turn him off when you start talking,” the society’s president assures Michael Bell, who is readying his slide show.
Bell smiles. Although he lectures across the country and has taught at colleges, including Brown University, he is used to people having fun with his scholarship. “Vampires have gone from a source of fear to a source of entertainment,” he says, a bit rueful. “Maybe I shouldn’t trivialize entertainment, but to me it’s not anywhere as interesting as what really happened.” Bell’s daughter, 37-year-old Gillian, a member of the audience that night, has made futile attempts to tempt her father with the Twilight series, but “there’s Buffy and Twilight, and then there’s what my dad does,” she says. “I try to get him interested in the pop culture stuff, but he wants to keep his mind pure.” Indeed, Bell seems only mildly aware that the vampire—appearing everywhere from True Blood to The Vampire Diaries— has once again sunk its fangs into the cultural jugular. As far as he’s concerned, the undead are always with us.
Bell wears his hair in a sleek silver bob and has a strong Roman nose, but his extremely lean physique is evidence of a long-distance running habit, not some otherworldly hunger. He favors black sweaters and leather jackets, an ensemble he can easily accentuate with dark sunglasses to fit in with the goth crowd, if research requires it. A consulting folklorist at the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission for most of his career, Bell has been investigating local vampires for 30 years now—long enough to watch lettering on fragile slate gravestones fade before his eyes and prosperous subdivisions arise beside once-lonely graveyards.
He has documented about 80 exhumations, reaching as far back as the late 1700s and as far west as Minnesota. But most are concentrated in backwoods New England, in the 1800s—startlingly later than the obvious local analogue, the Salem, Massachusetts, witch hunts of the 1690s.
Hundreds more cases await discovery, he believes. “You read an article that describes an exhumation, and they’ll describe a similar thing that happened at a nearby town,” says Bell, whose book, Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England’s Vampires, is seen as the last word on the subject, though he has lately found so many new cases that there’s a second book on the way. “The ones that get recorded, and I actually find them, are just the tip of the iceberg.”
Almost two decades after J.B.’s grave was discovered, it remains the only intact archaeological clue to the fear that swept the region. Most of the graves are lost to time (and even in the cases where they aren’t, unnecessary exhumations are frowned on by the locals). Bell mostly hunts for handwritten records in town hall basements, consults tombstones and old cemetery maps, traces obscure genealogies and interviews descendants. “As a folklorist, I’m interested in recurring patterns in communication and ritual, as well as the stories that accompany these rituals,” he says. “I’m interested in how this stuff is learned and carried on and how its meaning changes from group to group, and over time.” In part because the events were relatively recent, evidence of historic vampires isn’t as scarce as one might imagine. Incredulous city newspaper reporters dished about the “Horrible Superstition” on front pages. A traveling minister describes an exhumation in his daily log on September 3, 1810. (The “mouldy Specticle,” he writes, was a “Solemn Site.”) Even Henry David Thoreau mentions an exhumation in his journal on September 29, 1859.
Though scholars today still struggle to explain the vampire panics, a key detail unites them: The public hysteria almost invariably occurred in the midst of savage tuberculosis outbreaks. Indeed, the medical museum’s tests ultimately revealed that J.B. had suffered from tuberculosis, or a lung disease very like it. Typically, a rural family contracted the wasting illness, and—even though they often received the standard medical diagnosis—the survivors blamed early victims as “vampires,” responsible for preying upon family members who subsequently fell sick. Often an exhumation was called for, to stop the vampire’s predations.
The particulars of the vampire exhumations, though, vary widely. In many cases, only family and neighbors participated. But sometimes town fathers voted on the matter, or medical doctors and clergymen gave their blessings or even pitched in. Some communities in Maine and Plymouth, Massachusetts, opted to simply flip the exhumed vampire facedown in the grave and leave it at that. In Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont, though, they frequently burned the dead person’s heart, sometimes inhaling the smoke as a cure. (In Europe, too, exhumation protocol varied with region: Some beheaded suspected vampire corpses, while others bound their feet with thorns.)
Often these rituals were clandestine, lantern-lit affairs. But, particularly in Vermont, they could be quite public, even festive. One vampire heart was reportedly torched on the Woodstock, Vermont, town green in 1830. In Manchester, hundreds of people flocked to a 1793 heart-burning ceremony at a blacksmith’s forge: “Timothy Mead officiated at the altar in the sacrifice to the Demon Vampire who it was believed was still sucking the blood of the then living wife of Captain Burton,” an early town history says. “It was the month of February and good sleighing.”
Bell attributes the openness of the Vermont exhumations to colonial settlement patterns. Rhode Island has about 260 cemeteries per 100 square miles, versus Vermont’s mere 20 per 100 square miles. Rhode Island’s cemeteries were small and scattered among private farms, whereas Vermont’s tended to be much larger, often located in the center of town. In Vermont, it was much harder to keep a vampire hunt hush-hush.
As satisfying as such mini-theories are, Bell is consumed by larger questions. He wants to understand who the vampires and their accusers were, in death and life. During his Middletown lecture, he displays a picture of a man with salt-and-pepper sideburns and weary eyes: an artist’s reconstruction of J.B.’s face, based on his skull. “I start with the assumption that people of past generations were just as intelligent as we are,” Bell says. “I look for the logic: Why would they do this? Once you label something ‘just a superstition’ you lock off all inquiry into something that could have been reasonable. Reasonable is not always rational.” He wrote his doctoral dissertation on African-American voodoo practitioners in the South who cast love spells and curses; it’s hard to imagine a population more different from the flinty, consumptive New Englanders he studies now, but Bell sees strong parallels in how they tried to manipulate the supernatural. “People find themselves in dire situations, where there’s no recourse through regular channels,” he explains. “The folk system offers an alternative, a choice.” Sometimes, superstitions represent the only hope, he says.
The enduring sadness of the vampire stories lies in the fact that the accusers were usually direct kin of the deceased: parents, spouses and their children. “Think about what it would have taken to actually exhume the body of a relative,” Bell says.
The tale he always returns to is in many ways the quintessential American vampire story, one of the last cases in New England and the first he investigated as a new PhD coming to Rhode Island in 1981 to direct a folklife survey of Washington County funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. History knows the 19-year-old, late-19th-century vampire as Mercy Brown. Her family, though, called her Lena.
***
Mercy Lena Brown lived in Exeter, Rhode Island—“Deserted Exeter,” it was dubbed, or simply “one of the border towns.” It was largely a subsistence farming community with barely fertile soil: “rocks, rocks and more rocks,” says Sheila Reynolds-Boothroyd, president of the Exeter Historical Association. Farmers heaped stones into tumbledown walls, and rows of corn swerved around the biggest boulders.
In the late 19th century, Exeter, like much of agrarian New England, was even more sparsely populated than usual. Civil War casualties had taken their toll on the community, and the new railroads and the promise of richer land to the west lured young men away. By 1892, the year Lena died, Exeter’s population had dipped to just 961, from a high of more than 2,500 in 1820. Farms were abandoned, many of them later to be seized and burned by the government. “Some sections looked like a ghost town,” Reynolds-Boothroyd says.
And tuberculosis was harrying the remaining families. “Consumption,” as it was called, had started to plague New England in the 1730s, a few decades before the first known vampire scares. By the 1800s, when the scares were at their height, the disease was the leading cause of mortality throughout the Northeast, responsible for almost a quarter of all deaths. It was a terrible end, often drawn out over years: a skyrocketing fever, a hacking, bloody cough and a visible wasting away of the body. “The emaciated figure strikes one with terror,” reads one 18th-century description, “the forehead covered with drops of sweat; the cheeks painted with a livid crimson, the eyes sunk...the breath offensive, quick and laborious, and the cough so incessant as to scarce allow the wretched sufferer time to tell his complaints.” Indeed, Bell says, symptoms “progressed in such a way that it seemed like something was draining the life and blood out of somebody.”
People dreaded the disease without understanding it. Though Robert Koch had identified the tuberculosis bacterium in 1882, news of the discovery did not penetrate rural areas for some time, and even if it had, drug treatments wouldn’t become available until the 1940s. The year Lena died, one physician blamed tuberculosis on “drunkenness, and want among the poor.” Nineteenth-century cures included drinking brown sugar dissolved in water and frequent horseback riding. “If they were being honest,” Bell says, “the medical establishment would have said, ‘There’s nothing we can do, and it’s in the hands of God.’”
The Brown family, living on the eastern edge of town, probably on a modest homestead of 30 or 40 stony acres, began to succumb to the disease in December 1882. Lena’s mother, Mary Eliza, was the first. Lena’s sister, Mary Olive, a 20-year-old dressmaker, died the next year. A tender obituary from a local newspaper hints at what she endured: “The last few hours she lived was of great suffering, yet her faith was firm and she was ready for the change.” The whole town turned out for her funeral, and sang “One Sweetly Solemn Thought,” a hymn that Mary Olive herself had selected.
Within a few years, Lena’s brother Edwin—a store clerk whom one newspaper columnist described as “a big, husky young man”—sickened too, and left for Colorado Springs hoping that the climate would improve his health.
Lena, who was just a child when her mother and sister died, didn’t fall ill until nearly a decade after they were buried. Her tuberculosis was the “galloping” kind, which meant that she might have been infected but remained asymptomatic for years, only to fade fast after showing the first signs of the disease. A doctor attended her in “her last illness,” a newspaper said, and “informed her father that further medical aid was useless.” Her January 1892 obituary was much terser than her sister’s: “Miss Lena Brown, who has been suffering from consumption, died Sunday morning.”
As Lena was on her deathbed, her brother was, after a brief remission, taking a turn for the worse. Edwin had returned to Exeter from the Colorado resorts “in a dying condition,” according to one account. “If the good wishes and prayers of his many friends could be realized, friend Eddie would speedily be restored to perfect health,” another newspaper wrote.
But some neighbors, likely fearful for their own health, weren’t content with prayers. Several approached George Brown, the children’s father, and offered an alternative take on the recent tragedies: Perhaps an unseen diabolical force was preying on his family. It could be that one of the three Brown women wasn’t dead after all, instead secretly feasting “on the living tissue and blood of Edwin,” as the Providence Journal later summarized. If the offending corpse—the Journal uses the term “vampire” in some stories but the locals seemed not to—was discovered and destroyed, then Edwin would recover. The neighbors asked to exhume the bodies, in order to check for fresh blood in their hearts.
George Brown gave permission. On the morning of March 17, 1892, a party of men dug up the bodies, as the family doctor and a Journal correspondent looked on. George was absent, for unstated but understandable reasons.
After nearly a decade, Lena’s sister and mother were barely more than bones. Lena, though, had been dead only a few months, and it was wintertime. “The body was in a fairly well-preserved state,” the correspondent later wrote. “The heart and liver were removed, and in cutting open the heart, clotted and decomposed blood was found.” During this impromptu autopsy, the doctor again emphasized that Lena’s lungs “showed diffuse tuberculous germs.”
Undeterred, the villagers burned her heart and liver on a nearby rock, feeding Edwin the ashes. He died less than two months later.
***
So-called vampires do escape the grave in at least one real sense: through stories. Lena Brown’s surviving relatives saved local newspaper clippings in family scrapbooks, alongside carefully copied recipes. They discussed the events on Decoration Day, when Exeter residents adorned the town’s cemeteries.
But the tale traveled much farther than they knew.
Even at the time, New England’s vampire panics struck onlookers as a baffling anachronism. The late 1800s were a period of social progress and scientific flowering. Indeed, many of the Rhode Island exhumations occurred within 20 miles of Newport, high society’s summer nucleus, where the scions of the industrial revolution vacationed. At first, only people who’d lived in or had visited the vampire-ridden communities knew about the scandal: “We seem to have been transported back to the darkest age of unreasoning ignorance and blind superstition, instead of living in the 19th century, and in a State calling itself enlightened and christian,” one writer at a small-town Connecticut paper opined in the wake of an 1854 exhumation.
But Lena Brown’s exhumation made news. First, a reporter from the Providence Journal witnessed her unearthing. Then a well-known anthropologist named George Stetson traveled to Rhode Island to probe “the barbaric superstition” in the surrounding area.
Published in the venerable American Anthropologist journal, Stetson’s account of New England’s vampires made waves throughout the world. Before long, even members of the foreign press were offering various explanations for the phenomenon: Perhaps the “neurotic” modern novel was driving the New England madness, or maybe shrewd local farmers had simply been pulling Stetson’s leg. A writer for the London Post declared that whatever forces drove the “Yankee vampire,” it was an American problem and most certainly not the product of a British folk tradition (even though many families in the area could trace their lineage directly back to England). In the Boston Daily Globe, a writer went so far as to suggest that “perhaps the frequent intermarriage of families in these back country districts may partially account for some of their characteristics.”
One 1896 New York World clipping even found its way into the papers of a London stage manager and aspiring novelist named Bram Stoker, whose theater company was touring the United States that same year. His gothic masterpiece, Dracula, was published in 1897. Some scholars have said that there wasn’t enough time for the news accounts to have influenced the Dracula manuscript. Yet others see Lena in the character of Lucy (her very name a tempting amalgam of “Lena” and “Mercy”), a consumptive-seeming teenage girl turned vampire, who is exhumed in one of the novel’s most memorable scenes. Fascinatingly, a medical doctor presides over Lucy’s disinterment, just as one oversaw Lena’s.
Whether or not Lucy’s roots are in Rhode Island, Lena’s historic exhumation is referenced in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shunned House,” a short story about a man being haunted by dead relatives that includes a living character named Mercy.
And, through fiction and fact, Lena’s narrative continues today.
Part of Bell’s research involves going along on “legend trips,” the modern graveside pilgrimages made by those who believe, or want to believe, that the undead stalk Rhode Island. On legend trips, Bell is largely an academic presence. He can even be a bit of a killjoy, declaring that the main reason that “no grass grows on a vampire’s grave” is that vampire graves have so many visitors, who crush all the vegetation.
Two days before Halloween, Bell and I head through forests of swamp maple and swamp oak to Exeter. For almost a century after Lena died, the town, still sparsely settled, remained remarkably unchanged. Electric lights weren’t installed in the western part of Exeter until the 1940s, and the town had two pound keepers, charged with safekeeping stray cattle and pigs, until 1957. In the 1970s, when I-95 was built, Exeter evolved into an affluent bedroom community of Providence. But visitors still occasionally turn a corner to discover the past: a dirt road cluttered with wild turkeys, or deer hopping over stone fences. Some elderly locals square-dance in barns on the weekends, and streets keep their old names: Sodom Trail, Nooseneck Hill. The white wooden Chestnut Hill Baptist Church in front of Lena’s cemetery, built in 1838, has its original blown-glass windows.
An early Nor’easter is brewing as we pull into the church parking lot. The heavy rain will soon turn to snow, and there’s a bullying wind. Our umbrellas bloom inside out, like black flowers. Though it’s a somber place, there’s no immediate clue that an accused vampire was buried here. (Except, perhaps, for an unfortunately timed Red Cross blood drive sign in front of the farmer’s grange next door.) Unlike Salem, Exeter doesn’t promote its dark claim to fame, and remains in some respects an insular community. Old-timers don’t like the hooded figures who turn up this time of year, or the cars idling with the lights off. They say the legend should be left alone, perhaps with good reason: Last summer a couple of teenagers were killed on a pilgrimage to Lena’s grave when they lost control of their car on Purgatory Road.
Most vampire graves stand apart, in wooded spots outside modern cemetery fences, where snow melts slower and there’s a thick understory of ferns. But the Chestnut Hill Cemetery is still in use. And here is Lena. She lies beside the brother who ate her heart, and the father who let it happen. Other markers are freckled with lichen, but not hers. The stone looks to have been recently cleaned. It has been stolen over the years, and now an iron strap anchors it to the earth. People have scratched their names into the granite. They leave offerings: plastic vampire teeth, cough drops. “Once there was a note that said, ‘You go, girl,’” Bell says. Today, there’s a bunch of trampled daisies, and dangling from the headstone’s iron collar, a butterfly charm on a chain.
***
How did 19th-century Yankees, remembered as the most pious and practical of peoples, come to believe in vampires—especially when the last known vampire panics at the time hadn’t occurred since 18th-century Europe? Some modern scholars have linked the legend to vampiric symptoms of diseases like rabies and porphyria (a rare genetic disorder that can cause extreme sensitivity to sunlight and turn teeth reddish-brown). Exeter residents at the time claimed that the exhumations were “a tradition of the Indians.”
The legend originated in Slavic Europe, where the word “vampire” first appeared in the tenth century. Bell believes that Slavic and Germanic immigrants brought the vampire superstitions with them in the 1700s, perhaps when Palatine Germans colonized Pennsylvania, or Hessian mercenaries served in the Revolutionary War. “My sense is that it came more than one time through more than one source,” he says.
The first known reference to an American vampire scare is a scolding letter to the editor of the Connecticut Courant and Weekly Intelligencer, published in June 1784. Councilman Moses Holmes, from the town of Willington, warned people to beware of “a certain Quack Doctor, a foreigner” who had urged families to dig up and burn dead relatives to stop consumption. Holmes had witnessed several children disinterred at the doctor’s request and wanted no more of it: “And that the bodies of the dead may rest quiet in their graves without such interruption, I think the public ought to be aware of being led away by such an imposture.”
But some modern scholars have argued that the vampire superstition made a certain degree of practical sense. In Vampires, Burials and Death, folklorist Paul Barber dissects the logic behind vampire myths, which he believes originally arose from unschooled but astute observations of decay. (Bloated dead bodies appear as if they have recently eaten; a staked corpse “screams” due to the escape of natural gases, etc.) The seemingly bizarre vampire beliefs, Barber argues, get at the essence of contagion: the insight that illness begets illness, and death, death.
Vampire believers “say that death comes to us from invisible agents,” Barber says. “We say that death comes to us from invisible agents. The difference is that we can get out a microscope and look at the agents.”
While New England’s farmers may have been guided by something like reason, the spiritual climate of the day was also hospitable to vampire rumors. Contrary to their Puritanical reputation, rural New Englanders in the 1800s were a fairly heathen lot. Only about 10 percent belonged to a church. Rhode Island, originally founded as a haven for religious dissenters, was particularly lax: Christian missionaries were at various points dispatched there from more godly communities. “The missionaries come back and lament that there’s no Bible in the home, no church-going whatsoever,” says Linford Fisher, a Brown University colonial historian. “You have people out there essentially in cultural isolation.” Mary Olive, Lena’s sister, joined a church just two weeks before she died, her obituary said.
In place of organized worship, superstitions reigned: magical springs with healing powers, dead bodies that bled in the presence of their murderers. People buried shoes by fireplaces, to catch the Devil if he tried to come down the chimney. They nailed horseshoes above doors to ward off evil and carved daisy wheels, a kind of colonial hex sign, into the door frames.
If superstition likely fanned the vampire panics, perhaps the most powerful forces at play were communal and social. By 1893, there were just 17 people per square mile in Exeter. A fifth of the farms were fully abandoned, the fields turning slowly back into forest. In her monograph The New England Vampire Belief: Image of the Decline, gothic literature scholar Faye Ringel Hazel hints at a vampire metaphor behind the westward hemorrhage: The migration “seemed to drain rural New England of its most enterprising young citizens, leaving the old and unfit behind.”
As Exeter teetered near collapse, maintaining social ties must have taken on new importance. An exhumation represented, first and foremost, a duty to one’s own kin, dead or dying: the ritual “would alleviate the guilt someone might feel for not doing everything they could do to save a family, to leave no stone unturned,” Bell says.
Even more significant, in small communities where disease could spread quickly, an exhumation was “an outward display that you are doing everything you can to fix the problem.” Residents of the already beleaguered town were likely terrified. “They knew that if consumption wiped out the Brown family, it could take out the next family,” Bell says. “George Brown was being entreated by the community.” He had to make a gesture.
The strongest testament to the power of the vampire myth is that George Brown did not, in fact, believe in it, according to the Providence Journal. It was he who asked a doctor to perform an autopsy at the graveyard, and he who elected to be elsewhere during the ritual. He authorized his loved ones’ exhumation, the Journal says, simply to “satisfy the neighbors,” who were, according to another newspaper account, “worrying the life out of him”—a description with its own vampiric overtones.
Perhaps it was wise to let them have their way, since George Brown, apparently not prone to tuberculosis, had to coexist with his neighbors well into the next century. He died in 1922.
***
Relatives of the Browns still live in Exeter and are laid to rest on Chestnut Hill. Some, planning ahead, have erected their grave markers. It can be disconcerting to drive past somebody’s tombstone on the way to his or her home for a vampire-oriented interview.
On a sunny Halloween morning, when Bell has left for a vampire folklore conference at the University of London, I return to the cemetery to meet several Brown descendants at the farmer’s grange. They bring, swaddled in old sheets, a family treasure: a quilt that Lena sewed.
We spread it out on a scarred wooden table. The cotton bedspread is pink, blue and cream. What look from a distance like large patches of plain brown fabric are really fields of tiny daisies.
It’s the work of a farm girl, without any wasteful appliqué; Lena clearly ran out of material in places and had to scrimp for more. Textile scholars at the University of Rhode Island have traced her snippets of florals, plaid and paisley to the 1870s and 1880s, when Lena was still a child; they wondered if she used her sister’s and mother’s old dresses for the project. Perhaps her mother’s death, too, explains Lena’s quilting abilities, which are considerable for a teenager: She might have had to learn household skills before other girls. The quilt is in immaculate condition and was likely being saved for something—Lena’s hope chest, thinks her distant descendant Dorothy O’Neil, one of the quilt’s recent custodians, and a knowledgeable quilter herself.
“I think the quilt is exquisite, especially in light of what she went through in her life,” O’Neil says. “She ended up leaving something beautiful. She didn’t know she’d have to leave it, but she did.”
Lena hasn’t left entirely. She is said to frequent a certain bridge, manifested as the smell of roses. She appears in children’s books and paranormal television specials. She murmurs in the cemetery, say those who leave tape recorders there to capture her voice. She is rumored to visit the terminally ill, and to tell them that dying isn’t so bad.
The quilt pattern that Lena used, very rare in Rhode Island, is sometimes called the Wandering Foot, and it carried a superstition of its own: Anybody who slept under it, the legend said, would be lost to her family, doomed to wander.WASHINGTON — The FBI was investigating former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn as recently as December, a high-level US intelligence official has told BuzzFeed News.
The bureau was prepared to close the investigation into Flynn until “the Logan Act stuff,” the official said, referring to phone calls in late December where Flynn reportedly discussed US sanctions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
The source brought up the Flynn investigation after BuzzFeed News asked if clear evidence existed tying Trump to Moscow. The official then mentioned the FBI investigation into Flynn. It was not clear if the FBI’s probe was a counterintelligence investigation.
Flynn’s phone calls with Kislyak, first reported by the Washington Post, were a potential violation of the Logan Act, which forbids private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. At the time of the calls with Kislyak, the Trump team had not yet taken over the US government, and Flynn had yet to take up his new public official role. The Logan Act has never been used to prosecute anyone.
That an investigation was already up and running in December indicates there was concern among the intelligence community about Flynn’s loyalties before his phone calls with Kislyak. After the nature of those calls was revealed by the Post in January, Flynn quickly left the White House for misrepresenting the nature of the calls to Vice President Mike Pence.
It remains unknown when the FBI first started investigating Flynn and whether the probe has since been closed. In addition to fostering ties with Moscow — a longtime commentator on the Kremlin’s state-run news channel Russia Today, Flynn dined with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a trip to Moscow in 2015 — Flynn was also retained by a Turkish lobbying firm, a position he maintained while serving as Trump’s confidant.
Flynn, whose security clearance was only recently revoked, maintained access to classified information throughout the course of the campaign. The FBI investigation remained open at least until December, according to the intelligence official, at which point Flynn — who was named as Trump’s pick for national security adviser in November — was attending high-level national security briefings and accessing classified information.
Rumors have shot through Washington for months about whether the FBI was openly investigating Trump or any of his associates as a counterintelligence threat.
FBI Director James Comey was expected to address those rumors Wednesday, after reportedly promising lawmakers that after months of speculation he would publicly address whether the Trump campaign was under investigation by the bureau. But lawmakers backtracked Wednesday, and said Comey had never promised to publicly clarify questions about Trump and the FBI.
The FBI declined to comment. Neither the White House nor Flynn immediately responded to a request for comment.Abstract:
A PRELIMINARY FEASIBILITY STUDY WAS CONDUCTED BY THE CALIFORNIA STATE DIVISION OF HIGHWAYS AND THE SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY OF POTENTIAL USES OF NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVES IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS FOR HIGHWAYS AND RAILROADS. THE STUDY WAS CONCERNED WITH DETERMINING THE FEASIBILITY OF EXCAVATING A CUT THROUGH THE BRISTOL MOUNTAINS NEAR AMBOY, CALIF
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or hypoallometry. Organs that have negative allometry include the human head, which grows more slowly than the rest of the body after birth and so is proportionally smaller in adults than in children (Figure 2). When an organ grows at the same rate as the rest of the body, α = 1, a condition called isometry. Such an organ maintains a constant proportionate size (but not absolute size) throughout development.A school superintendent says a substitute teacher has been fired after showing elementary school children how to make the Nazi salute to Adolf Hitler.
A Vermont substitute school teacher has been fired after being accused of showing children how to salute Hitler. It apparently happened Thursday at Georgia Elementary School.
S
chool Superintendent Ned Kirsch called the incident disturbing and said the school took immediate action.
In an email sent to parents, Kirsch says the children were seen “standing with their arm out in front of them and the teacher was modeling the position. She then raised her arm slightly and said ‘and now we say Heil Hitler.'” Kirsch said in the email the teacher admitted doing this.
Kirsch was asked if he knew what her intent was, he said he couldn’t answer that. In the email, he did say a guidance counselor will visit the classroom and make sure the students felt safe and secure.
“I’m at a loss on the whole thing,” Kirsch told the paper Friday. “People are shocked. People I’ve spoken to are at a loss for words.”
The teacher admitted saying Heil Hitler and demonstrating the gesture, the paper reported.
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Last edit: June 29, 2016, 10:03:40 PM by CCEDKaps #145 Coming up soon:
1. CCEDK launch of website bootstrapping services for startups soft launch July 1 for full ofefring on the US independence Day July 4th 2016, article closing in on the values offered comes here from Forbes
Two comments I made in article and the ones to be presented on CCEDK webiste also:
Our vision is to be the enterprise that best understands and satisfies the product, service and funding needs of start-ups - globally,
The mission is to make CCEDK the preferred marketing and crowdfunding partner for our clients by delivering outstanding value, continuous innovation and an exceptional client experience.
Here comes the Forbes article out today June 29th 2016
Secrets To Successful Crowdfunding Over Blockchain Revealed By Danish Crypto Exchange
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogeraitken/2016/06/29/secrets-to-successful-crowdfunding-over-blockchain-revealed-by-danish-crypto-exchange/#5fda828a5073
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2. New ICO to start on July 4th - US Independence Day, and same day ICOO offers this as an ICO prelaunch on OpenLedger
More information on this in coming days, most probably acces to website Friday latest.
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3. Today ICOO bought into a presale of an ICO to be announced later this year.
We will do this ICO prelaunch as soon as we have co ordinated with the founders, as we have now the funds to offer an early trading option. Any profits as well as funds used will go back into the ICOO funding account once all is sold on market, and teh profits made will be added to the ICOO monthly pofit distribution.
Total amount spent was some 20 BTC converted into 990 ETH adding another 365 ETH from icoo account making it a total of 1355 ETH
With this amount of 1355 is now available some 1 355 000 NxC At a certain agreed time, this amount will be offered initially to ICOO holders at a slightly lower price than what the ICO will be, but only to the ones subscribing to that specific ICO. More details will be available on ICOO.io webiste when available.
Check your balance
Address :
0x80E7471C798925C0f33402358977C96786Cb02C5
Paid so far : 1355 Eth
Nexium balance : 1355000 NxC
The above funds are connected to above mentioned ETH adress which is owned by the ICOO and its holders.
More details and potentially a discount of 3% if using the adress in next few minutes:
http://beyond-the-void.net/index.php/ronny/
It is then possible to check your balance here:
http://beyond-the-void.net/index.php/presale
The above purchase is the first usecase of making use of ICOO funds to buy into a presale to be used to benefit the ICOO and its holders.
We will be doing the same with the ICO soon to be announced, and it will be possible to subscribe shortly after the news.
Yours sincerely
Ronny Boesing
CEO
CCEDK ApS an founder of OpenLedger
1.Two comments I made in article and the ones to be presented on CCEDK webiste also:Our vision is to be the enterprise that best understands and satisfies the product, service and funding needs of start-ups - globally,The mission is to make CCEDK the preferred marketing and crowdfunding partner for our clients by delivering outstanding value, continuous innovation and an exceptional client experience.Here comes the Forbes article out today June 29th 20162.More information on this in coming days, most probably acces to website Friday latest.3.We will do this ICO prelaunch as soon as we have co ordinated with the founders, as we have now the funds to offer an early trading option. Any profits as well as funds used will go back into the ICOO funding account once all is sold on market, and teh profits made will be added to the ICOO monthly pofit distribution.Total amount spent was some 20 BTC converted into 990 ETH adding another 365 ETH from icoo account making itAt a certain agreed time, this amount will be offered initially to ICOO holders at a slightly lower price than what the ICO will be, but only to the ones subscribing to that specific ICO. More details will be available on ICOO.io webiste when available.The above funds are connected to above mentioned ETH adress which is owned by the ICOO and its holders.More details and potentially a discount of 3% if using the adress in next few minutes:It is then possible to check your balance here:We will be doing the same with the ICO soon to be announced, and it will be possible to subscribe shortly after the news.Yours sincerelyRonny BoesingCEOCCEDK ApS an founder of OpenLedger ▰▰★ [WWAM] - WorldWide Anonymous Messaging Protocol based on blockchain technology - [WWAM] ★▰▰
Website ] |★| [ BitcoinTalk ] |★| [ Slack ] |★| [ Twitter
I C O b e g i n s ► A u g u s t 9, 2 0 1 7 | ★ | I C O e n d s ► S e p t e m b e r 6, 2 0 1 7
dirtygraham
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NewbieActivity: 26Merit: 0 Re: [ANN][ICOO] ICO OpenLedger - THE OFFICIAL ICO PRE-LAUNCH TOKEN July 13, 2016, 04:51:00 AM #151
My name is Graham, and I am an investigating Journalist working on a story about serial-scammers/fraudsters in Crypto-Currency, and my desk has assigned me to look into Larry Christopher Bates who is involved in this OpenLedger-project, and many others.
I need your help gathering information about Larry Christopher Bates who has been involved in a series of scams and failed projects, and I will list some - and hopefully I get some responses either publicly or privately from you - the users that know who is who in Crypto.
If you could do me the favor and come to my bitcointalk-thread and help me gather information, I would be very happy.
Thank you so much for your contribution
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1548350.new#new
Hello everybody,My name is Graham, and I am an investigating Journalist working on a story about serial-scammers/fraudsters in Crypto-Currency, and my desk has assigned me to look into Larry Christopher Bates who is involved in this OpenLedger-project, and many others.I need your help gathering information about Larry Christopher Bates who has been involved in a series of scams and failed projects, and I will list some - and hopefully I get some responses either publicly or privately from you - the users that know who is who in Crypto.If you could do me the favor and come to my bitcointalk-thread and help me gather information, I would be very happy.Thank you so much for your contribution
CCEDKaps
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Merit: 500
Hero MemberActivity: 628Merit: 500 Re: [ANN][ICOO] ICO OpenLedger - THE OFFICIAL ICO PRE-LAUNCH TOKEN July 14, 2016, 11:00:17 PM
Last edit: July 14, 2016, 11:27:57 PM by CCEDKaps #153 NXT amount owned by ICOO made available for trading on OpenLedger via Ardor tokens
The amount of 222,988 NXT has been purchased for the sole purpose of offering traders and speculators interested in trading a cryptocurrency prelaunch an option to do so, and we are able on OpenLedger to do so with the help of the Crowdfunding token ICOO.
What ICOO offers is the token ARDR of Ardor which is a new project and platform of NXT. The tokens are offered 1:1 as an added token to the amount held in NXT from the time of first snapshot today July 14th and the last one October 12th.
ICOO offers the amount of 222 988 OPEN.ARDR tokens backed by the equvalent amount of NXT held at the below ICOO account.
It means that ICOO will keep this amount locked at least untill final snapshot. Any profits achieved from selling the OPEN.ARDR will be fully added to the monthly ICOO profit distribution. It means basically that any profits achieved from selling ARDR on OpenLedger from now on untill October will be considered pure profit, and since it is achieved without any ICO it is not a product for subscription as such, the ICOO holders will however be able to buy into an inital amount of 22 988, leaving the remaining 200 000 to be added to the markets on OpenLedger where a demand is considered the highest.
OPEN.ARDR will be added to OpenLedger from July 18th, and therefore also only possible to trade from that time. An announcement will be made at this time also.
The mentioned 22 988 ARDR are offered to the 10 ICOO asset holders with the highest bid per 1 OPEN.ARDR in BTC valuation(although paid on OL as OPEN.BTC) sent in memo to the official OpenLedger account: ardor
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bids are accepted untill July 17th at 12 pm GMT (remember to put in memo the amount you wish to pay in OPEN.BTC and how many of the 22 988 tokens)
sent to following account:
https://bitshares.openledger.info/?r=ardor#/ sent to following account:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With this way of offering an initial part of the ARDR made available for trading on OpenLedger as perhaps the only place anywhere except the NXT platform itself and running as a minimum untill October, it is the attempt to establish a price based on initial demand, and then place orders of the remaining amount accordingly.
Of markets created there will be not only ARDR, HEAT and FIMK trading eachother, but just as well BTC, ETH, DGD, and BTS
Since ICOO still has its own ICO going on with some 7 days left of level 3, ending JUly 31st overnight. You can visit
You can read more about Ardor in below Forbes article.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogeraitken/2016/06/21/nxt-crypto-blockchain-team-prepares-ardor-scalable-child-chain-platform/#1b38dc39349b
Below some information about which adress is used for the ICOO nxt holdings, as well as its description:
Date 7/14/16, 11:41:07 PM
Adress NXT-T2HK-WPPF-JT8G-6TL3N
Name ICO OpenLedger - ICOO
Description ICOO asset investing in Ardor, holding it as collateral for the same amount of OPEN.ARDR to be released on OpenLedger. Anyone holding this asset on account at the time of the actual tokens of Ardor to be released can withdraw ARDR to the wallet created.
Yours sincerely
Ronny Boesing
CCEDK ApS
CEO
The amount of 222,988 NXT has been purchased for the sole purpose of offering traders and speculators interested in trading a cryptocurrency prelaunch an option to do so, and we are able on OpenLedger to do so with the help of the Crowdfunding token ICOO.which is a new project and platform of NXT. The tokens are offered 1:1 as an added token to the amount held in NXT from the time of first snapshot today July 14th and the last one October 12th.It means that ICOO will keep this amount locked at least untill final snapshot. Any profits achieved from selling the OPEN.ARDR will be fully added to the monthly ICOO profit distribution. It means basically that any profits achieved from selling ARDR on OpenLedger from now on untill October will be considered pure profit, and since it is achieved without any ICO it is not a product for subscription as such, the ICOO holders will however be able to buy into an inital amount of 22 988, leaving the remaining 200 000 to be added to the markets on OpenLedger where a demand is considered the highest., and therefore also only possible to trade from that time. An announcement will be made at this time also.The mentioned 22 988 ARDR are offered to the 10 ICOO asset holders with the highest bid per 1 OPEN.ARDR in BTC valuation(although paid on OL as OPEN.BTC) sent in memo to the official OpenLedger account: ardorWith this way of offering an initial part of the ARDR made available for trading on OpenLedger as perhaps the only place anywhere except the NXT platform itself and running as a minimum untill October, it is the attempt to establish a price based on initial demand, and then place orders of the remaining amount accordingly.Since ICOO still has its own ICO going on with some 7 days left of level 3, ending JUly 31st overnight. You can visit www.icoo.io for more details or go to www.ccedk.com to have an idea what we are working with allover. If u wish to buy ICOO token it is still possible at level 3: 850 ICOO per 1 BTC. You may send directly to account: icoo with OPEN.BTC or order directly on www.icoo.io with many more cuurencies or do it via the account: ico.openledger and write in memo: ICOO and will also handle it from there.You can read more about Ardor in below Forbes article.Date 7/14/16, 11:41:07 PMNXT-T2HK-WPPF-JT8G-6TL3NICO OpenLedger - ICOOICOO asset investing in Ardor, holding it as collateral for the same amount of OPEN.ARDR to be released on OpenLedger. Anyone holding this asset on account at the time of the actual tokens of Ardor to be released can withdraw ARDR to the wallet created.Yours sincerelyRonny BoesingCCEDK ApSCEO ▰▰★ [WWAM] - WorldWide Anonymous Messaging Protocol based on blockchain technology - [WWAM] ★▰▰
Website ] |★| [ BitcoinTalk ] |★| [ Slack ] |★| [ Twitter
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) urged the National Basketball Association on Tuesday to relocate the upcoming “All-Star Game” from North Carolina over the state’s recently enacted anti-LGBT law.
In a letter dated April 12, the U.S. senators call on NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to move the 2017 NBA All-Star game away from Charlotte because “discrimination has no place in modern America.” The game is currently set to take place Feb. 19, 2017, at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, which is home to the Charlotte Hornets.
“We hold no ill-will towards the people of Charlotte, who passed an anti-discrimination measure that HB2 overturned, or towards the people of North Carolina,” the letter says. “However, we cannot condone nor stand idly by as North Carolina moves to legalize and institutionalize discrimination against the LGBT community. Nor should the NBA allow its premier annual event to be hosted in such a state. Doing so, we believe, would be inconsistent with the NBA’s history and values.”
Echoing words from NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, who said the NBA should relocate the All-Star Game after passage of House Bill 2, the senators say they “call on the NBA to move the All-Star game from Charlotte.”
In addition to Merkley, the signatories of the letter are Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who are co-sponsors of the Equality Act.
The NBA, which has already said it’s considering whether it can still host the game in Charlotte now that the anti-LGBT law has been passed, didn’t immediately respond to the Washington Blade’s request to comment late Tuesday on whether the association would accede to the request from senators.
Also calling for moving the game from Charlotte is Detroit Pistons president and coach Stan Van Gundy, who on Monday likened HB 2 to laws enforcing segregation against blacks in the South, according to Mlive.com.
Signed by Gov. Pat McCrory after a special session of the legislature last month, House Bill 2 bars cities in North Carolina from enacting pro-LGBT non-discrimination ordinances and prohibits transgender people from using public restrooms in schools and government buildings consistent with their gender identity.
News the NBA would move the All-Star Game over HB 2 was, incorrectly, reported over the weekend after a fake report fooled media outlets into believing Silver had given North Carolina 30 days to repeal the law, or else he would relocate the game. A hoax website with the address, “abcnews.com.co,” which has a logo similar to the real ABC News, published the bogus story.Get the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.
Super Mario Run has reached 50 million downloads. Nintendo announced the milestone on the game's Japanese Twitter account, where it also said it's giving all players 10 free Toad Rally tickets as a celebration.
"To show our gratitude to everyone who's downloaded [Super Mario Run], we are giving you all 10 Rally Tickets for free," reads a message delivered to players through Super Mario Run's in-game notification system. "Use them to enjoy all the fun of the Toad Rally. "
Super Mario Run was released on December 15, which means it has reached to 50 million downloads mark in just over a week. As previously detailed, it accumulated 40 million downloads in the first four days it was available.
The game is free to download, but only a limited selection of levels are playable until you purchase it for $10/£8. Nintendo has not released information on how many players have spent money on Super Mario Run.
According to a research firm, Super Mario Run was downloaded over 10 million times worldwide on the day of its release. This is 10 times the amount Pokemon Go managed in its first day.
Despite strong download performance, Nintendo's share price fell immediately after Super Mario Run's release and has continued to fall. The game is only available for iOS devices right now; it's scheduled to come to Android in 2017.
For more on Super Mario Run, check out GameSpot's written review here and video review above.Blog Archive February (8) January (13) December (10) November (6) October (8) September (10) August (11) July (12) June (10) May (9) April (13) March (11) February (6) January (14) December (15) November (15) October (9) September (10) August (11) July (9) June (13) May (13) April (19) March (17) February (15) January (13) December (15) November (14) October (13) September (14) August (18) July (21) June (19) May (21) April (15) March (21) February (14) January (13) December (15) November (18) October (20) September (23) August (21) July (19) June (16) May (16) April (16) March (11) February (13) January (19) December (13) November (16) October (21) September (16) August (13) July (15) June (14) May (13) April (15) March (15) February (13) January (17) December (23) November (20) October (20) September (19) August (17) July (19) June (14) May (16) April (18) March (18) February (19) January (19) December (19) November (17) October (21) September (16) August (18) July (23) June (22) May (27) April (27) March (24) February (20) January (25) December (44) November (27) October (25) September (25) August (28) July (34) June (44) May (38) April (44) March (40) February (35) January (39) December (38) November (37) October (48) September (15) August (15) July (24) June (16) May (22) April (19) March (29) February (41) January (36) December (34) November (15) October (33) September (28) August (35) July (6) June (16) May (17) April (12) March (3) February (15) January (24) December (1)There’s no escaping the launch of Apple’s iPad this weekend (you might even be reading this post on its glossy, seductive touch-screen). So for those who’d like to contribute something to the conversation beyond the increasingly tired “is there an app for that?” line, we’ve assembled a few interesting tidbits on what might be called (eye-roll please…) “iPad-onomics.”
Early Adopters and Moore’s Law: You want the iPad now, but you know if you wait its price will soon fall and its features improve. This principle of rapid technological advancement goes back to “Moore’s Law,” named after Gordon Moore, co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel Corp., who back in 1965 predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double each year (since updated to roughly every two years). More broadly, the idea has been described, with no lack of controversy, as the law of accelerating returns or the “digital revolution,” similar if not greater in scope and magnitude to its industrial predecessor.
Back to the iPad. So should you wait to buy one? Probably. But if everyone waits, that’s a problem for Apple, which loses the revenues and publicity generated by record-breaking launch sales. Ultimately, a disappointing launch could be interpreted as a sign of low interest or demand for such a product, removing the incentive for further devices and innovations from Apple and its competitors that help to lower the costs and improve the quality for all users. (Those who haughtily skip the launch to wait for the better, cheaper version may want to keep that in mind).Enlarge Image David Carnoy/CNET
One of the advantages of Apple's Lightning port is that it's bidirectional, meaning that it can be used for charging its host device or have the host device power an accessory connected to it. Until now most of the charging has been one-way, with iPhones, iPods and iPads receiving energy not giving it.
That's soon about to change as last year Apple quietly added a spec for Lightning headphones to its Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod (MFi) Program last year and a few headphone makers -- Philips and Harman JBL -- get set to release new models that connect directly to the Lightning port on your device rather than the headphone jack.
Philips
What are the benefits? Well, not only are you getting a direct digital connection, but the headphones can draw juice from your device to power components in the headphone, which could include an internal DAC (digital to analog converter) and amplifier that bypass the internal DAC of the iPhone and/or active noise-cancellation circuitry.
In the future, headphones with health-related sensors could potentially get their juice via the Lightning port, but presently we're seeing features such as heart-rate monitors, integrated into wireless Bluetooth headphone rather than wired models.
Enlarge Image David Carnoy/CNET
Philips' on-ear Fidelio M2L (around $300, spring) has a built-in DAC and amplifier and can play high resolution 24-bit audio, while its Fidelio NC1L, another on-ear model announced at CES last week, adds active noise cancellation. It's due to hit stores in April for $299.
As I write this article, I'm listening to a standard Fidelio NC1, which I like a lot, though it, too, is pricey at $300. (The standard version is due to be available a little earlier -- in late February or March).
I had a quick test run with the M2L in Las Vegas and can't say I was blown away listening to a few high-res audio tracks. It sounded good but it didn't sound any cleaner or more dynamic than the NC1 and actually was in need of a slight volume boost. To be clear, it was an early unit and the Philips reps said there was still quite a bit of tuning and tweaking to be done before final units shipped.
I also played around with JBL's Reflect Aware, which is more modestly priced ($149, spring) and has a sports slant. It, too, includes noise cancellation and has no internal battery. JBL will sell both Lightning (for iOS devices) and Micro-USB (for Android/Windows) versions of the headphones.
Enlarge Image David Carnoy/CNET
When it ships, the Reflect Aware will come with a free companion app that allows you to adjust the level of noise cancelling. As a safety measure while running, I was showed how you can turn noise-cancelling off in one ear, allowing you to hear traffic better through that ear.
If you're wondering just how much power these headphones draw from your phone, it's unclear, but both Philips and JBL say they don't require much power and shouldn't have a major impact on your device's battery life.
Of course, the big drawback to these types of Lightning headphones is that you can't use them with non-iOS devices. But if you're someone who doesn't like having to charge your noise-canceling headphones every few days, this battery-free solution certainly seems appealing.Jo Mannies
STL Today
March 18, 2008
The first hints were the phone calls.
Never before had St. Charles County Republican Party Chairman Jon Bennett received so many queries about where this year’s party caucus was to be held. And Bennett didn’t recognize most of the callers.
On Saturday, Bennett learned why. Dozens of avid supporters of Ron Paul, a Texas congressman who is running a renegade quest for the presidential nomination, staged a political guerrilla attack. At that caucus at St. Peters City Hall — as well as others across the state — party regulars like Bennett were overwhelmed.
Caucuses in Missouri, held only in presidential election years, are typically low-key affairs attended mainly by party diehards. But this year, the pro-Paul activists commandeered gatherings in the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City and Springfield. Paul supporters also controlled caucuses in at least a half dozen rural counties.
Read entire articleApril Is the Cruelest Month … for China
For China’s cautious leadership, no news is good news — and this has been a bad month. Rising tensions with the Philippines in the South China Seas have reached a point that Beijing has deployed ships. The ceasefire in Syria seems to be fraying — again. Sudan and South Sudan are again engaged in armed conflict. And the United States, whose decline the Chinese leadership continues to trumpet, continues to pivot closer to Asia and is on the brink of dispatching an ambassador to Burma. The only good news seems to be North Korea’s failed rocket launch.
What is most threatening to Chinese leaders, however, is the scandal of deposed Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, arguably the biggest domestic political crisis in China since 1989. The year 2012 appears unlikely to play out at home or abroad the way the Chinese leadership had hoped — with a smooth political succession underscoring China’s rise to a global power. The state media directives of the past week suggest the Communist Party is scrambling to impose a return to normalcy; it’s likely that the government will be very risk-averse in the coming months as it tries to contain the fallout from Bo’s ouster.
But the rest of the world isn’t going to stop turning. The current generation of leadership will likely step down during this fall’s 18th Party Congress to make way for Xi Jinping and his colleagues. In the previous large-scale power transfer in China, in 2002, the country was at most a middle power. The next generation, stewards of what is now the world’s second-largest economy, will have to confront a treacherous foreign policy landscape where their country is enmeshed in arrangements and disputes in practically every country around the world.
Chinese workers, diplomats, and property are increasingly the targets of protest or violence across the globe, particularly in locations involving significant Chinese-backed infrastructure projects. Over the last 12 months, rebels kidnapped Chinese oil workers in Sudan, disgruntled locals protested against the Myitsone Dam in northern Burma, and environmental activists occupied the Chinese Embassy in Quito, Ecuador. It’s increasingly clear that not everyone believes the Chinese government’s line that its rise is "harmonious."
The violence against Chinese expatriates is reprehensible. But it nevertheless spotlights one of the worst dimensions of Beijing’s "going out" strategy: tone-deafness to local voices. Despite its current domestic preoccupation, the upcoming Chinese leadership needs to learn to solicit and accommodate dissenting views regarding investment and diplomatic activity in other countries. It would also benefit from a significant investment in consular services for its own citizens, who increasingly find themselves caught in such conflicts.
More diverse actors, too, are pressuring Beijing on human rights issues. Just in the past month, China has had to contend with pressure closer to home: In early April, Japanese Diet members adopted a highly unusual resolution on Tibet calling for the Chinese government to resume talks with the Dalai Lama. Beijing also found itself forced to respond to critical South Korean press reports that China had forcibly repatriated North Koreans; in response, Beijing allowed a handful of North Koreans sheltered in the South Korean consulates in China to depart for Seoul. These actions may have been inspired in part by China’s 2011 vote in support of international action in Libya, though its 2012 refusal to censure Syria has dimmed hopes that Beijing is more willing to lend its heft to international efforts to stop extraordinary brutality. Perhaps more governments have realized that they can publicly criticize China for its human rights violations. At a minimum, the developments in Japan and South Korea will make it harder for the new leadership to paint all human rights pressure as Western propaganda.
Even China’s "soft power" efforts are proving problematic. The incoming leadership would do well to re-examine these, and other governments should think more carefully about partnering in such efforts. This year’s London Book Fair — showcasing Chinese literature — is a classic example. The Chinese government chose all of the Chinese writers invited to participate, noticeably omitting more critical voices; the British Council, the fair’s host, has been harshly criticized for collaborating with China’s state censors. At least some people in Britain are now left with a visceral sense of what it’s like to be a critical literary voice in China today — precisely the opposite impression of what Beijing intended, and precisely what’s happening at book fairs and film festivals across the world.
Many of the voices in China who could suggest an alternate course have been muzzled. It remains difficult for the Chinese media to press its government to act more responsibly internationally. According to the domestic press, the Philippines is the aggressor in the South China Seas skirmishes; China remains a "firm advocate of peace" in Syria and has "made unremitting efforts" to "resolve the current crisis," while the London Book Fair "opens a new chapter in nation’s cultural exchange." There is precious little discussion of the occupation of the Quito Embassy or of the Japanese resolution on Tibet. Weibo and other online platforms provide an opportunity for some to debate these issues, suggesting healthy domestic interest in foreign policy. And even in state media, cracks are beginning to show: After an unprecedented evacuation of more than 35,000 Chinese people from Libya, critiques were published suggesting that the government had failed citizens overseas. But this remains a far cry from allowing — or soliciting — broad public input on policy.
Xi Jinping and his colleagues are well aware of the pressures that China’s global role brings, but it’s less clear whether they understand the growing alienation their policies and practices are creating around the world. If they are keen for more good news and less reputational damage, they would be wise to change approaches that are increasingly a lightning rod for criticism abroad. And other governments would be wise to keep up the pressure, rather than cater to the misplaced notion that China should be held to different standards than other global powers.Walt Weiss believes the Rockies are close to becoming a legitimate playoff contender. He also believes he is the right man to lead them.
He likely won’t get a chance to prove it, however.
Weiss’ three-year contract expires after Sunday afternoon’s season finale against the Milwaukee Brewers at Coors Field, which very well could be his last game as Colorado’s manager. His tenuous status is not simply a matter of his losing record — 283-363 heading into Saturday night’s game. It also has to do with his strained relationship with general manager Jeff Bridich.
A significant gulf has developed between Weiss and Bridich, according to multiple sources within the organization, some of whom said Weiss has been been left out of the loop regarding major decisions dating to the offseason — when he was not consulted about the acquisitions of relievers Jason Motte, Chad Qualls and Jake McGee or outfielder Gerardo Parra, all of whom have had disappointing seasons this year.
Asked about his relationship with Weiss, Bridich said he “didn’t think it was appropriate to publicly discuss my personal relationship with anyone on our staff,” including Weiss.
Asked specifically about his working relationship with Weiss, Bridich said: “The working relationship is evolving and continues to evolve. … There has been mostly good communication, some great communication and some periods where he’s busy and I’m busy and we haven’t communicated as well as we could have. That’s a natural thing for the job that he has and the job that I have.”
As for Weiss being left out of the loop of major decisions, Bridich said, “I’m not going to respond to rumor mongering.”
Change of Direction
Bridich, who took over as general manager after the 2014 season, said he and Weiss will meet this week to discuss the season. Rockies owner Dick Monfort also will be involved in any final decision regarding Weiss’ future.
“We will go through the same process as we did last year,” Bridich said. “That is, sitting down after the season is done and having conversations and talking about how the season went and talking about the future.”
There’s a belief by many within the organization that Bridich may want to hire his own manager, someone more in tune with his baseball philosophies and vision. Weiss was hired by previous general manager Dan O’Dowd after a disastrous 2012 season in which the Rockies lost a club-record 98 games. Bridich replaced O’Dowd two years later.
Weiss has managed all season knowing that he was in the final year of his contract. He said there was never any discussion about a contract extension.
“It doesn’t necessarily bug me,” Weiss said. “I only want to be where I’m wanted. If I’m not wanted, I just leave. It’s one of my rules in life. I don’t stay anywhere where I’m not wanted. I just go, I just disappear. … I want to make sure that people want me, from top to bottom. If not, I don’t want to be here.”
Asked if he believes Bridich and Monfort have already reached a decision on his future, Weiss said, “Probably. I would think so. I think that those guys want to get their ducks in a row.”
Playoff Possibilities
The Rockies, 75-85 entering Saturday night’s game against Milwaukee, will finish with a losing record for the sixth consecutive year. Since taking over for Jim Tracy, Weiss has a.438 winning percentage, the lowest of any of Colorado’s six managers.
Bridich said Weiss’ record will not be the only factor taken into account on whether he will make a move.
“In a decision-making process like this, it’s not totally or fully dependent on some sort of win-loss record or this or that,” Bridich said. “There are a lot of factors that go into it. That’s how it should be
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The survey of 1,082 adults conducted this week by CBS found just 24% of respondents had a “favorable” view of Islam. Nearly 40% said they had an “unfavorable” view of the second-largest religion on the planet, while 37% said they don’t have an opinion on the faith.
Not surprisingly, those numbers translated into very little support for the Cordoba House project. Just 22% of all respondents said it was “appropriate” for the Muslim cultural center to be built near Ground Zero, while 71% said it was “inappropriate.”
Among the plurality who hold an unfavorable opinion of Islam, support for the project was almost nonexistent. Nine percent said it was appropriate for Cordoba House to be built, while 88% said it was inappropriate. Those holding a favorable view of Islam split on Cordoba — 50% said building it was appropriate, while 42% said it was inappropriate.The TPM Poll Average of national polling on Cordoba House shows 63.7% of Americans oppose the project, while just over a quarter — 26.4% — support it.The War On Drugs returned last month with “Thinking Of A Place,” an 11-minute sprawl that indicated big things for the follow-up to 2014 breakout Lost In The Dream. And although they’ve since announced extensive tour dates, they haven’t given us any specific details about the new album — just a brief interviewing describing it as their “LA record.” Those details are likely imminent, though, because according to the promotional site All Access the band’s got a new single called “Holding On” impacting radio on 6/20, which means it could be released any time between now and then.
A reader tip also points us to ASCAP, where “Holding On” and nine other new War On Drugs songs were recently registered. Here are those titles:
“Clean Living”
“Gone Too Long”
“In Chains”
“New Trick”
“Nothing To Find”
“Pain”
“Strangest Thing”
“Up All Night”
“You Don’t Have To Go”
In other words, hold on for “Holding On” and War On Drugs album details imminently.The viral video sensation showing a bullying incident at an Australian school has brought the issue of bullying back into the spotlight. Here in the United States, the Obama administration has made school bullying a federal issue. Last week, President Barack Obama addressed an anti-bullying conference with First Lady Michelle Obama at his side. The administration’s anti-bullying campaign has been ongoing since the beginning of Mr. Obama’s term. The Department of Justice announced in December 2010 its intention to hold liable school districts that fail to protect students that are bullied.
DOJ’s website states:
The Civil Rights Division and the entire Justice Department are committed to ending bullying and harassment in schools, and the video highlights the Department’s authority to enforce federal laws that protect students from discrimination and harassment at school because of their race, national origin, disability, religion, and sex, including harassment based on nonconformity with gender stereotypes.
SEE RELATED:
The statement later says:
The enforcement of the Equal Protection Clause, Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 in school districts is a top priority of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Additional information is available at the Civil Rights Division’s Educational Opportunities Section website at www.justice.gov/crt/edo/.
Here is the catch. DOJ will only investigate bullying cases if the victim is considered protected under the 1964 Civil Rights legislation. In essence, only discrimination against a victim’s race, sex, national origin, disability, or religion will be considered by DOJ. The overweight straight white male who is verbally and/or physically harassed because of his size can consider himself invisible to the Justice Department.
Apparently, the Justice Department is going by George Orwell’s famous Animal Farm ending: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
“We can only take action where we have legal authority,” wrote DOJ spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa in a December 2010 e-mail to The Washington Times Water Cooler. She continues:
“As stated in the website below, we are statutorily authorized to initiate suits under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, and under Title III of the American with Disabilities Act. More information on the Civil Rights Act, Equal Educational Opportunities Act, and the ADA can be found here:
http://www.justice.gov/crt/edo/faq.php#3 ”
The Justice Department’s anti-bullying initiative is tantamount to bringing hate crime legislation to the public school system. Obviously, not only is the heterosexual white male student out of luck but inner city minority students lose out in this deal too.
If a schoolyard bully is a straight black male and his target is another straight black male where does that leave the victim in the eyes of Attorney General Eric Holder? What about two female students of the same sexual orientation and race? Is the victim in the latter situation considered to be less equal in the eyes of Obama’s Justice Department than a minority student who is picked on by a heterosexual white male student with no disabilities?
Unfortunately, the Justice Department is politicizing its priorities yet again. One must wonder why the administration believes it should be micro managing local school districts’ bullying problems. When the Justice Department is more interested in making ideological statements through seemingly sugar coated campaigns, no one should feel protected.Referee Mike Dean will take charge of the derby match between Cardiff City and Swansea City on Sunday, 3 November.
Dean, 45, was struck on the head by a coin thrown from the crowd in the 2-2 draw between the clubs in 2009.
He also awarded the late penalty with which Ross McCormack earned a draw for the Bluebirds.
Sunday's match at the Cardiff City Stadium is the first time the clubs have played each other in English football's top division.
The teams have met four times in the Championship since the drawn match in April 2009, with each winning twice before Swansea's promotion to the Premier League in 2011.
A man from Pontypridd was banned for three years and fined £200 after being convicted of throwing the coin.
Cardiff City escaped punishment, with then-chairman Peter Ridsdale condemning the actions of the person responsible for throwing the coin.Filmy z dzisiejszego projektu P.I.W.O.2 na ścianie akademika Politechniki Wrocławskiej.
Przekaż link dalej. Dziękuję.
Film o filmie.
Reksio.
Knight Rider.
EIT for Poland!
Snake.
Name: Komentarze: 04.05.2009, 17:14
KordyL | Snake najlepszy ;)
30.04.2009, 23:50
przemo | Pomysł w cipę na pięć!!!Gratulacje :)
30.04.2009, 15:07
NIENASERIO Photo&Design | Wielki szacun dla was za to :) jestem pod wielkim wrażeniem. Pozdro.
11.04.2009, 23:04
SZERLOK25 | Pozdrawiam serdecznie i gorąco gratuluję pomysłu, szacunekczek!!! oby tak dalej a swoją drogą mógłby być to niezły sposób na wyświetlanie reklam, wpływy były by napewno duże;-)) pomyślcie o tym;-)))
08.02.2009, 00:45
stefan | Qrde,zatkało mnie....tylko nie pokazujta tego Rydzowi, bo zaraz zapieprzy i bedzie radyjo pokazywał
23.12.2008, 22:27
Henio | Szacunek!
06.10.2008, 19:19
darek | Proste, dobry elektryk - połaczyć wszystkie światła pokoi siecią i można efekt taki osiągnąć na 1 kompie...
06.10.2008, 17:43
maja | jak oni to zrobili?:D:D:D:D:D
06.10.2008, 17:42
Przem | Ale bania!!!zajebiste!
06.10.2008, 16:44
super | na prawde zajebiste pozdro z piotrkowa
06.10.2008, 15:55
paula | wielki szacunek
04.10.2008, 16:13
mkk | ;O brawo!
Pozdrowienia z Poniatowej!
(Poniatowa - 100 % Motor)
26.06.2008, 21:18
ZielonyMajster | Pomysł w cipkę, wykonanie także ;p
CHEŁM pozdrawia!!!
17.06.2008, 00:49
DeHanonim | zajebista popisowa chlopacy! gratki za inwencje tworcza!
13.06.2008, 17:36
ania | to jest wspaniałe :)
13.06.2008, 09:44
:D | nigdy nie widziałem czegoś wspanialszego:D
12.06.2008, 17:55
ol | jestem pod ogromnym wrażeniem!!!
12.06.2008, 10:07
walewryja | R E S P E C T
09.06.2008, 07:35
ktoś | wspaniały bajer
07.06.2008, 17:34
Anna Bajor | Gratulujue!!!!!!!!!! cos wspanialego...dla wykonawcow..jestescie genialni!!!!!
31.05.2008, 11:39
Boomblelek | Genialne!!!!!!!!Brawo za pomysł i jeszcze większe za wykonanie:)
30.05.2008, 20:46
Magda | Kurcze, ludzie z polibudy mają łeb :)
28.05.2008, 23:44
MŁA | PKP - pięknie kurwa pięknie
28.05.2008, 23:23
paooo | nie mam pytan!! gratulacje za pomyslowosc i wykonanie!! :D
28.05.2008, 11:44
migo | Jestem pod wrazeniem.
Genialna sprawa.
Łódź pozdrawia:)
26.05.2008, 21:06
nikoś | po moim wyjeżdzie z Wrocka takie impry, takie pomysły... to nie fair....ale za to Wrocław kocha sie do końca życia :-) Za studentów z głową na karku, nie tylko do nauki ale i do zabawy :-D
26.05.2008, 01:42
polo | dobre dobre :)
25.05.2008, 19:18
lsa2e | ale lipa że szok... gorszego nie można?
24.05.2008, 22:43
Krzysiek | Super Polacy potrafią :)
24.05.2008, 22:09
sickman | że też nasi na Rocha nie wymyślili takiej zabawy...
Wykonanie genialne, i wcale nie trudne w realizacji. I to bez kabli!!!
pozdro z poznania!
23.05.2008, 14:38
kosmi | Pozdro z polsl
u nas nie ma takich projektów... :/
23.05.2008, 13:52
pirog | rewela!!:D:D
23.05.2008, 00:25
maliu | to bylo naprawde dobre..:)
22.05.2008, 22:59
Henry | Superowo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
22.05.2008, 18:45
Majewa | zajebiste :)
22.05.2008, 14:40
monia | super
22.05.2008, 14:27
CZarny | ZAJEBIASZCZE!!! Bravo dla tych panów!!!
22.05.2008, 11:14
Kika | Wow ;) Fajne
22.05.2008, 09:20
Adam | zarypiste
22.05.2008, 07:36
ewa | wspaniale
21.05.2008, 21:38
cyrulikl | nieżle
21.05.2008, 21:08
Dupa | Ej w recepcji wiedzieli co się dzieje??
21.05.2008, 17:19
elektryk | troche kabla od mieszkania do mieszkania,kilkadziesiac zarowek i cos do zaprogramowania tego ;]
21.05.2008, 12:42
ja | Wrocław Rządzi!!!!!!!!!!!!
21.05.2008, 11:50
shadek | gratulacje, świetnie Wam to wyszło!
21.05.2008, 10:38
bezimienna | śWIETNE POMYSŁ PIERWSZA KLASA :d
"kuba napisał
"No i niby jak to jest możliwe. W jaki sposób czerwony kolor uzyskaliście?"
a od czego sa czerwone żarówki debilu :P
21.05.2008, 10:16
JA:-) | rewelacja!!gratujuje!!!!!!
20.05.2008, 23:08
cmpa zamość | kapitalne patataj!
20.05.2008, 21:54
nelka | ale ma koleś łeb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
20.05.2008, 21:51
mm | TEN POMYSŁ TO PO PROSTU GENIUSZA GRATULUJĘ cos niesamowitego, zdolniacha absolutna
20.05.2008, 21:46
MARTA | ZAJEFAJNE
20.05.2008, 21:46
marta | chyba najlepszy studemt to wymyslił wielka nagroda mu się nalezy powinni to docenic wykładowcy to rzeczywiscie zajefajne
20.05.2008, 21:44
hejka | super pomysł ma ktos głowę nie od parady jakas zdolna bestia musi być
20.05.2008, 21:23
Tik TaK | zajebiste na maxa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
20.05.2008, 20:08
Cykli | poprostu obłęd! :)
20.05.2008, 20:05
Simi | :)
20.05.2008, 17:05
:) | ŁADNY FILM!
20.05.2008, 16:27
;/ | to napewno jakis wał
20.05.2008, 11:04
Koszutka | ZAJEBISTE :-D
19.05.2008, 22:19
polinka i sławek | zjawiskowe :)
19.05.2008, 22:01
Asi | Wyjebiste!!! Reksio najlepszy, a potem snake! Gratuluje pomyslu!!! :-* :-)
19.05.2008, 21:45
mlody!! | no gratulacje!! jeszce czegos takiego nei widzialem!!
19.05.2008, 20:40
Zadyma | Świetne!! Widać, że studenci Polibudy mają pomysły :D
19.05.2008, 20:39
to tylko ja | nie no WRO wymiata pod względem chyba już każdym od bibek klimatycznych z doborowym towarzytwem i jak najbardziej dobranaą i wyszukanaa muza ąz po takie rzeczy --pozdro 303 ja chce do WROPROEWOLUTION heheh
19.05.2008, 19:43
Zawada1910 | Powala!! Zajebiste podziwiam was, Pozdro z Radomia
19.05.2008, 15:04
Konrad | Chłopy z polibudy dały rade
19.05.2008, 08:50
sopel | liga mistrzów - finał
19.05.2008, 00:07
Ninka | Świetna sprawa:) Po prostu niesamowite. Wielki SZACUN. Pozdrawiam
18.05.2008, 23:27
sobut | nie no naprawde fachowa robota!! nic dodac nic ujac!! wielkie yoo!! :))
18.05.2008, 20:19
maxious | polacy jednak sa the best
18.05.2008, 19:54
littleeminem | to jest zajeżyste
18.05.2008, 12:40
Betty Boop | fajne ;p
18.05.2008, 10:34
pnk | jest wysoko!
18.05.2008, 10:23
pablo | zajebiaszcze pozdro dla Wrocka
18.05.2008, 09:36
4445677888 | super....jescze takiego nie widziałam
17.05.2008, 23:10
zabaaa | śWIETNE!!!
robi wrażenie...
17.05.2008, 21:28
mimikk | całkiem całkiem :)
17.05.2008, 19:30
obca | zajebiste!!!!!! ;):):):):):):):):):)
17.05.2008, 18:36
kredka | super!!!!!!!!!!!
17.05.2008, 16:42
lalaMI | super filmiki, widziałam wszystkie Wasze produkcje na Youtube, genialny pomysł.
Wrocław to super miasto, a w fajnym mieście mieszkają fajni ludzie.
17.05.2008, 14:06
eb | "kuba napisał
"No i niby jak to jest możliwe. W jaki sposób czerwony kolor uzyskaliście?"
projekt-piwo.pl/
17.05.2008, 13:22
pola | dla mnie bomba, chcialabym zobaczyc cos takiego na żywo!!!!
wielkie brawa dla wykonawcow!!
17.05.2008, 12:47
Sebest | Gratulacje panowie.... Czegos takiego jeszcze nie widzialem :)
Oby tak dalej
17.05.2008, 09:19
b | jacie.
mistrzowskie
16.05.2008, 22:58
srem | masakra
16.05.2008, 22:10
marrtaaa | fajoza na maksa!!:) jestem pod wrażeniem snake'a i w ogóle całego projektu...niezły czad!!!!!
16.05.2008, 20:53
majki | Respekt..! jestescie wyjebisci!
16.05.2008, 20:14
Jonny | nie no ludzie...
DLA
MNIE
BOMBA!!!
wielkie brawa dla ludzi ktorzy to zrobili RESPEKT!!
16.05.2008, 18:56
PWR Power | Literka P
Literka W
Literka R
jak PWR!
A kto literek nie szanuje.. :)
16.05.2008, 17:18
6ty | Studenci PWSZ Krosno pozdrawiają Wrocław ;) Brawo za pomysł i oby więcej takich edycji ;)
16.05.2008, 16:32
Wujo | www.projekt-piwo.pl
16.05.2008, 16:13
tokio | lol -> nie ma co się śmiać, bo to rzeczywiście może zastanawiać, jeśli się przyjmie, że to było oświetlenie pokoju, czyli żarówki przy suficie. a tymczasem żarówki i białe i czerwone były zainstalowane w oknach specjalnie do tego projektu.
16.05.2008, 15:54
Lukryna | super pomysł, ha ha a za prąd i tak akademik płaci!
16.05.2008, 15:34
lol | "kuba
No i niby jak to jest możliwe. W jaki sposób czerwony kolor uzyskaliście?"
czerwona żarówka, geniuszu %-)
16.05.2008, 14:09
Nina | Super dziekuje Ci Slawku czego to Polak nie wymysli
16.05.2008, 14:02
dorota | poprostu wrocławscy studenci! :P
16.05.2008, 14:02
oluś | niezłe, niezłe... robi wrażenie ;-)
16.05.2008, 14:00
kasia | bomba :D
16.05.2008, 13:13
absolwent pwr | swietne!!!
zaluje ze mnie tam nie bylo w tym roku :(
16.05.2008, 13:11
cunt | poo
16.05.2008, 11:56
sQBAna | Napisałam wczoraj matÓrę z fizyki. Pochwalę się, że mam duże szanse w przyszłości nazywać się Młodszą Koleżanką Tych Mózgów Z PWR! Jupijaej! Wrocław wymiata!
Może w przyszłym roku zrobicie Makin' the movie P.I.W.O
16.05.2008, 11:40
Szpila | BRAWA DLA POMYSŁODAWCY!!
to się nazywa dzieło!!
G
R
A
T
U
L
A
C
J
E
!
!
!
pozdr
16.05.2008, 10:42
papa | mistrzostwo!!!:)gratuluje projektu
16.05.2008, 08:56
Justa | Zajebiaszcze!:D Najlepsze Juwenalia są we Wrocławiu!!!
16.05.2008, 08:52
Maja | suuuuper sprawa!!!!!
16.05.2008, 08:34
eta | no no zaje fajne to było :):)
16.05.2008, 06:11
yooka | hihi Wrocław wymiata;D Teki PWr
16.05.2008, 05:41
Adrian | Niesamowite
15.05.2008, 23:44
aneczka503 | oooooooo jaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!no wypas konkretny!!!!!!!!ale jak wy to zrobiliscie????!!!!!!!!:D:D:D:D ten wąż jest bezkonkurencyjny:D:D:D:D
15.05.2008, 23:29
Jaworek | bardzo pozytywna akcja! Wynik świetny i oby takich więcej!
15.05.2008, 23:27
kinia |!!! the best:p Kraków pozdrawia ^^
15.05.2008, 23:02
Ajram | Jesteście super!!! Świetny pomysł:) Wrocław góra pozdrawiam
15.05.2008, 22:45
duzoelo | mistrz!
15.05.2008, 22:07
Oko | Tu się zgadzam. Szczecin pozdrawia Wrocław. Akcja niesamowita. Super sztuka i zabawa jednocześnie:) Pozdrawiam:)
15.05.2008, 21:57
Monika | tak tak imprezy maja najlepsze zwlaszcza te smietankowe :) Stettin pzdr :)
15.05.2008, 21:50
kasia | Szczecin pozdrawia Wrocław Pomysł boombowy odlot na maksa Naprawde ludzie którzy wpadli na to... niezłe świry ;P pozazdrościć Wrocław u was zawsze najlepsze imprezy... ale teraz wiadomo dlaczego bo ludzie tacy zajebiści tam mieszkają... Pozdrawiam
15.05.2008, 21:40
maltan | wyjebane!!!!!!! ;)
15.05.2008, 21:39
BORYSEK | no no zaje..... :o)))
15.05.2008, 21:38
Monika | ZWARIOWALAM :D
Wrocław... jeszcze nigdy mnie nie zawiódł... :D
pozdrawiam twórców!!! :)
15.05.2008, 21:18
bft | Respekt
15.05.2008, 20:47
arcz | masakra, powaliliście mnie na kolana :)
pełen szacuneczek!!! :)
15.05.2008, 20:47
miśka | mega wypaśnie normalnie że :)trzeba nieźle pogłówkować aby na coś takiego wykonać!!!gratulacje Wrocław!!!!!
15.05.2008, 20:29
ann | Poznań zazdrości.... :) MEGA :)))))
15.05.2008, 20:15
:D | hmmm... szacunek.. ile oni to mogli trenowac ;d
15.05.2008, 20:09
mirek | Brawo za fantazję
15.05.2008, 19:50
kuba | No i niby jak to jest możliwe. W jaki sposób czerwony kolor uzyskaliście?
15.05.2008, 19:23
Aniusia | AGH pozdrawia PW ;D
fantastyczne Naprawde wielki szacun :D
15.05.2008, 19:09
Mirandowa Olusica | Wrocloooov Buuziooole....
15.05.2008, 17:50
tokio | było w szkle? a nie ma na necie! :(
15.05.2008, 17:16
Tusia | coś niesamowitego CZAD
15.05.2008, 16:52
ryfkak | rewelacja :)
15.05.2008, 16:33
bro | Prawie jak chińczycy :d
15.05.2008, 16:29
ba | "reksia" i "węża" pokazywali wczoraj w szkle kontaktowym. kurcze, szacunek za wykonanie!!!
15.05.2008, 16:22
staefan | po porostu git
15.05.2008, 16:20
wysoooky | nie no wypas!Gratuluje pomyslu a co wiecej wykonania!pozdrawiam
15.05.2008, 16:01
Matt | Pomysł rewelacja, wykonanie zresztą też. Gratz 4 All.
15.05.2008, 15:58
Marta | po prostu brak mi słów... świetne! chciałabym zobaczyć coś takiego na żywo :) pozdrawiam
15.05.2008, 15:46
David | very good art!! We can play a lot with light!!
But I'm afraid that the light center of this builbing is damaged.. :D
I like very much this amazing SNAKE!! Good score!! ;-)
15.05.2008, 15:40
samaro | nic dziwnego, że ten fotolog wylądował na pierwszym miejscu... Szacuneczek :D
15.05.2008, 15:23
dakar | gratulacje z pierwszego miejsca fotologów :)
wreszcie jakiś fajny fotolog w pierwszej 20 a nie jakieś gówna.
15.05.2008, 15:08
:D | no to teraz tylko przejściówka pod USB i każdy może sobie pograć w mega-węża xD
15.05.2008, 15:06
Jarcio | Wrocław GÓRĄ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
15.05.2008, 14:53
jessroncen | od razu wiadomo że to studenci politechniki, ktoś musiał zmontować i zaprogramować jakiś układ elektroniczny, żeby tym wszystkim sterować
15.05.2008, 14:44
Nie jestem studentem | Naprawdę bomba!!!! Pozdro z Bydgoszczy.
15.05.2008, 14:24
Mag | Świetne!! Tez tak chce! pozdro od Łodzi ;p a pomysl wspanialy!!! Z A R Ą B I S T E
15.05.2008, 13:54
ketchup | Gdańsk gratuluje Wrocławiowi!!! :-) Genialne :-)
15.05.2008, 12:42
Xtom83 | pięknie to mało powiedziane jesteście wielcy :D Wrocław górą :D
15.05.2008, 12:38
Anika | Gratuluję pomysłu i realizacji, aż żałuje, że widziałam tego "na żywo"
15.05.2008, 11:53
ancymon | Miodzio obywatele :-)
szacunek za pracę...
UAM Poznań pozdrawia Wrocław :-)
15.05.2008, 11:51
malu | super!!!jestem pod ogromnym wrażeniem!!!!!genialny pomysł!!!!
15.05.2008, 10:32
tomekk | zarąbiste! respect!
15.05.2008, 09:56
pancygaro | no no, już pierwsze miejsce wśród najpopularniejszych fotologów i ownlogów. przebicie pokacycków i wielkiegojoł to wyczyn nie lada! :-)
gratulacje!
PS ile to wejść na dobę?
15.05.2008, 09:35
funkindonuts | Szacun! pierwszy na liście fotologa!
15.05.2008, 09:34
flykkllr | brawo! gratuluję pomysłu :)
15.05.2008, 09:22
rudy | spadlem z krzesla... szacun..
15.05.2008, 09:11
A. | Świetne!!!! Podziwiam :-)
Dzięki za umilenie dnia w pracy ;-)
15.05.2008, 05:51
tokio | Pamiętam jak im się ostatnio nie udało z podłączeniem do oświetlenia pokojów. A teraz dali radę! :D To naprawdę jedna z najmilszych wiadomości z kraju w tym roku.
Nawet polubiłam moją granatową bezkształtną koszulkę z logiem EiT i nerdowskim żartem na plecach. ^_^v
A Reksio i jego stempelek rządzą! :D
14.05.2008, 23:28
szydelko | super. poprostu szok
14.05.2008, 22:46
hellmanns | Mega!
To chyba do Księgi Rekordów Guinessa się łapie. Żeby rekord z "Hey Joe" nie czuł się w niej samotny ;)
14.05.2008, 22:31
Bloo | Pokłony! Normalnie szacun! Niezły pomysł i genialne wykonanie ;)
14.05.2008, 21:42
Skurczpoliczka | Wypierdziste :)
14.05.2008, 21:32
Kaatosia | Mega respect :)..
14.05.2008, 21:10
looziker | świetnie było! ;D
14.05.2008, 20:45
Kołcz | MEGA PWr ROX :]
14.05.2008, 20:32
Olkaa | Pod wielkim wrażeniem jestem... wyobrażam sobie, ile roboty przy planowaniu i synchronizacji było... SUPER x:)
14.05.2008, 20:23
ralf | nie ma jak pomysł!
GRATULEJE!
14.05.2008, 19:30
weranda | bosko......daliście czadu
14.05.2008, 19:04
mika | rewelacja
super pomysł :)
14.05.2008, 18:39
Aguśka 74 | tak trzymać... podobało się bardzo :))
Pozdrawiam ekipę - tych najbardziej zaangażowanych i tych po drugiej stronie... klimat był niesamowity....
14.05.2008, 17:51
junior | rewelka. daliscie rade!!
14.05.2008, 17:11
margor | wypas! Brawo za pomysl!
14.05.2008, 16:39
Maciex | Zarąbisto-wypaściste z polewą toffi. SZACUN
14.05.2008, 16:36
Matt | ^^ jazda na xero była lepsza =] ma ktoś z tego filmiki?? xD
14.05.2008, 16:17
wroclaw | kamileq: niekoniecznie z PWr :-)
14.05.2008, 16:05
kamileq | Widzę, że autor mojego ulubionego fotobloga jest z PWr ;-)
Szkoda, że tetrisa nie było ;-(
Ale fajna atmosfera była na Tekach.
14.05.2008, 15:31
tokio | Jaaa, a mój chłopak też jest z PWR! ;)
14.05.2008, 12:45
Omen | Ładny syf
14.05.2008, 12:19
PWR- | po prostu jestemy zajebisci i tyle :p nie ma wieksozcyh mozgow od nas w calym wro :P
EIT 4ever :P
14.05.2008, 12:15
aneczka | Restekpa!
14.05.2008, 11:56
pancygaro | genialna sprawa! :-)
14.05.2008, 11:41
Filip | Przecież to jest promocja ich umiejętności. Skoro potrafią coś takiego, potrafią też o wiele więcej. ;)
14.05.2008, 11:08
wroclaw | no wzieli sie do roboty i wyszlo PIWO ;p
Cala Polska w cieniu Slaska, rowniez Polska B ;)
14.05.2008, 10:39
czapkinabakier | racja, wzięli by się do roboty.
studenci do nauki! cały naród z towarzyszem Wiesławem!
14.05.2008, 10:35
giertych | Ciekawe pokazy, ac
|
installing and running any kind of software (apk files), it also allows to display annoying advertisements.
However, the main threat of Android.Xiny.19.origin lies in its capability to download and dynamically run arbitrary apk files upon cybercriminals’ command. However, the way it is carried out is rather unique. To masquerade the malicious program, virus makers hide it in specially created images by applying steganography. Unlike cryptography that is used for encryption of source information, which may arouse suspicion, steganography is applied to hide information covertly. Virus makers presumably decided to complicate the detection procedure expecting that security analysts would not pay attention to benign images.
The malware collects information from the infected device and sends them back to the command and control server, it gathers the IMEI identifier, the MAC address, version and language of the operating system and the mobile network operator’s name.
The Trojan was incorporated into more than 60 games that were then distributed via Google Play in the names of more than 30 game developers, including Conexagon Studio, Fun Color Games, BILLAPPS, and many others. Although Doctor Web has already informed Google about this incident, to this day, the affected applications are still available on Google Play. It is recommended that you do not download games from the store to devices without anti-virus software in the next few hours.
Another interesting feature implemented by the authors of Android.Xiny is that the malware hides malicious program in specially created images by using steganography. Android.Xiny receives malicious images from the server and then retrieves the apk they contain.
The Android.Xiny malware is able to perform many other malicious operations without the user’s consent. The researchers noticed that despite it is not yet able to gain root privileges, it has the ability to download the proper exploit in order to gain root access to the device.
Unfortunately, the fact that the malware author chose the Google Play to distribute the malware is not a novelty, in January Lookout firm discovered 13 Android apps infected with the Brain Test malware and available for download on the official Google Store.
Android.Xiny.19.origin – sends the following information on the affected device to the server: its IMEI identifier and MAC address, a version and a current language of the operating system, and mobile network operator name. What is more, cybercriminals get information about accessibility of a memory card, name of an application, which the Trojan is incorporated into, and whether this application is in the system folder.
Upon receiving a necessary image from the server, Android.Xiny.19.origin retrieves a hidden apk file with the help of a special algorithm and then executes it.
Android.Xiny.19.origin – can perform other malicious functions, such as to download and prompt a user to install different software, or to install and delete applications without the user’s knowledge if root access is available on the device. Besides, the malicious program can display annoying advertisements.
Android.Xiny.19.origin – is not yet able to gain root privileges. However, given that the Trojan is mainly designed to install software, it can download a set of exploits from the server in order to gain root access to the device for covert installation or deletion of applications.
Doctor Web security researchers would like to warn users against installing dubious applications even if they are published on Google Play. Dr.Web for Android successfully detects all the known applications containing Android.Xiny.19.origin, so they do not pose any threat to our users.
The Trojan Android.Xiny.19.origin
Added to Dr.Web virus database: 2016-01-29
Virus description was added: 2016-01-29
It is a Trojan for Android devices that is embedded into various games published on Google Play.
Android.Xiny.19.origin sends the following information to the command and control server:
IMEI identifier
IMSI identifier
Information about the mobile operator
Presence of a memory card in a device
Country
Language
MAC address
Version of the operating system
Package name and a version of an application that the Trojan is incorporated into
Presence of the malicious application in the system folder
The Trojan can execute the following actions:
Displays annoying advertisements
Downloads applications and prompts a user to install various software
Installs and deletes programs if root access is available on a device
Launches arbitrary apk files hidden in images received from the C&C server
The way apk files are launched looks as follows: Android.Xiny.19.origin downloads a specially created image, which contains the corresponding file object hidden with the help of steganography, from the server. Then the Trojan retrieves the apk file using a special algorithm:
Code Expand source
package com.wch.c_direct.encrypt.logic;
import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.graphics.BitmapFactory;
import com.wch.c_direct.logic.a;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.Arrays;
public final class BitmapDecryptor {
public static byte[] decrypt(InputStream inputStream) {
int i5;
int i = 4;
int i1 = 8;
a.a();
Bitmap bitmap0 = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(inputStream);
bitmap0.setHasAlpha(true);
byte[] buffer1 = new byte[i1];
int i2 = 0;
int i3 = 0;
int i4 = 0;
while(i2 < buffer1.length) { i5 = bitmap0.getPixel(i4, i3); buffer1[i2] = ((byte)(i5 >> 16 & 15));
if(i2 + 1 < i1) { buffer1[i2 + 1] = ((byte)(i5 >> 8 & 15));
}
if(i2 + 2 < i1) {
buffer1[i2 + 2] = ((byte)(i5 & 15));
}
++i4;
if(i4 == bitmap0.getWidth()) {
++i3;
i4 = 0;
}
i2 += 3;
}
byte[] buffer2 = BitmapDecryptor.a(buffer1);
i2 = 0;
i3 = 0;
while(i2 < i) {
i3 = i3 << 8 | buffer2[i2] & 255;
++i2;
}
buffer1 = new byte[i3 * 8 / 4];
i2 = 0;
i3 = 0;
i4 = 0;
while(i2 < buffer1.length) { i5 = bitmap0.getPixel(i4, i3); buffer1[i2] = ((byte)(i5 >> 16 & 15));
if(i2 + 1 < buffer1.length) { buffer1[i2 + 1] = ((byte)(i5 >> 8 & 15));
}
if(i2 + 2 < buffer1.length) {
buffer1[i2 + 2] = ((byte)(i5 & 15));
}
++i4;
if(i4 == bitmap0.getWidth()) {
++i3;
i4 = 0;
}
i2 += 3;
}
byte[] decrypted = BitmapDecryptor.a(buffer1);
bitmap0.recycle();
return Arrays.copyOfRange(decrypted, i, decrypted.length);
}
private static byte[] a(byte[] inBuffer) {
a.a();
byte[] outBuffer = new byte[inBuffer.length / 2];
int i;
for(i = 0; i < outBuffer.length; ++i) {
int i1;
for(i1 = 0; i1 < 2; ++i1) {
outBuffer[i] = ((byte)(outBuffer[i] << 4 | inBuffer[i * 8 / 4 + i1]));
}
}
return outBuffer;
}
}
After that, the malicious application loads the file into RAM of the infected device using the DexClassLoader class.
How to Detect & Remove Android.Xiny Trojan from Android Phone
Google is surely going to remove these malicious apps soon from the Play Store, but if you have already installed any one of these apps, you can detect and remove this Android.Xiny malware from your phone this way:
1. Download and install Dr.Web Antivirus Light on your Android phone.
2. Launch Dr.Web Antivirus and update the virus definitions. Then tap on the Scanner button.
3. Choose Full scan to scan everything on the internal as well as external memory cards.
4. The scan may take a long time to finish if you have a lot of files on your memory cards. During the scan, it may make audible alerts when it detects the malware. After the scan is complete, it will show you if Android.Xiny trojan is detected.Remove Android.Xiny.19.origin Trojan
5. Touch the ellipsis against each of the trojan infested file and choose to Delete these files.
Android.Xiny trojan is a very dangerous malware as it can download APK files hidden inside image files (using some of the basic steganography techniques). Many of the antivirus apps do not scan the image files thinking them as harmless and this way it has evaded detection so far. This trojan can also receive instructions from command and control center being run by cyber-criminals remotely. This is why it is important that you scan and remove this Android.Xiny trojan from your and your friends’ phones.
Sources:
drweb.com
securityaffairs.co
www.trishtech.comImage copyright SPL Image caption Researchers suggest obesity's effects on cancers vary depending on the type of tumour
Being overweight and obese puts people at greater risk of developing 10 of the most common cancers, according to research in the Lancet medical journal.
Scientists calculated individuals carrying this extra weight could contribute to more than 12,000 cases of cancer in the UK population every year.
They warn if obesity levels continue to rise there may be an additional 3,700 cancers diagnosed annually.
The study of five million people is the largest to date to confirm the link.
This variation tells us BMI must affect cancer risk through a number of different processes, depending on cancer type Dr Krishnan Bhaskaran, Lead researcher
Large numbers
Doctors often warn being overweight can increase the risk of developing cancer, but this study highlights those forms of the disease where the risk is greatest.
Led by scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine researchers gathered data on five million people living in the UK, monitoring changes to their health over a period of seven years.
They found each 13-16kg (2-2.5 stone) of extra weight an average adult gained was linked firmly and linearly to a greater risk of six cancers.
How big this risk was varied depending on tumour type.
Cancer of the uterus had the highest increased risk
gallbladder
kidney
cervix
thyroid
leukaemia had the lowest rise in risk.
People who had a high body mass index (calculated using weight and height) were also more likely to develop cancer of the liver, colon, ovaries, and post-menopausal breast cancer.
But the effects for these cancers were less clear-cut and were influenced by individual factors such as the menopause.
Researchers say though obesity was associated with the development of the most common cancers - which represent 90% of the cancers diagnosed in the UK, some showed no link at all.
And there is some evidence to suggest a higher BMI is associated with a lower chance of getting prostate cancer.
Modest risks
Dr Krishnan Bhaskaran, who led the research, said: "There was a lot of variation in the effect of BMI on different cancers.
"For example, risk of cancer of the uterus increased substantially at higher body mass index, for other cancer we saw a more modest increase in risk or no effect at all.
"This variation tells us BMI must affect cancer risk through a number of different processes, depending on cancer type"
Tom Stansfeld, at Cancer Research UK, said: "Although the relationship between cancer and obesity is complex, it is clear carrying excess weight increases your risk of developing cancer.
"Keeping a healthy weight reduces cancer risk and the best way to do this is through eating a healthy, balanced diet and exercising regularly."Having been refused a role in the liberation of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS), signs are mounting that Turkey will also be excluded from the approaching operation to liberate Raqqa. Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield has been unable to advance farther than the outskirts of al-Bab in northern Syria, after the Turkish army and its Free Syrian Army (FSA) proxies took that town in February from IS.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s determination to move northeast on to the town of Manbij, which is held by US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and then on to the IS stronghold of Raqqa, in order to carve out a 5,000-square-kilometer (1,930-square-mile) “safe zone,” appears highly unrealistic at this stage, analysts say.
Meanwhile, Russia has blocked any advance by Turkey and the FSA northwest of al-Bab toward the Kurdish-held town of Afrin. Washington and Moscow appear to have effectively hemmed in the Turkish army in a region along the Turkish border, beyond which it is unlikely to be allowed to move because of doubts about Turkish intentions.
Ankara’s reference to a safe zone is widely accepted as a euphemism for a region it wants its Syrian proxies to hold in order to prevent Syrian Kurds from gaining any territory.
Although Ankara was bracing for US opposition to its move on Manbij (also near the Turkish border) — which it has vowed to free from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) operating under the banner of the SDF — the unexpected blow to its plans came from Russia.
Ankara says the YPG and its mother organization, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), are terrorist organizations. PYD representatives nevertheless continue to be welcomed in Washington and Moscow, while both the United States and Russia are cooperating with the YPG in the field.
Following the capture of al-Bab, Moscow announced that Turkish-supported forces had reached the demarcation line south of the town — previously agreed upon with Ankara — in order to prevent clashes between the FSA and the Syrian army, which had moved on al-Bab from the south.
No such agreement had been announced by Ankara, so the news from Moscow — which effectively laid down the limit beyond which Turkey would not be allowed to advance — caught the Turkish public by surprise given Erdogan’s remarks.
Ankara has offered to participate in the Raqqa operation if the YPG is excluded from it. Hopes were raised in Turkey when Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar hosted his US and Russian counterparts, Gen. Joseph Dunford and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, at the Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya earlier this month to present his plan for this.
Ankara’s offer, however, seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
“Turkey failed to convince the United States and Russia to allow it to assume active participation in retaking the Syrian town of Raqqa from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant [ISIL], or Daesh, on the condition of stopping collaboration with the [YPG],” Murat Yetkin, a well-sourced political analyst and editor-in-chief of the Hurriyet Daily News, reported. ISIL and Daesh are alternative names for IS.
“The Antalya move was, in a way, a final attempt by Turkey to make its point that it was ‘wrong to fight a terrorist organization with the help of another terrorist group,’” Yetkin added.
Retired Brig. Gen. Naim Baburoglu drew a direr picture, saying the Euphrates Shield mission has failed. “The aim was to prevent the YPG-held regions east and west of the Euphrates from connecting,” Baburoglu told Al Monitor.
“Turkey, however, can’t move northeast of al-Bab toward Manbij, where it is blocked by the US, and it can’t move on the YPG-held town of Afrin northwest of al-Bab because of the Russian presence there,” he added.
“Meanwhile, Manbij and Afrin have been connected by road south of al-Bab,” Baburoglu said.
A Reuters report earlier this week that claimed Russia was setting up a base near Afrin under an agreement with the YPG caused shock waves in Turkey. Moscow denied the claim but acknowledged the Russian presence in the region.
“In accordance with the Russian-Turkish agreement signed on Dec. 30, 2016, the Russian Center of Reconciliation carries out round-the-clock cease-fire monitoring. To prevent the violation of the cease-fire, one of the branches of the center has been set up near Afrin in a spot bordering the territory held by the Kurdish militias... under the command of the Turkish-controlled [FSA],” Moscow said.
This statement did little to assuage Ankara’s concerns since any Russian presence in Afrin will prevent the Turkish military from mounting operations against the YPG there.
Baburoglu said Moscow “is not prepared to leave the PYD to the US” and is therefore courting the Syrian Kurds, too. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has acknowledged that Russia was mediating between the regime and Syrian Kurds, saying, “We believe that such intra-Syrian dialog is useful.”
Given its need for good relations with Moscow and because of its rapidly deteriorating ties with the West, Ankara is largely silent with regard to these Russian overtures; however, it is clearly not happy.
Turkey is also engaged in an effort with Russia and Iran in the so-called "Astana process," aimed at securing a settlement in Syria.
Like Baburoglu, professor Mesut Hakki Casin of Ozyegin University in Istanbul says the United States and Russia are unlikely to abandon the PYD.
“Both powers agree that rights should be given to the Syrian Kurds. In the long run, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad will have to accept that in order to survive,” Casin said in a recent interview.
Baburoglu also believes the PYD has become a geopolitical player in Syria, something that was never foreseen by Turkey.
Given its weakening position in Syria, there is speculation that Ankara is now trying to use other means in order to regain lost ground. The fact that it allowed around 50 Sunni Arab tribal leaders from Syria to convene in Urfa recently has merely added fuel to such speculation.
According to the spokesman for the tribes, their aim is to unite in order to not only defeat the Assad regime, the PYD and Hezbollah, but also to end the Russian and Iranian intervention in Syria.
Popular Hurriyet columnist Ertugrul Ozkok noted that this meeting was allowed to go ahead at the very moment that Ankara was co-sponsoring a meeting with Moscow and Tehran in Astana, Kazakhstan, which brought representatives of the Syrian regime and opposition groups together.
Ozkok said mockingly that if there was anyone in the Turkish Foreign Ministry who believes in any advantage to such inconsistent behavior, he was "prepared to slash [his] own wrists.”
There is also speculation, fueled by remarks made by Erdogan in the recent past, about a Turkish effort to turn the FSA into Syria’s new army. If this were to come about, it would mean a Sunni-dominated, anti-Kurdish and anti-Shiite army. Given the big picture as it stands today, though, such an army is highly unlikely to be formed, since it would be blocked by Russia and the United States.
The bottom line in all of this is that the prospects for Ankara’s realizing its aims in Syria appear to be dimming by the day — a fact that is also being increasingly noted by Turkish analysts.The Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favor of high school cheerleaders who claimed that their free speech was being violated by their school district when it told them they couldn’t display banners with Bible verses at football games.
The justices determined their ruling was still necessary even though the Kountze school district later allowed the banners. The court said the decision will protect the future display of religious-themed signs because the district has argued it retains the right to restrict them. The banners featured some Biblical verses such as, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me."
The ruling now goes to the appeals court that ruled in 2014 the cheerleaders’ lawsuit was moot because the district changed its policy.
Hiram Sasser, deputy chief counsel for the Texas-based Liberty Institute, a law firm that specializes in issues of religious liberty and represented the cheerleaders, said the question now becomes whether the school district will continue the fight.
"Are they going to continue to bleed taxpayer money to fight for the right to censor religious speech?" Sasser asked.
Thomas Brandt, the attorney representing the district, had initially said the issue doesn’t concern free speech because it has editorial control over the content of the banners. He said that the district would not forbid any banners that were religious in nature, but would do so if they contained language that was offensive or in poor taste.
Another issue, says Beaumont attorney David Starnes, who also represented the cheerleaders, is whose speech is being represented. The banners represent the private speech of the students who made them, he said, but the district has asserted it retained the right to restrict content because it viewed the banners as government speech.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a complaint in 2012 that sought to have the banners banned. Various state officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have supported the cheerleaders and filed court papers seeking to intervene on their behalf.
Attorney General Ken Paxton released a statement Friday applauding the court ruling.
"Religious liberty, deemed by our nation's founders as the 'First Freedom,' is the foundation upon which our society has been built," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.After closing the gap on Hillary Clinton in the polls, Donald Trump is closer to taking the White House today than he has ever been before. But there is one way the Democrats could virtually ensure their party's hold on the presidency — making Canada the 51st state.
That's obviously not going to happen. But Canadians would be among the most reliable Democrats if, well, they were Americans instead.
Polls have long showed Canadians expressing greater support for Democrats than Republicans. One recent survey gave President Barack Obama an approval rating of 80 per cent among Canadians, a score he has not managed south of the border since the first months of his presidency in 2009.
This affinity with the Democratic Party has continued throughout the current election campaign. Two polls conducted in recent months by Abacus Data and Mainstreet Research have shown that 73 to 80 per cent of Canadians would vote for Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, if they had the chance.
Just 15 to 20 per cent would cast their ballot for Trump.
Nowhere in the country would Trump be considered even a competitive candidate. His best score in the Abacus poll came in Alberta, where just 26 per cent of voters would support him.
Trump is deeply unpopular in Canada. The Mainstreet survey gave him a favourability rating of just 15 per cent, with 75 per cent of Canadians saying they hold an unfavourable view of the Republican nominee. Clinton, on the other hand, scored a favourability rating of 62 per cent, against 24 per cent unfavourable.
Clinton would love to have those numbers in the United States. Recent polls suggest that anywhere from 50 to 60 per cent of Americans hold an unfavourable view of her.
Bigger than Texas, bluer than Vermont
If Canada were a U.S. state, it would carry an enormous weight in the electoral college, as well as in the base of the Democratic Party. Not since 1964 have the Democrats won a state with at least 80 per cent of the vote (though the party routinely wins Washington, D.C., with well over that level of support).
The electoral college, which decides U.S. elections, awards each state in the union a number of votes equal to the size of its representation in Congress. Each state has two senators, as well as a number of members of the House of Representatives, which is based on population.
Even if Donald Trump won all of the swing states (as above), Hillary Clinton would still win the election — if Canada was the 51st state. (CBC News) If Canada were the 51st state, it would have enough electoral college votes to put it somewhere between California and Texas. And with Clinton taking around 80 per cent of the vote, Canada would be the most reliably blue state in the union.
The impact of adding another California (considering how reliably Democratic that state also is) to the electoral map would be significant for the Democrats. Trump could win all of the states that Mitt Romney captured in 2012 as well as the swing states of Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire, and still lose the electoral college vote.
That would be the equivalent of Trump beating Clinton in the popular vote by more than three percentage points south of the border, and still losing the election. Canada's votes alone would be enough to make up the difference.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, Canada doesn't seem to be in any rush for an ever greater union in North America. Instead, considering his unpopularity in this country, Canadians might support building a border wall of their own if Trump does becomes the next president of the United States.
It's unlikely, though, that we'd get Trump to pay for it.
The poll by Abacus Data was conducted between May 17 and 20, 2016, interviewing 2,000 adult Canadians via the internet. A probabilistic sample of this size would yield a margin of error of 2.2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
The poll by Mainstreet Research was conducted between June 25 and 26, 2016, interviewing 2,076 adult Canadians via interactive voice response. A probabilistic sample of this size would yield a margin of error of 2.2 per cent, 19 times out of 20./u/fairlanes:
On a re-watch of the newest episode, “Message Received”, I noticed that when not viewed through the yellow filter of the “screen,” Yellow Pearl’s colors aren’t monochromatic yellow. So, I did a few adjustments.
…which then leads me to wonder if Blue Diamond’s pearl is actually monochromatic blue, and if Pearls just have a color palette than implies the iridescence of the nacre in actual pearls – iridescence being technically “a lustrous rainbow-like play of color caused by differential refraction of light waves”. And all pearls, even colored ones, are iridescent and display subtle hints of the full spectrum of color.
So a) all Pearls may have a more varied palette; b) this causes Pearl and Rose forming Rainbow Quartz (the rainbow quality); and c) Pearl and Amethyst forming Opal (a very iridescent gem) make even more sense than they already did.The financial crisis has put to rest the myths that our economic institutions are sound and markets work best when deregulated. Our economic institutions have failed, not only financially, but also socially and environmentally. This, combined with the election of a new president with a mandate for change, creates an opportune moment to rethink and redesign.
President Obama has promised to grow the economy from the bottom up. That would be a substantial improvement over growing the top at the expense of the bottom. The real need, however, is a bottom-up transformation of our economic values and institutions to align with the imperatives and opportunities of the 21st century. It involves a five part agenda: clean up Wall Street, play by market rules, self-finance the real economy, measure what we really want, and convert to debt-free money.
The recent market meltdown and the resulting bailout commitments of more than a trillion dollars have focused the nation’s attention on the devastating consequences of Wall Street deregulation. This is but the tip of the iceberg of a failed economy in serious need of basic redesign.
Our economy is wildly out of balance with human needs and the natural environment. The result is disaster for both. Wages are falling in the face of soaring food and energy prices. Consumer debt and housing foreclosures are setting historic records. The middle class is shrinking. The unconscionable and growing worldwide gap between rich and poor with its related social alienation is producing social collapse, which in turn produces crime, terrorism, and genocide.
At the same time, excessive consumption is pushing Earth’s ecosystem into collapse. Scientists are in almost universal agreement that human activity bears substantial responsibility for climate change and the related increase in droughts, floods, and wildfires.
We face a monumental economic challenge that goes far beyond anything being discussed in the U.S. Congress. The hardships imposed by temporarily frozen credit markets pale by comparison.
This would be a good time to start evaluating economic performance against indicators of what we really want—healthy children, families, communities, and natural systems.
The Wall Street bailout package that Congress passed in its moment of panic did nothing to address the structural cause of the credit freeze, let alone the structural cause of the economy’s even more serious environmental and social failures. On the positive side, the financial crisis has put to rest the myths that our economic institutions are sound and that markets work best when deregulated. It creates an opportune moment for deep change.
Here are some essential steps toward a system redesign that can put us on the path to a just and sustainable economy that works for all.
CLEAN UP WALL STREET
The first item of business is to get the immediate crisis under control. Wall Street institutions have long claimed their trading activities create wealth, provide the funds that keep business moving, increase economic efficiency, and stabilize markets. The financial meltdown pulled away the curtain to reveal a corrupt system that runs on speculation, the stripping of corporate assets, predatory lending, and asset bubbles like the real estate and dot-com “booms.”
If the people involved produce anything of value, it is purely incidental to their primary quest for speculative gains, which placed the entire global economy at risk and led to extortionate demands for taxpayer bailouts when their bets went bad. For these labors, the 50 highest-paid private investment fund managers in 2007 averaged $588 million in compensation—19,000 times as much as average worker pay.
We must hold Wall Street accountable, recover some of our losses from those responsible, and preclude a repetition of the credit collapse. The recommendations of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a Washington, D.C., think tank, are a good place to start. In “A Sensible Plan for Recovery,” IPS calls on Congress to make Wall Street pay for both the bailout and a true economic stimulus package. The plan recommends a securities transactions tax, a minimum corporate income tax, recovery of bonuses paid to Wall Street CEOs responsible for the crisis, an end to corporate tax havens, and an end to tax loopholes for CEO pay. IPS also calls for extensive federal regulation to limit speculation and assert real oversight over financial markets.
Implementing these recommendations will be an excellent start on limiting speculation, restoring a progressive tax system to achieve a more equitable distribution of economic power, and putting the more predatory Wall Street firms out of business.
Additional steps will be needed to break up concentrations of corporate power, beginning with Wall Street, and to hold the remaining banks accountable to the public interest. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s decision to buy a government equity stake in troubled banks is a positive step that may open the way to a deeper restructuring of the financial system.
The federal government should immediately reinstate the provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act prohibiting the merger of commercial and investment banks, and force the breakup of financial conglomerates and any other Wall Street institutions that are too big to fail. As Senator Bernie Sanders has observed, “If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist.”
PLAY BY MARKET RULES
Once we extinguish the immediate fire, we can turn our attention to redesigning the potentially beneficial institutions of finance to align with the imperatives of sustainability and equity. Ironically, given the excesses committed by Wall Street in the name of market freedom, the economy we need to create looks remarkably like the market economy vision of Adam Smith, revered by many as the father of capitalism.
Smith envisioned a world of local market economies populated by small entrepreneurs, artisans, and family farmers with strong community roots engaged in producing and exchanging goods and services to meet the needs of themselves and their neighbors. His vision bears little resemblance to the Wall Street economy of footloose global capital, credit default swaps, reckless speculation, and global corporate empires.
As I elaborated in When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, socially efficient market allocation depends on a number of important conditions that Wall Street and those economists devoted to the ideology of neoliberal market fundamentalism routinely ignore. These include:
Market prices must internalize full social and environmental costs.
Trade between nations must be in balance.
Investment must be local.
No player can be big enough to directly influence market price.
Economic power must be equitably distributed.
Every player must have complete information and there can be no trade secrets (read: no government-enforced intellectual property rights).
To avoid the distortion of unfair competitive practices, markets must be regulated to assure that these essential conditions are maintained. Think of them as basic principles for securing the healthy, just, and sustainable function of Main Street economies.
SELF-FINANCE THE REAL ECONOMY
Far from serving the financial needs of Main Street, Wall Street treats Main Street like a colony to be managed for the benefit of its colonial master. In alliance with the Federal Reserve, Wall Street players have used a combination of control over the money supply, predatory lending practices, and lobbying and campaign contributions to suppress wages, dismantle social safety nets, and capture the value of productivity gains for themselves. The top 1 percent of U.S. income earners increased their share of national cash income from 9 percent to 19 percent between 1980 and 2005, according to Charles R. Morris in The Trillion Dollar Meltdown. Income for 90 percent of households fell relative to inflation, household savings rates dropped to less than 1 percent, and household debt soared as Main Street workers struggled to hold their lives together.
Sustainable Happiness:
READ MORE FROM THE WINTER 2009 ISSUE OF YES!
Creating a fair distribution of wealth by restoring progressive tax rates, increasing the minimum wage, containing health care costs, and regulating mortgage and credit card interest rates is an essential element of a post-bailout economic agenda. This will help those at the bottom, restore household savings and purchasing power, and, combined with the debt-free money system proposed below, eliminate Main Street dependence on Wall Street financing. The financial services needs of Main Street economies are best served by a federally regulated network of independent, locally owned community banks that fulfill the classic textbook banking function of acting as intermediaries between local people looking for a secure place for their savings and local people who need loans to buy a home or finance a business. Evidence that people with savings are moving their accounts from the giant banks with questionable balance sheets to smaller local banks is a positive step.
Wall Street interests have also rigged the economic game to give a competitive advantage to mega-corporations over the local independent businesses that are the heart and soul of Main Street economies. The New Rules Project of the Institute for Local Self Reliance provides a wealth of recommendations for restoring a proper balance in favor of Main Street that also merits serious consideration.
MEASURE WHAT WE REALLY WANT
The only legitimate function of an economic system is to serve life. At present, however, we assess economic performance solely against financial indicators—gross domestic product (GDP) and stock prices—while disregarding social and environmental consequences. We are now paying the price for years of managing the economy for financial performance, which translates into making money for people who have money—that is, making rich people richer. It was not a wise choice. We now bear the devastating costs of this foolishness in the form of massive social and environmental damage and financial instability.
This would be a good time to start evaluating economic performance against indicators of what we really want—healthy children, families, communities, and natural systems. This would place life values ahead of money values and dramatically reframe the public policy side of our economic decision-making. Happiness, by the way, is an important indicator of physical and psychological health.
We might well continue to track GDP, a measure of economic throughput, as a quite useful indicator of the economic cost of producing a given level of health and well-being. When we recognize that GDP represents cost, not gain, it becomes clear why making it grow is a mistake. A number of researchers have been pointing out that happiness, as well as other indicators of human, social, and environmental health, have been declining even as GDP increased, but their appeals have been largely ignored. We continue to manage our economies to maximize the cost, rather than the benefit, of economic activity. The shock of financial collapse creates an opportunity to draw attention to this substantial anomaly. We will know we have turned an important corner when business news reporters happily announce, “It has been a successful quarter. Happiness rose by two points and GDP is down by one point.”
CONVERT TO DEBT-FREE MONEY
This brings us to the most important reform of all: changing the way we create money. One key to Wall Street’s power and to the inherent instability of the financial system is the current practice of private banks creating money with a simple bookkeeping entry each time they make a loan. Because the bookkeeping entry creates only the principal, but not the interest, unless the economy grows fast enough to generate sufficient demand for loans to create the new money required to make the interest payments on the previous loans, debts go into default and the financial system and the economy collapse. The demand for repayment with interest of nearly every dollar in circulation virtually assures the economy will fail unless GDP and inequality are constantly growing.
Leading economists and political figures, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, have advocated replacing the system of bank-created debt-money with an alternative system in which the government creates debt-free money by spending it into existence to fund public goods like infrastructure or education. The suggestion that government create money with the stroke of a pen sets off all sorts of alarm bells about runaway inflation. The primary change, however, would simply be that the entry is made by government for a public good rather than by a private bank for private profit. Ellen Hodgson Brown’s The Web of Debt is an informative current review of issues and options.
Privately issued debt-money adds to debt and taxes and bears major responsibility for environmental destruction because it requires infinite growth, extreme inequality because it assures an upward flow of wealth from Main Street to Wall Street, and economic instability because issuing loans to fuel reckless speculation generates handsome short-term bank profits. Publicly issued debt-free money would greatly reduce debt, taxes, and environmental harm, be more equitable, and increase financial stability. In a democracy, it should be ours to choose.
This is an opportune moment to move forward an agenda to replace the failed money-serving institutions of our present economy with the institutions of a new economy dedicated to serving life. The idea that we humans might put life ahead of money may seem unrealistic and contrary to our human nature. Surely, that is what our prevailing cultural story would have us believe. That story, however, has no more validity than the story that Wall Street speculation serves a higher public purpose. As I noted in my article We are Hard-Wired to Care and Connect in the Fall 2008 issue of YES!, scientists have found that the human brain is hard-wired for compassion and connection.
My many years living abroad in Africa, Latin America, and Asia taught me that people of every race, religion, and nationality the world over share a dream of a world of happy, healthy children, families, and communities living in vibrant
|
. Indeed, the Senate has, historically, rejected numerous judicial nominations by simply sitting on them indefinitely, including a number of prominent cases involving resistance by Senate Democrats to judicial nominees put forward by President George W. Bush.
The Constitution gives the Senate virtually unlimited authority to “determine the rules of its proceedings,” including those for considering judicial nominations. This differentiates the situation from waivers of criminal defendants’ procedural rights (mentioned by Diskant), which must be asserted in the context of legal proceedings controlled by others. When it comes to Senate proceedings, there can be no “failure to make timely assertion of the right before a tribunal having jurisdiction to determine it.” There is no tribunal with such authority, other than the Senate itself.
Former Democratic Senate leader Robert Byrd explained it well in a 2005 speech endorsed by then-Senator Joe Biden, among others:
There is no stipulation in the Constitution as to how the Senate is to express its advice or give its consent… The Senate can refuse to confirm a nominee simply by saying nothing and doing nothing.
Diskant suggests that Obama could simply have Garland take a seat on the Court and begin participating in cases, pending resolution of a possible lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the appointment. Obviously, any decisions Garland participated in would likely be tainted as a result (especially if he cast the decisive vote). Moreover, what happens if Garland tries to set up a chambers in the Supreme Court building and begin participating in cases, but Chief Justice John Roberts refuses to let him? Would the president send federal marshals to force the Supreme Court Police (who answer to the Court rather than the president) to let Garland in? Such scenarios and others like them are best avoided, to put it mildly.
As I have indicated previously, I believe Merrick Garland is an admirable person and a well-qualified nominee. While I think there are serious legitimate concerns about his judicial philosophy (he is too deferential to the government on several important issues), I also believe he would probably be preferable to the sort of person Donald Trump would be all too likely to nominate.
For these and other reasons, people can legitimately disagree about whether it is wise for Senate Republicans to refuse to hold hearings and vote on the Garland nomination. But whatever we might think about the prudential issues involved, they have no constitutional duty to do so. And the President has no power to bypass the confirmation process if the Senate refuses to cooperate with him.
UPDATE: My co-blogger Jonathan Adler adds some additional criticisms of Diskant’s argument here.
UPDATE #2: Prominent liberal political commentator and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has also commended Diskant’s idea.AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill Republican presidential candidate, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, left, speaks as John Kasich looks on during the CNN Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, in Simi Valley, California.
If a year ago you had tried to predict what issues would dominate the presidential primary campaign of 2016, there would have been a few obvious contenders. The economy, of course, which is a central issue in every campaign. Obamacare? Definitely. After making opposition to the Affordable Care Act the defining feature of contemporary Republicanism—they've voted to repeal it over 50 times, after all, which must be unprecedented in American history—how could they not spend their primary arguing about which of them loathes it the most? Then there's immigration, an issue that both animates the GOP base and has been the subject of lots of contention between the president and the Congress. Terrorism would surely figure prominently, as the candidates would compete to show that they are toughest-talkin' buckaroo in the bunch.
But abortion? You might not have thought so. It would, like usual, be a box that requires checking—I'm pro-life, I'll appoint only judges who "respect the Constitution," nudge-nudge wink-wink—but beyond that, what more is there for Republican candidates to say?
It turns out there's quite a bit more. And though it sometimes seems like the country has been locked in the same place on this issue for the last four decades, anti-abortion activists are probably feeling like they're finally getting the attention they're due, for the first time in years. That's because those activists have long believed that the GOP mistreats them, asking for their labors at election time and promising that abortion rights will be a memory once they take power, but then failing to deliver.
But if you were one of those activists today, you'd have to be cheered by what's happening now. Abortion has become the dominant issue of the Republican contest, even of Republican politics more generally. Carly Fiorina just shot into second place in the race in at least one poll, based in part on her fervent condemnation of something that wasn't actually on those Planned Parenthood "sting" videos. Republicans in Congress are getting very close to shutting down the government in order to prevent women from getting non-abortion services like cancer screenings and gynecological exams at Planned Parenthood clinics. A whole series of bills to restrict abortion rights are now getting a prominent hearing in Congress. John Kasich told CNN this weekend that he will sign a bill currently in the Ohio legislature that would outlaw abortions if they are performed because the fetus tests positive for the genetic anomaly that causes Down syndrome, meaning that any woman in Ohio—and wherever else Republicans manage to pass copycat laws—will only be allowed an abortion if the government decides she's doing it for the right reason.
The release of those tapes were obviously the PR coup that pushed the abortion issue to the top of the agenda, but there's a reason why Republicans were so ready to start pounding lecterns and shouting into cameras. Abortion is the the one "culture war" issue where conservatives don't feel like they're in a hasty retreat. Gays are getting married, the number of people with no religious affiliation is skyrocketing, you can say "shit" on television, and the kids and their rap music are even taking over Broadway. But at least conservatives can say that it's no easier today to get an abortion than it was 20 years ago—indeed, depending on where you live, it may be considerably harder.
That's because Republicans have successfully used their power in state government to dramatically restrict women's ability to exercise their reproductive rights, with almost no objection at all from the Supreme Court. Decades of intimidation and violence against abortion providers, combined with a campaign of spectacularly disingenuous legislation aimed at driving those providers out of business, has left much of the country in a situation where abortion is technically legal but incredibly difficult to obtain.
The Republican presidential candidates are promising to make it even harder—and for the moment anyway, it seems like they really mean it. That could be purely opportunistic, but right now they have almost no choice but to swear on a stack of bibles that they will worker harder than anyone else to make sure every American woman who has an unintended pregnancy has no choice but to carry it to term. (And of course, to also make it harder for her to get the contraception that would prevent the pregnancy in the first place. Because what, do women think they can just choose to have sex without being punished?)
There's no telling how long abortion will stay at the top of the Republican agenda—maybe when this government shutdown inevitably fails to get them what they want, like all their other threatened shutdowns did, they'll decide that it would be wise to move on to other issues. But I'm quite certain that the Republican nominee will not be bringing up abortion a lot in the general election, no matter who that nominee is. You aren't going to win over a lot of independent voters promising to overturn Roe v. Wade, an idea supported by only three in ten Americans. But you can bet that the Democratic nominee is going to keep telling voters that the Republicans are waging a war on women, complete with an effort to cut off access to contraception and put the clinics where thousands of women get their health care out of business (not to mention opposing things like laws mandating equal pay and paid sick leave).
So it will be one more issue about which that Republican nominee will say, "Look, why do we have to talk about all that stuff I said during the primaries?" But it will be worth talking about particularly considering that if the Republican wins, it is highly likely that Roe v. Wade will be history. Three of the five Supreme Court justices who have voted to uphold the decision will be in their '80s by the time the next president's first term ends; Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be two months shy of her 88th birthday.
In other words, the next Republican president could be the one who's finally able to give those anti-choice activists what they want most of all—not just the president's signature on one bill after another restricting abortion rights, but a Supreme Court that would repeal Roe, which would mean abortion would be illegal in half the country within a week.
So even if the candidates hadn't planned on talking about abortion this much, we had all better pay close attention to what they're saying.This is the last matchup before the finale of the PtR Summer Showdown. The action continues with an offensive beast and a deep-range sharpshooter.
The Rules
It is a half court game in which the scoring increments are 1 point for everything inside the arc, and 2 points for everything outside the arc. So long-distance bombers will do well in our tourney. The higher seed starts off with the ball and the first player to 11 points wins. The possession switches every time the ball is scored, and your votes determine the winner.
Carmelo Anthony (1st Seed)
Two of the final four players in this tournament are players that have used their ability to score with their unique size to dominate their matchups. In Carmelo's final matchup before the finals, he faces an offensive threat that could end his run at the Summer Showdown championship.
We all know Carmelo will have his way with Lillard on offense. ‘Melo is just bigger and Lillard isn't the best on defense. Anthony is going to be able to get any shot he wants. On the other end is where Carmelo never thrived, and it is going to be extremely difficult to stop a threat like Damian LIllard.
Damian Lillard (3rd Seed)
Dame Lillard has been a surprise in this tournament for me. He is a third seed whose game is still a bit raw, but his impressive range and explosiveness has pushed him into the fourth round. (Also I think this shot has really helped)
He has a great change to get to the final matchup. The Blazer's Edge community has traveled really well whenever LIllard steps on the court. He has the range to be able to score at a faster pace than Carmelo, and it is easy to imagine a scenario in which Lillard gets hot from deep in order to upset the sole one seed remaining.
Now It's Your Turn
This is where you decide the outcome. Vote on the poll below and make sure to let your opinion be known in the comments of this article.Counterfeit pills related to reported overdoses in the Central Georgia area have been identified by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Crime Lab.
The pills contain a mixture of two synthetic opioids, cyclopropyl fentanyl and U-47700, an analysis by the lab confirmed.
GBI said U-47700 is a synthetic opioid that is 7.5 times stronger than morphine, while cyclopropyl fentanyl is a drug that is not intended for human or veterinary use. GBI said it is unknown how the body will react to the drug.
Georgia authorities believe up to four people have died and dozens more have become ill in the central part of the state after overdosing on the unknown street drug.
RELATED: Street drug blamed from deaths, many overdoses in Georgia
The bureau said the drugs, which can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin, are extremely toxic, highly dangerous and should not be handled even in the smallest quantities.
A law banning the substances went into effect on April 17.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention said about 1,300 people overdosed on drugs in Georgia last year.
Copyright 2017 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved.Content: Carmageddon: Max Damage
Check pre-order price and availability in your Xbox LIVE region
Game Description: You may pre-download this game, but it will not be playable until 12:01 AM EST on the release date (7/8/2016).
Carmageddon: Max Damage is the driving sensation where your opponents are a bunch of crazies in a twisted mix of mad cars. Select from over 30 metal mangling vehicles designed for the job in hand; wrecking opponents, chasing down pedestrians and causing maximum chaos! Create carnage in a wide range of large open world environments and smaller battle arenas, with plenty of fun stuff to smash into, smash up, snap off and sling around. Explore city streets and country trails, arid deserts and icy wastelands. There are over 90 entertaining PowerUps that will help or hinder your game in hilarious ways.Not to be confused with Ibadan
"Abadan" redirects here. For other uses, see Abadan (disambiguation)
City in Khuzestan, Iran
Abadan (Persian: آبادان Ābādān, pronounced [ʔɒːbɒːˈdɒːn]) is a city and capital of Abadan County, Khuzestan Province which is located in the southwest of Iran. It lies on Abadan Island (68 km or 42 mi long, 3–19 km or 2–12 miles wide), the island is bounded in the west by the Arvand waterway and to the east by the Bahmanshir outlet of the Karun River (the Arvand Rood), 53 kilometres (33 mi) from the Persian Gulf,[2] near the Iran–Iraq border.
Etymology [ edit ]
The earliest mention of the island of Abadan, if not the port itself is found in works of the geographer Marcian, who renders the name "Apphadana".[3] Earlier, the classical geographer, Ptolemy notes "Apphana" as an island off the mouth of the Tigris (which is, where the modern Island of Abadan is located). An etymology for this name is presented by B. Farahvashi to be derived from the Persian word "ab" (water) and the root "pā" (guard, watch) thus "coastguard station").[4]
In the Islamic times, a pseudo-etymology was produced by the historian Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Baladhuri (d. 892) quoting a folk story that the town was presumably founded by one "Abbad bin Hosayn" from the Arabian Tribe of Banu Tamim, who established a garrison there during the governorship of Hajjaj in the Ummayad period.[4]
In the subsequent centuries, the Persian version of the name had begun to come into general use before it was adopted by official decree in 1935.[4]
Population [ edit ]
Population year people 1910 400 1949 173,000[5] 1956 220,000[6] 1980 300,000 1986 6 1991 84,774[7] 2001 206,073 2006 217,988[8]
The civilian population of the city dropped close to zero during the eight years of the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988). The 1986 census recorded only 6 people. In 1991, 84,774 had returned to live in the city.[7] By 2001, the population had jumped to 206,073, and it was 217,988, in 48,061 families, according to 2006 census.[8] Abadan Refinery is one of the largest in the world.The population today has reached almost 350,000 people.
Only 9% of managers (of the oil company) were from Khuzestan. The proportion of natives of Tehran, the Caspian, Azarbaijan and Kurdistan rose from 4% of blue collar workers to 22% of white collar workers to 45% of managers, thus Arabic-speakers were concentrated on the lower rungs of the work force, managers tended to be brought in from some distance.[9] There is also a single Armenian church in the centre of the city.
History [ edit ]
Abadan is thought to have been further developed into a major port city under the Abbasids' rule. In this time period, it was a commercial source of salt and woven mats.[2] The siltation of the river delta forced the town further away from water; In the 14th century, however, Ibn Battutah described Abadan just as a small port in a flat salty plain.[6] Politically, Abadan was often the subject of dispute between the nearby states; in 1847, Persia acquired it from Turkey,[7] in which state Abadan has remained since. From the 17th century onward, the island of Abadan was part of the lands of the Arab Ka'ab (Bani Kaab) tribe. One section of this tribe, Mohaysen, had its headquarters at Mohammara (present-day Khorramshahr), until the removal of Shaikh Khaz'al Khan in 1924.[10]
Exploded T-54/55 tank, remains as symbol of Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
Ruins of a building in Abadan. Abadan had suffered serious damages during Iran–Iraq War (1980–88), including Saddam's deadly chemical weapons.
It was not until the 20th century that rich oil fields were discovered in the area. On 16 July 1909, after secret negotiation with the British consul, Percy Cox, assisted by Arnold Wilson, Sheik Khaz'al agreed to a rental agreement for the island including Abadan.[11][12][13][nb 1] The Sheik continued to administer the island until 1924.[14] The Anglo-Persian Oil Company built their first pipeline terminus oil refinery in Abadan, starting in 1909 and completing it in 1912, with oil flowing by August 1912 (see Abadan Refinery).[15][16] Refinery throughput numbers rose from 33,000 tons in 1912–1913 to 4,338,000 tons in 1931.[14] By 1938, it was the largest in the world.
During World War II, Abadan was the site of brief combat between Iranian forces and British and Indian troops during the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. Later, Abadan was a major logistics centre for Lend-Lease aircraft being sent to the Soviet Union by the United States.[17][18]
In 1951, Iran nationalized all oil properties and refining ground to a stop on the island. Rioting broke out in Abadan, after the government had decided to nationalize the oil facilities, and three British workers were killed.[19] It was not until 1954, that a settlement was reached, which allowed a consortium of international oil companies to manage the production and refining on the island.[20] This continued until 1973, when the NIOC took over all facilities.[15] After total nationalization, Iran focused on supplying oil domestically and built a pipeline from Abadan to Tehran.[15]
Whereas Abadan was not a major cultural or religious centre, it did play an important role in the Islamic Revolution. On 19 August 1978 the anniversary of the US backed coup d'état which overthrew the nationalist and popular Iranian prime minister, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh – the Cinema Rex, a movie theatre in Abadan, Iran, was set ablaze. The Cinema Rex Fire caused 430 deaths,[21][nb 2] but more importantly, it was another event that kept the Islamic Revolution moving ahead. At the time there was much confusion and misinformation about the perpetrators of the incident. The public largely put the blame on the local police chief and also the Shah and SAVAK.[22][23][24][25] The reformist Sobhe Emrooz newspaper in one of its editorials revealed that the Cinema Rex was burned down by the radical Islamists. The newspaper was shut down immediately after.[citation needed] Over time, the true culprits, radical Islamists, were apprehended and the logic behind this act was revealed, as they were trying both to foment the general public to distrust the government even more, and also as they perceived cinema as a link to the Americans.[23][26] This fire was one of four during a short period in August, with other fires in Mashhad, Rizaiya, and Shiraz.[21]
In September 1980, Abadan was almost overrun during a surprise attack on Khuzestan by Iraq, marking the beginning of the Iran–Iraq War. For 12 months Abadan was besieged, but never captured, by Iraqi forces, and in September 1981, the Iranians broke the siege of Abadan.[27] Much of the city, including the oil refinery which was the world's largest refinery with capacity of 628,000 barrels per day, was badly damaged or destroyed by the siege and by bombing.[28] Previous to the war, the city's civilian population was about 300,000, but before it was over, almost the entire populace had sought refuge elsewhere in Iran.
After the war, the biggest concern was the rebuilding of Abadan's oil refinery, as it was operating at 10% of capacity due to damage.[29] In 1993, the refinery began limited operation and the port reopened. By 1997, the refinery reached the same rate of production as before the war. Recently, Abadan has been the site of major labour activity as workers at the oil refineries in the city have staged walkouts and strikes to protest non-payment of wages and the political situation in the country.[30]
Recent events [ edit ]
To honour the 100th anniversary of the refining of oil in Abadan, city officials are planning an oil museum.[31] The Abadan oil refinery was featured on the reverse side of Iran's 100-rial banknotes printed in 1965 and from 1971 to 1973. Abadan today has been declared as a free zone city. The healthy relationship between Iran and Iraq has become one of the transit cities connecting both countries through a 40-minute drive.
Geography [ edit ]
Climate [ edit ]
The climate in Abadan is arid (Köppen climate classification BWh) and similar to Baghdad's, but slightly hotter due to Abadan's lower latitude. Summers are dry and extremely hot, with temperatures above 45 °C (113 °F) almost daily and temperatures above 55 °C (131 °F) can be almost common. Abadan is notably one of the few hottest populated places on earth and experiences many sand and dust storms. Winters are mildly wet and spring-like, though subject to cold spells. Winter temperatures are around 16–20 °C (61–68 °F). The world's highest unconfirmed temperature was a temperature flare up during a heat burst in June 1967, with a temperature of 87 °C (189 °F).[32] The lowest recorded temperature in the city range is −4 °C (25 °F). which was recorded on January 20, 1964 and February 3, 1967 while the highest is 53 °C (127 °F), recorded on July 11, 1951 and August 9, 1981.[33]
Climate data for Abadan (1951-2010) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °C (°F) 29.0
(84.2) 34.0
(93.2) 39.2
(102.6) 42.8
(109.0) 48.4
(119.1) 53.0
(127.4) 53.0
(127.4) 53.0
(127.4) 49.4
(120.9) 43.2
(109.8) 37.0
(98.6) 29.8
(85.6) 53.0
(127.4) Average high °C (°F) 18.1
(64.6) 20.9
(69.6) 25.9
(78.6) 32.2
(90.0) 39.2
(102.6) 43.8
(110.8) 45.4
(113.7) 45.4
(113.7) 42.5
(108.5) 36.1
(97.0) 26.8
(80.2) 19.9
(67.8) 33.0
(91.4) Daily mean °C (°F) 12.7
(54.9) 15.0
(59.0) 19.4
(66.9) 25.2
(77.4) 31.2
(88.2) 35.2
(95.4) 36.7
(98.1) 36.3
(97.3) 33.0
(91.4) 27.5
(81.5) 20.0
(68.0) 14.3
(57.7) 25.5
(77.9) Average low °C (°F) 7.3
(45.1) 9.1
(48.4) 13.0
(55.4) 18.1
(64.6) 23.3
(73.9) 26.5
(79.7) 28.0
(82.4) 27.3
(81.1) 23.4
(74.1) 18.9
(66.0) 13.2
(55.8) 8.7
(47.7) 18.1
(64.6) Record low °C (°F) −4.0
(24.8) −4.0
(24.8) −1.0
(30.2) 7.0
(44.6) 12.0
(53.6) 17.0
(62.6) 17.0
(62.6) 19.4
(66.9) 14.0
(57.2) 7.0
(44.6) −1.6
(29.1) −1.0
(30.2) −4.0
(24.8) Average precipitation mm (inches) 35.5
(1.40) 20.0
(0.79) 19.2
(0.76) 14.4
(0.57) 3.2
(0.13) 0.1
(0.00) 0.0
(0.0) 0.0
(0.0) 0.1
(0.00) 3.9
(0.15) 20.5
(0.81) 36.4
(1.43) 153.3
(6.04) Average rainy days 4.7 3.4 3.3 2.2 0.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.6 2.6 4.6 22.3 Average relative humidity (%) 70 61 51 44 33 26 28 31 34 45 58 69 45 Mean monthly sunshine hours 180.6 195.0 222.3 221.6 262.9 292.1 305.1 290.4 290.4 263.4 202.4 182.5 2,908.7 Source: Iran Meteorological Organization (records),[33] (temperatures),[34] (precipitation),[35] (humidity),[36] (days with precipitation),[37] (sunshine)[38]
Places of interest [ edit ]
The Abadan Institute of Technology was established in Abadan in 1939.[14] The school specialized in engineering and petroleum chemistry, and was designed to train staff for the refinery in town. The school's name has since changed several times, but since 1989 has been considered a branch campus of the Petroleum University of Technology, centred in Tehran.
There is an international airport in Abadan. It is represented by the IATA airport code ABD.[39]
There is a large amount of external investment from East Asian countries that are building oil refineries and developing a lot of real estate.
Main sights [ edit ]
Mosques [ edit ]
Rangoonis Mosque
Museums [ edit ]
Notable people [ edit ]
Transportation [ edit ]
The city is served by Abadan-Ayatollah Jami International Airport with flights on various commercial airlines.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ [13] The agreement gave £1,500 per year and £16,500 in gold sovereigns to the Sheik. ^ [22] "about 370 people",[23] and "almost 400 people."[24] Sources give different amounts for the number of people killed, with 400+,"about 370 people",and "almost 400 people."
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]On Sunday morning, the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins meet at Wembley Stadium, kicking off the NFL’s annual International Series and more discussion over when the league will plant a franchise in London. But local entrepreneur Eric Perez says the first trans-Atlantic pro sports team will come to Toronto.
A local entrepreneur is leading a group on the verge of finalizing a deal to bring a Rugby League team to Toronto in April 2017. ( Daniel Smith / GETTY IMAGES )
Perez leads a group of backers on the verge of finalizing a deal to bring a Rugby League team to Toronto in April 2017. He expects to sign contracts with the league within a month and have an official launch by January. The club is slated to join the Kingstone Press League 1, rugby league’s third division, playing home games at Lamport Stadium and road games in the UK. Super League is the sport’s highest level, and trails only Premier League soccer in TV viewership in England. Taking the team from concept to kickoff will cost the group more than $2 million but Perez, who quit his job as a marketing campaign manager to commit to this project, thinks the city is ready for rugby league. In its 2014 strategic plan, Super League identified international expansion as a goal, which would make Toronto the starting point of a broader effort to expand into North America.
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“We see Toronto as the gateway to the U.S.,” says the 35-year-old Perez, who also produces a weekly Rugby League show on Sportsnet World. “This is exactly the right thing for this city at this time. I couldn’t think of a better place to do a cross-continental sports team.” The entry of yet another pro sports franchise into the crowded local market prompts logistical concerns; that the league is based overseas compounds questions. But Perez says he has the answers. The Atlantic Ocean presents the biggest obstacle, but Perez says the team will save travel time and money with a staggered schedule. Home stands will last a month and so will road trips, minimizing the number of trans-Atlantic trips. Most third-division players have day jobs, further complicating travel plans. But Perez says Toronto’s squad will consist mainly of full-time players from England and France. Visiting teams will arrive Thursday and leave Sunday, allowing players to return to work. As for penetrating a Toronto market that hasn’t embraced minor league pro sports, Perez says Rugby League’s system of promotion and relegation means the third division is his club’s starting point, not its destiny. He adds that rugby league national team games at Lamport have attracted attract an average of 7,000 spectators.
Other challenges aren’t as easy to explain away. Five years ago, one British pound cost $1.56 Canadian dollars; Tuesday it cost $2.04. That’s bad news for a Canadian company doing business in England.
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The club will also have to keep local fans engaged during month-long mid-season absences. “That’s a long time between games. You’ve got to be present in the market to promote the product,” says Brian Cooper, head of the sports business consultancy S&E Sponsorship group. “You’re not going to get the Sportsnet and TSN-type coverage.” The 13-a-side rugby league game Perez’ group is pitching is distinct from the 15-player rugby union game on display at this month’s Rugby World Cup, and the rugby sevens Torontonians saw at the Pan Am Games. Among hardcore rugby fans, each sport has its own followers, and the groups don’t always overlap. But rugby sevens’ popularity hints at a latent market. The HSBC World Rugby Sevens event next March in Vancouver sold 10,000 tickets and all 52 of B.C. Place’s corporate suites in one day, according to tournament CEO Bill Cooper. He says success depends on winning over casual sports fans, who aren’t married to a particular rugby code. “You have to get past (hardcore rugby fans) to motivate marketing dollars and fill stadiums,” Cooper says. “I don’t think the format matters as much. You want to focus on the calibre of play and the quality of consumer experience.” With plans to earn promotion to Super League “as soon as possible,” Perez says his group can’t compromise on-field quality, but recruiting won’t be easy. One of the GTA’s most prominent clubs, the Oakville Crusaders, added a rugby league program in 2013 before dropping it last year. Rugby director Chris Clark says a shared spring-through-fall schedule strains a finite player pool. “I hope the guys do well, but unless they can change the season I can’t see it going in Ontario because of the rugby union,” Clark says. Still, Perez is confident he can talk quality sevens and rugby union players into crossing over. And just as Australian rugby league star Jarrid Haynes jumped to the NFL, Perez says Canadian football players can transition easily to rugby league. Perez expects about five Canadians on the initial 25-man roster. “Our goal one day is to have a mostly Canadian team,” he says. “The league wants to have more Canadian teams and we want to build the sport in Canada.”CLOSE Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Conen reads the verdict of the charges against Dominique Heaggan-Brown
Dominique Heaggan-Brown enters the courtroom before the verdict is read. He was found not guilty of a first-degree reckless homicide charge in the fatal on-duty shooting of Sylville Smith in August 2016. (Photo: Michael Sears, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Former Milwaukee Police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown was found not guilty Wednesday in the on-duty fatal shooting of Sylville Smith that set off two days of violent unrest last year in parts of the Sherman Park neighborhood.
The verdict drew an emotional reaction in the courtroom, prompting the judge to clear the jury from the courtroom as deputies escorted members of the gallery outside.
Smith's father, Patrick Smith, immediately called for calm in the wake of the verdict.
"I want the community to calm down and come together," he said.
Family members of Sylville Smith — sister Sherelle and father Patrick — call for calm in the wake of a jury’s verdict acquitting former Milwaukee police officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown. (Photo: Michael Sears, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Smith's sister, Sherelle Smith, also made an emotional appeal while speaking with reporters.
"Don't give them a reason to take your life," she said. "Do something different in the community, try as hard as you can to be peaceful and form unity with each other... black or white. Because we all bleed the same, we all hurt the same."
Earlier Wednesday, Smith's family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Heaggan-Brown and the City of Milwaukee.
CLOSE Thaddeus Ashford, cousin of Sylville Smith, reacts to the acquittal of ex-cop Dominique Heaggan-Brown in the fatal shooting of Smith that set off two days of violent unrest near Sherman Park. Rick Wood / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The verdict was just the latest of many acquittals in police shootings around the country, including one in Minnesota last week of the officer who fatally shot Philando Castile. Like that case, it involved suspects with guns, split-second decisions about self-defense and video evidence.
"Self-defense cases can be very difficult, but it's still our obligation to pursue those cases if we believe justice demands it," District Attorney John Chisholm said after the verdict. "You cannot base your judgments on what the public sentiment is."
Police maintained a strong presence at Sherman Park on Wednesday after the verdict. As of the early evening, there were no reports of disruptions or violent protests around the city. In the playground outside the Boys & Girls Club in Sherman Park, dozens of people gathered to recall Smith's life and discuss the verdict.
"People have a right to gather to have their voices heard," Mayor Tom Barrett said shortly after the verdict. "My strong request is that this is done in a peaceful manner. Nothing good can come of anything that's not peaceful."
Because he remains in custody on a pending, unrelated sexual assault charge, Heaggan-Brown, 25, did not get walked out of the courtroom. He was fired in October after those charges were filed, not for the shooting, and prosecutors were barred from referring to him as "a former officer" during his nine-day trial.
His lead attorney, Jonathan Smith, said his client was relieved and grateful for the jury's decision in a difficult case.
"But there is no joy in a case like this," said Smith's partner, Steven Kohn. "We must be mindful that a young man lost his life and had impacted the community enormously."
Chisholm noted the rarity in Wisconsin of authorities bringing charges against a police officer for on-duty-related homicide.
"There's this sense of unease that the community has when they see these officer-involved deaths," he said. "And they want some accountability for it. This is one instance where they were able to get that public accountability."
Heaggan-Brown was only the second Milwaukee police officer to be charged in an on-duty homicide in modern history.
Chisholm said the case was the rare one that he felt "very strongly" he could charge
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@mediaite.comPhoto credit: The Goldwater
The State of Alaska controls within its boundaries some of America's largest oil reserves in a protected environmental region.
However due to the immense damage in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in Texas it's crucial that America tap into its strategic oil reserves in order to prevent a catastrophic economic collapse with increased prices for Americans at the pumps.
President Donald Trump realizes this, being a savvy business leader himself, and America needs to become dependent upon itself versus causing more hardship for Americans who have finally seen a bolster to their wallets under the Trump Administration.
That hasn't stopped the conservation groups from attempting to push their bullshit protectionist policies onto the entire country, which would devastate the economy.
For some reason these hippie leftists think their interests are more important than that of everyday Americans, and they've filed a lawsuit in Federal Courts to stop the President from drilling in Alaska.
Contrary to their nonsense, the State of Alaska from trying to intervene, and the state filed its own motion in Federal Court to defend President Donald Trump in a lawsuit brought by the pathetic conservationist groups who are seeking to prevent drilling in the United States Arctic Ocean.
"In filing this motion, our objective is to make sure that the state of Alaska has future development opportunities in the Arctic (federal waters)," Governor Bill Walker said in a prepared statement Thursday.
Not only has Alaska backed this idea before the Hurricanes helped slow the Oil Rigs from assisting America in the Gulf, but now the state of Alaska recognizes the urgency to help.
Back in April President Trump signed an order in which 2as designed to reopen federal waters of the Chukchi Sea and major portions of the Beaufort Sea for potential lease sales to exploration companies.
President Trump also modified a December Executive Order from the failed Barack Obama Presidency, that prohibited new leases from being signed the vast majority of United States Arctic offshore waters.
Of course the ignorant conservation groups brought the lawsuit inside of a United States District Court in Alaska back in May, attempting to say that President Trump's order was “unlawful” and that agencies somehow “could not adopt it”.
In the tragic lawsuit, the plaintiffs named President Trump, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross all as defendants.
The cultural marxists involved in the lawsuit are Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands, and the Center for Biological Diversity.
It really doesn't matter if President Trump decided to take a shit in the Arctic, these same groups would try and sue him because they're part of a Coalition of international Communist agenda and the “Resist” movement who simply want to cause the President grief.
The groups have said that the waters support “Alaska Native subsistence activities and species listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act, such as polar bears”, but the state of Alaska disagrees, and has sided with President Trump.
How on Earth these handfuls of Soros funded hippies feel that they can speak for Alaska is mind blowing to say the least, and the boost to Alaskan economy would be huge if drilling could occur.
Several Federal Agencies have reported that as much as 40 billion barrels of undiscovered as well as recoverable conventional oil, and more than 200 trillion cubic feet of conventional natural gas, exist inside the untapped region, simply waiting on the United States to take advantage of.
We could become a powerhouse exporter, or remove all foreign imports, in a couple of years max.
A huge boost to the power and strength as well as the sovereignty of the United States of America lay inside of the Arctic reserves.
The state of Alaska says that if development would occur within three miles alone of offshore drilling, it would support the entire Alaska economy by encouraging development in waters which are leased by the state along the coast and by contributing more oil to the trans-Alaska pipeline which is crucial to the interests of both America and Canada.
Unironically it would take a huge chunk out of Russian profits, you know the nation the left likes to attack and blame so much, so one must ask why they'd not be interested in drilling in Alaska?
The answer is simple, they are cultural marxists who despise both President Trump and America.
With the state of Alaska’s support, it would then assist the federal government in its effort to have the case dismissed entirely.
The American Petroleum Institute has already intervened on the federal government's side, which it believes would create trillions in revenue.
The state of Alaska has a set forth a plan auction off leases to exploratory companies in state waters of the Beaufort Sea this winter, the motion says.
"The uncertainty of the availability of adjacent federal lands may impact the success of that sale," the state's motion says.
President Trump is trying to Make America Great Again, and Alaska just wants to be great, as the largest state in the nation, and if successful it would make the economy of California look like child's play; which is part of the reason the left is so scared about the drilling and support for Trump.
We're going to become a nationalist, self driven country the likes the world have never before witnessed, and the resistance is trying everything it can to scrape its nails into the edge of the cliff as it falls off into the abyss of irrelevance.
Source:
http://www.thearcticsounder.com/article/1736alaska_files_motion_to_join_trump_in_lawsuit
—<i>[email protected]</i>
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Tips? Info? Send me a message!There are things more awesome than Babymetal. What if Lemmy of Motorhead was driving a chariot filled with shredding guitarists, and the whole thing was on fire?
In thinking about Babymetal (no, not metal for babies), the viral, global pastiche that drove a sold-out House of Blues crowd to devil-horned distraction, it all comes down to a very simple question: Can metal be adorable and still rock?
If you don't know this high-energy Japanese import, Babymetal is a rather controversial sensation that combines J-Pop, idol pop and heavy metal. But because metal is a genre that takes itself rather seriously, there are questions galore about whether this trio of teenaged girls is metal. And if Babymetal isn't metal, then just what the heck is it?
Exceptional was one modifier that came to mind as Babymetal opened its Thursday nite set with the group's signature anthem, "Death." Suddenly the debates about who or what is metal didn't matter. Double kick drums hammered, strobes flashed and martial power chords from funny-shaped guitars assaulted the senses. It sounded like metal, even as you wondered about the shrill-voiced cheerleaders running the show.
Babymetal -- a real band with chops galore -- is presided over by a trio of Japanese teenage girls, Su-Metal, Moametal and Yuimetal. The spectacle is as contrived as can be, perfectly choreographed and costumed, remarkable as it disarms you. "Megitsune" combined EDM and metal, a breathless run through sonic influences as the trio hopped, danced and went through a series of arm waves that wouldn't be out of place at a Britney Spears concert.
It rocked. And without question, it was metal even as it was also catchy and entertaining. Frontwoman Su-Metal has the strut and style of a veteran rocker, a mass of contrasts in a red and black costume that combined ballerina, anime character and rock goddess. She belted and howled, and it worked. If there were any metal snobs there on a lark, the irritation levels must have risen as song after delightful song was slammed home by the irrepressible charm of the lead trio. "Gimme Chocolate?" Rocking out to a song about the guilty pleasure of chocolate, chirped by smiling maidens? Yep.
"Head Bangya" did, and the overwhelmingly male crowd wasn't just there for one of those weird Japanese things. A mosh pit formed as the majority sang along, mouths working to form the Japanese words along with Su-Metal. "Onedari Daisakusen" percolated with a hip-hop shimmy, presided over by the sidekicks, Yuimetal and Moametal.
At the end of each song the trio would march off the stage like a trio of gymnasts, always perky and perfect. Even the fox sign they make is charming, a story with roots in the misinterpreted metal tradition of devil horns.
It was fun. Lots of fun. Metal is a lot of stuff -- picky, serious, bit rarely fun. Even the backing band, greasepainted would-be beasts that had more to do with Kabuki tradition, let smiles crack their serious veneer as they shredded. And you return to that question: Can metal be adorable? Why can't metal make you smile?If the baseball season was akin to a round of golf, the Diamondbacks would have spent Thursday at the clubhouse, refreshing their supply of balls and grabbing a quick sandwich after just finishing the first half of their round. With the team now 50% of the way through the season and heading for the back nine, now feels like an arbitrarily nice time to see how the offense has performed relative to expectations.
2016 has not been the season the Diamondbacks wanted, but it’s roughly been the one many prognosticators had assigned to them prior to the season. Dave Stewart, before the season, lashed out at the notion of the Diamondbacks projections of 78 and 79 wins by PECOTA and Fangraphs respectively, “To think we will only win 78 games? That’s a joke.” Certainly at this point, Stewart looks the part of the fool, with the team on pace for a meager 72 wins by their winning percentage or 74 by their run differential and PECOTA and Fangraphs both forecasting the team to finish with 75 wins. There’s consensus any way it’s sliced, this hasn’t been a very good team. Nonetheless, it’s tough to make the case that the projections deserve much credit for their apparent accuracy, as Dave Cameron wrote at the end of May:
Of course, the pitching has been a disaster, but it’s not like Shelby Miller was obviously going to turn into a pumpkin overnight, or that Patrick Corbin was going to obviously regress after pitching well in his return from Tommy John surgery in the second half of last year. If Greinke, Miller, and Corbin were pitching to the level that our forecasts projected before the season instead of combining for a 5.15 ERA over 178 innings, the D’Backs would be north of.500, and right in the middle of the wild card race. It wouldn’t be fair for us to proclaim that we saw this coming when the D’Backs season has gone wrong for reasons that have nothing to do with why we thought the team would struggle.
Simply put, the team isn’t failing for the reasons that might have been foreseeable, if relying on the projections. A month later, with respect to Cameron’s article, and the story is pretty much the same, the pitching has been the anvil around the neck. Before the season, PECOTA pegged four of the current starters with ERAs well below four and Bracho, Burgos, Chafin, and Marshall as all being serviceable out of the bullpen. In actuality, the starters have a combined ERA of 4.80 and the bullpen isn’t looking much better with their 4.43 ERA – both have been walking batters at concerning rates. Heck, Jeff has written not once but twice about the pitching woes within the last ten days, obviously for good reason. The pitching was supposed to be a possible strength for this team.
Nevertheless, the team is roughly on pace to hit pretty close to that 78 win mark as things stand. But in a sense, things have to be somewhat zero-sum. If a perceived strength is actually a great weakness but the outcome is roughly the same as expected, it would appear to follow that there was some perceived weakness that has actually been closer to a strength. One could reasonably make the latter out to be the case of the Diamondbacks offense. Though perhaps not a powerhouse, the offense has been relatively productive. The position players as a whole are 6th in MLB in wOBA, 13th in wRC+, and 7th in base running.
While the team is directly in the middle of the pack at 15th in runs scored, that doesn’t really capture how good the offense has been. Using BaseRuns, which attempts to take out the randomness of hit sequencing with regards to runs scored, essentially the order in which teams accrue their hits, allows us to have a better understanding of how much this team might be getting unlucky. There’s a pretty notable difference between a team having two deep fly outs followed by three singles and another fly out. Depending on the sequencing, or order, of those hits and outs, a team could score anywhere from two to no runs. BaseRuns tries to account for that randomness. It calculates the Diamondbacks as being 7th in runs scored, averaging 4.87 runs per game – about a third of a run per game difference from their actual number, 4.53 runs per game. Another measure that offers some support to this notion is the wonderful statistic of Cluster Luck, be sure to read that carefully. Through June 29th, the Diamondbacks were second to last in offensive cluster luck, being a dismal 30.4 runs worse than the average assumption of luck. Comparing that with BaseRuns that sees the Diamondbacks as being 27.5 runs better than what they’ve scored, and there is at least some corresponding evidence that would support the notion that the team has been a bit better on offense than what the bottom line would show.
However, there could be an alternate explanation for the team’s apparent inability to score as many runs as they should be, one that was thrown around on the Diamondbacks radio postgame show Diamond Talk. After Wednesday’s game, it was suggested that the hitters, more specifically the younger ones, need to improve their approach with men on base. On the whole, the offense (this will be just position players for the purposes of this discussion) has certainly had worse results with men on base opposed to the bases being empty – the team’s wRC+ drops from 107 with the bases empty to 98 with men on base. While the team garners more walks and fewer strikeouts with men on base, the team’s BABIP drops from.336 with the bases empty to.316 with men on. Perhaps that’s another case of luck or lack-thereof, but without comprehensive exit velocity data, it’s certainly plausible that the attempts to put more balls in play with men on base results in a greater proclivity for weakly hit balls – balls that are more easily converted into outs, thus lowering a team’s BABIP.
O n an individual basis, there certainly is some merit to the idea of some of the Diamondbacks players needing to improve their approaches with men on base. While guys like Jake Lamb, Paul Goldschmidt, Chris Herrmann, and yes, even Yasmany Tomás have been more selective with men on base, others like Brandon Drury, Peter O’Brien, and Phil Gosselin have regressed in their approaches, proving more apt to strikeout with men on base. While the ability to draw walks and strikeout doesn’t perfectly capture the hitters’ approaches in varying circumstances, it at least provides a basal look.
Now that we’ve broken things down to the individual, let’s go back to Dave Cameron again, “Our projections didn’t like the Diamondbacks because it had a negative view of their role players, thinking that this was basically a stars-and-scrubs team that relied too heavily on a few elite players. But so far, those role players have been carrying the team, keeping it afloat while the big names struggle.” He goes on to list the contributions from Jake Lamb, Jean Segura, and Welington Castillo as being notable contributors to the team. They’re also players who’ve been overplaying their projections. For their part as a unit, most of the offensive players have overplayed their PECOTA projections. Of the top 10 players by plate appearances, eight of them have higher true averages, Baseball Prospectus’ all-inclusive offensive metric. Combined, their OPS is.795, quite a bit higher compared to what PECOTA projected before the season,.737. As far as the two main contributors who’ve underplayed their projections, Peralta and Ahmed, it’s at least been by relatively small margins.
People seem to fall into the trap of evaluating outcomes without consideration for the process. The outcome for the Diamondbacks thus far has been a predictable one for many, until the process is considered. Really, the team has been a confounding one on a variety of levels. Perhaps most confounding is the utter failure by the pitching unit. What shouldn’t be lost, though, is the promise shown by this Diamondbacks offense. We’ve written a lot about Jake Lamb here and for good reason, but the offense as a whole deserves some recognition as a unit. Heading into the back nine, they’ve been in fine form.United Airlines is promising to reduce overbooking and offer as much as $10,000 to customers who give up their seats on oversold flights, as it tries to recover from lasting outrage over videos of a bloodied passenger being dragged down the aisle of a plane after refusing to give up his seat.
The changes Chicago-based United announced Thursday, part of a broader internal review, are the airline's latest attempt to put the debacle behind it after an initially tepid apology only added fuel to the backlash.
"Every customer deserves to be treated with the highest levels of service and the deepest sense of dignity and respect. Two weeks ago, we failed to meet that standard and we profoundly apologize. However, actions speak louder than words. Today, we are taking concrete, meaningful action to make things right and ensure nothing like this ever happens again," United CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement.
United's internal review of the April 9 incident on a plane at O'Hare International Airport showed that "our policies got in the way of our values and our procedures interfered in doing what's right," Munoz said. "This is a turning point for all of us at United, and it signals a culture shift toward becoming a better, more customer-focused airline."
Chicago Aviation Department officers dragged Dr. David Dao off United Express Flight 3411 after he refused to give up his seat to make room for airline employees. For many customers, the incident, video of which went viral, was a reminder that paying for a ticket doesn't guarantee a seat, highlighting longtime industry practices around oversold flights.
United identified four "failures" related to the incident: calling in law enforcement when there was no security or safety issue; rebooking employees at the last minute; not offering enough compensation or convenient transportation options to get customers to willingly give up seats; and failing to give employees the training and authority to resolve the situation.
This video posted on social media shows a passenger on an April 9, 2017, United Airlines flight from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Louisville, Ky., being removed by security. (Jayse D. Anspach) This video posted on social media shows a passenger on an April 9, 2017, United Airlines flight from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Louisville, Ky., being removed by security. (Jayse D. Anspach) SEE MORE VIDEOS
The airline also outlined 10 policy changes, some of which have been previously announced:
•United will only call in law enforcement officers to remove customers from flights if it's a matter of safety and security. That policy has been in place since April 12.
•United won't involuntarily bump customers already seated on the plane unless safety or security is at risk, starting Thursday.
•When a flight is too full, United will offer customers up to $10,000 to voluntarily switch to a later flight, starting Friday.
•The airline plans to create a customer service team to identify "creative solutions" gate agents can offer to help get bumped passengers or airline employees to their destinations when flights are full. Those solutions could include suggesting a flight to a nearby airport that offers ground transportation to the customer's ultimate destination. United expects that team to be up and running by June.
•As of April 14, any airline employees traveling for work must be booked on a flight at least an hour before departure.
•Starting in August, United will give all employees who interact with customers annual training on handling "the most difficult of situations." United said it doesn't currently provide annual training on handling situations in which customers are denied boarding.
•To help identify customers who might be willing to voluntarily give up a seat without resorting to announcements at the gate, United is planning to add a step to the check-in process — either in its app or at the airport — gauging customers' interest in switching to a later flight in exchange for compensation. The process will be rolled out later this year.
•United says it will cut back on overbooking on flights where it has struggled to find volunteers, especially flights on smaller planes, and the final flights of the day.
•By July, flight attendants will have an app to help handle customer service issues by compensating customers – with miles, for instance – when things go wrong. Gate agents will get the same app later this year.
•United says it will make it easier for passengers to get reimbursed when the airline permanently loses their luggage. Customers will be entitled to $1,500 for the lost bag and its contents automatically, and may be asked for additional documentation for larger claims.
Travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said he thinks United struck the right balance between policies that help the airline run reliably and allowing discretion when warranted.
"If anything, where they looked at it and it was 50-50, they went in favor of the passenger," said Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and founder of Atmosphere Research Group, though he noted some customers would have liked to see more details on what constitutes a "safety and security" issue in which the airline can call in law enforcement.
Some of the changes are "commonsense" policies that should already have been in place, Harteveldt said, such as letting employees consider alternate destinations or forms of transportation to get bumped passengers where they're headed.
Some in the industry questioned whether United could have settled the Dao incident by offering volunteers more cash. According to United's review, it might have worked: A customer said he'd willingly switch for $1,000. United said none of the other customers were willing to volunteer unless it could guarantee they'd make it to Louisville later that night.
The new policy of offering volunteers up to $10,000 matches Delta Air Lines' top offer.
While United said it wants to make sure it's involuntarily bumping as few customers as possible, it did shed some light on how it chooses who to bump when it can't avoid it.
Any passengers who don't have a seat assignment are the first to go. United then looks at passengers who paid the lowest fare. If multiple customers paid the same lowest rate, the last to check in are the first to be bumped.
That said, United says it doesn't bump members of its frequent flyer program unless all of the customers who could be bumped are members — then, those with the lowest status are most likely to be bumped. Unaccompanied minors and passengers with disabilities won't be bumped if they don't volunteer, United said.ADVERTISEMENT
Lee released a statement announcing his opposition to the framework Monday afternoon, after the eight senators formally unveiled their blueprint.
"I remain greatly supportive of what the group aims to accomplish and will continue to work with my colleagues to solve many of the challenges this important issue presents," Lee says in the statement. "Although I am encouraged by the process and continue to support efforts to make real progress on immigration reform, I am not able to sign the statement of principles released today."
Lee had originally been involved in crafting the framework but recently walked away from the negotiations because he does not support a plan that includes a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
The blueprint includes a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living in the country illegally, something Lee has always opposed. The guidelines also call for increasing the total available visas for highly skilled workers, starting a guest-worker program, setting up an employ verification program and strengthening border security.
"We all support enhanced border security, stronger visa enforcement, effective employment verification measures, and humane treatment of those lacking legal status," Lee says in the statement. "I believe the overwhelming majority of Congress could work together to enact significant and lasting reforms, particularly to strengthen border security and fix our legal immigration system."
Lee said he supported the goal of the bipartisan group but could not, in the end, support the outline.
"These guidelines contemplate a policy that will grant special benefits to illegal immigrants based on their unlawful presence in the country," Lee continues in the statement. "Reforms to our complex and dysfunctional immigration system should not in any way favor those who came here illegally over the millions of applicants who seek to come here lawfully.
"Additionally, the framework carves out a special exception for agricultural workers that has little justification," Lee said. "Maintaining the safety of America’s food supply is an important goal, but it is unclear why immigrants in this sector should achieve special status over skilled workers in industries equally important to the American economy.
Lee suggested that he would soon introduce an alternative to the framework.
"I will be formulating an approach that deals with points of agreement on several issues, with special attention to addressing border security and fixing our legal immigration system before we create special categories for those here illegally," Lee added. "I look forward to working closely with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on these proposals."Looking for news you can trust?
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It’s well known that the death of America’s labor unions coincides with a staggering rise in income inequality, though the link between the two has never been as obvious as it seems. Many academics argue that unions play a relatively minor role in the equation, instead blaming educational disparities and the shifting makeup of the economy. But now comes a major new study from Harvard sociology professor Bruce Western that suggests that the decline of unions is as important as any other factor, explaining a full third of the growth in of income inequality for male workers.
The loss of labor unions explains a full third of the growth of inequality for male workers
Western and co-author Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor at the University of Washington, looked at the period between 1973 and 2007, when inequality in hourly wages spiked by 40 percent. During that time, union membership for private-sector male workers fell from 34 percent to 8 percent (female workers were never as unionized as their male counterparts). Their paper in the August issue of the America Sociological Review concludes that deunionization’s biggest effects on inequality were indirect:
1) The threat of unionization caused non-unionized employers to raise wages; that threat disappered along with unions.
2) Unions occupied a bully pulpit; knocking them off left the moral case for equality vulnerable to attack. (What do you mean Viacom’s CEO isn’t worth $85 million?)
3) Workers lost their Washington lobbyists, and with them, any hope of winning political battles for better wages and benefits.
These ideas are nothing new. Kevin Drum ably explores them in his March/April Mother Jones essay, “Plutocracy Now.” Yet the Harvard study bolsters them with a rigorous regression analysis of census data, showing empirically what many pundits have long suspected. “Our study underscores the role of unions as an equalizing force in the labor market,” Western says. If only proving their importance was as easy as figuring out how to replace them.And the European Commission's tax chief has got the president-elect in his crosshairs after a meeting on Tuesday which began identifying countries which the EU intends to place on a tax blacklist. In an astonishing interview European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici refused to rule out putting the USA on its blacklist. And he insulted Mr Trump calling him a “populist provocateur” before branding the USA a "strange country." The incredibly bold statement comes as The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership trade negotiations being carried out mostly in secret between the EU and US are likely to hit the buffers.
GETTY Pierre Moscovici did not hold back in his criticism of Donald Trump
GETTY Mr Trump visited the White House as president elect for the first time
Well, he refused to give up any information and that didn’t change the outcome of the election European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici
In an interview with EurActiv.com, Mr Moscovici fumed: "Well, he refused to give up any information and that didn’t change the outcome of the election. "Strange country, where you can avoid any taxation. "I’m not going to say who will be on the blacklist, because we are only just starting the process.
GETTY John Kerry was a regular visitor to the EU but it's unclear if Mr Trump will be
"I’ve already said that the purpose of the list is that no one is on it, so that standards are implemented before it comes to that. "But every country, potentially, has to fulfil the criteria. "We didn’t start with a pre-list of member states, we started with the criteria." Oddly Mr Moscovici didn't appear to talk about another country which is being accused of tax corruption on a grand scale.
GETTY Jean Claude Juncker with Francois Hollande is facing major tax issues in his own country
Indeed there didn't appear to be any criticism of President of the European Commission Jean Claude Junker, the Luxembourgish politician whose own country has been embroiled in a multi billion pound tax avoidance scandal that is being played out in the criminal courts. When asked about the Luxleaks scandal instead he seemed to play down the country's drama. He added: "Don’t try to provoke that! "If we are idealistic, which I like to think I am, we have to imagine a world where those scandals aren’t possible, because the causes of those scandals disappear. "Those cases create things like populism. "Scandals are never an asset for the public conscious. "For those that try to push forward ambitious proposals, the momentum they create is admittedly helpful, but I would prefer the support of NGOs and stakeholders any day." The news comes after the Ecofin Council meeting in Brussels on Tuesday of this week, the day of the US election.
Anti-Trump protests erupt worldwide Wed, November 30, 2016 Trump win sparks riots across US as crowds burn American flag and chant 'Not our president' Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 31 Supporters of theFrance's Gender Equality Minister Wants On-The-Spot Fines For Sexual Harassers
Enlarge this image toggle caption Joanna Kakissis/NPR Joanna Kakissis/NPR
Marlene Schiappa was barely into her teens when she realized that Paris, the City of Light, could be a dark place for women.
Whenever she and her sister walked anywhere — to school, to the supermarket, to hang out with friends — men followed them, catcalling, harassing, even groping.
"We took alternative routes, out of our way," she says, "to avoid the bands of boys."
Twenty years later, Schiappa, now 34, is France's secretary for gender equality and the youngest member of President Emmanuel Macron's cabinet. One of her major goals, she says, is to make France's public spaces safer for women and girls.
In her grand, light-filled government office in central Paris, she's wearing a gray business suit, bangles clanging on her wrists, her long brown hair swept to one side. There are papers stacked on her desk alongside a tiny, colorful knit purse belonging to her 10-year-old daughter.
Schiappa is thinking of girls coming of age when she says her first priority is drafting legislation that would make it a crime to harass women on the streets — something that's not covered by a 2012 law prohibiting sexual harassment in the workplace.
"If you go to the street and you say, 'So, is it allowed to touch a girl's body on the street?'" Schiappa says, "I'm sure many people would say, 'Aw, it's not that bad if you do.' "
She says police should fine harassers on the street the equivalent of thousands of dollars on the spot.
"You don't have to follow girls on two, three streets and ask her 20 times [for] her phone number," she says. "[Harassers] say, 'Oh, but it's my right. I'm just chatting and talking with that girl. I'm making a compliment.' They don't understand."
Philippine Laprade, a 21-year-old law student in Paris, thinks Schiappa's proposal is a good idea.
"Obviously, I don't think the problem is men going to women and say[ing], 'Oh, I find you cute, can we have a drink' or something. That's not offensive," she says, sipping an afternoon cocktail in Paris' hip Marais district. "The problem is men thinking they're entitled to yell at a young woman, saying like, 'Hey, you, you have a fine ass!' "
Enlarge this image toggle caption Joanna Kakissis/NPR Joanna Kakissis/NPR
Attention has tended to focus on sexual harassment in poor, immigrant areas of Paris, including La Chapelle-Pajol, a working-class neighborhood in the north. Women recently took to the streets to protest harassment there.
But Schiappa insists it can happen anywhere. Such attitudes, she says, are part of an ugly culture of violence against women that she hopes to change. Her office says at least 15 percent of French women report sexual violence at some point in their lives.
When Schiappa hears anecdotes about French women who blame themselves when they're attacked, "That's rape culture," she says. For that to change, men and boys must receive stronger messages about their own behavior, she emphasizes.
'The goal is equality'
Criminalizing harassment on the streets is just one of Schiappa's goals. She's also tackling France's gender pay gap. She's criticizing sexist advertising. And she is pushing to change a law that bars lesbians and single women from seeking health coverage for in-vitro fertilization.
Unlike most French politicians, Schiappa grew up in public housing in a multi-ethnic, working-class Paris neighborhood. She was raised in an academic family that was far from well-to-do.
"I know it's a cheesy line, but I do know real life," she says. "I know what it is to have a lack of money. I know what it is to count how much money you have in order to feed your family."
Her father, from Corsica, was a history professor. Her mother, from Italy, was a schoolteacher and principal. They supported Schiappa's dream to become a writer and political leader.
Schiappa studied communication at university and then worked at a high-powered advertising firm. After she had the first of her two children, at 23, she struggled balancing work and home, like many French working moms.
So she started a blog, Maman Travaille (Mom Works), that quickly grew into a 10,000-woman advocacy network. She left advertising and wrote several books on parenting, pregnancy and work-life balance, including one with her husband Cedric Bruguiere.
Schiappa entered politics in 2014, when she was elected to the municipal council of Le Mans, a city southwest of Paris. She became deputy mayor and met Macron a year later. She calls him a feminist who fights for women.
"You know, I will not be politically correct here, I'm sorry, but I think having a woman president is not the goal," she says. "The goal is equality, and I don't care if the president is a woman or man."
Macron has tasked Schiappa with tackling the gender pay gap in France, where women are paid about 25 percent less than men, according to France's National Institute of Statistics adn Economical Studies.
Schiappa has already identified 10 companies that have the biggest pay gaps and invited representatives to attend gender-equality training next month, arranged by her ministry.
"We've told them, 'If you come, we will honor you," she says, "and if you refuse, we are going to name and shame you in the press.' "
Anne-Cecile Mailfert of the Women's Foundation says paying women less than men is illegal in France, but the law is rarely enforced.
"Companies are so blind to it, they don't think it's a problem," she says. "They tell women: 'I don't think you're a genius. But your colleague, the man, he's the genius.' "
Enlarge this image toggle caption Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images
Mailfert says she wants Schiappa to play hardball with these companies — and not just talk tough.
'She is young and she is out loud'
Schiappa's blunt style is well known in France. Critics point to her early writings to argue that she's too inexperienced, naive or abrasive for politics.
Those from the political right claim she's insulting French culture by focusing on male chauvinism. Some on the left, meanwhile, say she's not a true feminist because she wrote a book, published in 2010, praising the sexual power of overweight women. (Schiappa now concedes that book was "not very clever.")
She's also been known to over-reach. The French Union of Gynecologists and Obstetricians called for her resignation after she claimed that 3/4 of French mothers received episiotomies without their consent. The union said those figures are inaccurate.
Financial analyst Norah Memran, who serves on the board of a Paris shelter for LGBT youth, believes the criticism comes down to this: "She is a woman, she is young and she is out loud. Who likes that? Right? I do. I like it because — girls' power. It's about time."
Marie-Noelle Bas, an activist who runs a nonprofit targeting sexism in advertising and media, applauds Schiappa for slamming a supermarket chain for selling bags emblazoned with the message, "Hurray! I have my man's credit card!"
"It reinforces this false image of women as compulsive spenders who are 'kept' by their high-earning men," Bas says. "Everywhere you look, you see images of women as stereotypes — as homemakers and mothers or sexual objects."
Changing times
Schiappa says she understands that she's taking on a lot in her new job. But she says the time is right and attitudes toward France's male-dominated culture are changing.
A watershed moment came in 2011, when former International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss Kahn was accused of trying to rape a hotel housekeeper in New York City. Four years later, he was accused of involvement in a prostitution ring. He was not convicted in either case, but his sexually predatory behavior was highly publicized each time.
"All of a sudden, French society realized we had men
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